essay on changing school

College Essay: Adapting to Change

I am wrapped warmly in my thin, soft, rainbow blanket looking up at my mother and father in a blurry haze. For the next 15 years, that rainbow blanket would be an object of comfort, home and family. When I was young, I never wanted to grow up and become an adult because reality was endless and full of possibilities. I was too afraid to leave the warmth of my home and step into the real world with aspirations of my own. But, the year 2019-20 has shifted my entire view, and I had to adapt to the changes that occurred when growing up. 

The elders always ask me, “Thaum koj loj los koj yuav dhau los ua kws kho mob, puas yog?” This translates to, “When you are older you’re going to become a doctor, right?”

“Yes,” I quickly reply without thinking, because it is such a common question. For 15 years, I’ve set strict rules to achieve my goals. I had my whole life planned out–until I went to high school. 

Transitioning to high school was a steep, icy hill. There were many obstacles I had to face that reflected my determination. For nine years, I had spent my entire life with the same adults, peers and school, but it was time to step out of my comfort zone.  

“YOU GOT INTO THE MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY!!” my mom screamed joyfully, as if she was the one who had been accepted. However, I was nervous about attending the No. 1 public charter school in Minnesota. 

Regardless, I wanted to play for the volleyball team. I had practiced for weeks to improve my serve. It was toward the end of August and humid outside. My knees were shaking, and my stomach was quivering with fear. My head was dizzy and my throat was dry. As I walked into the building, I felt a rush of cool air overwhelm me. It smelled like new wood; everything was polished. I peeked into the gym and saw girls that were more than 5 feet tall. After half of the tryout, I made new friends. I was excited to play volleyball with them, and I soon got over the feeling of being an outsider. Since the student body population was small, I connected with teachers and students. I even joined clubs. I finally belonged. 

Then March 13, 2020, hit and altered my sense of belonging at school. I was finally happy and comfortable with the high standards of Math and Science Academy, but COVID-19 drastically impacted everyone; it was time to adapt.

I learn online curriculum, practice social distancing and participate in extracurricular activities online. As the oldest of six, I am responsible for myself and the care of the family.  I tend to my 1-year-old sister, Scarlett, and help watch my siblings. I give my rainbow blanket to Scarlett when she’s fussy. Now, my rainbow blanket is part of my family’s memories. I learn to appreciate and grow as a learner and daughter. I understand my parents, grandparents and siblings better than ever before. I know that my passion for helping people and seeing families united and joyful is my vocation. I want to become a cardiothoracic surgeon to help families through hard times and give them the hope to continue on. We can only adapt to change. 

“Even if the desert becomes cracked, no matter who shakes this world, don’t let go of the hand you’re holding.” This quote is from someone who reminds me to continue making new memories while holding the past, much like my rainbow blanket. This blanket reminds me that when I pursue higher education and start a family, I will always have the strength of my memories that tie me back to who I am.

ThreeSixty Journalism,

a nonprofit program of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas, uses the principles of strong writing and reporting to help diverse Minnesota youth tell the stories of their lives and communities.

Changing Schools And Moving To A New Area

Changing schools and moving can be stressful events, even if the entire family is excited about the move. The purpose of this article is to give you a checklist of all the things you may need to think about as you orchestrate your move and what you may need to do when changing schools. We have set up the list of things to do along with a timeline, to mirror your own busy schedule as you get your household and school paperwork in order.

As soon as you decide to move

Research the schools. The difference between a top rated school and a school that lags behind its peers could be as simple as living on one side of the school boundary. Also, if your child has special needs or unique goals (i.e. they had been in a foreign language immersion program), you will need to find out what is available where you are moving to.
Start early. Even public schools may have waiting lists if they are charter or target schools.
Found out if there are any extra-curricular activities that require early enrollment or may involve practice over the summer before the school year starts.
Enroll your children in their new schools. Make sure you've filled out all the required paperwork and have all the necessary doctors' forms, immunization records, etc. so that the kids can start on Day One.
Get a copy of your children's current coursework so that the new school can get a better idea of where to place the child in terms of classes or levels.
Find day care services or extended day services as soon as possible. Most of these services will have waiting lists, enrollment applications, and down payments necessary to hold spots.
Decide what you want to do with your house. Will you rent it out or sell it? If so, find a realtor.
Find a moving company. Ask around for good recommendations. Get a few quotes for the move to help you decide who to pick.
If you work for yourself or have a business and you're moving to a new state, learn the new state business and tax laws.

This video offers some tips for moving.

Two months before your move

Keep immunization records, medical forms, and birth certificates separate from other papers that you plan to pack for the move. You'll need these papers to get the children enrolled in their new school. Keep them with your important personal papers rather than risk losing them or misplacing them in the move.
Verify that your kids' immunization records are up to date. It might be easier to make appointments with their current doctors than to find new ones after the move.
Get a change-of-address kit from the post office so that you can have mail forwarded to your new address.
Make a list of all the contacts you need to inform of your move: banks, credit cards, insurance companies, any car payments, magazine subscriptions, memberships, IRS, etc.
Schedule closings of your gym membership, any community clubs or country clubs which you have joined, etc. Before you close your membership, verify whether these organizations have branches where you are moving.
Schedule stoppage of service for your local and long distance phone numbers, electricity, gas, oil, security service, newspaper service, etc.
Schedule your move with the moving company.
"Spring clean" your possessions before the move. Consider if something is important enough to take with you on the move. Otherwise, throw it out or give it away.

One month before your move

Schedule a party or get together so that your children and you can say goodbye to your friends. Take plenty of pictures. Get mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. Don't wait too long to have this party if you're going to have it at home because your moving plans will start to interfere. Alternatively, throw the party at a local restaurant or park.
Get maps of the new place where you're moving to. Show the children the relationship between their new house and school. Highlight any other major landmarks to help the kids get a good feeling for their new place.
Get a school supply list from the new school so that you will have those supplies ready rather than having to scramble to get the kids ready for school after you arrive at your new destination Consider keeping the kids' school supplies with you as opposed to getting packed away by the moving company.
Get the children's uniforms in order. You may want to wait until you get to the school to see what uniform pieces most kids wear before you spend a lot of money buying the uniforms.
Get a copy of their school guidelines. Your children may be used to different regulations on makeup, acceptable clothes, locker use, PE, etc. By learning as much as you can about their new school, it will really help the children to feel comfortable in their new school. Look into whether the kids will need uniforms (many public schools require uniforms now, too).
Inventory your major or expensive possessions with a video camera or photographs.
Unless you have your money in a small local bank, you probably do not have to worry about changing banks. Still, this may be a consideration. Look into banks in your destination area.
Contact your new utilities and schedule to have their services turned on (local phone, long distance phone, cable, electricity, oil, gas, etc.).
Find new doctors in the new location.
Make your travel arrangements, if necessary.
Consider how you will transfer your pets. Will they travel with you or do they need separate travel arrangements? Are you taking them with you or will you need to leave them behind?.
Give your plants away if you have any. Most plants usually cannot make the move.

Sumplify Your Space offers practical advice for moving.

Three weeks before your move

Get a babysitter for moving day or arrange to have the older kids hang out with a good friend. You do not want to have the kids running around on moving day.
Look into moving insurance; consider whether you need any.
Arrange to have a cleaning crew come to clean the house after the move.
Arrange to have the lawn maintained after you leave but before the house closes (if you sell the house) or until the renters move in.

Two weeks before your move

Make sure all school books and library books have been returned.
Pick up any dry-cleaning that may still be out.
Get the locks changed on your new home. Have any necessary repairs made on your new home.

One week before your move

Return cable equipment that was loaned from the cable company.

Moving week

Organize your personal belongings so that the movers know what to pack and what to leave alone.

After you arrive at your new place

Drive the kids to their new school before school starts.
Consider introducing yourself to the neighbors, depending on your comfort level talking to strangers. You may want to go door to door or actually throw a backyard or house party inviting your closest neighbors over.
Talk to the new school counselors to make sure they know that your kids are experiencing not just a new school but have actually experienced a major house move as well.
Look into extracurricular activities (associated with and without the school) to give the kids opportunities to meet new friends.
Work out a fire evacuation plan.

This video offers a 12 point checklist for moving day.

General moving tips

Research school zones before you look at houses or rental apartments so that you are making an informed decision regarding where your family will live.
The best time to move is at the beginning of summer. That gives the children more time to get used to their new home and area and hopefully meet new friends before the first day of school.
Follow up with school counselors about a month after school starts to see how the children are adapting to their new schools.
Get involved with the new school. Join the PTA; help support an extracurricular activity.
Test all of your fire alarms before putting them up.

Online sites & services Here are some of our favorite online sites related to moving and moving services:

Moving.com can help you find a mover, rental struck, storage facilities plus real estate help. By using an online interface, you can request moving quotes.
Direct Your Move is another site that will help you get moving quotes online. Besides moving resources, it also offers storage and packing resources and supplies as well as moving tips.
123Movers.com focuses just on providing you with resources for moving. 123Movers can provide you with the top movers in almost 20 major cities across the United States.
The US Postal Service offers an online mover's guide that will help you get your change of addresses all set up before you make your big move.
RentCafé.com is a trusted resource for renters throughout the U.S., listing apartment for rent straight from property managers. This means that the user can browse verified listing only and not be wary of falling for online scams. Moreover, RentCafé is one of the few sites that allow renters to apply online and have their application immediately sent to the property manager.

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How to Transfer High Schools: A Complete Guide

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Are you transferring high schools or will be transferring soon? Are you wondering how this will affect your high school transcripts, when you'll graduate, and how schools view your college applications? Then this guide is for you!

Read on to learn how to transfer high schools, what it means for your future, and the steps you can take in order to make this process as smooth and easy as possible.

What Does It Mean to Transfer High Schools? How Do You Start the Process?

When someone says they are transferring schools, what does that actually mean? When you transfer high schools, that means you are un-enrolling in one high school and enrolling in a different one. This does not include graduating from middle school and then starting high school, which is a regular academic progression and not categorized as transferring.

Transferring is typically done over the summer, but it can also take place during the school year. Different schools and states have different processes for transferring, and the amount of work you need to do can vary depending on if you're staying in the same school district or transferring to a completely new one.

Your parents and people at both your old and new schools will likely help guide you through the transfer process, but it typically begins with submitting an application to the school you would like to attend. If you are younger than 18 years old, you will need your parent/guardian to submit your transfer request. Transfer applications will typically ask for some identifying information, proof of residency, medical forms, and transcripts from your current high school.

If you request a transfer because you are moving or because of a serious issue, such as bullying, it will likely be accepted, but not every transfer request is approved. Typically, it's easier to transfer schools if you are an underclassman rather than an upperclassman.

What Happens After You Get Approval to Transfer?

Transferring does not happen immediately, and you often have to apply a few weeks or months before you want to switch schools. You will be required to attend your current school until your transfer request is approved and you start at your new school.

Once you are approved to attend a new school, you may take placement tests so that you are placed in the classes best suited for you. Either before or right when you start classes at your new school, you will meet with an academic adviser who will help plan your schedule for you.

Many schools have informal gatherings for new students to help transfer students meet new people and learn more about the school. As soon as your application is approved at your new school, you are a full-fledged student there, and you can join or try out for different sports and clubs. It's highly recommended that you do this since participating in extracurriculars is a great way to meet new people and feel more connected to your new school.

Why Do People Transfer High Schools?

What causes students to transfer to a new high school? Below are the three most common reasons to transfer high schools.

Reason #1: They Move to a New Area

This is, by far, the most common reason people transfer high schools. When your parents move to a different place, you often can't continue studying at your current school.

This can be a move across the country, or simply a move to the neighboring town. Because moving out of the area can make it impossible to attend your current school and it's something high school students don't have much control over, these transfer requests are basically always approved.

If the move is sudden, many schools can make accommodations so that you can begin attending classes right away (lucky you!); however, it's best to get this process started early if you know you will be moving in the future.

Reason #2: They Find a Particular School They Want to Attend

Sometimes, you aren't moving, but you find a new high school you prefer to your current one and want to transfer to it. The new school could have better academics, extracurriculars, or an alternative teaching method you prefer. You may also have gotten accepted into a selective high school where you had to apply for admission.

Be aware that, if you are trying to move from one school in your district to another, your district may have certain policies in regards to what reasons are acceptable for transferring. Your transfer request may not always be approved.

Reason #3: They Don't Like Their Current School

In other cases, you don't want to transfer to go to a great school you've already chosen, you simply don't want to attend your current school anymore. This can happen if a student is feeling bullied, has had trouble making friends, or doesn't learn well from the school's teaching style. In rare occasions, a student may also be forced to leave a school for disciplinary reasons.

Common Questions Students Have When They Transfer High Schools

Once your transfer request is approved, that doesn't mean all the work is over! Transferring can cause some wrinkles in your high school plans, but if you are aware of potential challenges and start planning early for how you'll deal with them, you'll minimize unpleasant surprises and frustrations down the road. Below are three of the most common questions about how to transfer high schools, and for each one advice is given for how you can minimize problems.

Question 1: Will All My Old Credits Transfer to My New School?

If you are transferring from one public school to another within the same state, you likely won't have an issue with this. However, if you are moving to a new state or switching from a public school to a private school (or vice versa), not all of your credits may transfer over.

In the majority of cases, all or most of your classes will transfer just fine, but occasionally your new school will not accept credit for one or more of your classes. This will typically happen because those classes do not meet certain requirements your new school has, such as covering certain topics, meeting for the required number of hours, or including certain exams.

If this happens to you, your new school will not award you credit for that class, it won't show up on your new transcript, and it will appear (to your new school) as if you never took that class. If enough of your classes don't transfer over, this may cause your graduation date to be delayed because you'll have to take extra classes to make up for the credits that didn't transfer.

How to Minimize Problems

This can be a frustrating situation because you aren't getting credit for classes you've taken and passed. However, this isn't a problem for most students and, even if it is, you will likely have enough other credits that you won't need to take summer classes or delay your graduation.

Talk to your new academic adviser right after you start your new school to learn if any of your old credits didn't transfer and, if so, how that will affect you. If you think you should get credit for a certain class, discuss that will your adviser. Often schools can be flexible about which classes they accept.

Question 2: Will My GPA Stay the Same?

Many students who transfer high schools are understandably concerned about what happens to their GPA when they switch schools. Will they keep their current GPA? Will it be completely erased when they start at a new school?

The short answer is that it depends on your new school; every school has its own policy for how it handles the GPAs of transfer students. However, in most cases one of two things will happen: either you'll keep your current GPA and it will only change when you get new grades at your new school, or your new school will recalculate your current GPA so it fits with their grading patterns. For example, if your old school gave pluses and minuses on your transcript but your new school doesn't, your new school may recalculate your GPA without those pluses and minuses so it matches the GPA grading patterns of the rest of the students. Even if this happens, it likely won't change your GPA significantly, so try not to worry about it too much.

The best thing to do here is to talk to your new guidance counselor and learn if and how your GPA will be affected by transferring. Do this as soon as possible so that everyone is on the same page and you aren't surprised in a semester when grades come out and your GPA isn't what you expected.

Question 3: Will Transferring High Schools Affect My College Applications?

Sometimes students are worried that transferring schools and having two transcripts will negatively affect their college applications. The good news is that, on its own, transferring high schools won't have any negative impact on your college applications. Colleges understand that transferring schools is a common occurrence, and many times the student doesn't have control over if it happens (such as if your parents decide to move).

You will typically have to submit transcripts from each of the high schools you attended but, again, colleges are used to this and will be fine with it. The only time transferring high schools will have a negative impact on your college applications is if your grades dropped significantly or you transferred due to behavioral or disciplinary reasons.

In most cases, transferring high schools will give you nothing to worry about when applying to colleges. However, if your grades dropped a lot before and/or after you transferred, or you were expelled or had similar serious discipline issues, colleges may be wary of accepting you.

The best way to combat this is to be open about the issue and explain it. You can do this in your personal statement, or many schools have a space in their applications for students to explain any additional information they'd like the school to have. When you explain, be honest about what happened and give specific examples of how you've improved since then.

Question 4: What New Graduation Requirements Do I Need to Meet?

You may find that your new school has different graduation requirements than your previous school did. This is especially likely to happen if your new high school is in a different state since high school graduation requirements are often determined by state.

Sometimes meeting these new graduation requirements means your schedule looks a little odd. For example, I went to high school in Illinois, and every person who graduates high school in Illinois has to take a driver's education class (the driving part is not required if you don't plan on getting your license). In my class, there were two 18 year-old guys who had transferred here from another state that didn't require driver's ed. As a result, these students, who had had their licenses and been driving for two years, were stuck taking a basic driving class.

Again, talk to your academic adviser right away to learn what your new school's graduation requirements are. Work with your adviser to plan out your class schedule for each semester until you graduate. If you need to take extra classes, see if it's possible to take them over the summer so that you graduate on time. You may also be able to fulfill certain requirements, such as health or typing, by taking an online class. Figuring this out early will help you stay on track and avoid any surprises when it comes time to graduate.

Stay aware of your graduation requirements so you can graduate on time like this guy.

Transferring high schools can seem stressful and challenging, but it doesn't have to be! Once your transfer request has been approved, start researching how the transfer will affect different academic areas such as your transcript, course credits, and graduation requirements.

Early on, work with your adviser and teachers at your new school to develop class schedules, so you know which classes you need to take and when you will graduate. If you are prepared and know what to expect, chances are transferring high schools will be a smooth process.

What's Next?

Considering doing some online classes to complete your graduation requirements? Check out our guide to see if online high school is the right choice for you.

Sometimes taking an independent study can help you get required classes out of the way. Check out our guide on how to set up an independent study.

Want to know what your course options are in high school? We have a complete list of high school classes for you to look through!

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Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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Schools Today

In traditional schools (when we're not in a pandemic), students typically attend a regular school day according to age, grade-level, test score outcomes, and unique learning needs. Academically, a typical pattern of learning content, memorizing it, and taking standardized tests, for the most part, is still the way we run schools today.

Following this traditional way of teaching is no fault of educators. Many factors impact a child's education, from state and federal requirements to school boards and funding. Educators unfortunately, do not have a significant voice at this table.

We also have four generations of educators in the classroom today—those who grew up without a computer, and those who held the world in their pocket. The differences in each generation is so great, it can be difficult to get everyone on board with massive changes. Taking small steps in changing curriculum outcomes is always a good start.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, making small changes can lead to large results.

In effective schools, especially at the high school level, students have the opportunity to build long lasting relationships among their peers and educators. They learn and grow together. They can discover their passions, and take classes that suit their interests. They have a chance to grow, boost their talents, focus on career choices, shadow industries, have access to career guides and mentors, problem-solve, learn to question, debate, and discuss critical topics. They also learn how to work together and independently—while developing essential social and emotional skills.

Finally, an effective school sees each student as a whole child, and emphasizes positive developmental growth without the worry of constant grades and testing.

All of these experiences listed above help young adults become engaged and active citizens, and contributes to the world in meaningful ways.

Learning is a life-long journey that should never end.

The Economy

Education has a tremendous impact on the economy. According to Investopedia , "A country's economy becomes more productive as the proportion of educated workers increases since educated workers can more efficiently carry out tasks that require literacy and critical thinking.

In this sense, education is an investment in human capital, similar to an investment in better equipment."

However, we must ask, “What type of education do our students need today for a strong economic future?”

Education In 2020

It is now the second half of 2020, and although we don't have to change everything about education, we have a unique opportunity to look outside of the traditional school walls, and bring in some new ideas that can change the future for the better.

Mental Health First

If we took this time right now, here are a few suggestions on how we could potentially make school a better fit for the times ahead.

Social and Emotional —Before anything, we must put Maslow's Theory in practice before Bloom's Taxonomy when students come back to school.

Institutions should provide social and emotional support immediately to ensure all teachers, staff, and school administrators are getting the help they need during such a stressful time—and this support should always continue regardless of the situation.

Before the pandemic, depression and suicide rates were already exploding. When students return, they are going to need more emotional and social support than ever. Nobody will know what our kids went through during this time of absence. Schools must acknowledge, understand, and support students to their best potential.

Maslow's pyramid of needs.

Planning for the Future in Education: How We Can Improve Academic and Better Career Outcomes Now

Create Work and Business Relationships— Create high school and local business partnerships programs. Include input from high school juniors and seniors and have them assist in the design of a program. Listen to their voices and passions. Provide students with opportunities to shadow different industries, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs. Put students in the driver's seat and work with them as a listener, learner, and guide. Mentor students and show them how to become mentors to underclassmen.

Exemplify Entrepreneurship —We are facing unusual days ahead, and the future is unknown. Teach kids how to think for themselves and show them it’s alright to ask questions. Innovate with them, and help them to change the world through their ideas. Most students don't believe in themselves because society has been telling them what to do, how to behave, and what’s right or wrong. Without the ability to think and question for themselves, students cannot live up to their full potential. Engage them in their creative side, and show them it’s okay to fail, get up, and build again. They may look at you oddly at first, but the future wins can be immeasurable.

Encourage Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills— Teachers can create lessons that encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills with almost any given content area or topic. Challenge students to rise above the bar because you know they can do it.

Understand Students' Personalities— Introvert, ambivert, and extroverted personalities all have distinctive characteristics, and different areas of comfort when it comes to attending school.

When I went through all of my years of teacher training, I didn’t learn about students' personalities until my last class during my M.Ed. I didn’t realize how every educator had a significant impact on a student's learning experience when they didn’t understand the differences among personalities. Teachers must know their students' characteristics, unique learning needs, and plan accordingly to fit their learning styles best.

Focus on Careers —For older students, teach them how to focus on careers with their hearts and their heads. This type of teaching means helping students make smart decisions when it comes to college, careers, and future planning. Passion is critical, but we want our students to land a job in a field where we expect growth to occur.

The College Narrative— Our society has changed rapidly, but the college narrative has stayed the same for many years. It is important to let students know they have many choices. College is not the best fit for everyone and is not the only path—and that’s okay. Also, going to college today does not guarantee a great job right after graduation. Learning is a never-ending journey that doesn’t stop. College can be critical especially for certain trained skills and potential future earnings, but it is not the single journey to success today.

The college story should match the world we live in today—one filled with options, different ways to learn, and work-study programs that can benefit students and leave them without debt. Our students need to start above the ground—they should not come out of college at such a young age with piles of debt, stress, and worry.

Learn with Students —When you learn with your students, you can connect with them. You are showing vulnerability, and that can help raise a child's self-esteem. Grow with your students, listen to their world—hear their stories.

What else would you add to this list?

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Tips for Writing an Effective Application Essay

Writing an essay for college admission gives you a chance to use your authentic voice and show your personality. It's an excellent opportunity to personalize your application beyond your academic credentials, and a well-written essay can have a positive influence come decision time.

Want to know how to draft an essay for your college application ? Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing.

Tips for Essay Writing

A typical college application essay, also known as a personal statement, is 400-600 words. Although that may seem short, writing about yourself can be challenging. It's not something you want to rush or put off at the last moment. Think of it as a critical piece of the application process. Follow these tips to write an impactful essay that can work in your favor.

1. Start Early.

Few people write well under pressure. Try to complete your first draft a few weeks before you have to turn it in. Many advisers recommend starting as early as the summer before your senior year in high school. That way, you have ample time to think about the prompt and craft the best personal statement possible.

You don't have to work on your essay every day, but you'll want to give yourself time to revise and edit. You may discover that you want to change your topic or think of a better way to frame it. Either way, the sooner you start, the better.

2. Understand the Prompt and Instructions.

Before you begin the writing process, take time to understand what the college wants from you. The worst thing you can do is skim through the instructions and submit a piece that doesn't even fit the bare minimum requirements or address the essay topic. Look at the prompt, consider the required word count, and note any unique details each school wants.

3. Create a Strong Opener.

Students seeking help for their application essays often have trouble getting things started. It's a challenging writing process. Finding the right words to start can be the hardest part.

Spending more time working on your opener is always a good idea. The opening sentence sets the stage for the rest of your piece. The introductory paragraph is what piques the interest of the reader, and it can immediately set your essay apart from the others.

4. Stay on Topic.

One of the most important things to remember is to keep to the essay topic. If you're applying to 10 or more colleges, it's easy to veer off course with so many application essays.

A common mistake many students make is trying to fit previously written essays into the mold of another college's requirements. This seems like a time-saving way to avoid writing new pieces entirely, but it often backfires. The result is usually a final piece that's generic, unfocused, or confusing. Always write a new essay for every application, no matter how long it takes.

5. Think About Your Response.

Don't try to guess what the admissions officials want to read. Your essay will be easier to write─and more exciting to read─if you’re genuinely enthusiastic about your subject. Here’s an example: If all your friends are writing application essays about covid-19, it may be a good idea to avoid that topic, unless during the pandemic you had a vivid, life-changing experience you're burning to share. Whatever topic you choose, avoid canned responses. Be creative.

6. Focus on You.

Essay prompts typically give you plenty of latitude, but panel members expect you to focus on a subject that is personal (although not overly intimate) and particular to you. Admissions counselors say the best essays help them learn something about the candidate that they would never know from reading the rest of the application.

7. Stay True to Your Voice.

Use your usual vocabulary. Avoid fancy language you wouldn't use in real life. Imagine yourself reading this essay aloud to a classroom full of people who have never met you. Keep a confident tone. Be wary of words and phrases that undercut that tone.

8. Be Specific and Factual.

Capitalize on real-life experiences. Your essay may give you the time and space to explain why a particular achievement meant so much to you. But resist the urge to exaggerate and embellish. Admissions counselors read thousands of essays each year. They can easily spot a fake.

9. Edit and Proofread.

When you finish the final draft, run it through the spell checker on your computer. Then don’t read your essay for a few days. You'll be more apt to spot typos and awkward grammar when you reread it. After that, ask a teacher, parent, or college student (preferably an English or communications major) to give it a quick read. While you're at it, double-check your word count.

Writing essays for college admission can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. A well-crafted essay could be the deciding factor─in your favor. Keep these tips in mind, and you'll have no problem creating memorable pieces for every application.

What is the format of a college application essay?

Generally, essays for college admission follow a simple format that includes an opening paragraph, a lengthier body section, and a closing paragraph. You don't need to include a title, which will only take up extra space. Keep in mind that the exact format can vary from one college application to the next. Read the instructions and prompt for more guidance.

Most online applications will include a text box for your essay. If you're attaching it as a document, however, be sure to use a standard, 12-point font and use 1.5-spaced or double-spaced lines, unless the application specifies different font and spacing.

How do you start an essay?

The goal here is to use an attention grabber. Think of it as a way to reel the reader in and interest an admissions officer in what you have to say. There's no trick on how to start a college application essay. The best way you can approach this task is to flex your creative muscles and think outside the box.

You can start with openers such as relevant quotes, exciting anecdotes, or questions. Either way, the first sentence should be unique and intrigue the reader.

What should an essay include?

Every application essay you write should include details about yourself and past experiences. It's another opportunity to make yourself look like a fantastic applicant. Leverage your experiences. Tell a riveting story that fulfills the prompt.

What shouldn’t be included in an essay?

When writing a college application essay, it's usually best to avoid overly personal details and controversial topics. Although these topics might make for an intriguing essay, they can be tricky to express well. If you’re unsure if a topic is appropriate for your essay, check with your school counselor. An essay for college admission shouldn't include a list of achievements or academic accolades either. Your essay isn’t meant to be a rehashing of information the admissions panel can find elsewhere in your application.

How can you make your essay personal and interesting?

The best way to make your essay interesting is to write about something genuinely important to you. That could be an experience that changed your life or a valuable lesson that had an enormous impact on you. Whatever the case, speak from the heart, and be honest.

Is it OK to discuss mental health in an essay?

Mental health struggles can create challenges you must overcome during your education and could be an opportunity for you to show how you’ve handled challenges and overcome obstacles. If you’re considering writing your essay for college admission on this topic, consider talking to your school counselor or with an English teacher on how to frame the essay.

Find the right college for you

Global education: How to transform school systems?

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Emiliana vegas and emiliana vegas former co-director - center for universal education , former senior fellow - global economy and development rebecca winthrop rebecca winthrop director - center for universal education , senior fellow - global economy and development.

November 17, 2020

12 min read

This essay is part of “ Reimagining the global economy: Building back better in a post-COVID-19 world ,” a collection of 12 essays presenting new ideas to guide policies and shape debates in a post-COVID-19 world.

Even before COVID-19 left as many as 1.5 billion students out of school in early 2020, there was a global consensus that education systems in too many countries were not delivering the quality education needed to ensure that all have the skills necessary to thrive. 1 It is the poorest children across the globe who carry the heaviest burden, with pre-pandemic analysis estimating that 90 percent of children in low-income countries, 50 percent of children in middle-income countries, and 30 percent of children in high-income countries fail to master the basic secondary-level skills needed to thrive in work and life. 2

Analysis in mid-April 2020—in the early throes of the pandemic—found that less than 25 percent of low-income countries were providing any type of remote learning, while close to 90 percent of high-income countries were. 3 On top of cross-country differences in access to remote learning, within-country differences are also staggering. For example, during the COVID-19 school closures, 1 in 10 of the poorest children in the U.S. had little or no access to technology for learning. 4

Yet, for a few young people in wealthy communities around the globe, schooling has never been better than during the pandemic. They are taught in their homes with a handful of their favorite friends by a teacher hired by their parents. 5 Some parents have connected via social media platforms to form learning pods that instruct only a few students at a time with agreed-upon teaching schedules and activities.

While the learning experiences for these particular children may be good in and of themselves, they represent a worrisome trend for the world: the massive acceleration of education inequality. 6

Emerging from this global pandemic with a stronger public education system is an ambitious vision, and one that will require both financial and human resources.

The silver lining is that COVID-19 has resulted in public recognition of schools’ essential caretaking role in society and parents’ gratitude for teachers, their skills, and their invaluable role in student well-being.

It is hard to imagine there will be another moment in history when the central role of schooling in the economic, social, and political prosperity and stability of nations is so obvious and well understood by the general population. The very fact that schools enable parents to work outside the home is hitting home to millions of families amid global school closures. Now is the time to chart a vision for how education can emerge stronger from this global crisis and help reduce education inequality.

Indeed, we believe that strong and inclusive public education systems are essential to the short- and long-term recovery of society and that there is an opportunity to leapfrog toward powered-up schools.

A powered-up school, one that well serves the educational needs of children and youth, is one that puts a strong public school at the center of the community and leverages the most effective partnerships to help learners grow and develop a broad range of competencies and skills. It would recognize and adapt to the learning that takes place beyond its walls, regularly assessing students’ skills and tailoring learning opportunities to meet students at their skill level. New allies in children’s learning would complement and assist teachers, and could support children’s healthy mental and physical development. It quite literally would be the school at the center of the community that powers student learning and development using every path possible (Figure 12.1).

While this vision is aspirational, it is by no means impractical. Schools at the center of a community ecosystem of learning and support are an idea whose time has come, and some of the emerging practices amid COVID-19, such as empowering parents to support their children’s education, should be sustained after the pandemic subsides.

It is hard to imagine there will be another moment in history when the central role of schooling in the economic, social, and political prosperity and stability of nations is so obvious and well understood by the general population.

The way forward

To achieve this vision, we propose five actions to seize the moment and transform education systems (focusing on pre-primary through secondary school) to better serve all children and youth, especially the most disadvantaged.

1. Leverage public schools and put them at the center of education systems given their essential role in equalizing opportunity across society

By having the mandate to serve all children and youth regardless of background, public schools in many countries can bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and needs, providing the social benefit of allowing individuals to grow up with a set of common values and knowledge that can make communities more cohesive and unified. 7

Schools play a crucial role in fostering the skills individuals need to succeed in a rapidly changing labor market, 8 play a major role in equalizing opportunities for individuals of diverse backgrounds, and address a variety of social needs that serve communities, regions, and entire nations. While a few private schools can and do play these multiple roles, public education is the main conduit for doing so at scale and hence should be at the center of any effort to build back better.

2. Focus on the instructional core, the heart of the teaching and learning process

Using the instructional core—or focusing on the interactions among educators, learners, and educational materials to improve student learning 9 —can help identify what types of new strategies or innovations could become community-based supports in children’s learning journey. Indeed, even after only a few months of experimentation around the globe on keeping learning going amid a pandemic, some clear strategies have the potential, if continued, to contribute to a powered-up school, and many of them involve engaging learners, educators, and parents in new ways using some form of technology.

3. Deploy education technology to power up schools in a way that meets teaching and learning needs and prevent technology from becoming a costly distraction

After COVID-19, one thing is certain: School systems that are best prepared to use education technology effectively will be best positioned to continue offering quality education in the face of school closures.

Other recent research 10 by one of us finds that technology can help improve learning by supporting the crucial interactions in the instructional core through the following ways: (1) scaling up quality instruction (by, for example, prerecorded lessons of high-quality teaching); (2) facilitating differentiated instruction (through, for example, computer-adaptive learning or live one-on-one tutoring); (3) expanding opportunities for student practice; and (4) increasing student engagement (through, for example, videos and games).

4. Forge stronger, more trusting relationships between parents and teachers

When a respectful relationship among parents, teachers, families, and schools happens, children learn and thrive. This occurs by inviting families to be allies in children’s learning by using easy-to-understand information communicated through mechanisms that adapt to parents’ schedules and that provide parents with an active but feasible role. The nature of the invitation and the relationship is what is so essential to bringing parents on board.

COVID-19 is an opportunity for parents and families to gain insight into the skill that is involved in teaching and for teachers and schools to realize what powerful allies parents can be. Parents around the world are not interested in becoming their child’s teacher, but they are, based on several large-scale surveys, 11 asking to be engaged in a different, more active way in the future. One of the most important insights for supporting a powered-up school is challenging the mindset of those in the education sector who think that parents and families with the least opportunities are not capable or willing to help their children learn.

5. Embrace the principles of improvement science required to evaluate, course correct, document, and scale new approaches that can help power up schools over time

The speed and depth of change mean that it will be essential to take an iterative approach to learning what works, for whom, and under what enabling conditions. In other words, this is a moment to employ the principles of improvement science. 12 Traditional research methods will need to be complemented by real-time documentation, reflection, quick feedback loops, and course correction. Rapid sharing of early insights and testing of potential change ideas will need to come alongside the longer-term rigorous reviews.

Adapting the scaling strategy is especially challenging, requiring not only timely data, a thorough understanding of the context, and space for reflection, but also willingness and capacity to act on this learning and make changes accordingly.

Changing School: Implications & Considerations

There may well be multiple reasons why you are considering a change of school. Perhaps your circumstances have changed, and a change of school is a financial necessity. Perhaps you feel that your current school has not been as supportive as you would have expected. Perhaps you feel distance learning has not worked as well as you might have hoped. Perhaps you are relocating and need to find a more convenient option. The reasons may well be varied, and even be the result of a mixture of these.

Under any circumstances, a decision to move school is a tricky one. This is not a small change. Your child has probably already settled into his or her current school, has made friends, got involved in extra-curricular activities, found teachers he or she likes and relates to, and is hopefully doing well academically.

You will almost certainly want any change to be for the right reasons, and to support your child through the process. Even the most outgoing and confident child may find the decision to move school a tough one. If your child is unhappy for any reason, it may seem to be a simpler decision – but ultimately, in both cases, it is a step into the unknown.

Based on feedback that we at WhichSchoolAdvisor.com have received, the key factors currently that seem to be driving parents to consider a change of school in the current climate are largely two-fold.

Firstly, the move to distance learning has proven to be a huge challenge for parents, children, schools and their staff. And this dramatic change in teaching practice is not something that the vast majority of schools had foreseen or fully prepared for. Two weeks (the Spring break period) is not a long time for any organisation to fundamentally change the way it works. Schools and staff, inevitably, have needed to adapt and change their normal processes – and some have done so more effectively than others.

The key questions must be whether the process of delivering distance learning at your child's current school has been strong enough or has improved sufficiently since it started. Has the school listened and responded to parental concerns? Has your child adapted to the new normal? Is your child being challenged and receiving support from his or her teachers? Is s/he learning and improving his/her skills and knowledge within the boundaries of the home environment? Given that the possibility of distance learning may be a greater or smaller element of teaching after the summer holidays , are you satisfied that your child will continue to develop academically if s/he has to return to this form of education in September?

If the answer is no to the questions that your school can directly influence, then the decision to move schools may well be the right one for you and your child.

Do, though, bear in mind that the UAE Ministry of Education, together with the ADEK, the KHDA and SPEA have just introduced an inspection process specifically designed to help school improve. It will determine how advanced both public and private schools are in respect of Distance Learning. Schools will be rated as providing Distance Learning provision that is either Developed, Partly Developed or Not Developed. It is not known at this stage whether the results of the inspections will be shared with parents before the summer vacation, although they will be fed back to schools directly.

Before making the decision to change school, it may be as well to consider why you chose the current school in the first place. What did you like about it , what made it special compared with others you may have visited or researched. What are the activities or subjects that make your child happy where s/he is now? Has the school measured up to your and your child’s expectations? We suggest you create a priority list, and decide which of the items on this list are must have’s and which are desirable.

If your reasons for considering a change of school are driven by the financial situation or a feeling of lack of support rather than your school’s performance, the key for you will be to ensure that any school you consider is able to deliver the standard of education and support that your child needs, at a price-point that you can afford.

In some ways this should be a simpler thought process – you know what the current school does well, and the challenge is to replicate this in a more budget-friendly or supportive environment. Realistically though, you may well not find everything you would like, so again, it is question of priorities.

Regulatory requirements

Before you decide that a change of school is what is needed, you also need to make yourself aware of the regulatory requirements.

If your child is already in school in the UAE, you will need a transfer certificate to be issued for children in Grade 1/Year 2 and above. Whether you are moving school within the same emirate or between emirates, your current school is responsible for processing this, together with the local education regulator. Your current school is entitled to receive payment of any outstanding fees, and to receive back books on loan and any other resources that belong to the school (such as iPads etc.).

Your school is also entitled to one term’s notice of withdrawal for which fees are payable. This is often an area for negotiation , particularly if you have paid a re-registration fee, but before making the decision to change schools, do ensure that you confirm the terms under which your child will be released from the current school contract and that their transfer certificate will be issued.

Once you have confirmed this process and know that a change of school is possible, what should you do next?

Under normal circumstances, our advice would be make a short-list of schools whose curriculum, location, fees and other key criteria meet your requirements . Of course, there are many other factors too – school size, teacher background, class sizes, extra-curricular activities and facilities are just a few of these. We advise parents to read the reviews on WhichSchoolAdvisor.com, take into account comments from the Parent surveys that we publish, and read in detail the results of school inspections.

Once you have made that short-list, we always recommend that parents visit schools to get a genuine sense of how they operate on a day to day basis. But how do parents manage what we believe to be a vital next step, when schools are closed? How can you make that all-important decision about which school is right for your child if you can’t visit the campus? Answer, take a virtual school tour. The WhichSchoolAdvisor team has created a series of questions to help you with your research and to support your decision-making.

Virtual tours

In these unprecedented times, many schools are using virtual tours to offer families the next best thing. There are 360-degree tours where you can ‘tour’ facilities such as the sports hall, library, playing fields, science labs and auditorium. Many schools had these on their website already and, while they can offer an immersive experience of a campus, there can be technical glitches and delays - and of course, you only get to see what schools want you to.

Many schools have also launched one to one video meetings with Admissions staff and Principals, Zoom information sessions and webinars, and online assessments to help manage the application and admissions process.

There are actually some pros to virtual tours. They allow you to include all your family members in the decision-making process from the comfort of your living room. But there are obviously cons too. It can feel a bit impersonal and lacks the same experience as an in-person tour; you won’t be able to see if children seem happy and engaged in lessons, or personable and presentable, and you may not be able to tell on a virtual tour just how well maintained a campus is.

But once you have selected the schools that seem to match your requirements, we suggest you reach out and ask the Admissions team some of the key questions.

Can I have a one-to-one meeting with the principal?
How can my child be assessed online while the campus is closed?
How does the school support new students when they join the school? Is there a buddy system or similar?
If my child joins while the school is still temporarily closed, how will you manage his/her first day/week at school?
If visiting a primary school, where do students continue their secondary schooling?
How are you currently delivering distance learning? Does this include live class sessions, work sheets and tasks or a mixture of the two and in what proportion?
Are you offering any fee discounts, scholarships or financial support?

Curriculum and academics

How does your school’s delivery of the curriculum differ from others following the same one?
How does the school encourage and monitor students' progress?
Does the school publish its exam results?
How is technology used to support teaching and learning at the school?
How do the arts fit into the curriculum? Is there a school choir, band or orchestra? A school production? Art classes?
How does the school support students who have academic, social or emotional difficulties? Does the school have a well-staffed learning support department?
What is the school’s homework policy?
What extra-curricular activities are available? Can students play competitive sports against other schools?

Staff and students

How many students attend the school?
How many students are there in each year group/grade?
How many children are in each class?
How many different nationalities of children?
What are the nationalities of your staff?
How do you recruit your staff?
What is your staff retention rate?

School community

What is the school's approach to children’s behaviour and safety?
Is there an active Parent Association?
How does the school keep parents informed of news and information regarding the school's staff?
Where do most of the students live?
Is the school well maintained? [Schools can sometimes mask their shortfalls behind state-of-the-art facilities and a contemporary building design. You should always be looking for a tidy, clean and well-maintained school that focuses its efforts and its funds on the education of the pupils rather than the latest gadgets or modern interior design].
What outdoor facilities are available for learning and play?
What specialist facilities does the school have – IT, science and arts facilities, sports facilities – any others that are important to you or your child (robotics, STEM etc.) ?
What are the school start and finish times, breaks, and academic calendar?
Does the school offer hot/cold meals, or do students need to bring a packed lunch?
Is it a large campus? If so, are the breaks and lunch staggered? Are the younger and older students separated from each other?
How do children travel to school?
Is there a bus service?
Is there adequate parking?
How are pick up and drop off times managed?

This list is not exhaustive , and will not address every parent's individual priorities, but we hope it will serve as a starting point to enable you to tailor your own list of key questions.

There may well be other questions that are specific to you and your child. Do not hesitate to ask. Any school should be open and honest with potential parents so that each knows what is being committed to from the outset. If you cannot get specific answers to specific questions, think twice about whether this school is the right one for you.

Finally, do bear in mind the impact of this decision on your child. Unless your child is unhappy at the current school, it is likely that they will be resistant to the idea of change – particularly if this means losing their friends, familiar surroundings and routines. Ultimately, you as a parent must decide what is right (for whatever reasons) and take the steps you feel are necessary.

Bear in mind too, that just because a student is older, this does not necessarily mean that a change of school will be easy for him or her to bear, even if you can explain your reasons more easily and maintaining friendships may be less of a challenge. For students in their final four years of schooling, there may be profound implications in terms of curriculum, subject and Exam Board changes – something parents will need to investigate thoroughly.

However, if you have thought through your reasons thoroughly, considered the pros and cons and still believe that the change is the right way to go, we would like to reassure you by providing you with the experience of one of WhichSchoolAdvisor.com's team.

“We decided to move our oldest son from one school to another in Dubai when he was 7 years old. There were a couple of reasons for this. First of all, during his time at the first school there had been a large number of leadership changes. As an ex- teacher I was concerned about what this meant for the stability and function of the school 'behind the scenes'. Secondly, we felt that the small school environment had worked well for his early years education but was limiting his opportunities in things like competitive sport as he got older. We toured several schools and found one we liked and that we felt addressed the issues we faced at the first school. It was a tough and emotional decision that we spent a long time discussing and wondering whether we were doing the right thing, but we went ahead and registered him. We hadn't made a plan as to how or when to tell our son, but when one day a discussion about changing schools naturally arose, we took the opportunity. He had been very happy in the original school and was desperately upset (much more so than we had expected, in fact). I remember that he went and sat, crying, under the kitchen table for a long time after! All he would say was "I like my school" over and over. We felt terrible. After that, we had about four months until the transition actually happened and he would intermittently forget about it then remember and get very upset. Shopping for the new uniform was traumatic! Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we are now really happy with the decision we made and, even better, now he is older, he also thinks it was the right thing to do too. He is thriving in the new school. We have fond memories of the old school and I'm glad to say that since we left it has found new stability in a terrific new Principal. That said, we are still glad we made the decision we did. I would say to any parents thinking of changing their child's school that it was a challenging decision and a very challenging transition. I would advise that they should think long and hard about the emotional impact on their child before 'jumping ship'. It's not something I would like to do again!”

Lycée Français Jean Mermoz (South Campus)

Springfield International School

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current events conversation

What Students Are Saying About How to Improve American Education

An international exam shows that American 15-year-olds are stagnant in reading and math. Teenagers told us what’s working and what’s not in the American education system.

By The Learning Network

Earlier this month, the Program for International Student Assessment announced that the performance of American teenagers in reading and math has been stagnant since 2000 . Other recent studies revealed that two-thirds of American children were not proficient readers , and that the achievement gap in reading between high and low performers is widening.

We asked students to weigh in on these findings and to tell us their suggestions for how they would improve the American education system.

Our prompt received nearly 300 comments. This was clearly a subject that many teenagers were passionate about. They offered a variety of suggestions on how they felt schools could be improved to better teach and prepare students for life after graduation.

While we usually highlight three of our most popular writing prompts in our Current Events Conversation , this week we are only rounding up comments for this one prompt so we can honor the many students who wrote in.

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear as they were originally submitted.

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Innovation in Schools: Changing Environment, Behaviors, and Beliefs

Given the growing ubiquity of mobile devices in the classroom, a new question has presented itself: now what ? Beyond just how to use these devices, or why to use these devices, this new question hones in on what else should change in the classroom. Over the past few years, schools and districts have integrated technologies, implemented learning management systems, adopted social media, and trained their faculty. Whether these schools are one year or four years into their new digital programs, they now want to know why learning still seems to look the same. In other words, while they may have dramatically changed the physical appearance of their learning environments, they may not have changed the behaviors and beliefs within those environments.

A Lesson from Sesame Street

The researchers behind Sesame Street started with a problem: to help bridge the achievement gap between those children who could access preschool and kindergarten and those who could not. From the start, the goal of Sesame Street and the Children’s Television Workshop was to “foster intellectual and cultural development in preschoolers” (Cooney, 1966). The creators did not begin with the idea of putting Muppets in a neighborhood on TV. Instead, they started with a vision of supporting early learners in their acquisition of essential literacy skills. Public television just happened to be the technology at the time. By leveraging this new tool, the creators of Sesame Street could design a solution where one never previously existed. The research and development team may have started by looking at television as a possible environment, but they focused more on how to ultimately develop a new generation of learners.

Today’s Problem

In the 1960s, television connected students to the world from their homes and their classrooms. Today, smartphones, tablets, and laptops connect them from anywhere. However, despite the influx of these devices which have the potential to provide virtually unlimited access to content, connections to experts around the world, and the potential to create previously inconceivable artifacts as evidence of their learning, school still looks relatively the same. It is this sameness that has teachers and administrators asking “what’s next?”

If we look at the history of schooling in the United States, we can uncover a system designed to prepare a labor force for the Industrial Era. Procedural knowledge, the ability to follow directions with precision, and obedience were highly valued skills when the original Council of 10 conceived of public education (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Though the world now values problem solving, creativity, and complex communications, we struggle to break from this intrinsic “grammar of school” (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). In fact, if we look at reform programs that have been adopted the fastest - and with the least resistance - they have all operated on the fringes of the classroom: Special Education (SPED), vocational training, computer labs, and now makerspaces. According to Tyack and Cuban (1995), authors of Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform , these programs did not disrupt traditional classroom practice, and teachers could choose whether or not to engage in them. Today’s challenge is that mobile devices are in the classroom. They are disrupting the grammar of school and that requires a shift in behavior and belief.

In Raising Innovators , Tony Wagner claims that we have entered an “innovation economy” where people care more about what you do than what you know. In an era where people can “Google” most answers from their phones, rather than expecting individuals to follow directions and implement procedures, employers look not just for problem solvers but problem seekers. Again, though, the challenge lies in our history. For teachers who have formed their impressions and knowledge of teaching from their own personal experience as students, jumping from teacher-directed, procedure-based instruction to student-driven learning can feel like stepping into the wild west. Many teachers long for a structure for their planning and a way to ensure that while they are innovating their curriculum, they are also still meeting the requirements and standards of the day. This yearning for scaffolding may help to explain the rise in popularity of Project Based Learning and Design Thinking . Both offer concrete strategies for teachers to gradually relinquish control of their instruction and provide scaffolding for what change may look like.

As teachers, and students, gain comfort with this shift in expectation of student-driven, active learning, they also start to form new beliefs about the nature of learning itself. Teachers begin to view their classrooms as communities of knowledge co-construction. Rather than seeing themselves as content disseminators and the sole expert in the room, they can begin to orchestrate events and empower their students as active constructors of their own understanding. When this happens, then the students will also start to view themselves as active learners rather than passive recipients of information.

From Big Bird to Bandura

Albert Bandura, a psychologist known for his contributions to the field of social cognition and the creation of social learning theory, writes about the interrelatedness of environment, behavior, and cognition. He discusses that it is the interplay between these three elements that ultimately leads to learning. Adding devices may shape the environment, but it is the reciprocal relationship between the technology, classroom, culture, behavior and cognition that ultimately represents the shift in learning that many schools have been seeking to find.

Scott Berkun , author and speaker, defines innovation as “significant positive change.” If the goal of technology integration is to innovate schools and classrooms, then we need to change more than just adding technology. In other words, we need to take a similar approach as the creators of Sesame Street. They did not begin by creating a neighborhood in New York full of Muppets; they started by envisioning an environment to nurture literacy, learning, language and culture. Ultimately, the creators of Sesame Street focused on developing programming that would actively engage young learners rather than just provide entertainment. Many of us can still remember that “ one of these things is not like the other... ” or “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 11, tweeeelve!”

Beyond nostalgia, Sesame Street has been linked to increased performance in schools as evidenced by a recent Brookings Report . The creators of Big Bird, Oscar, and the rest of the furry friends focused on that interrelation of environment, behavior, and cognition to create a truly innovative learning. We can learn a lot from Big Bird, and Bandura, as we work to innovate our schools and classrooms.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action . Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Cooney, J. G. (1966). The potential uses of television in preschool education: A report to the Carnegie Corporation of New York . New York: Carnegie Corporation.

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Schools shift as evidence mounts that later start times improve teens’ learning and well-being

Later school starts correlate with improved mood, better attendance and grades, and fewer car crashes among youth

Schools and Classrooms

At a glance

Research from psychologists and others indicates that later school times correlate with more sleep, better academic performance, and myriad mental and physical health benefits.
Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 should sleep 8 to 10 hours per day, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. But few are logging those hours.
During puberty, youth undergo a shift in their circadian clocks that makes it harder for them to fall asleep until later in the night. Meanwhile, they can stay awake longer before experiencing an increase in the pressure to sleep.
Pushing back school start times has added sleep benefits for teachers and parents, too.
States and school districts are mandating later school start times in response to the scientific research.

Sleep is a key ingredient in physical and mental health, and most adolescents aren’t getting enough—but a straightforward solution is within reach. For decades, psychologists and other researchers have amassed evidence that later school start times can improve adolescents’ health and well-being. Emerging evidence suggests that pushing back the first bell can benefit teachers’ and parents’ sleep, too. Finally, that evidence is translating to broad shifts in policy.

In the past 25 years, more than 500 individual school districts in the United States have moved school start times later in response to the research, said Kyla Wahlstrom, PhD, an educational policy researcher at the University of Minnesota, who has been studying start times since the 1990s. But progress was piecemeal until 2014, when the American Academy of Pediatrics helped draw attention to the cause by publishing a position statement stating that middle schools and high schools should begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. In 2019, California passed a law, enacted in 2022, mandating secondary schools start after 8:30 a.m. Florida passed a similar bill in 2023, and several other states are now considering such legislation.

Yet opposition to changing established start times can be surprisingly fierce. “There are always roadblocks. Change is hard,” said Lisa Meltzer, PhD, a pediatric sleep psychologist with Nyxeos Consulting and a professor at National Jewish Health in Denver. But the evidence is clear, she adds. “This is a systemic change that can really make a big difference for so many.”

Well-rested teens

Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 should sleep 8 to 10 hours per day, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Few are logging those hours. Between 2009 and 2021, the percentage of high school students who did not get enough sleep increased from 69% to 77%, according to data from the CDC National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys . In 2021, nearly 70% of 9 th graders, and 83.5% of 12 th graders, failed to get enough sleep.

Many factors are at play in youth getting too little sleep, including heavy homework loads, overscheduled extracurriculars, and the irresistible lure of social media, which has been shown to impact adolescent sleep ( van den Eijnden, R. J. J. M., et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , Vol. 18, No. 3, 2021 ). Yet the biggest factors are biological. During puberty, youth undergo a shift in their circadian clocks. That shift makes it hard for teens to fall asleep until later in the night. Another factor at play is the sleep homeostatic system, which controls the rhythm of sleepiness and wakefulness. The longer you stay awake, the greater the pressure to sleep becomes. There’s evidence that during adolescence, that pressure takes longer to build. Those biological influences famously drive teens to sleep later in the morning. But even sleeping until noon on weekends isn’t enough to make up for the sleep deficit they accumulate night after night during the school week.

Neurological and psychological diagnoses only compound the problem. Sleep problems, including difficulties falling or staying asleep, are common in kids with autism and ADHD. Anxiety and depression can also skew sleep patterns. As rates of these conditions have increased, so has the number of kids coming to school bleary-eyed each morning. Pushing back start times has a direct impact on how much kids sleep. It’s no surprise that teens wake up later when their school day starts later. Notably, though, they tend to go to bed around the same time—resulting in more time under the covers, as Meltzer, Wahlstrom, and colleagues showed in a longitudinal study ( Sleep , Vol. 44, No. 7, 2021 ).

The downstream benefits are significant. One meta-analysis found that compared with students whose schools started between 8 a.m. and 8:29 a.m., those in schools starting between 8:30 a.m. and 8:59 a.m. had longer sleep duration, less negative mood, and better developmental outcomes including socioemotional health, cognitive development, behavioral health, and physical health ( Pediatrics , Vol. 149, No. 6, 2022 ). Another review found later start times were correlated with better attendance, less tardiness, less falling asleep in class, better grades, and fewer car crashes ( Wheaton, A. G., et al., Journal of School Health , Vol. 86, No. 5, 2016 ).

“Adolescent health is significantly improved by having later start times,” Wahlstrom said, with reductions in substance use, suicidality, and depression. “This isn’t a silver bullet to improve test scores. It’s a public health policy.”

Sleep for teachers and parents

Students aren’t the only ones to benefit from sleeping in. Meltzer and Wahlstrom found that after new school start times were implemented in a large suburban district near Denver, more parents of middle and high school students reported sufficient sleep duration, and fewer reported feeling tired ( Sleep Health , Vol. 8, No. 1, 2022 ). For their part, middle and high school teachers reported later wake times, increased sleep duration, and improved daytime functioning ( Journal of School Health , Vol. 93, No. 2, 2022 ). “The high school teachers said this profoundly changed their lives, allowing them to be a more effective teacher,” Wahlstrom said.

It’s an important finding, given that many educators report feeling overstressed and under-rested, said Michelle Perfect, PhD, a professor of school psychology at the University of Arizona and past president of APA Division 16 (School Psychology). Her research has found that inadequate sleep duration and poor sleep quality are common among teachers. In a study not yet published, she tested teachers’ performance on a decision-making task in the lab. On the first task, teachers with poor sleep performed similarly to those who were better rested. But with each subsequent trial, their skills slipped. “By the fifth trial, they were only a few points away [on average] from a score consistent with early-stage dementia,” she said. “Teachers are making decisions constantly as they manage their classrooms. You can imagine the teacher in a classroom for 8 hours getting more and more fatigued by doing simple tasks.”

Start time challenges

Despite the evidence that later start times have broad benefits, making the change can be complicated. To accommodate later starts for teenagers, most districts need to shift elementary start times earlier to balance busing schedules—a move that often gets pushback from families. In general, though, it’s easier for young kids to get used to going to bed and waking up earlier, since they don’t have the biological pressures of puberty fueling their sleep drive. Moreover, while teens benefit from later start times, elementary students don’t seem to suffer negative effects from earlier schedules, Meltzer said. “Their bedtimes are more adjustable.”

Families also have concerns about how new start times might impact after-school schedules. Districts may need to get creative, adjusting sports timetables when playing districts on different schedules and rearranging the child-care offerings available before and after school. But districts that have made the switch have risen to those challenges, Meltzer said, and her research shows that later start times haven’t been found to significantly interfere with teens participating in extracurricular activities or holding after-school jobs ( Frontiers in Sleep , Vol. 1, No. 1044457, 2022 ).

School start times alone won’t solve the problem of too many young people getting too little sleep. “We need to pay attention to both ends of the sleep cycle—what’s happening in the morning, but after school as well,” said Mary Carskadon, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior who studies circadian rhythms at Brown University. That can mean limiting sports and other activities in the evening, avoiding phone use at night, and making sure kids aren’t sacrificing sleep for homework.

Until society does a better job prioritizing sleep, Carskadon said, kids will continue to be under-rested. But in the meantime, changing school start times will be the single biggest way to help the greatest number of adolescents get the rest they need to thrive, Meltzer added. And research findings will continue to help school boards and governments get on board with the change. With more than 27,000 public and private secondary schools in the United States, those efforts will take time. But the impact of later school start times is evident, and youth deserve the chance for better health, Meltzer said. “There are problems that have to be solved, but they’re solvable. It can be done.”

Reconsidering School Start Times

Categories: Academic Performance

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Published: Mar 25, 2024

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