Now that the admission committees have handed you their decisions, it is time for you to choose which college to attend. For some, this choice is easy. Maybe you were admitted early decision or have a clear first choice. For others, the decision is more difficult. Perhaps you have not visited many of the schools on your list, maybe you and your parents disagree about what is best for your future, or perhaps you just can’t seem to figure out what you want. No matter the reason, you must decide by the May 1st reply date. What should you do?

Identify your options.

Are you choosing between two schools or several? Have you narrowed down your choices? Are you comparing financial aid packages? Are you trying to get taken off a wait list at a school? What are the factors that you will use to make your decision?

Expand your research.

Now that you know what your options are, it is time to begin or continue your research. Hopefully you already know why each school is on your list. Review what you have learned and continue to learn about the schools. What are you looking for? What does each school offer? Consider how each school matches your interests: academic, extracurricular, social, and otherwise. Use the schools’ websites, talk to friends, e-mail professors, visit the campuses. Have discussions with your family and others you trust. If you have not already visited the schools on your list, now is the time. One college applicant, Scott, visited the schools on his list only after he received his acceptance letters. Doing so gave him a new perspective on his choices: “I had applied to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on my counselor’s recommendation. I didn’t really think I would ever go there because it was so far away from home and I always thought of Wisconsin as a place of pastures and cows. But when I visited, I felt at home. The students were friendly, the classes were tough, and I had no idea Madison had such a fun night life.”

Prioritize.

Amanda, an aspiring professional dancer, knew she wanted to attend college. She felt good about her auditions, and was thrilled to be admitted to several schools. After narrowing down her choices to SUNY-Purchase and University of Michigan, Amanda realized she needed to learn more about each school. “I found that the reputation of the schools said that Michigan had stronger academics and SUNY had better connections to the New York dance scene, which is where I want to establish a career. I am also really interested in literature and writing.” Amanda had to prioritize. She asked herself, what role did she want her artistic and academic interests to play in her life? What was more important to her?

Be honest with yourself.

Radha, a senior from New Jersey, had narrowed down her acceptances to two schools: Boston University and University of Southern California (USC). Both schools were a good fit, as Radha wanted a city school with a lot of options and school spirit. After sorting out the pros and cons of each school, Radha was still stuck. Something else was bothering her. I asked, “If both schools were close to home, which would you choose?” Without hesitation, Radha replied, “USC. I just loved my visit and really loved the students I met.” Suddenly, we had uncovered the issue that was hindering Radha: she wanted to go to USC, but she did not want to go far from home. After our discussion, Radha talked about the issue with her family. As an older sister with divorced parents, Radha had secretly decided she needed to stay near her younger sister whom she often looked after. Discussing her concerns with her parents helped Radha make the brave decision to attend the school she wanted. By looking deeper into the issue that was really troubling her—her fear of leaving home—Radha was able to make the decision that was best for her. It is important to remember that there are many factors that play into the decision of which school to attend. Going off to college often signifies the beginning of a more adult life, so this decision can be influenced by anxieties about leaving home.

Go with your gut.

We’ve been through the rational decision-making processes like making pro and con lists and prioritizing. However, intuition is often our best guide. Adam, now a few years out of college, recently said, “I don’t know why exactly I chose Georgetown, but as soon as I got in I got excited. Somehow I just knew it would be the best place for me. And I was right.” Pay attention to your gut. Trust yourself.

You can’t be wrong.

Here is the good news: there is no such thing as the wrong choice. Like any experience, college is what you make of it. Take advantage of opportunities, choose challenging classes, become involved in your interests, and your decision will have been the right one. Chances are you will be happy at any of the schools on your list. After all, you applied to them because you discovered they were good matches for you. If you later find you would rather be somewhere else, you can always consider the transfer option. But most students are happy with the choice they made, and graduates often look back, saying: “I am glad I went where I did, but I think I would have been happy and successful at many colleges.”

–Jackie Shapiro, MA IvyWise, LLC http://www.ivywise.com

Jaclyn Shapiro, MA College Admissions Counselor IvyWise, LLC 140 W 57th Street New York, NY (212) 262-3500

http://www.ivywise.com

University of Phoenix Online Focuses on Team Learning

Unlike some other schools, the University of Phoenix Online focuses on Team Learning. For all classes, team assignments can make up to 20% of the student’s total grade. Consequently, students get more than they bargained for when pursuing an education at Phoenix’s online university (UoP online).

Online Education for those Working Full-Time

UoP online believes that distance learning shouldn’t be a solely individual or isolated effort. In an effort to help their students do better in their careers, UoP online believes that its students should get more practice working effectively as a virtual team. Besides submitting individual short answers and papers, students must also work as a part of a team, usually on a single course long project where the work on one week builds on the week done previously.

UoP online targets mature adults who have been in the work force for at least five years. The majority of UoP online students have been career oriented for some time. By designing their online classes so that they don’t require meetings at set times, UoP online helps busy individuals advance their educations. But don’t get the wrong idea; UoP online is not set up like other distance learning programs, say a correspondence course, where you set your own timeline. UoP requires you to be online at least four times a week to participate and you need to post assignments on a weekly schedule.

Effective team work is an integral part to a successful career. Many an interview has revolved around a person’s “team spirit.” Even online jobs require collaboration to a certain degree. UoP’s stance on online team learning might educate you on more than what you signed up for, too.

University of Phoenix offers degree programs in the following fields:

• Accounting • Health Care

• Administration • Human Services

• Business • Information Systems

• Counseling • Management

• Criminal Justice • Marketing

• eBusiness • Nursing

• Education • Technology Management

• Finance

Online college courses lead to salary increase

Take online college courses that you can work around your schedule. Why go back to school? How about for more money? Studies show that the more education a person has, the more that person will make over coworkers who do the same thing but are less educated.

The more education you have, the more you get paid

Another reason you should consider distance learning courses is that it can help you change careers. If you’re sick of your current job and want another career, quit dreaming and starting working toward your goals. Recognizing the need to accommodate “non-traditional” students, more colleges are setting up online courses to help educate students via online campuses. They aren’t stopping with courses either. Many colleges offer complete degree programs that you can get entirely online.

When considering what online program you will enroll in, look at the following factors:

• Costs

• Accreditation. For example, the only state that will let you sit for the bar if you get an online law degree is California.

• Program requirements. What courses do you have to take to graduate? How many classes can you CLEP out of or get credit for courses you’ve taken elsewhere?

• Distance learning tools. What does the school use for its virtual classroom? Not all schools use the same online tools.

• What kind of financial aid is available to you?

Online programs are constantly being improved so if you looked into them a few years ago, you owe it to yourself to learn what educators have been up to in the meantime.

Change your career, change your life and get a new job.

A resource-based site to help you with education, interviews, resumes and job searches.

To read more articles in my site, please visit…

http://www.get-a-new-job.com/

An online associate degree is a two-year general studies degree that is obtained entirely over the Internet. This type of degree is perfect for those individuals who wish to begin their college career or who wish to finish their two year degree before continuing on to obtain their bachelor’s or master’s degree.

To get an online associate degree, an individual does not need to have any prior college credits. But if you do have prior credits from an accredited college, these credits can be transferred to your online school to cut down on the time it will take to earn your degree. To apply for a degree program, individuals must have a high school diploma or G.E.D.

Earning an associate’s degree usually takes two years at a regular onsite college. Earning an online associate degree can take as little as six months. This time difference is advantageous for those individuals who wish to enter the work force earlier or for those who do not have a lot of money or time to spend on college.

As all classes are taken via the Internet either with downloadable software and lesson instruction or through virtual classroom online, individuals must have access to a computer and the Internet.

When choosing an online associate degree program, there are two main choices. Individuals can either choose to earn a degree in general studies or a degree that focuses on one aspect of education. A general studies degree is best for those who just wish to finish their degree or obtain general classes for their current job.

A focused degree program is better for someone who wishes to continue their education with a bachelor’s degree or for those who need specific skills for their current career. For example, a person who manages a business or wishes to obtain a bachelor’s in business management will want obtain an associates degree in business.

Most online colleges and universities offer an online associate degree program. These programs are usually very similar in content and lessons. The biggest difference in programs will be price and completion time. To offset the price, many individuals apply for student loans. Another option is to see if the program would be covered by your employer’s tuition reimbursement program.

Find the best information and resources about online associate degree programs and online degrees at http://www.find-online-degree.com

The program should be one term, two terms or three terms (1 year). This program is meant for students who lack the necessary language skills to start the first-year bachelor program, the course enables them to improve their skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Lenghtime: Students can follow the language program from one to three terms (1 year) according to their result of the English Admission Exams that organized at the beginning of each intake, each term or quarter last 10 weeks and has at least 20-periods-a-week english class and 6 periods a week of French or german.

Business Management University [Switzerland]:

The Group "Business & Management University" is a private university committed to higher education, operates under the direction of a strategic committee compound by five members. The administrators, faculty, staff, and students of the University, are committed to excellence in education.

It carries out its mission by assembling a faculty team having high academic and professional standards.

The University is dedicated to the preparation of student in two fields in the arts and sciences: Management and banking & finance.

A major commitment exists to provide educational services for the larger national and international community, especially graduate education for mature students.

To encourage students to develop their unique potential and to become quickly productive member of society, the University seeks to provide an appropriate academic and social environment. Moreover, the University attempts to responds to the needs of its students through administrative services, teaching, scholarship and research.

Jessy Daniel

What if someone came up to you and offered you $5000 to attend college? Or after college, what if someone called you and asked if you wanted a couple thousand dollars to pay off some student loans? The obvious answer is, “Where do I sign up?” But, the truth is that there are hundreds of ways for you to receive free money for college today – you just need to know where to look.

Search For “Free” Money First

With the emergence of the internet, finding places, companies, and events that offer free money for college has never been as easy. To start, try typing in “free money for college” into a search engine on the internet. Behold thousands upon thousands of web sites that offer you free money just for attending college. Obviously, no site will just hand over money, but there will provide great opportunities for you to further your education in the future with the help of some “free” cash.

Scholarship-Takers Wanted!

Are you eligible for a scholarship for college? Many students might think not, but there is a good chance that scholarships exist out there that would give YOU money for college, even if you think that you do not have chance. Do you have a special talent, or are you interested in a specific major going into college? Businesses often offer scholarships to students wishing to major in classes that could potentially benefit them in the future. Are you into art, writing, or some other creative field? Contests exist that could give you the opportunity to win free money for college.

Start Your Search Today!

While the free money exists out there to help you pay for college, it is up to you to go out there and get it! Search the internet for opportunities to enter contests or submit applications for college scholarships. The free money is out there. Good luck searching for it and receiving your free money for college today.

This article is distributed by NextStudent. At NextStudent, we believe that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and we’re dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding as easy as possible. We invite you to learn more about Free Money For College at http://www.NextStudent.com .

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http://www.realsci.com/

Scindex’s Instant Publishing Service is about empowerment. The price of scholarly, peer-reviewed journals has skyrocketed in the last few years, often way out of the limited means of libraries, universities, individual scientists and scholars. A "scholarly divide" has opened between the haves (academic institutions with rich endowments and well-heeled corporations) and the haves not (all the others). Paradoxically, access to authoritative and authenticated knowledge has declined as the number of professional journals has proliferated. This is not to mention the long (and often crucial) delays in publishing research results and the shoddy work of many under-paid and over-worked peer reviewers.

The Internet was suppose to change all that. Originally, a computer network for the exchange of (restricted and open) research results among scientists and academics in participating institutions - it was supposed to provide instant publishing, instant access and instant gratification. It has delivered only partially. Preprints of academic papers are often placed online by their eager authors and subjected to peer scrutiny. But this haphazard publishing cottage industry did nothing to dethrone the print incumbents and their avaricious pricing.

The major missing element is, of course, respectability. But there are others. No agreed upon content or knowledge classification method has emerged. Some web sites (such as Suite101) use the Dewey decimal system. Others invented and implemented systems of their making. Additionally, one click publishing technology (such as Webseed’s or Blogger’s) came to be identified strictly to non-scholarly material: personal reminiscences, correspondence, articles and news.

Enter Scindex and its Academic Resource Channel. Established by academics and software experts from Bulgaria, it epitomizes the tearing down of geographical barriers heralded by the Internet. But it does much more than that. Scindex is a whole, self-contained, stand-alone, instant self-publishing and self-assembly system. Self-publishing systems do exist (for instance, Purdue University’s) - but they incorporate only certain components. Scindex covers the whole range.

Having (freely) registered as a member, a scientist or a scholar can publish their papers, essays, research results, articles and comments online. They have to submit an abstract and use Sciendex’s classification ("call") numbers and science descriptors, arranged in a massive directory available in the "RealSci Locator". The Locator can be also downloaded and used off-line and its is surprisingly user-friendly. The submission process itself is totally automated and very short.

The system includes a long series of thematic journals. These journals self-assemble, in accordance with the call numbers selected by the submitters. An article submitted with certain call numbers will automatically be included in the relevant journals.

The fly in the ointment is the absence of peer review. As the system moves from beta to commercialization, Scindex intends to address this issue by introducing a system of incentives and inducements. Reviewers will be granted "credit points" to be applied against the (paid) publication of their own papers, for instance.

Scindex is the model of things to come. Publishing becomes more and more automated and knowledge-orientated. Peer reviewed papers become more outlandishly expensive and irrelevant. Scientists and scholars are getting impatient and rebellious. The confluence of these three trends spells - at the least - the creation of a web based universe of parallel and alternative scholarly publishing.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East". He is a columnist in "Central Europe Review", United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

In modern society passing educational examinations becomes an increasingly important and essential means to a better job and improved living standards.

The structure and nature of all examinations are things we cannot change to suit ourselves. Hence we need to find ways of dealing effectively with them - ways of making their systems and requirements actually work for us.

There are ways of doing this and the following can be successfully used by anyone studying for any examinations because exams usually have certain key common elements.

Check Out The Syllabus As an examinee, you have to abide by certain rules and constraints. The time length of the exam, how many question you have to answer, and so forth.

But the examiners also have to abide by certain rules - and they cannot change them (at least not without adequate notice) any more than you can! They have to publish a syllabus for every examination and they can only ask questions on what is contained within that syllabus. Once you know the syllabus, you know where the starting and finishing lines are and how far you have to run

Moreover, all parts of the syllabus are not equal: some parts of it are more equal than others. Some topics will hardly ever be questioned while others will come up every year. Highlight the syllabus using two colours: red, say, for those areas that come up very frequently; green for those which rarely come up. Do this only after a systematic inspection of past exam papers, as the next section will explain.

Then use a third colour to highlight those (hopefully very few) parts of the syllabus which you have really serious difficulty with. Providing these parts are not numerous, and depending on how often they come up, it may be possible to leave them on one side. But do use sense and judgement in doing this!

Whatever You Are Studying, First Study The Exam Papers Studying past examination papers is almost as crucial as studying the subject you have chosen!

Get hold of as many past papers as you can. The more you have the better you will be able to discern any patterns. Draw up a grid on A4 paper. Divide the top horizontally into years - as many as you have past papers for plus one for the year in which you are going to sit the exam Divide the lefthand vertical into as many subject areas as seems appropriate from your inspection of the syllabus and past exam papers. Do this very careful and only after you have become very familiar with the exam topics. Also, make allowance for any coupling of topics because sometimes examiners like to link one topic with another. If you have, say, a dozen past papers and a particular linking has only come up once, you are probably save to forget it. But if it has occurred, say, three or four times it needs to go down.

So now you have large set of cells, each of which relates to a particular year and to a specific topic. Place a cross in each cell for the year in which a given topic has come up. If there is a pattern, and very often there is, you will soon see it. The relative frequency with which the various topic come up will now be easy to see.

It is not that examiners are doing a parallel kind of exercise to determine the structure of the next examination they set. They might well be unaware of the kinds of patterns we are talking about. But examiners do have at least a mental scheduling of the relative importance of particular topics and an impression of what have been chosen recently.

Now use the spare column on the right-hand side, which relates to the year you are going to sit the exam, to mark those subject areas which seem most likely to come up this next time. These are the ones which you need to spend extra time on. The other areas need to be covered as well, but your projections need special care and attention.

In the case of some examinations such a pattern may not seem to emerge. But often it will. In any case, it is worth the investment of time to find out, and whether it does or not it would be foolish not to inspect as many past papers as possible. You need to see how the questions are phrased, how they are divided, sometimes even subdivided, whether there are any special conditions imposed, such as papers which are divided into different sections with different lengths of time allowed for each, and so forth.

Overall, many students just seem to accept the constraints of an examination system as a barbed wire fence they can do nothing about. But the foregoing might just give you a set of wire cutters!

About The Author

A K Whitehead B.A., M.Phil., Cambridge University Certificate in Religious Studies (+ many other exam successes on the way) He has also set and marked and invigilated numerous examinations.

Web Site: www.christianword.co.uk

Conditions Of Use: This article may be reproduced physically or electronically providing that it and this end statement is not altered in any way without express permission.

akw@christianword.co.uk

Higher education in the university gives students a chance to open up. They have a completely new world to deal with. Malcolm Forbes says, “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” While basic education helps inculcate the values and beliefs in students, higher education illustrates what the real world is. While they taste the charm of independence, they also experience the bitter hardships that accost independence.

All their hardships start and end with money. Being away from parents, they will have to deal with a whole lot of financial issues. Besides the tuition fees, the students will have to make provision for rent, traveling expenses, food, books and entertainment.

These add up to a sizeable figure. The parents, already burdened with their own expenses, cannot be burdened any more. With the finances leading them to the edge, students are hardly able to concentrate on studies. Some may even contemplate suicide; while others may take resort to drug abuse.

A student loan can be a convenient option of sponsoring your studies. Student loans help the students pay off their tuition fees, along with the other living expenses, which includes lodging, books, food and other charges. The amount of loan advanced will depend on the actual requirement and the financial condition of the family.

Student loan is repayable only after one completes his/ her education and starts earning a minimum amount. The minimum earning has been increased from ₤10000 to ₤15000 with effect from April 2005. This means that until the student starts earning a minimum of ₤15000, the student need not pay the student loan.

The search for the student loan must go on simultaneously with the search for an academic course. This ensures that the student knows the amount of loan that he has qualified for. He can thus plan the expenses in accordance with his budget. Besides, some institutions require students to advance tuition fees within a very short notice. Any delays can result in losing opportunity of studying in a preferred institution or university. Prior search for student loan ensures that you do not lose upon an opportunity.

The amount to be repaid includes an interest element combined with the principal. Paying in cash would have ensured that no such extra payments are required. However, by not utilizing ones cash reserves for the educational expenses, you are able to use it for other important expenditures.

However, it is not easy to get student loans. Most lenders find students precarious because they are not in full time employment. Besides, banks have pegged the age limit for getting loans at 22, an age higher than the age of average students, thus disqualifying them from getting loans. Absence of credit history may also act as an impediment in their search for loans. Another reason, wrongly attributed to the age of students, is that while they take loans for educational purposes, the money is actually being squandered.

Nevertheless, there are banks and lenders who accept students as mature customers. They are ready to advance financial help to the students to sort out their finances. All student loan applications are to be routed through Local Education Authority (LEA). However, this may differ if you are undergoing different circumstances, like having dependants, bieng disabled, or engaged in some kind of social work.

Lenders will be ready to offer a better APR if the student joins a part time job. This will give a source of income, and a guarantee to the lender that the repayment will be made on time. Even getting parents to be guarantors to the loan will help getting best deals.

The student is bound to inform the student loans company or the local education authority about any relevant changes that may occur on his/ her account. these include change of name, course, national insurance number, or if the student plans to go abroad, and if the employment status changes from employed to self employed. Failure to inform the authorities about such relevant changes will incur penalties.

The loan is broken into a number of installments for convenient repayment. the repayments will start from the April following the completion of the course, whether or not the student graduates. For students who are employed and their earning is above the minimum level, the employer will deduct the repayment every month from the salary. The self employed people will have to make repayments through self assessment tax returns. Those who are employed abroad will be required to pay directly to the loan provider. Failure to keep up the repayments can lead to penalties.

There are a number of means available to the student nowadays to help them in their pursuit for higher education. It is the accumulation of skills through higher education which gives one a distinct identity. Not taking advantage of them would mean bieng one of the crowd, because there will be some who would grasp the opportunity.

Andrew baker has done his masters in finance from CPIT. He is engaged in providing free, professional, and independent advice to the residents of the UK.He works for the personal loan web site http://www.ukfinanceworld.co.uk for any type of uk secured and unsecured loan please visit http://www.ukfinanceworld.co.uk

In order to do well on a exam, you must first have a good knowledge of the information that is being examined. But, aside that, you must have a good strategy for taking the exam. This allows you to show what you know. This exam guide gives you some tips that will help you make a good strategy:

Directions

Test direction are very important, so read them carefully. Ask your teacher to explain any test direction that you do not understand. A good score on the exam is achieved only by following directions. If you don’t follow directions, you won’t be able to demonstrate what you know.

Examine

Examine the entire test in order to see how much you have to do, because, only by knowing it all you can break it down into parts more manageable for you.

Time

Once you are done with the test examination, it’s time for you to decide how much time you will spend on each item. If an item has different points, plan to spend the most time on items that count for the most points. A good planning of your time is especially important for essay test where you have to avoid spending too much time on one item and leave little time for other test items.

Easiest First

Remember to answer the items you find easiest first, because if you get stuck on a more difficult item that comes up early in the test, you may not have enough time to answer items you know.

Review

If you plan you time correctly, you will have time to review your answers and make sure they are as complete and accurate as possible. Also make sure you review the test directions to be certain you have answered all items required.

Using this exam guide will definately help you do better on exams, no matter the field they cover, and get better grades.

From networking to database administration to programming, http://www.ExamGuru.net offers a wide variety of IT training guides to help you achieve your certification and career goals.

After presenting these ideas at the NAREN (National At-Risk Education Network) in Wisconsin last week, I was asked to write an article that would be able to reach more people to spread the exciting word about Dr. William Glasser’s work in the area of Quality Schools.

There are many characteristics that are required in order for a school to be listed as a Quality School. There are currently 13 such schools in the country, with many more on their journey to become Quality Schools.

In a Quality School, relationships are based upon trust and respect, and all discipline problems, not incidents, have been eliminated. Total Learning Competency is stressed and an evaluation that is below competence or what is now a "B" has been eliminated. All schooling as defined by Dr. William Glasser has been replaced by useful education. All students do some Quality Work each year that is significantly beyond competence. All such work receives an "A" grade or higher, such as an "A+".

Students and staff are taught to use Choice Theory in their lives and in their work in school. Parents are encouraged to participate in study groups to become familiar with the ideas of Dr. William Glasser. Students do better on state proficiency tests and college entrance examinations. The importance of these tests is emphasized in the school. Staff, students, parents and administrators view the school as a joyful place.

All of the above criterion must be in place to be listed as a Quality School. When a school is a Quality School, the dictates of “No Child Left Behind” take care of themselves. Now, of course there will be a few children who have totally rejected school that are unreachable but for the majority, they will learn and do quality work.

The way to achieve this is to implement the three conditions of quality. First, the school and each classroom must create an environment that will meet the needs of the students, and consequently of teachers. All humans are born with five basic human needs. We have the need for survival, connection/love, power, freedom and fun/learning. This is true of students and teachers.

In order to help students meet their need for survival, the school and classroom must be safe. They must feel that they won’t be hurt physically or emotionally. When students feel safe, there is no need to threaten teachers or other students.

In order for students to satisfy their need for connection/love, they must have a relationship with the teacher and the other students. They must believe that the teacher has their best interest at heart. The more you give love and connection away, the more they come back to you.

In order to satisfy a student’s need for power, teachers must listen to and respect their students’ ideas and issues. This does not mean that teachers must agree with their students but they must at least let the students know that they are important. When students feel listened to and respected, they don’t disrespect their teachers and they tend to listen more.

For students to have freedom, they must have choices. They must not be bogged down in rules and regulations. When students have choices, they won’t have the need to create destructive choices of their own.

In school, learning should be fun. Learning is always fun when the learning is useful and the students want to learn what is being taught. Imagine students having fun learning! Isn’t that the dream of teachers everywhere? When your students are having fun, you do too.

I know this sounds like an impossible task but there are many schools doing just that with training in Dr. William Glasser’s Choice Theory. Creating a need-satisfying environment is what actually eliminates discipline problems. If someone has a legitimate, appropriate way to get his/her needs met, then there is no reason to create discipline problems.

Switching courses over to a competency-based approach is critical to the Quality School concept. Students are not permitted to get credit for less than B work and they have opportunities to improve their work until it meets the minimum standard for a B. Concepts are taught in such a way that reduces the need for memorizing facts that can be found in any encyclopedia or text.

This and more speaks to the second condition of quality that students will only be asked to do useful work. It is the teacher’s job to convince students that what they are being asked to do is useful in the real world. If you are successful in that endeavor, you will have willing students. Wouldn’t that make your job more enjoyable for you?

The final condition of quality is self-evaluation. Students are asked to grade their own work. There are two essential items that must be met in order to get accurate self-evaluations from students. First, they must have no fear that the teacher or anyone else will hurt them with an honest self-evaluation. Second, there must be a clear rubric in place that will give students a model against which to compare their own work.

Self-evaluation does not replace the need of the teacher or teacher’s aide (another student already judged to be competent in that particular area) from corroborating the student’s self-evaluation. Students are not punished for less than competent work. Rather they are shown where their work is lacking and given the opportunity to fix it. This, again, is a skill that is seen everyday in the real world. Rarely do people actually loss their jobs for substandard work. They are told what is wrong and asked to fix it.

Of course this is just a thumb nail sketch of what is necessary to become a Quality School but if you or anyone you know is interested in learning more, visit http://www.coachingforexcellence.biz and check our calendar for upcoming teleclasses, chats and workshops.

Kim Olver has an undergraduate degree in psychology, a graduate degree in counseling, is a National Certified Counselor and is a licensed professional counselor. Since 1987, Kim has extensively studied the work of Dr. William Glasser’s Choice Theory, Reality Therapy and Lead Management. She was certified in Reality Therapy in 1992 and continued her studies to become a certified instructor for the William Glasser Institute. She is an expert at empowering people to navigate the sometimes difficult course of life—teaching them how to get the most out of the circumstances life provides them. These are incredibly powerful ideas with equal application to one’s work and personal lives. Kim can work with you to empower your staff and clients and propel your organization to the next level.