For almost 50 years, the SAT has played a pivotal role in the college admissions process. The upcoming transition from the traditional paper-and-pencil format to a digital, adaptive SAT marks one of the most significant changes since its inception in 1926. The Class of 2025 will be the first cohort of U.S. students to undergo both the PSAT and SAT in a digital, adaptive format.
Early acceptance rates at these institutions showed a significant advantage over regular decision rates, according to U.S. News data. Though crafting a standout college application can be a time-consuming and stressful process, submitting an application in the fall, well before the typical winter deadline for regular admissions, is possible.Read on to find out more.
While we’re pleased to see evidence of academic rebounding, fully regaining lost ground will require students to make above-average progress going forward. The federal government has provided nearly $200 billion in funding for schools to address challenges associated with the pandemic, with $22 billion specifically dedicated to learning recovery using evidence-based interventions.
More to do: Students are rebounding but haven’t recovered from COVID-related learning disruptions
There are encouraging signs in newly available student achievement data from the 2021–2022 school year: evidence the nation’s education system is rebounding from the pandemic but has not yet recovered.
Students showed growth on the MAP® Growth™ assessments in reading and math at rates that are comparable with prepandemic times. They also recovered some lost ground, but the extent of the improvement varies widely by grade level and student group. That’s a positive change from 2020 to 2021, when student growth slowed significantly due to COVID-19 disruptions.
These signs of rebounding show that the hard work of educators and students is paying off. However, we’re still not where we need to be.
To get a picture of student achievement two-and-a-half years into the pandemic, NWEA researchers Megan Kuhfeld and Karyn Lewis, analyzed MAP Growth scores for more than eight million students in grades 3–8 in about 25,000 public schools across the country. They looked at achievement and growth trends for students who were in school during pandemic years, so from 2018–2019 through 2021–2022. They then compared the performance of those students to that of students in school from 2015–16 to 2018–2019, non-COVID-19 years.
Here’s what the researchers found:
There are signs of academic rebounding.
Gaps between current and prepandemic achievement have narrowed compared to spring 2021.
Achievement is still lower than we’d expect it to be absent the pandemic, particularly for historically marginalized students.
We’ve made critical strides as a nation, but COVID-19 is having a lasting impact, and the time it will take for students to catch up varies greatly across grade, subject, and student group. This research estimates it will take the average elementary-school student at least three years to catch up and much longer for older students if the rate of change continues at the same pace. You can explore this research in depth by reviewing the research brief.
While we’re pleased to see evidence of academic rebounding, fully regaining lost ground will require students to make above-average progress going forward. The federal government has provided nearly $200 billion in funding for schools to address challenges associated with the pandemic, with $22 billion specifically dedicated to learning recovery using evidence-based interventions.
With the estimated timeline of recovery extending past the spending deadlines, education leaders and policymakers must scale programs that are working. Leaders must also plan for how they will sustain recovery efforts beyond September 2024, as it will take some districts, schools, and students additional time to fully recover.
Research estimates it will take the average elementary-school student at least three years to catch up and much longer for older students if the rate of change continues at the same pace.
Leaders must also continue to do more to address the persistent educational achievement inequities that existed prior to the pandemic. Returning students to prepandemic achievement levels will not be enough to close these long-standing disparities. Unless growth far exceeds average rates for hardest hit students, a lasting impact of the pandemic will be even bigger opportunity gaps and increased inequity in our education system.
Below are steps school and system leaders and policymakers should consider taking to further spur student learning, along with examples of innovative recovery efforts happening around the country.
Invest in expanding instructional time for students, including high-quality summer programs. Summer programs are especially critical for groups of students who, even in nonpandemic years, lose more ground than others when school is out, a phenomenon known as “summer slide.” Programs must be accessible and high quality. When they are successful, they should scale. For example, the Indy Summer Learning Labs, a summer-learning initiative in Indianapolis, led to such clear learning gains that leaders expanded it. Teachers are compensated well, the program is free, instruction is rigorous, and it is aligned to standards. Students also participate in fun activities that boost engagement and participation.
Identify and target interventions for students most impacted by the pandemic. The NWEA policy and advocacy team recently led a Twitter chat on addressing COVID-related opportunity gaps, and participants said students with the highest needs must be the top priority. The federal government also has said a focus should be on disproportionately impacted student groups. One example of how this is happening at the state level is in Colorado, where a program that provides grants for high-impact tutoring to address unfinished learning prioritizes underserved students for whom COVID-learning gaps may exacerbate pre-existing inequities. In addition to targeting students who have been most impacted, it is also critical to “right-size” recovery efforts and use evidence to determine whether the positive impacts of the interventions being implemented will be enough to fully address the impacts of the pandemic.
Use data and strong data systems that provide continuous feedback on interventions to inform recovery. Collecting meaningful and timely data is essential. Educators and leaders need to use a variety of assessment data and other school- and district-level data in ways that inform decision-making and instructional practices. Data should shed light on achievement, attendance, measures of engagement, opportunities to learn, and who is receiving specific interventions. Some districts, such as Guilford County Schools in North Carolina, have developed or adopted tools like apps that teachers can download on their phones or laptops to make it easier to track enrollment and attendance in recovery programs. States should make such resources readily available. At the state level, North Carolina has allocated funds for researchers to collect, analyze, and report on the impacts of COVID-19 on schools and students.
Support teachers with the resources and professional learning opportunities they need to help their students succeed. The latest growth data shows educator efforts are paying off. A priority for this coming school year and beyond must be to support the success and well-being of teachers. In a recent Educators for Excellence survey sponsored by NWEA, educators highlighted the obstacles they’re facing. They said students’ mental health needs are far greater than before the pandemic and called on leaders to hire more counselors and mental health providers and do more to meet the needs of underserved students. Among other changes teachers want to see are greater access to high-quality curriculum, stepped-up leadership opportunities, better compensation, and assessment reporting systems that distinguish between material taught and untaught, a tool NWEA is developing. Teachers have been heroes in the pandemic. Let’s respond by giving them the support and resources they need.
In recent years, and especially during COVID, the private tutoring industry has booming in the U.S. As a result, there are plenty of tutors out there, so the question is, how do you find the right one for you? We’re here with a list of the best way to choose your perfect tutor. Read on to find out more.
The role of executive functioning in learning has been researched for many decades, and we now know that executive skills play important roles in literacy learning, and especially in successful reading comprehension. In the book by Kelly Cartwright, Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension: A Guide for Educators (2015, Guilford Press), the author explores this connection in detail and provides suggestions for supporting students who have weak executive skills.
Cartwright explains:
“Children who have difficulties with reading comprehension, despite having age-appropriate word reading skills, have lower levels of executive skills than their peers with better comprehension. These discoveries are important for all educators because reading comprehension is the foundation for all other learning in school: students cannot understand, enjoy, or respond to literature without effective reading comprehension; likewise, students cannot gather new information from science, math, or social studies texts when they don’t understand what they read. (p.3)”
What are executive function skills and how do they support reading comprehension?
Cartwright suggests we think of the term executive skills as an umbrella term that refers to a set of mental tools we use to manage tasks and achieve goals, and that these skills can be grouped into three core areas: cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibition.
Executive skills involve regulating one’s own thinking to achieve desired goals. Cartwright notes that “Executive skills emerge early in life and develop across childhood and beyond. Even in very young students, executive skills enable the self-control that is necessary to remember classroom routines, pay attention to a teacher’s direction, and inhibit inappropriate behaviors.”
Here is a summary of how these core skills affect reading comprehension (p. 8-9):
Cognitive Flexibility: is the ability to shift attention from one activity to another or to actively switch back and forth between important components of a task. When reading, skilled comprehenders actively shift focus between many things, such as word and text meanings, letter-sound information, and syntactic (sentence grammar) information.
Working Memory: is the capacity for holding information in mind while working with part of that information. When building text meaning, a good comprehender must keep in mind the various text ideas presented, note the causal links between them, and update the meaning as he encounters new ideas in text.
Inhibition: is the ability to resist engaging in a habitual response as well as the ability to ignore distracting information – i.e., to think before acting. Good comprehenders must inhibit activation of inappropriate word meanings or irrelevant connections to ideas encountered in texts.
Cartwright also addresses additional, more complex executive skills:
Planning: involves setting and working toward a goal
Organizing: involves ordering and sequencing information or subtasks in ways that support a common goal
You cannot reach a goal without a plan, and you can do so most effectively if you are aware of the steps you need to take, in the proper order, to ensure that your goal is met. These two skills work hand-in-hand to support reading comprehension. Good readers begin with a plan and goals to understand and they organize their approach to reading.
In addition, Cartwright points out that the level of a student’s executive skills will also affect his motivational or social-emotional processes – i.e., differences in students’ executive skills will be reflected in both their cognitive and social-emotional ability. For example:
Students with strong executive functioning ability are able to effectively manage and control their own behavior, regulate thinking and learning, regulate their emotional processes, have peer relations, and have strong emotional processes.
Students who are impulsive and emotionally reactive have difficulty controlling their own behavior, interacting with peers, sticking to classroom routines, focusing on task, and ignoring irrelevant information.
Here are some of the chapters in Cartwright’s book:
Plans and Goals: Getting Ready to Read
Organization: Why Text and Reader Organization Matter
Cognitive Flexibility: Juggling Multiple Aspects of Reading
Working Memory: Holding and Linking Ideas in Mind While Reading
Inhibition and Impulse Control: Resisting Distractions to Support Comprehension
Social Understanding: The importance of Mind Reading for Reading Comprehension
Other Resources Related to Executive Functioning and Reading
If you are interested in this topic, it is highly recommend you review the work of Lynn Meltzer at The Research Institute for Learning and Development. Her book Promoting Executive Function in the Classroom (2010, Guilford Press) provides very useful suggestions for understanding and assessing executive function processes and creating a classroom wide executive function culture that fosters strategy use for reading. Meltzer has chapters on goal setting, planning, organizing, remembering, flexible problem solving, self-monitoring, and emotional self-regulation. Meltzer and her colleagues have also developed the SMARTS Executive Function curriculum designed to help middle and high school students who have weak executive skills.
Here are a few other sources to learn more about the connection between executive skills and reading comprehension:
Why Executive Function is a Vital Stepping-Stone For Kids’ Ability to Learn: blog article at KQED News
The Reading Brain: Executive Function Hard at Work: article at LDA of America website
5 Ways Executive Functioning Issues Can Impact Reading: article at the Understood for Learning and Attention website
DOES YOUR CHILD STRUGGLE WITH STAYING ORGANIZED, PLANNING SCHOOLWORK, OR STUDYING FOR EXAMS? CONTACT US FOR A FREE COACHING ASSESSMENT.
Vint Hill Educational Services offers academic coaching for students who have difficulty getting motivated, staying focused, or keeping up in school. With backgrounds in counseling, mentoring, teaching, and special education, our coaches are highly experienced at working with youth and helping students overcome a wide spectrum of challenges.
Academic coaching is especially beneficial for individuals with attentional problems, low executive functioning, or learning or cognitive disabilities—though it is also valuable for those struggling to deal with the ordinary stressors of understanding complex information, planning assignments, studying for exams, or transitioning to college. Students who work with an academic coach typically require guidance and assistance in:
· Getting and staying organized
· Planning coursework and managing time effectively
· Starting and completing schoolwork
· Studying and reading with proficiency
· Managing stress, anxiety, and distractibility
· Balancing academic and personal responsibilities
· Preparing for tests
Our coaches complete assessments to identify the student’s challenges, strengths, goals, and learning style. They then create customized plans that integrate a variety of tools and techniques to help build confidence and improve school performance. Strategies include positive reinforcement, setting achievable goals, optimizing skills, breaking down tasks, creating a supportive environment, and tracking progress.
We select the best coach for your child and provide a coach profile for you to review and approve. The coach matching process considers the coach’s education, experience, and personality, as well as the student’s issues, schedule, and preferred location (e.g., home, office, public library). Each session is one hour in length and one-to-one for individualized support. Parents receive access to our online Teachworks system, allowing them to review coaching session notes, receive session email reminders, and keep track of used and remaining session hours. For more info, click here.
Sitting in class and listening to a lecture packed full of information can be a little overwhelming, especially when you have to take notes on everything that the teacher covers. With so much new knowledge being introduced to you at once, how can you retain it all?
As a student, learning to take quality notes is the key to obtaining all of the information you need from a lecture in order to be successful. We are offering some tips to help you master taking notes during class.
Write, Don’t Type
With the rise of technology in the classroom in recent years, many students have taken to typing their notes instead of handwriting them. Since most people can type faster than they can write, students who take notes on a laptop often end up with more notes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are learning more.
Studies have shown that students who take notes on a laptop actually perform worse on conceptual questions than students who take notes by hand. Researchers believe this is because laptop-users tend to take notes verbatim, typing out every word the professor says during a lecture, whereas students who take notes by hand have to rephrase and summarize information in order to keep up with the lecture. This process of digesting and summarizing the information while taking notes helps with comprehension and retention of the information.
To get the most out of your notes, swap out your laptop for a good old-fashioned pencil and paper combo. If you have to take notes digitally during a lecture, try rewriting them by hand after class is over to reap some of the comprehension benefits.
Find a Format That Works For You
There are tons of different formats for note taking, and each one has its own benefits. Some methods may work better for you and your learning style than others, so it is important to find the one that is going to help you gather information the best.
We’re sharing a quick overview of some formats below!
The Cornell Method: Divide your paper into two columns: a small one on the left for writing out main ideas, prompts, and questions, and a larger column on the right reserved for notes and details. At the bottom of each page, write a quick summary of the information on that page.
The Outline Method: Use headings and bullet points to put information into a hierarchy. Indent to the right as your notes become more detailed and shift back to the left for each new main topic.
The Mapping Method: Each main topic gets its own page for notes. Draw lines and boxes to branch out from the main topic to write subtopics and add finer details below or around each subtopic heading.
The Charting Method: Divide your paper into columns and label them by topic or idea. Fill out the details of each topic below.
For a more in-depth look at the different methods and their unique benefits, check out this article. It outlines some popular note taking methods and pairs them with great examples. Then, try out some of the formats that seem interesting to you to determine which one suits your needs. You may even want to use different formats for different subjects depending on the information that you have to process.
Prioritize Information You Can’t Get Elsewhere
It’s pretty near impossible to write down every single detail, definition, and diagram that is presented to you during a lecture. In order to take good notes, you need to prioritize what information is worth writing down. In fact, one of the best things you can do to become a more efficient note-taker is to learn what NOT to take notes on. Yes, you read that correctly. Not everything needs to be included in your notes.
Prioritize taking notes on information that you can’t get after class or from another resource. Things the professor talks about such as stories, examples and answers to questions are often valuable learning materials that aren’t typed out in their presentation, so it’s more important to jot these down than a definition that you can look up in your book later. At the beginning of class, ask if the presentation will be made available to you afterward so you know what you can safely omit from your notes for the time being.
Make It Colorful
If you find it easy to get lost in all of the text on the page while studying your notes, brighten them up a bit by using different colored pens or highlighters. Colors are a very versatile tool when it comes to organizing information. Try using one color for each main point and its corresponding details to keep everything together, or try developing a color-coded system for different categories of information (ex. red is for a main idea, blue is for details, green is for a definition). Not only is this a great way to help you organize your notes, but the visual variation can also help make those long study sessions a bit more bearable.
Keep It Brief
Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with the professor when taking notes, especially if you have one that talks quickly. Stay in the game by making your notes as brief as possible while writing them. Abbreviate any words that you can and try using acronyms or other key words for terms that appear frequently in the lecture. You can always go back and revise your notes later to write out the full words and phrases
Re-Write or Type Notes After Class
Speaking of revising, going back through your notes after class and typing them up or re-writing them can have huge benefits when it comes to your learning. Viewing all of the information a second time can help you to retain more of it, and cleaning up your notes during this revision will make it easier to study them again later on.
Keep in mind, re-writing is not the same thing as copying. Taking the exact same set of notes again word for word will not do nearly as much to help you comprehend and retain the material. Instead, look at re-writing or typing up your notes as an editing process: Fill in missing definitions or phrases, fix sentences that don’t make sense, reorganize points for better flow, and summarize what you learned at the end to truly enhance your learning.
Compare Finished Notes with Friends
After finalizing all of your own notes, meet up with classmates to compare what you each took away from the lecture. You may find that someone else took notes over an important point or example that you missed, and you may be able to help some of your peers in return.
The current pandemic has led to unprecedented disruptions in student learning in the United States. Remote learning, decreased instruction time, and fewer opportunities for personalized interactions with teachers have set the stage for widespread learning loss, also referred to as the “Covid-19 slide.” These risks are greatest for low-income students, students of color, and students who were already in need of additional support before schools closed their doors. As the education system works to stabilize and adapt, addressing learning loss must stay at the forefront of the conversation. Policy and education officials must be proactive in identifying strategies to combat the growth of preexisting inequities and gaps in educational access and achievement. Rigorous research indicates that tutoring — supplemental one-on-one or small group instruction — may be one of the most effective tools they can employ.
J-PAL North America’s new publication, “The transformative potential of tutoring for PreK-12 learning outcomes: Lessons from randomized evaluations,” summarizes a meta-analysis of 96 randomized evaluations of different tutoring programs. Drawing primarily from research in high-income countries, this publication examines the effectiveness of tutoring programs across a variety of characteristics, including tutor type, subject, student grade, and others. The meta-analysis finds that tutoring programs have consistently large, positive impacts on students across this range of program aspects. The magnitude and consistency of the findings point to tutoring as one of the most agreed-upon and impactful tools available to educators for improving student learning.
The review identifies valuable insights and trends across five categories.
Program effectiveness: Across all studies included in this analysis, tutoring programs consistently lead to large improvements in learning outcomes for students, with an overall pooled effect size of 0.37 standard deviations. (Effect sizes greater than 0.3 standard deviations are considered to be large impacts, especially in the context of education interventions.) This impact translates to a student advancing from the 50th percentile to nearly the 66th percentile.
Tutor type: Tutoring programs led by teacher or paraprofessional tutors are generally more effective than programs that use nonprofessional (volunteer) or parent tutors. Paraprofessional tutors include, among others, non-teacher school staff, undergraduate and graduate students in education, and service corps fellows. Paraprofessional programs led to positive effects of nearly the same magnitude as teacher programs and were more consistent in their outcomes. This presents a potentially cost-effective option for highly impactful programming.
Student grade level: The effects of tutoring programs tend to be strongest among students in earlier grades, although a smaller set of programs at the secondary level was also found to be effective at improving learning outcomes.
Subject material: While overall effects for math and reading tutoring programs are similar, reading tutoring tends to be relatively more effective for students in preschool through first grade, while math tutoring tends to be more effective for students in second through fifth grade.
Time and location of tutoring: Tutoring programs conducted during school tend to have larger impacts than those conducted after school. Many programs shown to have weaker effects used parents as tutors or took place in an after-school program. Researchers hypothesize that it is difficult to ensure that tutoring actually occurs in these settings.
This publication is meant to serve as a resource for supporting student learning and minimizing the growth of academic disparities during the Covid-19 slide. In addition to highlighting tutoring as an effective educational tool, it also identifies meaningful trends to inform how tutoring programming can be implemented most effectively. Finally, the publication outlines key open questions about how to effectively scale tutoring programs, support older students, and make tutoring accessible to the students who need it most. J-PAL North America is seeking to answer some of these questions through their COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Initiative.
We also invite you to explore how Vint Hill Educational Services can help if you need greater flexibility in the how, when, and where of your educational journey. We have a consistent record and demonstrated success of helping students improve their grades, scores, and overall academic functioning. In addition, all our programs are taught by highly qualified teachers and tutors. You can find out more about us by visiting our website or calling us directly at 540-680-4004. We're always happy to talk with you about your options and how we can help.
For families navigating the challenges of the coronavirus era, it can seem a bit like a play in three acts — only in this case, all the acts are happening at once. You are a parent, you are a teacher and you are a professional — all at the same time. Understandably, things don’t always go smoothly. The novelty of having school at home may be wearing a bit thin. So, how do we keep our kids academically engaged — and happy about it?
Vint Hill Educational Services offers mock tests for the ACT and SAT. These are taken in a group setting to simulate the testing environment. For the ACT and SAT, we will review the scores to see which test the student is scoring higher on. Since all colleges and universities accept both tests, it's beneficial to know if your child is scoring higher on the ACT or SAT. Check out our ACT versus SAT comparison chart for test differences. Sometimes the difference is like night and day, and for others, it may be a hairline higher on one versus the other. The student won't know which test is better, unless the individual takes one of each. We'll use our score concordance chart in order to make a test recommendation.
Register for a mock ACT by clicking on a specific test date below.
Mock ACT test dates:
Register for a mock SAT by clicking on a specific test date below. :
Mock SAT test dates:
We also offer one-to-one mock testing at our offices. This consists of a full-length practice test for your child. Tests include: ACT, SAT, PSAT, SSAT, ISEE, HSPT, and SAT Subject Tests. We provide the test booklet, essay booklet, answer sheet, testing timer, calculator, and pencils.
We can send parents a practice test as well, to administer to their student in-home. We will send out a free practice test packet along with proctoring instructions. Parents must send the answer sheet back to us via email or mail.
ACT and SAT
$25 Registration Fee (1 Mock Test: ACT or SAT) Includes test scores comparison
Mock testing for the ACT and SAT, held in a group setting. Parents will receive a diagnostic score report and phone consultation. View sample student score reports: ACT and SAT.
For the ACT and SAT, we will compare scores in order to determine which test is better for the student to take. See virtual mock test dates above for the 2020-2021 school year.
ACT, SAT, PSAT, SSAT, ISEE, HSPT and SAT Subject Tests
$125 Standard Test (In-office)
$175 Special Accommodations (In-office)
FREE Parent Administration (In-home)
One-to-one testing at our offices or in-home testing proctored by a parent. A perfect fit for students that need to get acclimated to the test format, structure, and timing. This can help to relieve nervousness and anxiety. Parents have the option of administering the test to their child for free. They can also choose to drop their student off at our offices and we will administer the test to the student. Parents will receive a diagnostic score report from our testing software. View sample reports: ACT, SAT, SSAT, ISEE, and HSPT. An individual test scores comparison chart is provided for the ACT and SAT.
Private Mock ACT Administration
Private Mock SAT Administration
Private Mock SSAT Administration
Private Mock ISEE Administration
Private Mock HSPT Administration
Private Mock ACT Administration - Extended Time
Private Mock SAT Administration - Extended Time
Private Mock HSPT Administration - Extended Time
We love our children. Yet, the goal for our teens is to become self-sustaining adults, who move out of our house, and exude confidence and success without us. Right? With the academic curriculum demands of the day, it is hard to prioritize additional skills and knowledge that ensure they have been introduced to what matters the most—LIFE SKILLS.
The fact is, many basic “adulting” concepts can be missing in our youth and we don’t always know what our children don’t know. The easiest way to incorporate some life skills into daily activities is to have a QOD (Question of the Day). Questioning allows review of life skill topics, in small doses, to ensure there are no gaps. Then teaching or re-teaching, as needed, can occur. (Plus, you never know what other path of knowledge these questions will take you on.)
Turn the following 9 life skill topics into questions and get started on helping teens avoid frustration for not knowing …
Most teens know that introducing oneself to someone involves a greeting, stating their name, and ending with a pleasantry (e.g., Hi! My name is Beth Carey. So, nice to finally meet you). However, your teen may not know the rule for introducing others is to always say the most important or higher-ranking individual’s name first. (e.g., Dad, I would like you to meet my friend Emily).
In the United States, good eye contact and a handshake would follow (or elbow bump currently) and then “small talk” (polite conversation about unimportant matters). Small talk is not something that comes naturally for any generation so don’t hesitate to practice this task.
You may chuckle here, but have you checked these skills with your teenager lately? Our digital world has created a generation (or two) that cannot read a face clock, yet alone tell military time (like the rest of the world). And ruler reading is good to the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 markings, but if you review 7/8ths or 3/32nds you could be surprised. Tackle each task on separate days.
change a furnace filter
change bed sheets & make a bed
clean a bathroom, the kitchen, & a window (w/out smears)
do laundry (include emptying lint filter)
handle an overflowing toilet & use a plunger
load and run dishwasher
locate & turn off main water valve, locate main power breaker box & reset breakers o plan & make a meal
set a table properly
sew on a button
Most teens love eating, but they need etiquette knowledge beyond eating out of the drive-thru bag to avoid embarrassment when eating with others (especially on special nights like proms and weddings). Things like napkin placement, when to start eating, passing food guidelines, how to indicate when you are finished with a meal, how to tip properly, and so on.
Adolescents often want to work but get intimidated by the process. Making a list of job lead sources (signs, company websites, employment agencies, school placement offices, etc.) and identifying interests and skills a person has to offer an employer is a great way to start. Review rules for filling out an application, appropriate interviewing attire (hint: one step above company dress code), practice/plan for common interview questions, and create a resume. Include skills for writing a thank you note after an interview.
Notes for gifts, dinner engagements, condolence gestures, or any kindness shown to a person needs to happen and ASAP, as you know. But does your adolescent know to include what they are thankful for and a related piece of info to the note? Do they realize that electronic words of gratitude are better than nothing, but handwritten notes are better? (Check their ability to address an envelope properly too.)
Start your kids on fiscal independence by helping them take control of their own money. Click here to read why every teen needs a bank account. A good and easy start is the Greenlight app. Discuss budgeting, banking, saving, using Venmo/Paypal/Zelle, writing & cashing checks, balancing an account, and building good credit. After all, “You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you”—Dave Ramsey.
There are several guidelines to know under this topic, but the #1 rule for cell phone use is to step away from others as no one wants to hear your conversation or watch you text.
When it comes to online decorum, avoid personal, serious, and emotional topics … save those for in person dialogue.
fill car with gas & pay
check tire pressure & change a tire
add wiper fluid & change blades
jump a dead car battery with cables
check fluids
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We are here to support! As we handle the academics, this gives you time to ensure they are ready for “the world”. See our blog here for more info on tutoring and test prep during the pandemic.
Since that last day of school in March, 2020, our lives have been turned upside-down. We’ve all had to learn how to cope with staying at home when we want to go out, and students have had to learn to navigate new modes of learning through technology and virtual platforms. Now the pace is beginning to pick up, and this may leave some students behind either academically in general, or in their progress towards bigger goals such as college entrance, advanced diplomas, and career paths.
Vint Hill Education has always prided itself on working closely with students and families to find individual students’ strengths to meet the challenges of academic life, and our approach to these times is no different. We have always taken the time to communicate with parents and help shape learning plans so that the student’s needs are met and exceeded. And now more than ever, Vint Hill Education is ready and poised to offer support and guidance in navigating an ever-changing academic, test-prep, and college entrance environment. Our expertise can make the difference between a mediocre school year and one that is full of discoveries of new interests, approaches, and pursuits—truly the “silver-lining” of the Covid-19 school year.
See below or click here for more information on Virtual Tutoring, Pod Tutoring, Subject Tutoring and Academic Coaching, or Test Prep with our individualized, highly qualified, hand-picked tutors.
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Vint Hill Educational Services offers virtual tutoring through our online learning center. No matter where you live, you can work with a qualified test prep or subject specialist tutor! We also offer virtual academic coaching for students who need help with organization and time management. Our virtual tutoring provides the same individualized attention as our regular services. Sessions are one-on-one and personalized to each student’s specific needs. And students who pursue virtual test prep with us receive a full set of course books, as well as tailored homework assignments, full practice tests, and diagnostic score reports generated by our test scoring software.
Virtual tutoring sessions are held through Lessonspace and integrated with our parent/student Teachworks portal. Families receive free access to an actual virtual tutoring platform. With the click of one link, students can easily join their online sessions. There is no software to download; Lessonspace simply utilizes your web browser to host sessions.
Lessonspace was created for the sole purpose of online tutoring, so it is more comprehensive than other online meeting programs when it comes to tutoring sessions. Tutors and students have access to a white board where they can upload reading passages, math problems, science diagrams, full-length practice tests, Spanish homework, history papers, or any other subject materials a tutor and student may need to share. Session image recording is included, so students have the ability to review wok from previous sessions. Materials uploaded to the white board can be accessed by both the tutor and the student for direct and immediate interaction and feedback.
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Vint Hill Educational Services offers small pod tutoring for grades K-12. Students can work with a tutor in a small group setting of 2-5 students. Sessions can take place at our offices, a local library, in student homes, at public facilities, or virtually through Lessonspace. The students in the pod should be enrolled in the same class or currently studying the same subject. Multiple subjects can be covered in the same pod. Special pod tutoring rates apply. Please contact us to learn more.
Pod tutoring involves small groups working with a single tutor. Students must be taking the same class or studying the same subject. For test prep pod tutoring, the students must share similar baseline scores. Other tutors can be brought in if the students are studying multiple subjects. For example, the pod may work with a Spanish tutor on Monday, and then switch to working with a Chemistry tutor on Wednesday.
Pod tutoring allows for a small group to work together alongside their pod tutor. Questions and ideas are bounced off one another with the main instruction being provided by the pod tutor. Being in a pod, new concepts are instilled as a small group, and creativity is always encouraged. Students are comfortable asking questions and feel less nervous around their pod peers.
Pod tutoring is an alternative for one-to-one tutoring and families can save money by utilizing small pod tutoring. The tutoring expense is shared among the families taking part in the pod. Parents will receive session notes for their students, so they are constantly kept in the loop. For ACT, SAT, SSAT, ISEE, and HSPT test prep, students are required to have their own set of course books which VHES will provide.
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Vint Hill Educational Services offers academic coaching for students who have difficulty getting motivated, staying focused, or keeping up in school. With backgrounds in counseling, mentoring, teaching, and special education, our coaches are highly experienced at working with youth and helping students overcome a wide spectrum of challenges.
Academic coaching is especially beneficial for individuals with attentional problems, low executive functioning, or learning or cognitive disabilities—though it is also valuable for those struggling to deal with the ordinary stressors of understanding complex information, planning assignments, studying for exams, or transitioning to college. Students who work with an academic coach typically require guidance and assistance in:
· Getting and staying organized
· Planning coursework and managing time effectively
· Starting and completing schoolwork
· Studying and reading with proficiency
· Managing stress, anxiety, and distractibility
· Balancing academic and personal responsibilities
· Preparing for tests
Our coaches complete assessments to identify the student’s challenges, strengths, goals, and learning style. They then create customized plans that integrate a variety of tools and techniques to help build confidence and improve school performance. Strategies include positive reinforcement, setting achievable goals, optimizing skills, breaking down tasks, creating a supportive environment, and tracking progress.
We select the best coach for your child and provide a coach profile for you to review and approve. The coach matching process considers the coach’s education, experience, and personality, as well as the student’s issues, schedule, and preferred location (e.g., home, office, public library). Each session is one hour in length and one-to-one for individualized support. Parents receive access to our online Teachworks system, allowing them to review coaching session notes, receive session email reminders, and keep track of used and remaining session hours.
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Vint Hill Educational Services offers test preparation for the ACT, SAT, PSAT, SSAT, ISEE, HSPT, and SAT Subject Tests. Each session is one-to-one for individualized support. The tutor will assign one to two hours of test prep homework after each session. The sessions are ninety minutes in length and test prep materials are included. The tutor will focus on the student's weakest areas of the test. In order to ensure improvement, the student will continue to take full-length practice tests throughout the course. The student will also learn tips and test-taking strategies.
Register for a mock ACT by clicking on a specific test date below.
Mock ACT test dates:
Register for a mock SAT by clicking on a specific test date below. :
Mock SAT test dates:
We also offer one-to-one mock testing at our offices. This consists of a full-length practice test for your child. Tests include: ACT, SAT, PSAT, SSAT, ISEE, HSPT, and SAT Subject Tests. We provide the test booklet, essay booklet, answer sheet, testing timer, calculator, and pencils.
We can send parents a practice test as well, to administer to their student in-home. We will send out a free practice test packet along with proctoring instructions. Parents must send the answer sheet back to us via email or mail.
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