English is HOT! who knew!? Story at 11!

[thoreau]

Here is the news story from Denver (with video) of septimuswarren's student who scored a PERFECT score on the SAT. Brett gets featured nicely as well in the video as her hunky English teacher.


English Stud Teacher Brett in the spotlight on CBS4 Denver

link to full story here

Comments

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

Very cool - thanks for sharing our buddy's fame!

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

Brett (as you know) is one of the most talented gracious giving educators.... we're both very lucky to have him in our lives.

why is this news?

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

Because in the life of a highschool teenager - this is a major achievement to get a perfect score - and my best friend is her college prep English teacher; so it's also a reflection of his job as an educator.

If achieving a perfect score for you on the SAT's wasn't "super difficult" - then you are in the same small group as this young lady. A score like this is going to give her the pick of the finest universities.

The test was changed in 2005 - and made marginally harder, as a corrective to the rising number of perfect scores. A new writing section was added, in part to increase the chances of closing the opening gap between the highest and midrange scores. Other factors included the desire to test the writing ability of each student in a personal manner; hence the essay.

and since Brett, (septimuswarren), is her English teacher - it's particularly rewarding for him to have a student with a perfect score given the new essay portion of the exam.

thats why it's news.

[apparentparadox]

What is this world coming to? This was her third attempt at the SATs, and she got a 2300 the last time. Why take it again to raise the score? What possible reason can our society have to push kids to get higher scores like that?

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

She attends a college prep academy - the SAT score (although not relevant after college) gets her into the best programs at the best universities. I think allowing people to take the exam - and then learn from the experience - and take it again - is really very fair. She's obviously a VERY bright young lady.

[apparentparadox]

No sane group of evaluators is going to rate someone who got 2400 as that much higher than someone who got 2300 -- obviously she didn't get more intelligent between the two test attempts, she just learned a few tidbits & possibly some tricks at how to answer standardized questions. That doesn't equate to her being "more likely to succeed" at any program at any university than someone who scored a 2300.

Just because she got all the questions correct doesn't mean she knew all the answers -- she might have just guessed better at some of the ones she was unsure of. Or, maybe the third test had a pool of questions that happened to match her knowledge set.

Success at college is more than just how someone does on a standardized test -- especially one that allows people to re-take it multiple times.

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

Honey, go tell her that to her face, and stop arguing with my friend here.

[apparentparadox]

So, people aren't allowed to disagree on LJ? I made one comment, he responded, and I replied to that comment, and it's called "arguing"?

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. The slightly insulting use of "honey" (which grates) was unfortunate. You were trying to add your knowledge, which is not arguing.

As faintly embarrassed possessor of similar accolades in high school, I think I can comment that Caitlin sounds far more sensible than I was at that age, and if I were a school admissions wonk I'd be happy to have her. But you're quite right, given a retest and special study, she didn't increase her attractiveness by getting her score up from 2300 to 2400. And at this level, random statistical noise puts many of those 2400ers there (from levels slightly below) just by luck.

[bruinwi.livejournal.com]

I'll say it's fair if EVERYONE is allowed to take their SAT over again, and IF the highest of the scores is allowed to go through.

However, in practical applications, how many times are we allowed "do-overs" in exams, or in "real life"?

[septimuswarren.livejournal.com]

In response to "What is the world coming to?" I give you this to pontificate.

The college process has become so difficult and so competitive that 2 years ago one of our students did not get into her first choice even though she met the minimum requirements for test scores and GPA. She didn't get in because she only took the SAT once. The admissions officer told us that they did not want to admit a student who was not competitive enough to take the SAT more than once to at least TRY to get a higher score.

An absurd story to be sure, but a true reflection of how competitive the process has become.

But if she wants to take the exam 3 times or a hundred times, who is anyone to judge her for doing so? Haven't you ever wanted something so badly you did what you could to get it?

[apparentparadox]

One of the things I most hated about having new college grads start work was that most of what they had "learned" in college needed to be tossed out in order to succeed in the real world. I'm not talking about whatever book learning or coursework. Few college grads came in with the ability to work in a team or to do something that will last for a long time -- during a course they rarely would work on joint projects, and once a course was over, any work they had done was just dropped. Neither of those are representative of real-world work.

Except for a very few people, competitiveness isn't a skill that makes someone better at their job. Personally, I would think that the girl should re-think whether that one college really was best for her if their attitude was as you stated.

[pagerbear.livejournal.com]

That's quite a good picture of dear septimuswarren.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful achievement and the reporter did a nice job of covering the story! Brett looks mighty handsome in the video!!! YAY!

Pass It On...

[major7.livejournal.com]

Nice job, Teach!

[musicbearmn.livejournal.com]

What a guy...and such a fashion-minded one as well :)

[starzinked.livejournal.com]

that is AWESOME

[randyindenver.livejournal.com]

All I can say is "woof, that babe is mine."

But that would be crass. Brett called me with "butterflies in his stomach" just an hour before the news anchor and camera crew were to storm his classroom for the late-breaking story. He was rightly nervous, I would have gotten real gassy I'm sure. But I told him what an absolute winner he is, to bring all that he's learned from meditation and yoga, to breathe and be present and ENJOY THE MOMENT. I said some other things too which were quite complimentary, but rather personal in nature and probably should not be redeposited here. Brett is so far over the top in the classroom that I often have goose bumps when he tells me of his day with the girls.

Yo, Stud! You so rock in the classroom! Congrats, you woofy-hunk-man!