Are the Arts Really Good for Anything?

The arts have been one of the first areas to be affected when school boards face severe budget cuts or when they are called upon to improve the results of standardized testing.  After all, there is just so much time in the school day, and something has to be sacrificed.  Too often, the arts are viewed as non-essential luxury programs.  After all, people say, they are not “academic.”

Advocates for the arts argue that the arts are indeed academic.  Skills and content are taught, and grades are awarded for measurable criteria.  The arts bring us joy, and they help us to understand the human experience in ways that are not possible in any other academic discipline.  They encourage creative thinking.  In 2007, in a book called Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Art Education, authors Hetland and Winner reported that they found that high school art classes help students develop a kind of thinking not found in other disciplines.  In the arts, students learn how to engage and persist.  They learn from their mistakes and how to commit and follow through.  But these arguments, while true, tend to be met with polite disregard.

When a Board of Education must find ways to cut spending by hundreds of thousands of dollars or when it must find ways to raise its schools’ performance on federal and state standardized tests, making these arguments is rather like throwing a wet paper towel in front of an on-rushing train locomotive in the hopes that the engine will come to a stop. 

There is one argument, however, that does catch the attention of parents and administrators alike.  Simply, it is arts improve student performance in other academic areas.  The amount of research that supports this statement simply cannot be ignored.  Americans listen to numbers found in hard data.  To say that the arts enhances creative thinking is nice, but to say that involvement in a specific combination of art programs improves reading by a specific number of grade levels speaks volumes to people.  So here goes… almost.

Before mentioning how the arts help in other academic areas, one study must be mentioned.  It continues to crop up in discussions about cognition and the arts, but its popular interpretation is nothing more than pseudoscience at its worst.  In 1993, Frances Rauscher and Gordon Shaw discovered that playing Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major just prior to a math test improved college students’ performance.  The public media grabbed ahold of this report, dubbed it the Mozart Effect, and claimed that playing classical music improved the IQ of children.  33 1/3 LPs (for readers too young to have experienced records, just think CD) containing selections of classical music were sold, and on the covers were pictures of pregnant mothers standing in front of the record player.  The idea was that playing music to a child in utero would produce a baby with a higher IQ.  That Rauscher and Shaw never said anything about IQ, a concept that had been long since discarded in educational circles, or said anything about classical music in general was conveniently ignored.  That the effect on the math test taking ability of the students was found to be short-term was also ignored.  Later, Lawrence Parsons, from the University of Texas, found the rhythm, not the style of music, was the important factor.  He determined that music having 60 beats per minute is ideal for background music.  Music with 40-50 beats per minute calms the brain, while 90 beats per minute is ideal for fast-paced activities.  The point is that we need to be careful about what is written in the public media, and the Mozart Effect is something we do not want to use when discussing the value of the arts.

We have known for some time that a connection exists between learning in the arts and improved performance on the SAT.  Students taking acting or play production score 65 points above the baseline on the SAT.  Students taking music score 61 points above the norm, visual arts score 47 points, and students taking dance score 37 points higher than the norm. 

Paula Tallal, at Rutgers University, found that second graders who had had piano lessons for 6 months and also learned math using computer-assisted games scored at the 4th grade level in fractions, ratios, symmetry, graphs, and other pre-algebra problems. 

In 1998, researchers Calleral, Chapleau, and Iwanga found students from low socioeconomic backgrounds who took music lessons for 8-12 years more than doubled their math test scores, and they improved their history and geography scores by 40% over the control group. 

Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Wright, Dennis, and Newcomb found that 12 minutes of piano lessons taken twice a week, when combined with singing lessons, for a period of 6 months, produced a 34% improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning scores. 

The U-T San Diego News reported in October, 2012, that 3^rd and 4^th graders whose teachers integrated art into their lessons showed an 87-point average score increase on the California standardized reading test in 2010-2011.  Similarly, a May 2012 report stated that New Jersey found a correlation between schools with more arts programs and greater proficiency scores on the language sections of the state’s High School Proficiency Assessment.

In 2012, a three-year study concluded in Chicago in which 4^th graders who had started with an arts program in 2009 and continued in it through 2011 experienced an 11.5% gain in composite scores on state tests.  Moreover, they scored an average of >11% higher than sixth graders in the same school who had not taken arts. 

As researchers Lois Hetland and Ellen Winner pointed out in a 2009 Greater Good Magazine article (Arts and Smarts: Test Scores and Cognitive Development), accounts of the correlation between taking arts and earning higher scores does not point to causative factors.  Although we are getting closer, brain research has not yet found how the arts affect the brain and lead to better academic performance.  All we have are hypotheses.  Dance students, for example, who must have well developed temporal and spatial reasoning abilities, might be better at pacing and time management on exams like the SAT.  But Hetland and Winner are wrong when they suggest that the students who are involved in the arts are those who are getting good grades anyway.  There have been too many controlled studies in which the control and experimental groups consisted of randomly chosen students.

In 2004, the Dana Foundation undertook a study to determine whether the arts improved cognition or whether it was just smart kids who took art classes.  After three years, the researchers found that training in the arts might be related to improvements in math and reading skills.  In another Dana study, Elizabeth Spelke found children who had intensive music training performed better than the control group in geometry tasks and on map reading. 

Stamford University’s Brian Wandell, found 7-12 year olds who received 1 year of musical training showed greater improvements in reading fluency over the next two-year period. 

No one is saying that the arts make anyone smarter.  Instead, we are forced to acknowledge that involvement in the arts enlarges cognitive capacities.   The numbers are compelling.  A Board of Education would be wise to think twice before cutting the arts program.

[Bill Peltz lectures about the application of brain research in the classroom and talks with parent groups about what brain research teachers us about adolescent behavior.]

ACT vs. SAT

The other day, I had a conversation with a student who said he was planning to take the ACT (American College Test) because some friends at school said it was easier than the SAT.  I asked him if his friends had taken both the SAT and the ACT and were, therefore, in a position to judge.  He admitted that they had only taken the ACT.  I said that more students in this area are taking the ACT today compared with just ten years ago, but that may just be because more students are becoming aware that they have a choice.  I went on to say that I preferred students to make informed decisions rather than rely on hearsay and the “word on the street.”

For many years, the popularity of these exams was regional.  The SAT used to be the preferred test on the east and west coasts, and with independent school students.  The ACT was seen to be more of a Midwest test.  In November 2007, a New York Times article reported that the number of students taking the ACT in the East had increased 66%, and 42% in the West.  That one article led to further increases.  Does this change suggest that one test is “better” than the other?  Not necessarily.  Some students do better on the SAT and others earn higher scores on the ACT.  So how do you decide which test to take?  Weigh the differences between the two tests. 

Before you consider whether to take the ACT or the SAT, there is an important first step: check with your colleges of choice.  While most admissions departments will accept either exam, some schools may require a specific test.  Just to be safe, do your homework and check the application requirements for the schools that are of interest to you.  If those colleges accept both tests, then these sixteen differences should be considered:

1. ACT questions are often more straightforward and easier to understand than those encountered on the SAT, so you won’t have to spend time trying to figure out what is really being asked before starting to identify the correct answer.  To say this a bit differently, the SAT phrases its more challenging questions in ways that many students say are “tricky” and sometimes difficult to decipher.  Some students thrive on the SAT approach, while others find the ACTs more intuitive, content-based approach to be less intimidating.  While the ACT questions may be easier to understand, they are sometimes longer than those found on the SAT.  Some students prefer to be given shorter questions.  Other students find the ACT’s approach reduces their test anxiety.
2. The SAT places a stronger emphasis on vocabulary, while the ACT places more emphasis on grammar, punctuation, and syntax.  The ACT relies more on how words sound in context in “normal” sentences, i.e. its sentences are more likely to resemble those that we use in daily conversation.  Some students find identifying misplaced commas or errors of subject-verb agreement easier on the ACT because a sentence just does not sound right.  The SAT is more likely to use compound sentences that make identifying the error more complicated.  If you have a strong sense of grammar, then the SAT approach will not be an insurmountable hurdle. If you have an average or weak vocabulary, you might want to consider the ACT, but if you absorb vocabulary easily and are a great reader, you might lean toward the SAT. 
3. The ACT is more curriculum-based; the SAT is aimed more at general reasoning and problem-solving skills (which probably explains why students might think the questions on the SAT are more difficult).  The ACT is viewed as an exam that measures what was learned in school, while the SAT uses this to measure your thinking and reasoning skills.
4. College admissions counselors and coaches say that bright underachievers who are bored in school tend to do better on the SAT.  Often, these students have good reasoning skills (and they are bored, perhaps, because they do not get to use them in school).  These are the students who resonate with SAT questions.  If this sounds like you, take a look at the sample questions that the College Board posts online.  Highly driven students usually do better on the ACT.  The average to above average student who works really hard also tends to do better on the ACT than the SAT because, for them, the ACT more closely resembles another classroom test.  This last category of students finds the SAT to be much more challenging, and we recommend that they stay away from the SAT if possible.
5. The ACT has a science section while the SAT does not.  You do not have to know science to be able to answer the questions correctly; all the needed information is provided in the question.  The ACT uses science to test reading and reasoning skills.  If you like science you might feel you have an edge, but if science makes your skin crawl, you might want to stick with the SAT.
6. The ACT tests more advanced math concepts, including trigonometry.  Sometimes it also includes logarithms, matrices, radians, and unreal numbers.  But its math questions are more straightforward than those found on the SAT.  This approach does not necessarily mean that the ACT is easier; you will just spend less time trying to figure out what you are being asked to do.  If you have not yet studied this level of math, then you might want to take the SAT.
7. The 25-minute writing sample is required on the SAT, and it is the first part of the exam.  The score on the writing sample is included in the composite score.  The 30-minute writing test is optional on the ACT.  It is the last part of the ACT, and its score is not included in the composite score.  Colleges see it separately.  The SAT writing prompt tends to be more abstract, while the ACT prompt tends to be about high school life.  If you do not write well, you might be tempted to consider taking the ACT and opting out of the essay.  Check first with your colleges of choice.  Most schools do require the writing sample.
8. Consider your testing pattern preferences.  Do you like to have shorter periods of testing or prefer to be tested for longer periods?  The SAT is broken up into smaller sections, while the ACT is administered in larger chunks.  The ACT lasts 3 hours, 25 minutes (with the essay); the SAT lasts 3 hours, 45 minutes.  The ACT has 215 questions; the SAT has 140 questions.  Because the ACT asks more questions that are easier to understand, you are able to spend less time interpreting each one, but you have to work faster in order to finish.  As a result, the ACT is a faster-paced exam.
9. The level of difficulty increases as the student moves through a section on the SAT (except for the reading passages).  Students who take the SAT are able to take advantage of this format.  On the ACT, however, the level of difficulty of the questions is random.   
10. On the SAT, students are sometimes asked to read two passages and then compare them.  Reading comprehension questions on the ACT are always about the single, preceding passage.  While materials and classes can help students can help students prepare for the SAT approach, some students prefer the greater simplicity of the ACT approach.
11. All other criteria being equal, boys tend to score slightly higher than girls on the SAT.  Girls’ scores are much closer to those of boys on the ACT.  [According to the College Board, since 1972 high school boys have outperformed girls.  On the 2012 SAT math test, for example, boys’ average score was 532, while girls’ average score was 499.  These data should not be interpreted to mean that boys are better at math than girls.  More girls take AP math, honors math, and four years of high school math than boys.  Soar For Success believes the answer will be found to lie in gender differences in the way the brain’s parietal lobe reacts to these timed math tests.]  The point is that your gender might help you decide which test to take.
12. The SAT is offered seven times a year.  The ACT is offered six times a year.  Some students do not find the scheduling differences to be significant, while others appreciate the greater flexibility offered by the SAT.
13. The SAT deducts ¼ point for wrong answers as a penalty for guessing.  The ACT counts only correct answers, so there is no penalty.  Students misinterpret this difference to mean that the ACT is easier.  For both exams, guessing is always the strategy of last resort.  In any case, the lack of a penalty for guessing has no bearing on the real difficulty of the test.
14. Soar For Success finds that students with learning disabilities and have trouble processing information may do better on the ACT.
15. There are some people who claim earning a high score on the ACT might be more difficult than on the SAT.  Their thinking has to do with the notion that everyone benefits from the ACT’s more straightforward approach and its policy regarding guessing.  As the raw score is converted to a scaled score, any such advantage is negated.  At Soar For Success, we have seen no evidence to confirm or reject this belief, but it makes sense that the conversion factor that produces the scaled score does have to include some sort of compensation factor.  This means, these people argue, that the student who prepares for the exam will have a greater chance of standing apart from the crowd that takes the SAT than from those taking the ACT.  We cannot validate this argument, but we do support the notion that test preparation helps.
16. Most students in this country do not prepare for the SAT or the ACT.  That is like walking in to the classroom to take a history test without having read the text or doing any studying for it.  You will find that the SAT is easier to prepare for simply because there is more material available for it.  There are also more test-specific concepts and strategies to teach for the SAT.

Obtain sample test questions for both examinations.  Determine which format and style you like better. 

Some advisors tell students to take both exams and then submit only the higher score.  Soar For Success thinks this approach places most students under unnecessary stress.  We strongly recommend that you take one exam or the other and then devote appropriate energy toward preparing for it.

The differences between the SAT and the ACT are not about easier or harder.  You need to compare and contrast the two exams and then choose the test with which you feel most comfortable.  This is what so much of the college application process is all about, or at least it should be if you approach it correctly – learning who you are and making informed decisions accordingly.

How many sessions are needed to prepare a student for the SATs?

Students who take the SATs without any preparation are like the person who wants to write a book using pencil and paper instead of a computer.  It can be done, but the person using a “manual word processor” is at a distinct disadvantage.  The SATs are just not like school tests.  They do not merely measure what you know.  They test how well you can take the test.  A good tutoring program can help you learn strategies that lead to higher scores.  Prep classes teach strategies that help you identify the correct answer in less time.  Why approach a math problem by doing the algebra when a strategy can let you find the correct answer without spending time on the computation?  Why read an entire reading comprehension passage when a strategy can be used to locate the correct answer in a matter of seconds? 

For about ten years, a student has been taking teacher-designed tests.  The SAT is very different.  The student must learn new test-taking behaviors.  Developing a new approach takes time.  Yes, a student can pick up a few strategies in just a few days, but to optimize his/her chance of practicing and internalizing SAT strategies while reviewing the appropriate subject matter, an appropriate amount of time must be devoted to preparatory work. 

Tutors who specialize in SAT-preparation classes agree that 10-15 hours is the average amount of time that a student should spend in prep classes.  These classes meet once a week, and the student is expected to do homework in between the sessions.  Soar For Success, for example, expects students to put in 15-20 minutes a night for five nights and to take some of the practice tests at home.  That is enough sessions to “cover” the material, and it a long enough span of time for the student to begin to develop new test-taking behaviors.  

How Do I Find a Tutor?

How Do I Find a Tutor?

The other day, a friend asked me whether I thought more students worked with a tutor than in years past, and if so, what did I think was the reason. My immediate answer was yes. In the 60s, few students were being tested. The reasons for the increase are complex and varied. First, there are fewer adults today who are available to help children with their school work. Today, the norm is that both parents work, while in the 50s and 60s, the stay-home mom was much more common. Teachers, too, have less time to help. They have larger classes and more responsibilities. We are much better today at diagnosing learning disabilities, and so we identify more students who need help that cannot be given in the classroom. Furthermore, parents have become aware that tutoring helps improve high-stakes test scores.  Children applying to independent schools take the SSAT and ISEE, and high school students take the ACT or SAT.  They know that test prep classes really do help a student earn a higher score.  When a high school counselor has to work with an average 130 students who are applying to colleges, many parents feel that their children are not receiving the requisite personal attention. They turn to tutors who can coach an adolescent through the admissions process. 
Yes, more kids are being tutored these days.  So today, the person to turn to is a tutor.

But we should be careful not to assume that this means that schools are failing in their jobs. Actually, the opposite can be argued. Schools know more about how the brain learns. Teaching techniques have improved astronomically. With technology, the school environment is a richer learning environment. 
But schools work with large groups of students and are just not equipped to focus in depth with students on a one-to-one basis in ways that go beyond extra help.

How prevalent is tutoring?  More than you might suspect!  An article in The New York Times June 7, 2011, Educational Supplement reported that more than half of the families of the students in New York City’s prestigious independent schools hire tutors.  An independent survey performed in 2005 found that 30% of parents at Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols, a private school in Cambridge, MA, had used a tutor just within the past year.  In 2004, Ireson reported that the U.S. ranks fifth in its use of tutors, after Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China [for more information, see http://academicachievers.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/does-only-my-child-need-a-tutor/].  If you time the visit to your town libraries just right, you can find tutors and students working together at just about every table. 

Tutoring is big business. Although the precise figure is impossible to determine because there is so much under-the-table tutoring, in 2010, Outsell, Inc. reported that the tutoring market is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion in annual revenues.   Other studies put the figure for educational support closer to $39 billion.  Many people offer their services as tutors. With so many tutors available, how do you decide whom to hire? 

Start by seeking recommendations from other parents and asking some probing questions. 

·         1. How long has the tutor worked with the child?  The longer the relationship the more likely the tutor have developed an effective program for the child.

·           2. Was a tutoring center or individualized tutor used?  With the exception of small classes for high-stake test preparation, group tutoring in student centers – sometimes called tutoring boutiques – may not serve the best interest of a child.  According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, individualized tutoring might be more desirable.  Students with attention deficit, for example, tend to do much better when they are the only person being focused on by a tutor.  A private tutor gives more personalized attention to the student and presents material in a way that that child can assimilate it.

·          3. How did the tutor interact with their child?  Was the tutor challenging while also encouraging?  Was the tutor a successful role model?  Although tutoring sessions involve real work, did the tutor make the experience fun?  (To say this differently, learning is hard work, but that does not mean that everything has to be somber and serious.)  Did the child feel comfortable with the tutor?  Consequently, was the child positively motivated by the tutor (be aware that children who are oppositional and resistant might not be able to become invested in the process)?

·           4. What was the tutor’s teaching style?  Was most of the time spent with lecture and teacher talk, or were the sessions more interactive, so that the tutor consequently engaged the child?  Be sure to ask why tutoring was needed, so you know how to interpret the answer.  Tutors will naturally be more directive if they are preparing students for high stake tests or giving academic extra help than if they are working with a child to develop organizational and time management skills. 

·          5.  How successful was the tutor?  How long did the tutor work with the student before there was improvement in school?  Some students respond quickly to tutoring.  Most tutoring, however, takes significantly longer.  Also, keep in mind that tutoring is not always about getting better grades.  Failing to see improvement in school does not necessarily mean that the tutoring experience was unsuccessful.  Sometimes, for example, the goal is to reduce anxiety or to learn how to manage time. 

·           6. How frequently and in what manner did the tutor communicate with the parents? 

Be sure to interview the tutor. 

·           1. After verifying what you learned from friends, ask about the tutor’s level of experience.  Graduate students, for example, might be appropriate for short-term academic extra help and remediation, while someone with years of classroom experience and success in working with children who have learning disabilities might be better suited for working with a student who has special needs. 

·           2. How flexible can the tutor be when scheduling sessions and what is the policy about cancelations? 

·           3. Can the tutor be reached in between sessions if the child has a question or two? 

·           4. Where does the tutor meet with students?  Will your child have to go to an office in another town or will the sessions be held at your home or in a library? 

·           5. What does the tutor charge?  There is a tremendous range in the fees that tutors and tutoring companies charge.  You need to decide if you can afford the cost and if the fee is appropriate, given the tutor’s level of experience and professionalism.  Be sure to ask how payment is to be made.  

·           6. Does the tutor offer a no-cost consultation?  If so meet with the tutor to share your concerns and hopes.  Bring your child to the meeting.  All parties concerned need to feel comfortable with each other.

In the long run, finding a tutor is easy.  Finding the right tutor is more challenging.  To that end, doing your homework will go a long way toward helping you find the right person.  Be prepared to communicate regularly with the tutor you end up using.  Share the school report cards and conversations that you might have with your child’s teachers.  Have periodic conferences so you can ask questions, provide feedback, and offer suggestions.  Be prepared to hear some suggestions from the tutor about what you might be called upon to do. Helping a child is truly a team effort.

13 TIPS TO REDUCE TEST ANXIETY

1. Talk about your anxiety.  Just talking about a nightmare take away the fear for a little child, talking about anxiety helps reduce it. 
2. Sleep.  Lack of sleep reduces our defenses.
3. Eat wisely.  Eat three meals a day.  Avoid greasy or acidic foods just before a test; this will help a nervous stomach.  Avoid overeating, caffeine, and avoid meals high in carbohydrates just before the test.
4. Allow enough time to get to the test without hurrying.
5. Do not to participate in other students’ anxiety as everyone waits for the test.  This just weakens confidence. 
6. Do not to flip idly through your notes as you wait for your test.  If you feel you have to look at something, find something to look at that you know.  This will boost your confidence.
7. Answer the easy questions first.  This will relax you and give you confidence. Put off answering those questions you are unsure of until later in the test.
8. Sit apart from those students who might distract you by their heavy breathing and movement.
9. Have plenty of pencils so you do not have to lose precious time getting up to sharpen them.
10. Sit where you can see the clock so you can pace yourself.
11. Do not to panic when you become aware of other students finishing before you.  Use as much time as you need.  This test is not about them, anyway.  It is about showing what you know. 
12. If you feel nervous during the test, take a few seconds to close your eyes and to breathe deeply and slowly a few times.  Focus on relaxing some of your muscles. 
13. If the teacher distracts you, advocate for herself: you can ask the teacher who walks around the room not to hover by your desk, and you can tell the teacher who plays music or talks to other teachers during the test that you find this kind of environment to be distracting.