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The Lifetime Scholars Program is a nonprofit
organization that trains high school students for a lifetime of
scholarship. We have one chapter, in the Detroit area.
We
began in October, 1998 in a single classroom on a Saturday with
a single volunteer "coach" enlisted to train five students to
perform well on the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). We immediately
recognized that the students needed more than just SAT preparation:
they needed rigorous, classic intellectual training. We transformed
the SAT training into a novel form of standardized test preparation
that endeavors to simultaneously boost the basic math, analytical,
and verbal skills that form the basis of general academic success
and the intellectual life.
The program now regularly attracts 150 students, spread into classrooms
of small Teams, led by a cadre of volunteer Coaches who implement
a growing array of Saturday morning and weekday evening courses,
only some of which directly address standardized testing. Our
curricula meticulously balances math and verbal training. Though
the news media predominately exposes the severe math and science
deficiencies of American secondary students, we have found an
even more pervasive deficiency of verbal skills, specifically:
reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing.
We
stress to our students that the word "scholarship" means
more than just high academic achievement. When embraced as a lifelong
activity, scholarship pays unending benefits. It keeps the brain
youthful and healthy forever, and ensures a fascinating, self-sufficient,
and productive life. Within this context we urge our students
to take the toughest, core academic courses that their schools
have to offer. In combination with our extracurricular training,
students earn high standardized test scores and construct impressive
transcripts decorated with high grades.
We
present our students no motivational, career awareness, resume
writing, college entrance, or any other sort of feel-good seminars.
We round them up into their Teams and drill them rigorously and
vigorously with fundamental intellectual exercises that exhaust,
strengthen, and expand their brains. We have one discipline police:
participate fully, enthusiastically, and cheerfully, or leave.
Our
academic coaches and other staff members include engineers, mathematicians,
writers, professors, physicians, and other professionals who volunteer
their time. We invite interested Detroit-area professionals, parents,
and students to join our crusade. We also invite those outside
the Detroit area to utilize our resources for starting or strengthening
similar programs around the country.
Subscribe to our email newsletter, which broadcasts no more
than once a week.
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Many programs
for high school students feature inspiring speeches and exposure
to career opportunities. This helps get students moving, having
both the fuel (motivation) and a specific target (destination)
for the long voyage called success.
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But
reaching that target also requires a map (navigation) and a vehicle
(transportation).
The Lifetime Scholars Program is one of the few programs that not only
inspires students to excel and helps them target a career, but which
also offers students a very specific plan, and precisely the tools
they will need to succeed.
The plan:
enroll in the toughest classes available and strive for the highest
grades and scores in all academic activities.
The tools:
basic math and writing skills... and a urgent fascination with
the world, its history, its literature, the stories of its peoples,
their struggles, their debates, the sciences they discovered,
the inventions they created, and how those achievements came about.
The plan sounds
simple, and it is. But few students employ it, and few school
teachers advocate it. Even productive students who have focused
goals tend to tend to narrow their studies accordingly: students
who want to be physicians, for example, direct little interest
in their literary and history courses; students who want to be
attorneys avoid tough math and science classes. And students in
general tend to seek the easiest, least academic classes, thinking
that high grades in easy classes might really advance them closer
to their goals. And, unfortunately, most schools seem to be set-up
to accommodate these low standards and expectations.
Our students
spend most of their time with us building the tools that will
enable them to succeed and even enjoy the tough, core academic
classes, and--we hope--the interest in taking them. Sure, this
will produce the test scores and grades that win the scholarships
and lucrative job offers. But we think it produces much more.
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Even schools
with poor academic success produce successful athletic programs.
How? With uncompromisingly high standards, persistent drilling
over fundamentals, aggressive leadership, competition, no-excuses
commitment, peer
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pressure,
parental interest, and practice, practice, practice. In this way
even the participants on losing teams end up having significantly
developed their athletic skills.
The same formula used in athletic programs is the same one that
produces intellectual excellence. It's the same formula that Marva
Collins uses in her famous Chicago Westside Preparatory school,
the same formula employed by successful schools around the world
and through history.
We employ
it as well to condition our students for maximum intellectual
performance, specifically on the SAT, and generally in all high
school and college courses. We even go so far as to call our teachers
"coaches," to remind ourselves and our students of the
seriousness of our activities, which we structure accordingly.
Consider how
a basketball practice runs: the coaches spend a little time delivering
motivational sermons and pointing to trophies, and most of the
time pushing the athletes through the drills that win trophies.
We run our sessions in the same way. We do not know why or how
it came to be that American schools started taking athletics more
seriously than academics. But we defy this trend.
An athlete
can win a championship only after spending a certain number of
hours drilling and practicing; and every minute spent doing so
places the athlete a minute closer to that trophy. We ensure that
nearly every minute students spend with use places them one minute
closer to mastering core academic concepts. Yes, we do think that
places students in their best position to get scholarships and
become doctors, and lawyers, and engineers, and even business
leaders. But again, we envision an even bigger payoff as well.
And though
American high schools in general have lost their academic rigor,
we believe that students who adopt our intellectual attitude can
see to it that they achieve a classic, sophisticated education
at any school they attend.
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The SAT is
the only college entrance exam accepted by all universities in
the United States. Also, it is the easiest one for students to
master. Studying for the SAT involves mastering basic math and
geometry concepts, a large number of vocabulary words, and test-taking
strategies.
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This mastery
directly benefits all core academic high school and college classes.
Furthermore,
SAT preparation provides a single intellectual task that can provide
all high school students with an important tangible result; in
this case, a high SAT score. This can boost intellectual confidence,
and of course help students win university admission and scholarships.
Also, the
SAT provides a "second chance" for upper class (11th and 12th
grade) students who earned non-scholarly grades in the 9th and
10th grade. We all know brilliant young people who apply themselves
in their high school years only after initially failing to do
so. By the end the 10th grade their overall GPA may fall well
below 3.0. When such students begin studying seriously, even if
they make straight A's their junior and senior years, they have
no chance to raise their overall GPA to the level that reflects
their recent performance in time for college admissions. In many
application scenarios, the universities receive the transcripts
before any senior grades have appeared!!
With high
school overall GPAs being essentially established by the end of
10th grade, "late blooming" scholars have few options for impressing
university admissions and scholarship committees. The SAT represents
the single best option. Although straight A's junior year cannot
elevate a mediocre GPA (below 3.0) to an excellent one (above
3.5), one year's effort can transform a mediocre SAT score (below
1,000) to an excellent one (above 1,200).
Most universities
consider a 1,200-plus SAT score good enough to overlook a poor
overall GPA—especially for students that show remarkably
improved grades junior year.
Even students
with high overall GPAs benefit from studying for the SAT. A high
SAT ensures that such students will have their best chance at
college acceptance and scholarship awards. All too often high-achieving
students neglect to prepare for the SAT, and earn scores far bellow
their abilities. This can result in university admissions and
scholarship committees doubting the validity of a student's high
overall GPA.
And among
college entrance exams, only the SAT mimics several of the graduate
school entrance exams many scholars will complete after their
undergraduate studies. Thus, SAT preparation serves as early preparation
for many graduate programs. This can be very important in a world
where advanced degrees are becoming necessary for many of the
careers that attract young scholars. Physicians, professors, and
lawyers, for example, must complete graduate studies. And graduate
degrees are becoming important for successful engineers, managers,
and other professionals as well.
Our approach
to studying for the SAT instills principles, habits, knowledge,
and skills that directly assist students in making excellent grades
in high school and college.
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Students who
can afford the typical $1,000 cost may do well to attend a professional
SAT prep course. Some students may achieve even higher SAT scores
in one of those programs than they may by participating in ours.
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However,
due to the special sensitivities, experiences, and personalities
of our coaches and other staff members, many students will respond
better to our program than they would to a professional SAT program.
Furthermore,
professional SAT programs prepare students for only one thing:
the SAT. We, on the other hand, use SAT preparation to prepare
students for much more, including higher grades in school, and
a sophisticated interest in their course selection.
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Three ingredients
seem to determine who scores above 1200 on the SAT:
1) Having
earned A's and B's in Advanced Placement (AP) math, science, and
English
courses.
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2) Having
read at least 20 books.
3) Having
deliberately studied for the SAT.
Research shows
that differences in average SAT scores among different groups
of students (Asian/white/black, high/low income, single/two parent)
are eliminated for students who achieve the above three qualifications.
In other words,
groups that earn the highest average SAT scores simply contain
the largest fraction of students who took AP classes, read 20
books, and deliberately studied for the SAT. Furthermore, the
students in those groups who score high tend to be the students
who achieve these criteria, and the students who score low tend
to be those who lack these criteria.
These factors
also work cumulatively: the more AP classes students take, the
higher their grades, and the more books they read and the more
seriously they studied for the SAT, the higher their SAT scores.
And among
students who study deliberately for the SAT, the ones who earn
the highest scores are the ones who completed the most AP classes,
achieved the highest grades in them, and read the most books.
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Everybody
knows that outstanding grades in college result from many hours
of hard study. But even among students who devote the long study
hours, some fail to achieve the spectacular grades they seem to
deserve.
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Are high performing
students just smarter than those who study just as hard but achieve
lower grades? Not according to the data, which identify three
very simple characteristics that tend to unify students who maintain
high college GPAs:
1) Having
earned As and Bs in high school AP classes.
2) Having
read at least 25 books in high school.
3) Studying
in groups, particularly with social peers.
According
to the data, work completed in high school pays tangible dividends
in college. Students who enter college having completed AP classes
and read many books place themselves at a tremendous advantage.
They will not have to study as hard to make A's. Conversely,
students who enter college without taking AP classes and reading
a large number of books will simply have a harder time making
A's.
AP classes
and reading lists provide an intellectual foundation that lasts
a lifetime. High school students who think they can "wait until
college" before they get serious are placing themselves at a tremendous
disadvantage. Meanwhile, those who take the time to work hard
in high school make the rest of their lives easier.
Studying in
groups, called "cooperative learning," helps maximize the results
of scholarly efforts. This works for high school and college courses
and SAT preparation. Group study gives students a chance to develop
their intellectual skills in a variety of ways. They get a chance
to articulate what they have learned to friends still struggling
to master a concept; and they can access a fresh perspective on
a concept they have yet to master.
Students who
prepared well in high school and study cooperatively achieve approximately
the same high college GPAs regardless of racial-economic-social
background.
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High school
should be fun, and college should be even more fun. Students do
not have to forsake recreation in order to achieve academic excellence
anymore than they would have to forsake parties and recreation
in order to achieve athletic excellence.
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One of the
notions the Academy dispels is the idea that students with high
grades "have no social lives." This myth discourages many students
from seeking academic excellence.
In reality,
just as with athletics, lots of work spread out over a long period
produces excellent results, and leaves plenty of time for recreation.
This yields a balanced life, and one that the Academy promotes.
We make sure
our students realize that although studying and accepting tough
intellectual challenges (AP classes, SAT preparation) is difficult,
life is even more difficult if students avoid these challenges.
We believe that 20-year-olds struggling with calculus while living
in college dorms tend to have more fun and higher self-esteem
than 20-year-olds struggling to make rent and car payments while
working at jobs that don't require college degrees. Then two years
later, those who struggled to earn a college degree tend to have
higher paying, more stable employment than those who "took the
easy way out" by avoiding AP classes, SAT preparation, and college.
For this reason,
the Academy believes that the real "easy way out" is to take the
hardest classes possible, study hard, and go to college.
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.
The Academy
incorporates each of the ingredients that research indicates makes
for academic success. We realize that students participate in
our program because they seek to exceed the ordinary—that
they seek to be extra-ordinary.
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While most
of their peers tend to other activities on Saturday afternoons,
our students devote at least part of the day to that very special—extraordinary—activity
known as scholarship. After they put in this time with us, we
send them off to enjoy the rest of their Saturday, confident that
they have each already lifted themselves a few hours closer to
their extraordinary desired station in life.
Here's how
our sessions address each of the factors that research identifies
as essential ingredients in the recipe for academic excellence:
1) Advanced
Placement Classes
We constantly urge our students to enroll in AP classes,
and remind them of the reasons why these classes are so important.
We urge our
students to bring to each session any homework that is giving
them trouble. When the sessions end, our coaches provide assistance
with homework assignments, including AP classes. Our directors
and coaches include scholars who have mastered all the subjects
that compose a core high school curriculum: math, physics, chemistry,
biology, and writing.
2) Book
Club
We constantly urge our students to read books and remind them
of the reasons why reading books is important. We keep a list
of books that the students recommend to each other, and facilitate
discussion of those books. As funding allows, we purchase books
for the students, to help them build their own personal libraries.
We propose that students should treat every book they treat like
a trophy, and their book shelves like trophy cases.
Our staff
include voracious readers who eagerly engage in discussion of
books, including many of the same books the students read. These
discussions foster an interest in reading. We make sure our students
know that every minute they spend reading will take them one minute
closer to fulfilling their intellectual dreams.
3) SAT
Preparation
Of course our activities all center around the SAT. The AP classes
and the reading help prepare the students for the SAT; and the
explicit SAT preparation elevates the students' performance in
their AP classes. The manner in which all these activities proceed
and interact prepare students excel in all academic efforts and
remain intellectually active for the rest of their lives.
4) Cooperative
Learning
We utilize a cooperative learning approach during our sessions.
We expect our students to conduct portions of the class, to assist
their classmates, to seek assistance from their classmates, and
to study together outside of class. We also remind them constantly
why these efforts are important to their goals in life.
To facilitate
the study group concept, the Academy sponsors occasional social
activities after class on Saturdays. These activities help develop
the social peer relationships that make cooperative learning most
successful. Activities include bowling, skiing, and "hanging out
at the book store."
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We divide
our College Prep program into three terms, one for each of the
two regular school semesters—Fall and Spring, when students
are enrolled in school—and one for the Summer, when most
students are not enrolled in school.
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We design
our Fall and Spring courses to compliment the courses students
are taking in school. To avoid intruding on school assessments,
our Fall and Spring courses meet only on Saturdays, and they assign
no homework, other than to read 100 pages of any book each week.
(That amounts to just 20 pages five times a week.) We feel that
a proper selection of school courses would achieve this anyway,
and that our weekly reading requirement therefore adds work only
to those students who have managed to avoid taking literately
rigorous school courses. Such students, we feel have enough time
for a substantial amount of reading.
In the Fall
and Spring semesters, we offer three courses: SAT Verbal and Writing
Basics, SAT Math, and Pre-SAT Math. Prior to registration, all
students take our Placement Test, which consists of one real SAT
Math and Verbal section. The results help students and parents
decide which course to take, and help us in constructing achievement-based
Teams within each course. Our 100-page-per-week reading requirement
applies to all courses, and our Verbal course includes the "Writer
As Hero" workshop to help students with their school writing
assignments.
We intend
to obtain funding to start a Homework program to meet twice a
week on weekday evenings during Fall and Spring, so that our Coaches
can push and direct students through their school-assigned homework.
In the summer
we offer three special "Boot Camp" courses for students
who are not attending school, and thus have time for homework
assigned by us: a Pre-SAT Math Boot Camp, a Writing Boot Camp,
and an SAT Boot Camp. These courses meet on Saturdays, plus two
weekday evenings. The Pre-SAT Math Boot Camp takes students through
more Pre-SAT Math concepts than they can cover with us during
our Saturday-only Pre-SAT Math Fall and Spring course. Our Writing
Boot Camp requires students to read several books and write several
papers. The SAT Boot Camp resembles a professional SAT-prep course,
though of course we infuse it with our own special interests and
philosophies.
Students can
participate as often as they desire, taking different courses
each semester, or even retaking the same course until they achieve
their desired results.
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During the
Summer Semester, we offer a special course that specifically prepares
students to achieve their maximum possible SAT score on the October
test date. Unlike our Fall and Spring Saturday-only courses, our
SAT Boot Camp meets all day on
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Saturday and
twice in the evenings during the week. Also, students receive
plenty of homework. Students who become involved with us early
in their High School careers, and adopt our philosophy of constructing
and embracing a Classic Course Load every semester, will find
that they achieve their highest SAT scores without taking our
SAT Boot Camp.
We designed our SAT Boot Camp for students whose SAT scores (as
determined by school-administered SATs and PSATs, or our own Placement
Test) fall well below their desired target. For some students
that can mean trying to make a high score higher, and for others
that can mean drastically boosting a very low score.
We recommend
the SAT Boot Camp for such students the summer before their Senior
year, in preparation for the upcoming October SAT test date. However,
we do realize that High School councilors and university applications
recommend that students take their SAT in the Spring semester
of their junior year. That works out great for students whose
academic training has prepared them for achieving their desired
SAT score during the midst of a busy regular semester.
But many students
find themselves ill-prepared for a strong SAT performance while
juggling a school course load, even after taking our Saturday-only
SAT Math and Verbal courses. Upper class students (junior and
seniors) in this situation tend to have made poor school course
selections and exerted little effort their first two years of
high school. To seriously boost their SAT scores, such students
have little choice but to reserve a substantial amount of time
to SAT preparation. We recommend that they do this only in the
summer, so as to not interfere with school course work.
Juniors who
enroll with us in the Spring semester will, by taking our Placement
Test, have a very good idea of what their score would be if they
take the SAT later that semester as recommended by their councilors
and college applications. Juniors whose Lifetime Scholars Program Placement Test indicates
a score near their target can use our Saturday-only courses to
boost that score in time for test date later that semester; but
juniors whose Placement Test result falls far short of their target
face a dilemma: take the SAT at one of the recommended Spring-of-Junior-Year
dates and settle for a low score, or spend the summer atoning
for their misspent Freshmen and Sophomore years, and then taking
the first SAT that gets offered after the summer, which is in
October. Though colleges prefer that students already have their
SAT before submitting applications in September of their Senior
year, they will accept October results, and do prefer high scores
from October over low scores from the Spring. Remember, the recommend
SAT dates are designed to catch students off-guard, when they
are least likely to have had a chance to prepare for the test
For maximum
SAT Boot Camp results, we strongly recommend that students first
complete at least one of our regular Saturday-only SAT Math courses,
and at least one of our regular Saturday-only SAT Verbal courses.
We do not accept into our SAT Boot Camp students whose BCLS Placement
Test indicates a deficiency in Pre-SAT math skills. Such students
must obtain those skills before they can productively attempt
to work on SAT problems. For them, we offer a summer pre-SAT Math
Boot Camp, that, like the SAT Boot Camp, meets on Saturdays and
twice on weekday evenings. This Pre-SAT Math Boot camp operates
just like our regular Saturday-only Pre-SAT Math class, except
that it covers much more material because it meets more often.
On the first
day of our SAT Boot Camp, in the morning we administer a real,
full-length SAT under timed conditions. Our Parent Volunteers
then grade the SATs, and record the results in our database. This
establishes for each student a baseline score. In the afternoon,
and for each session for the the following four weeks, students
study an SAT text book that we provide them, and concurrently
rework their entire baseline SAT. Finishing the textbook and its
exercises in four weeks requires two hours of home study each
day. In class, our Coaches lecture on the various topics from
the book, push students through the exercises, and assist them
with points of confusion from the home readings.
Beginning
with the fifth week, we begin every Saturday session by administering
another full-length SAT under timed conditions. This testing occurs
during the same time and on the same day of the week as the officially
administered SAT the students will take in October. Our Parent
Volunteers then grade the tests and input the data into our database.
(We hope to obtain funding to purchase a bubble-sheet reading
machine, and the technology to automatically input the test results
into our database.)
In the Saturday
afternoon sessions, and the two weekday evening sessions, that
follow, the students work in groups (under the direction of our
Coaches) to resolve the problems they missed on their latest SAT.
They consult with each other, the textbook, and the Coaches, who
periodically infuse the sessions with formal drills and lectures
based on problems and concepts that
the students have found to be particularly difficult. In this
way the students receive both individual and group attention,
and also develop intellectual leadership skills.
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We hope to
obtain the resources to roll-out a Writing Boot Camp for the Summer
2002 Semester. This Boot Cam, like the other Boot Camps, would
meet on Saturdays and twice weekly during weekday evenings. This
class would even serve recently
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graduated
students preparing for their Freshman college semester.
We invite parents to observe or assist with our sessions. We find
that parents enjoy participating, and that their presence elevates
the general spirit of the class. Parent participants offer one
of our richest sources of suggestions for improving the effectiveness
of or program, and we have come to rely on them for essential
activities like taking and recording rolls, grading and recording
tests, and maintaining classroom discipline. Also, parent participants
learn academic concepts that they can reinforce at home.
During the
semester we conduct special seminars outside of class time that
we invite parents, students, and other interested people to attend.
These seminars address topics such as "Brain Building" and may
include guest speakers.
As funding
allows, each semester our students enjoy team-building activities
such as skiing and bowling.
Finally, we
are very excited to have realized a dream of keeping all parents
constantly updated with student attendance, conduct, and performance
data, as well as outstanding homework assignments. We have accomplished
this by producing a database that we display on the Results &
Data page of our website. We believe this resolves what we regard
as one of the fatal problems with our schools: the failure of
administrators to devise simple and inexpensive methods for keeping
parents constantly, directly, completely, and proactively informed.
All schools
that we are aware of rely on nearly useless methods of communicating
with parents. Parents only learn about school assignments at periodic
intervals, via "report cards" that are issued after
the assessments come due, and which present out-dated data that
are weeks-to-months old. We think that parents should know TODAY
if a student was late or absent, and EXACTLY what the outstanding
homework is. We do not think that parents should ever have to
ask their students, "Do you have any homework" or, "How
did you do in school today?" Instead, we believe that schools
should inform every parent DIRECTLY of all homework assignments,
before the assessments come due, and then IMMEDIATELY inform every
parent of the homework, attendance, and test results.
That prevents
students from incorrectly claiming to parents that they have completed
their assignments, or that they have "no homework."
We think that in the age of the Internet there can be no excuse
for schools not providing daily performance, behavior, and attendance
updates DIRECTLY to parents. Only with such information can parents
effectively support the efforts of teachers. We intend for our
process to set an example for the schools, and for our parents
to demand that their schools follow our example.
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