3.23.15 Weekly Bulletin

GaLa! Audition Information:
Page 2
LaGuardia Arts
Weekly Bulletin
March 23 - 27, 2015
Dr. Mars, Principal
Parent / Teacher Conferences
Thursday, March 26
Friday, March 27
5:30 – 8:00 PM
1:00 – 3:00 PM
The LaGuardia Arts administration
and faculty extend a hearty
welcome to parents and students.
We hope that these conferences
will be of value to you and your
child and enable you to continue
to build working relationships with
us.
Since so many parents avail
themselves of this opportunity to
meet with teachers, each teacher
has a sign-in sheet to expedite the
conference process. Please utilize
the sheet and adhere to the signin order. Unfortunately, if your
name is called and you are
not present, your name will
be placed at the bottom of the
list.
In fairness to other parents, if
you need more than three
minutes to discuss your child’s
situation with a particular
teacher,
please
make
a
separate appointment with that
teacher and use these conference
days to speak with your child’s
other teachers.
Teachers will be located in
classrooms that may be different
from where the class meets. It
is important to know your child’s
teachers’ names so that you may
find the teacher’s location on the
Teacher Room Assignments. Please
jot down the room numbers of the
teachers you plan to visit and bring
Student and Parent Surveys
The DOE annual Student Surveys will be
administered on a Special OP Schedule on
Tuesday.
Parent Surveys will be given to
students to take home, along with their report
cards, on Wednesday.
Special
After 8th OP
After 8th OP
Special Schedule
Report Cards
March 25
Parent/Teacher
Conferences
Wednesday
March 27
Student Surveys
March 24
Tuesday
1
8:00 - 8:43
2
8:47 - 9:30
3
9:34 - 10:17
4
10:21 - 11:04
5
11:08 - 11:51
6
11:55 - 12:38
7
12:42 - 1:25
8
1:29 - 2:12
OP
2:16 -2:36
9
2:40 - 3:23
10
3:26 - 4:09
1
Friday
8:00 - 8:44
it along with you. Additionally,
printed copies will be available
when you enter the building.
Teacher Room Assignments are
located in this Yellow Sheet and
will be available on line.
Report Cards are being distributed
to students through an “After 8th
OP” on Wednesday, March 25, and
will be available for viewing in
Pupil Path and Daedalus by 4:00
PM that same day.
March
21
Sat
SDF 1: Laughing Stock;
Little Flower Theater; 7:30 PM
22
Sun
SDF 1: Laughing Stock;
Little Flower Theater; 5:00 PM
23
M
24
T
25
W
Conference Schedule
Teachers: Grade Corrections Due;
8:30 AM
Special OP: Student Surveys
Committee of Students Against Injustice
Concert; 4:30 PM; Library; Free
OP: After 8th Report Card Distribution
Opera Blackout #1
2
8:48 - 9:32
1
3
9:36 - 10:20
2
8:53 - 9:32
4
10:24 -11:08
3
9:36 - 10:18
Parent/Teacher Conferences;
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
5
11:12 - 11:56
9
10:22 - 11:01
Special Schedule
6
12:00 - 12:44
7
12:48 - 1:32
8
1:36 - 2:20
OP
2:24 - 2:34
9
2:38 - 3:22
10
3:26 - 4:09
TOC
8:10 -8:49
10 11:05 -11:44
Teacher Time
8:10 – 3:00
Lunch
11:44 - 12:14
P/T Conferences
1:00 – 3:00
Schedule
Newsworthy
1
23
M
Conference
Building Community
2
24
T
Special OP
Administrative
3
25
W
After 8 OP
Instructional
5
26
Th
Regular
College & Careers
6
27
F
Special
www.LaGuardiaHS.org
Opera Blackout #2
26
27
Th
F
Parent/Teacher Conferences;
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Sweeney Todd; 7:30 PM; Concert Hall
Sweeney Todd; 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM;
Concert Hall
28
Sat
29
Sun Sweeney Todd; 2:00 PM; Concert Hall
31
1
2
T
School Quality Review; Day 1
Auditions for PA Gala
April
W
Auditions for PA Gala
Th
2015 - 2016 Music Department
Programs Due to Program Office
Rapid Dismissal
3
F
13
M
Spring Break Begins (through April 10)
School Resumes
Conference Schedule
Building Community
Box Office
Tickets available through our website or the school
store. Tickets are no longer available online 3 days
before the performance; then, tickets can only
be purchased in advance from the School Store.
Children under the age of 5 are not permitted.
Laughing Stock
S p r i n g Dra m a Fe s tiva l #1
Respect For All Liaison: Mr. Brummell, located in the Deans Office
March 19; 7:30 PM
March 20; 7:30 PM
March 21; 7:30 PM
March 22; 5:00 PM
Tickets: $15/Student; $25/Adult
Laughing Stock - SDF #1 Run Ends Sunday
“…a summer stock production of Dracula disintegrates into chaos
on opening night. Gothic horror becomes high comedy amid
misplaced technical cues, forgotten lines, wrong entrances and
eccentric acting…come watch the mayhem unfold…”
S we e n e y Todd; The De mon
Ba r b e r of Fle e t Stre e t
March 27; 7:30 PM
March 28; 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM
March 29; 2:00 PM
Tickets: $15/student; $25/adult
For general information call
212 496-0700 ext. 2208
Questions concerning the performance may be
e-mailed to: [email protected]
Carousel
S p r i n g Dra ma Fe s tiva l #2
April 23; 7:30 PM
April 24; 7:30 PM
April 25; 7:30 PM
April 26; 5:00 PM
Tickets: $15/Student; $25/Adult
Tickets on sale beginning March 23
The Choral Concert at Riverside Church
Choral Concert at Riverside Church was inspirational. Thank you
to all of the students, staff, and parents who made this event
so successful. Performances were by the Girls Chorus and the
Mixed Chorus, Ms Bishop, Conductor; and the Women’s Chorus
and Senior Chorus, Ms. Ballard, Conductor.
Audition to be part of the GaLa!
Deadline to Sign Up: 3/29/15 8:00 PM
The Committee of Students Against Injustice,
presents their first concert of songs, poetry
slams, art, dramatic pieces, film, and dance on
Tuesday, March 24, from 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM in
the Library. Your attendance will support using
artistic expression to promote social justice. All
are welcome. Admission is free.
Auditions for this year’s Gala will be March 31st and April 1st from 4:30pm to
8:00pm.
Please visit http://www.laggala.com to sign up for an audition slot and learn more
information.
LagGala.com
Singers should prepare 32 bars from one of the following choices:
•
•
•
A popular song from the 1960's and 70’s
A song with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman
Any of the songs listed below:
o Good Times
o Maud
o In the Heat of Night
o The Sandy Duncan Show
o The rap Genesis from the opening of the Norman Lear show, All That Glitters
In addition, everyone who is auditioning should be prepared to participate in a
movement audition, so please dress accordingly.
What We are Working On
We are looking for strong singers in all voice ranges and several musical styles. There are three
numbers that we are casting.
Please
•
•
•
•
be prepared to IMITATE and IMPERSONATE the artists of the following songs:
Barbara Streisand – The Way We Were
Sting – Windmills of my Mind
Sinatra – Nice and Easy
Quincy Jones – Foul Owl on the Prowl
• increasing the bandwidth for internet access
• looking for funding to replace and renovate
our sound and lighting system in the
performance spaces
• looking for funding to decrease class size
in math and funding to increase medical
services offered at the school
• networking to increase student access
to scholarships to defray the cost of post
secondary education
Note: Sides will be provided at the audition.
There will be regularly scheduled rehearsals that will begin after auditions. We understand that
this is a very busy time of year for every department. Other LaGuardia performances and college
admitted student days are acceptable reasons to miss normal rehearsals, however you must be
present at all of the following rehearsals in order to participate in this special event.
nd
• Saturday May 2 th
• Saturday May 9 th
• Saturday May 16 th
• Sunday May 17 th
• Monday May 18 Show Choir Headlined Lincoln Center Education
Gala
The Show Choir, with special guest Brian Stokes Mitchell, was the
featured entertainment at the Lincoln Center Education Gala at
Jazz @Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall on March 11, 2015.
We welcome input from the school community.
2
Administrative
Programming Time Line
Activity
Time Line
Grade Level Academic Assembly (Juniors)
February 9
Advanced Placement (AP) Fair
February 11
Open Daedalus: Students begin entering requests for Fall 2015
February 20
Grade Level Academic Assembly (Freshmen and Sophomores)
February 23
Close Daedalus: Last Opportunity for Students To Enter Requests for Fall
2015 at 11:59 PM
March 17
Students Receive Copy of Their Requested Courses
April 28
Counselors Meet with Students
April 28, 29, 30,
May 1
Final Day to Request Changes
May 5
Students Receive Tentative Fall 2015 Schedule on Daedalus and PupilPath
June 26
Building a Schedule
Preliminary Regents
Exam Invitations
Distributed
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Building a Schedule
LaProgram.org
February-March:
Selection Process
Select AP, honors, and elective courses
in Daedalus from Friday, February 20,
until Tuesday, March 17.
Last week, Preliminary Regents Exam Invitations
were distributed to students scheduled for June
Examinations. Those who received invitations are:
April: Request File Build
Students receive a list of classes
based on their Daedalus requests and
automatic programming.
• Students currently in a course that culminates in
a Regents Exam.
• Students who have taken a course that culminates
in a Regents Exam and were either absent or did
not pass the Exam.
• Students who did not meet the College and
Career Score on the ELA or a Math Regents.
May-June: Program Office
Builds Student Schedules
The computer will use the lists of classes to try to construct a schedule for
each student.
Some Combinations
Are Not Working
Although the computer will program most students successfully, it will be unable to program
a few.
Schedules Done
The computer will be able to produce schedules for most students.
College and Career Readiness can be
demonstrated by achieving the threshold score
on one of the following exams:
English
Second Week of June: The
Program Office Will Get in Touch
with You To Adjust Your Schedule
NYS English Regents SAT I Verbal ACT English If the computer is unable to create your
schedule, we will talk with you about
your options.
Last Day of School in June:
Distribute Schedules to Students
Math
NYS Math Regents (any) plus coursework requirement
(Algebra 1, Geometry, and
Algebra 2/Trig)
SAT I Math ACT Math CUNY Assessment Test (both)
• Math 1 • Math 2 September: Receive Your Schedule
on the First Day of School
You will follow this schedule. There will be a
last chance to request program changes at the
beginning of the school year.
If you have any questions regarding information on this page, please call
Ms. van Keulen, AP Administration, at (212) 496-0700 X 2261.
75
480
20
80
480
20
35
40
Students who have achieved a College and Career
Readiness score by means other than the Regents
Exam should have their Guidance Counselor use the
appropriate code to record this accomplishment on
your transcript.
3
Administrative
Perfect and Improved
Attendance
In the Fall 2014 semester
there were 793 students
with perfect attendance.
We congratulate all of
them and invite everyone
to check their name on
the bulletin board in
front of the Attendance
Office. The Attendance
Committee randomly
selected 20 students
from the list of students
with perfect attendance
to receive a Starbucks
gift card with a value of
$20 from the PA. The
selected students will
receive the Starbucks gift
card on April 15.
A new initiative from the
Attendance Committee
is not only to celebrate
students with perfect
attendance but also
students with improved
attendance. Students
will be celebrated for
improved attendance if
by the end of the school
year they improve their
attendance over the
first marking period one
by twenty percent (see
the first marking period
report card distributed
this week to see from
what number of absences
you have).
by Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller
A great thank you to our
very caring and engaged
Parent Association for
providing the funds!
A similar phenomenon seems to have been occurring in
education for many decades, ever since we learned about a
simple and straightforward teaching technique—one that can
dramatically improve student learning yet remains far from
common practice.
Success in AP Courses and
Exams
With AP classes, students
are able to experience
the rigors of college-level
studies while they still
have the support of a
high school environment.
Resourceful and dedicated
AP teachers help their
students develop and
apply the skills, abilities,
and content knowledge
they will need later in
college. What’s more, by
participating in AP, your
child has the opportunity
to earn college credit and
to stand out in the college
admissions process.
Supporting Your Child
in Preparing for the
Class and Exam
• Designate specific
Focus on Mastery:
Research Says / Simple Is Not Always Easy
areas in your home
for schoolwork and
study.
• Remind your child
to prioritize classes,
activities, and work
commitments.
• Recommend that your
child form a study
group.
Learn More About AP
Visit www.collegeboard.
org/apstudents for
detailed information
about each of the 36
AP courses and exams.
You’ll find course and
exam descriptions,
sample free-response
questions and scoring
guidelines, study skills
and test-taking tips, and
more.
June Regents Exam
Conflicts
Some students are scheduled to take two Regents
Exams on the same date in June. This is not a problem.
Students will be able to take both tests.
A “Conflict Room” is used, where students will go and
take the second test later in the same day. Since it is
only March, all of the specifics have not been finalized,
but students will be given all of the information
necessary to complete their exams once it is closer to
Regents Week.
4
One of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th
century was also one of the simplest. In 1968, two American
researchers published a study of a new treatment for cholera, a
virulent disease that commonly killed 70 percent of its victims.
The researchers found that a mixture of sugar, salt, and water,
taken orally, could rehydrate cholera patients and reduce
mortality rates by more than 90 percent.
One would expect that such a simple life-saving technique,
involving ingredients that could be found in most kitchens,
would spread rapidly. Just get out the word and watch the
practice take hold, right?
Sadly, that wasn’t the case. More than a decade after scientists
announced the breakthrough to the world, nurses and
caregivers in developing nations where the disease was most
prevalent were either ignoring the new rehydration methods
or performing them incorrectly. As a result, cholera and other
diarrheal diseases continued to claim millions of lives.
A Simple Idea Supported by Research
In the 1960s, education researcher Benjamin Bloom advanced a
simple idea: to apply the key elements of one-on-one tutoring,
shown to be the most effective teaching technique we know,
to whole-class settings. The approach was called mastery
learning. Over the years, different interpretations, nuances,
and names have been applied to describe mastery learning
practices, but essentially, the approach weaves together the
following elements:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Set clear learning objectives.
Use an anticipatory set to focus and engage students
in their learning.
Present information and model new knowledge or
skills.
Provide students with opportunities for deliberate
practice.
Use regular formative assessments to check for
student understanding.
Reteach
as
needed,
using
individualized
interventions targeted to learning needs.
Confirm understanding before moving on to new
content.
As with most teaching practices, the research supporting
mastery learning isn’t unanimous, but over the years, a
compelling case has been made for mastery learning. An early
study of mastery methods found that they were able to help
three-quarters of students learn at the same levels as the top
one-quarter of students in the control group. A meta-analysis
of 108 studies of mastery learning found that students in
mastery learning settings achieved an average of 20 percentile
points higher than students in non-mastery settings—at the
70th percentile versus the 50th percentile.
Mastery learning may also resolve the enduring dilemma of
how to focus additional support on struggling students while
still challenging high performers. As commonly conceived,
mastery learning engages high achievers in enrichment
activities while struggling students receive remedial support. In
their 1990 meta-analysis of mastery learning studies, Kulik and
colleagues found positive effects for high-achieving students,
but even greater effects for low-achieving students, prompting
the researchers to conclude that “mastery programs … may
smooth out the differences between high and low aptitude
learners” (p. 286).
Why Hasn’t Mastery Learning Spread?
Despite the prevalence of data supporting mastery learning, the
practice appears to be far from commonplace in classrooms. If
we have so much evidence to support mastery learning, why
don’t we use it more?
Instructional
Quality Review
One reason appears to be that although the idea is simple and
straightforward, it’s far from easy to implement. For starters, there
are technical challenges, such as the need to develop or adopt
a robust battery of formative assessments and then to develop
remedial interventions linked to these formative assessments.
The Quality Review is a one or two day school visit
by experienced educators to New York City schools.
LaGuardia Arts’ Quality Review will take place on
March 31. During the review, the reviewers visit
classrooms, speak with parents, students, teachers,
and school leaders, and use a rubric to evaluate
how well the school and staff support student
achievement.
The concept of mastery learning is also susceptible to
misinterpretation.
Over the years, some have rejected it
because they see it as a lock-step approach to teaching. Hunter
(1985), however, argued that mastery teaching should be seen
as a “launching pad from which creativity can soar” (p. 58). For
example, both direct instruction and inquiry-based learning can fit
within the model.
The Quality Review was developed to assist New
York City Department of Education schools in raising
student achievement. The process is designed
to look behind a school’s performance statistics
to ensure that the school is engaged in effective
methods of accelerating student learning.
Finally, mastery learning may require teachers to adopt new
approaches to instruction. For example, they may need to rethink
grading practices to provide students with opportunities to be
reassessed and regraded. These fundamental changes in teaching
practices, along with the technical challenges of implementation,
mean that intensive professional development (including
observation, feedback, and coaching) is required to help teachers
correctly apply the approach in their classrooms (Hunter, 1985).
Before reviewers visit a school, the school’s
leadership completes a self-evaluation based
on the Quality Review rubric. Reviewers draw
upon this document and other school data during
conversations they have with principals, teachers,
students, and parents during the school visit.
Reviewers have these conversations to develop
a well-rounded perspective of the way in which
schools use information about outcomes to guide
teaching, set goals for improvement, and make
adjustments (e.g. to the curriculum or via the use
of resources).
All of this complexity suggests that mastery learning, although
simple to propose, is not necessarily easy to implement. That’s
why the solution to encouraging the spread of mastery learning
may not be so different from the solution that health officials
eventually developed to encourage the use of sugar-saline
rehydration for cholera patients.
Getting the Word Out—Door to Door
Health officials in Bangladesh found that the most important
impediments to adoption of the new medical treatment for cholera
were the attitudes and understandings of local health providers
and caregivers. Simply pushing out information through a topdown media campaign using radio, TV, and print brochures did
little to change practices.
After the site visit, the school receives a Quality
Review Report that is published on its DOE website.
The process will assess all indicators of the Quality
Review rubric, but the Quality Review Report will
formally report on five indicators of the rubric
(1.1, 1.2, 2.2, 3.4, 4.2). Reviews will culminate
in indicator ratings for these five areas and a
written report, but it will not yield an overall rating.
The report provides the school community with
evidence-based information about the school’s
development and serves as a source of feedback
for the school leadership to improve the school’s
support for students.
I.
•
•
•
Eventually, the health officials hit upon a different, albeit more oldfashioned, approach to spreading the word: They hired counselors
to go village by village, door to door, sitting down with caregivers
to explain how the new treatment could save lives, to answer
questions, and most important, to teach the caregivers how to mix
the solution and give it to patients. As a result, the new practice
spread widely and child deaths from diarrhea in Bangladesh fell
more than 80 percent between 1980 and 2005.
Similarly, getting mastery teaching approaches to take hold may
require collaboration and coaching as well as systemwide support.
Given the preponderance of evidence supporting mastery learning,
it might be tempting to think that we simply need to push the right
information out to educators—and if that doesn’t work, perhaps
we need to apply external pressure. However, with a conceptually
simple yet procedurally complex practice like mastery learning,
top-down information and pressure do little to change practice.
Indeed, as Michael Fullan asserts, external pressure may be
precisely the wrong driver to improve instructional practices.
Instructional Core across Classrooms
Curriculum (1.1)*
Pedagogy (1.2)*
Assessment (2.2)*
A better approach may resemble the door-to-door, village-byvillage approach of health care workers in Bangladesh. And
because of the increasing prevalence of teacher coaches today,
such an approach may be more possible than it has been in the
past. As noted in a previous column, however, coaches are only
as effective as the models of instruction on which they coach
teachers. Mastery learning appears to be a good place to begin.
II. School Culture
• Positive learning environment (1.4)
• High expectations (3.4)*
III. Structures for Improvement
• Leveraging resources (1.3)
• Teacher support and supervision (4.1)
• Goals and action plans (3.1)
• Teacher teams and leadership development
(4.2)*
• Monitoring and revising systems (5.1)
Excerpted from Educational Leadership; December 2013/January
2014, Volume 71, Number 4, Getting Students to Mastery Pages
78-80. Please see original article for references and works cited.
* The 2014-15 Quality Review Report will formally
report on these five Quality Indicators.
5
Remember to record your College Acceptance Decisions in Naviance.
Click the pencil to the right of the Results column, next to “Unknown”.
College & Careers
How to Survive the College Admissions Madness
Putting things in perspecitve
H
ERE we go again. At Harvard,
Emory, Bucknell and other schools
around the country, there have been
record numbers of applicants yearning
for an elite degree. They’ll get word in
the next few weeks. Most will be turned
down.
All should hear and heed the stories of
Peter Hart and Jenna Leahy.
Peter didn’t try for the Ivy League. That
wasn’t the kind of student he’d been at
New Trier High School, in an affluent
Chicago suburb. Most of its graduating
seniors go on to higher education, and
most know, from where they stand
among their peers, what sort of college
they can hope to attend. A friend of
Peter’s was ranked near the summit
of their class; she set her sights on
Yale — and ended up there. Peter was
ranked in the top third, and aimed for
the University of Michigan or maybe the
special undergraduate business school at
the University of Illinois.
Both rejected him.
He went to Indiana University instead.
Right away he noticed a difference. At
New Trier, a public school posh enough
to pass for private, he’d always had a
sense of himself as someone somewhat
ordinary, at least in terms of his studies.
At Indiana, though, the students in his
freshman classes weren’t as showily
gifted as the New Trier kids had been,
and his self-image went through a
transformation.
“I really felt like I was a competent
person,” he told me last year, shortly
after he’d turned 28. And he thrived.
He got into an honors program for
undergraduate business majors. He
became vice president of a business
fraternity on campus. He cobbled
together the capital to start a tiny real
estate enterprise that fixed up and rented
small houses to fellow students.
And he finagled a way, off campus, to
interview with several of the top-drawer
consulting firms that trawled for recruits
at the Ivies but often bypassed schools
like Indiana. Upon graduation, he took
a plum job in the Chicago office of the
Boston Consulting Group, where he
recognized one of the other new hires:
the friend from New Trier who’d gone to
Yale. Traveling a more gilded path, she’d
arrived at the same destination.
He later decided to get a master’s degree
in business administration, and that’s
where he is now, in graduate school — at
Harvard.
Jenna, 26, went through the college
admissions process two years after
he did. She, too, was applying from a
charmed school: in her case, Phillips
Exeter Academy. Her transcript was a
mix of A’s and B’s, and she was active in
so many Exeter organizations that when
graduation rolled around, she received a
prize given to a student who’d brought
special distinction to the school.
But her math SAT score was in the low
600s. Perhaps because of that, she was
turned down for early decision at her first
choice, Claremont McKenna College.
For the general admission period, she
applied to more than half a dozen
schools. Georgetown, Emory, the
University of Virginia and Pomona College
all turned her down, leaving her to
choose among the University of South
Carolina, Pitzer College and Scripps
College, a sister school of Claremont
McKenna’s in Southern California.
“I felt so worthless,” she recalled.
She chose Scripps. And once she got
there and saw how contentedly she fit in,
she had a life-changing realization: Not
only was a crushing chapter of her life in
the past, it hadn’t crushed her. Rejection
was fleeting — and survivable.
As a result, she said, “I applied for things
fearlessly.”
She won a stipend to live in Tijuana,
Mexico, for a summer and work with
indigent children there. She prevailed in a
contest to attend a special conference at
the Carter Center in Georgia and to meet
Jimmy Carter.
And she applied for a coveted spot with
Teach for America, which she got. Later
she landed a grant to develop a new
charter school for low-income families in
Phoenix, where she now lives. It opened
last August, with Jenna and a colleague
at the helm.
“I never would have had the strength,
drive or fearlessness to take such a risk
if I hadn’t been rejected so intensely
before,” she told me. “There’s a beauty to
that kind of rejection, because it allows
you to find the strength within.”
I don’t think Peter’s example is
extraordinary: People bloom at various
stages of life, and different individuals
flourish in different climates. Nor is
Jenna’s arc so unusual. For every person
whose contentment comes from faithfully
executing a predetermined script, there
are at least 10 if not 100 who had to
rearrange the pages and play a part they
hadn’t expected to, in a theater they
hadn’t envisioned. Besides, life is defined
by setbacks, and success is determined
by the ability to rebound from them.
And there’s no single juncture, no one
crossroads, on which everything hinges.
So why do so many Americans — anxious
parents, addled children — treat the
period in late March and early April, when
elite colleges deliver disappointing news
to anywhere from 70 to 95 percent of
their applicants, as if it’s precisely that?
I’m describing the psychology of a
minority of American families; a majority
are focused on making sure that their
kids simply attend a decent college —
6
any decent college — and on finding a
way to help them pay for it. Tuition has
skyrocketed, forcing many students to
think not in terms of dream schools but
in terms of those that won’t leave them
saddled with debt.
Class of 2015
Frank Bruni is an Op-Ed columnist for The
New York Times. This essay is adapted
from his new book, “Where You Go Is Not
Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College
Admissions Mania.” A version of this oped appears in print on March 15, 2015,
on page SR1 of the New York edition with
the headline: Accepted? Rejected? Relax.
When I asked Alice Kleeman, the college
adviser at Menlo-Atherton High School in
the Bay Area of California, about the most
significant changes in the admissions
landscape over the last 20 years, she
mentioned the fixation on getting into the
most selective school possible only after
noting that “more students are unable
to attend their college of first choice
because of money.”
But for too many parents and their
children, acceptance by an elite
institution isn’t just another challenge,
just another goal. A yes or no from
Amherst or the University of Virginia or
the University of Chicago is seen as the
conclusive measure of a young person’s
worth, an uncontestable harbinger of
the accomplishments or disappointments
to come. Winner or loser: This is when
the judgment is made. This is the great,
brutal culling.
What madness. And what nonsense.
FOR one thing, the admissions game is
too flawed to be given so much credit. For
another, the nature of a student’s college
experience — the work that he or she
puts into it, the self-examination that’s
undertaken, the resourcefulness that’s
honed — matters more than the name of
the institution attended. In fact students
at institutions with less hallowed names
sometimes demand more of those places
and of themselves. Freed from a focus on
the packaging of their education, they get
to the meat of it.
In any case, there’s only so much living
and learning that take place inside a
lecture hall, a science lab or a dormitory.
Education happens across a spectrum of
settings and in infinite ways, and college
has no monopoly on the ingredients for
professional achievement or a life well
lived.
Midway through last year, I looked up the
undergraduate alma maters of the chief
executives of the top 10 corporations in
the Fortune 500. These were the schools:
the University of Arkansas; the University
of Texas; the University of California,
Davis; the University of Nebraska;
Auburn; Texas A & M; the General
Motors Institute (now called Kettering
University); the University of Kansas;
the University of Missouri, St. Louis; and
Dartmouth College.
I also spoke with Sam Altman, the
president of Y Combinator, one of the
best-known providers of first-step seed
money for tech start-ups. I asked him
if any one school stood out in terms of
students and graduates whose ideas took
off. “Yes,” he responded, and I was sure
of the name I’d hear next: Stanford. It’s
his alma mater, though he left before he
graduated, and it’s famous as a feeder of
Silicon Valley success.
But this is what he said: “The University
of Waterloo.” It’s a public school in the
Canadian province of Ontario, and as of
College & Careers
last summer, it was the source of eight
proud ventures that Y Combinator had
helped along. “To my chagrin,” Altman
told me, “Stanford has not had a really
great track record.”
Long Island suburb of New York City. It
was their bid for some sanity.
Yet there’s a frenzy to get into the
Stanfords of the world, and it seems to
grow ever crazier and more corrosive.
It’s fed by many factors, including
contemporary America’s exaltation of
brands and an economic pessimism that
has parents determined to find and give
their kids any and every possible leg up.
And it yields some bitter fruits, among
them a perversion of higher education’s
purpose and potential. College is a
singular opportunity to rummage through
and luxuriate in ideas, to realize how very
large the world is and to contemplate
your desired place in it. And that’s lost in
the admissions mania, which sends the
message that college is a sanctum to be
breached — a border to be crossed —
rather than a land to be inhabited and
tilled for all that it’s worth.
LAST March, just as Matt Levin was about
to start hearing from the schools to which
he’d applied, his parents, Craig and
Diana, handed him a letter. They didn’t
care whether he read it right away, but
they wanted him to know that it had been
written before they found out how he
fared. It was their response to the outsize
yearning and dread that they saw in him
and in so many of the college-bound kids
at Cold Spring Harbor high school, in a
Matt, like many of his peers, was shooting
for the Ivies: in his case, Yale, Princeton
or Brown. He had laid the groundwork:
high SAT scores; participation in sports
and music; a special prize for junioryear students with the highest gradepoint averages; membership in various
honor societies; more than 100 hours of
community service.
For Yale, Princeton and Brown, that wasn’t
enough. All three turned him down.
His mother, Diana, told me that on the
day he got that news, “He shut me out
for the first time in 17 years. He barely
looked at me. Said, ‘Don’t talk to me and
don’t touch me.’ Then he disappeared to
take a shower and literally drowned his
sorrows for the next 45 minutes.”
The following morning, he rallied and
left the house wearing a sweatshirt with
the name of the school that had been
his fourth choice and had accepted him:
Lehigh University. By then he had read his
parents’ letter, more than once. That they
felt compelled to write it says as much
about our society’s warped obsession
with elite colleges as it does about the
Levins’ warmth, wisdom and generosity. I
share the following parts of it because the
message in them is one that many kids
in addition to their son need to listen to,
especially now, with college acceptances
and rejections on the way:
If it does not go your way, you’ll take a
different route to get where you want.
There is not a single college in this
country that would not be lucky to have
you, and you are capable of succeeding at
any of them.
We love you as deep as the ocean, as
high as the sky, all the way around the
world and back again — and to wherever
you are headed.
Mom and Dad
The Frick Collection is
pleased to offer Summer
Study Projects, a fourweek program for high
school juniors and seniors
and college underclassmen
with an interest in art and
art history. Between July
7 and 31, participants
will pursue independent
research and develop talks
on selected landscapes
in the Frick’s permanent
collection, all while learning
about the inner workings
of one of New York’s most
cherished art institutions.
This free program is
by application only; for
further information and to
apply, please click here.
Trinity Laban Conservatoire
of Music and Dance, London
College Visit
Tuesday, March 24
Period 3
Room 235
Musical Theatre
Historical Performance
Academic
Dance
Contemporary Dance
Research
Foresite Prep @ Oberlin
Application Deadline: April
15
Program Dates:
Business: June 21 - July 4
Food: July 5 - July 18
Essential Resources: July
19 - August 1
Three
remarkable
pre-college
seminars
designed
to
empower
7
motivated
high
school
students passionate about
sustainability, social equity
and
the
environment.
This summer, interview
experienced professionals,
explore inspiring real world
sustainability
initiatives,
and acquire college and
career-applicable skills, as
you explore the future of
...
What are you doing this summer...
Please discuss attending with your Period 3 teacher.
On the night before you receive your first
college response, we wanted to let you
know that we could not be any prouder
of you than we are today. Whether or
not you get accepted does not determine
how proud we are of everything you have
accomplished and the wonderful person
you have become. That will not change
based on what admissions officers decide
about your future. We will celebrate with
joy wherever you get accepted — and the
happier you are with those responses,
the happier we will be. But your worth
as a person, a student and our son is not
diminished or influenced in the least by
what these colleges have decided.
Summer Study Projects
Program at The Frick
Collection
Deadline: March 31
Class of 2016
Class of 2017
Music
Vocal Studies
Strings
Piano and Keyboard
Instruments
Wind, Brass, and Percussion
Jazz
Composition
Dear Matt,
Financial
aid
available
for
qualified
students.
Applications are reviewed
as received, and spots
are filling quickly! Visit
the website for more
information, and apply
now.
http://www.
foresightprep.org/
essentialresources/
Brandeis
University
Service Corps
This summer, Brandeis
University
proudly
assembles the Brandeis
Service
Corps
from
July 5-16, 2015. It is
my pleasure to give
you the opportunity to
nominate one or two
outstanding
student
leaders to represent your
high school at our 2015
program. Please submit
your candidates by the
nomination deadline of May 1st.
The Brandeis Service Corps is one
of the only residential summer
programs for high school students
to combine hands-on community
service projects with deep intellectual
exploration
while
experiencing
life on an active college campus.
Our unique approach to service
allows teens to make meaningful
personal connections with diverse
populations whose lives are affected
by homelessness, developmental
disability, poverty, refugee status
and other forms of need. Each day,
participants will be challenged and
motivated while working together to
make the Greater Boston community
stronger.
Service Corps embodies the best
characteristics
of
a
Brandeis
education. As a means of developing
their own civic identity, admitted
students can expect to explore
principles of social justice and
advocacy with student leaders here
on campus and professionals in the
field. They will investigate concepts
of
non-profit
management,
activism and public policy while
developing leadership skills that
can be taken back to their schools
and communities to be applied in
meaningful and exciting ways.
The Brandeis Service Corps is
an opportunity for students to
complete 40 hours of community
service credit while gaining deeper
understanding of themselves and
their ability to help those in need.
Realizing program cost is not within
reach for all qualified students
and
consistent
with
Brandeis
University’s historical commitment
to educational access, we have set
aside a small pool of scholarship
funds for qualified students with
demonstrated
financial
need.
Lastly, recognizing the talent of the
participants, Brandeis University
has committed to offering the full
cost of our program as a scholarship
to Brandeis for any participants who
are admitted and enroll as degreeseeking undergraduates.
Thank you for considering this
incredible opportunity for your
students. Please feel free to contact
us with any questions you may
have by calling our Office of High
School Programs at (781) 7368416 or emailing us at highschool@
brandeis.edu.
Paid Internships for High
School Students at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
offers paid internships to students
in grade 11 or 12 at any high
school or home school in New
York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Interns will get the inside scoop
on a wide variety of Museum
jobs in conservation, education,
exhibition design, and more.
They’ll also develop professional
skills, explore the galleries, and
assist an expert in one of the
Museum’s departments. Students
don’t need prior experience or
specific knowledge to apply –
just an interest in learning about
museum careers and great works
of art! The deadline to register
for this event is Wednesday, April
8, 2015 at 6:00 PM. For more
information and to apply, please
CLICK HERE.
The Academic Forum Presents:
Crafting your College List
Event: April 15; 6:30 PM - 8:00
PM
A private college advisor explains
strategies for putting together a
balanced list of colleges that include
both
financial
and
admissions
safeties,
targets, and reaches.
Before joining Focus
College
Advisory,
Meredith
Greenberg
spent
four
years
doing college advising
and
SAT
tutoring
with Let’s Get Ready.
She is well versed in
advising students on
how to maximize their
chances for financial
aid by choosing wisely
which
schools
to
include on their list.
**This meeting will
be geared towards
students as much as
parents, so please
encourage
your
sophomore and junior
students to attend this
meeting, even if you
can’t make it!**
8
Juniors, time to begin
the “All About Me
2016 Survey”
Before Juniors set up a college
advisement meeting with their
Guidance
Counselor,
they
must:
• Have a minimum 10 schools
added to the “Colleges I’m
thinking about” section,
including identifying your
interest level.
• Be able to explain why
these schools are on your
list.
• Completed the “All About
Me
2016”
survey
in
Naviance. (Available now.)
Please know that the more
thorough and complete your
answers are, the more specific
the letter can be — and it
should be specific.
To thoughtfully complete the
survey will take about 2 hours,
but it does not need to be done
all in one sitting.
If you are stuck on a question,
come back to it after giving it
some thought.
Obviously the sooner you are
ready to set an appointment,
the sooner the Guidance
Counselor can see you.
At
a certain point this year
(especially in June) it may not
be possible to be seen. (In
Planning For College 2, this is
part of Managing Your Role.)
For any student who is
considering applying during
the early application process,
it is to your advantage to meet
with your Guidance Counselor
this year.
The Weekly Bulletin is a collection of
original material and collected/adapted
information intended to keep the
LaGuardia Community informed.
Dr. Mars, Principal
Mr. Moore, Teacher
Mr. Sommers, AP
Dr. Stricklin-Witherspoon, AP
Ms. van Keulen, AP
Planning For College 3
Notes
Making the first steps...
On February 24, the Guidance Department presented Planning For College 3: Making the first steps. A
graphic organizer was provided at the presentation, and below is an enhanced version of the organizer
with instructions on how to access specific information in Naviance. If you have questions during your
research phase, please do not hesitate to speak with your Guidance Counselor.
1
What you want in a school...
• Major / Degree Programs
• Location
• Size
• Campus life
• Special programs
4
• Click on college name for more details
• Always verify deadlines on college’s website
• Click and compare colleges
To locate colleges by interest areas, go to
Colleges > college research > SuperMatchTM­
college search
Organize & Further Your
Reserach
2
Take advantage of the “compare” options as
well as the “Graph”
What are SAFETY, TARGET and REACH schools?
5
SAFETY: no problem getting into
TARGET: you are within their average GPA and
SAT scores
REACH: you are a little below what they are
looking for but you never know, so you
are going to try (All audition/portfolio
schools are reaches.)
It is recommended that you apply to 6-10 schools
2 SAFETY Schools
2 TARGET Schools
2 REACH Schools
We recommend all students apply to both CUNY &
SUNY schools
Add your standardized test scores for more
personalized results, go to About Me >
official things > test scores > edit
3
Research Each College’s
Website
With no standard format, colleges expect you to
spend time thoroughly looking through all aspects
of their website. Pay attention to Requirements,
Deadlines, testing policy, what admissions cycles:
Early Decision, Early Action, ED II, Rolling, EA
Single Choice, Instant Decision, etc.
9
Know the colleges College Board and ACT 4-digit
codes so that you can send free score reports at the
time of your standardized test.
6
Junior Year
7
8
College Advisement Appointments Begin the End of
this Month
Manage Your Role
• Must have tentative list of schools (and bring
research/materials with you)
• Have Schools Identified as your Reach, Target,
and Safety
• Complete “All About Me Survey”
• Reliant Upon Student to Set Appointment
•
•
•
•
•
•
Initial School Documents
Application
Standardized tests
Essay
Letters of Recommendation
Audition or portfolio submittal and/or Interview
Pay Fee
What are the School
9 Documents?
•
•
•
•
Senior Schedule
School Profile
School Report
Letters of Recommendation (if required)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• La! Deadlines
• Colleges’ Deadlines
• Scholarship Deadlines
Teacher
• Is expected to be a Junior year teacher.
• Follow the teacher’s instructions on how to
request a letter.
• Always ask in person before submitting a
request in Naviance.
• Some teachers require that you ask before the
school year’s out.
• Teachers write between 1 - 120 letters (each
taking about an hour) so please do not take it
personal if the teacher does not agree.
• Know the college’s requirements (e.g. 2
academic teachers, math teacher, any teacher.)
• Do NOT ask your teachers now for a letter.
Parent Rave
• Form under the “General Information” tab or
pick up in Guidance Suite
• Returned to the Guidance Suite.
• Stories/anecdotes of child at home
• Extracurricular activities
11
La! Deadlines
October 2015
Early Action
Early Decision
Rolling Admissions
Priority
Conservatory
November 2015
Regular Decision
Rolling, Round 2
Counselor
Written by your College Counselor
(College Mentor or Guidance Counselor) using the
following items:
All About Me Senior Survey
Teacher Rave Sheets 2-3
Parent/Guardian Rave Sheets
College Advisement
College Resources
Troubleshooting
Processing Scholarships
Initial School Documents
Mid-Year Reports
Final Reports
Deadlines
There are two types of Letters of
Recommendation
School Research
Read YS & check E-Mail
Fill out your All About Me Senior Survey
Request Teacher Raves and Parent Raves
Be registered on Daedalus & Naviance
Work on Essay
Guidance Department
Role
When will my application
file be complete?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
10
December 2015
Final School List
The above deadlines are La! Deadlines, allowing us
time to prepare your school documents. You must
have your application complete by the college’s
deadline.
We suggest you have the majority of your application
completed if you need to meet La!’s October 2015
deadline. SUGGESTION: If you are working in any
capacity on the school-wide musical, are on a Fall
sport team, or have any Fall obligations, plan on
completing your entire application over the summer
as there will not be time during the Fall Semester.
College Fair
.
10
April 20; 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
12
Why doesn’t LAG use class
rank? Does this impact the
application process when
schools request rank?
LaGuardia chooses to focus on
personal growth and achievement
rather than competition amongst
classmates.
Class rank is generally not the
deciding factor for admissions.
The admissions department
will be able to draw from other
aspects of the student’s academic
records in order to obtain a
clear picture of their academic
standings.
If considering a gap year,
does a student apply to
college before taking the gap
year?
A gap year is a structured year
where students participate in
a specialized program prior
to beginning college classes.
It is not a year auditioning,
working, or sitting in front of the
television.
There are many approaches
to taking a gap year. It is
recommended that after being
accepted to college, you contact
the college and defer your
enrollment. Many colleges
encourage this and have gap
year programs (with financial
assistance.) While it is not
necessary that you complete
the college application process
prior to taking a gap year, it
does make the process much
easier while you are still enrolled
in high school. While in high
school, you have easier access
to your counselor as well as
recommendations from your
teachers.
For conservatories, can letters
of recommendation come
from people outside of the
school?
Yes, recommendations may
come from outside instructors,
however, pay close attention;to
the recommendation
requirements, as some schools
may ask for at least one
academic recommendation.
What if a college requires
a recommendation from
Math and English teachers,
but the student performs
poorly in both? How do you
approach teachers? Will
they feel comfortable writing
recommendations
Some schools will specify the
academic subject that they
require a recommendation from.
It is a good idea to ask a teacher
with whom the student feels that
they have developed a rapport
with. If a student struggles in
a class but the teacher is able
to attest to their hard work and
dedication to improving their
grade, this teacher may still serve
as a good reference. (We’ve
been stressing all year for Juniors
to develop relationships with their
teachers.)
Teachers have the right to decline
to serve as a recommender, so it
is important to approach them in
a mature and kind manner.
For teacher recommendations,
is it ok to get a
recommendation from a
music teacher instead of an
academic teacher?
Depending on what your student
plans to study in college, a music
teacher may or may not serve
11
as a good recommendation.
Research each school and pay
close attention to their specific
recommendation requirements.
Generally, schools will want at
least one academic recommender,
but may allow additional letters
from other disciplines.
What is the process for
scholarships?
Colleges often have scholarship
opportunities that are unique
to each school, and information
can be found on each schools
website. You may receive
information from your schools
in regards to scholarship
opportunities after filing your
FAFSA.
However, there are many outside
resources and databases where
you can search for scholarships
based on skills, interests, and
other factors.
Fastweb.com
ScholarshipPoints.com
Cappex.com
Scholarships.com
Zinch.com
NextStudent.com
StudentScholarships.org
ScholarshipExperts.com
SuperCollege.com