How to Write Professor-Friendly Essays

 BY  TRACY COLLINS

By the time students hit their senior year in college, most of them can write an essay in their sleep. In fact, many of them actually do that. After a while essay writing can become automatic as students focus on hitting the right highlights on a topic and let everything else fall by the wayside. Practice makes perfect. Or it is just the experience that leads students to knowing what professors expect to see in the essays and giving them what they want. Of course, there is no universal template that can solve your college essay trouble forever. That would be a) too easy and b) will annihilate the whole meaning of essay writing which lays in development of skills and creativity. In fact, students who focus on content and forget about style, formatting and other details risk to sabotage their grade and send their essay right to the back of the grading curve.

Some professors may disagree, but there are some rules, or secrets, or whatever we will call them, that can melt any professor’s heart and get you a high grade for essay. While instructors naturally value quality content, they are also looking for tell-tale signs that students craft each essay carefully and adhere to the style and formatting standards.

Rule 1. Be Attentive to Guidelines

To understand what professors expect from your essay assignment it is worth to learn more about essay revision and grading process. Since class sizes and teaching styles can vary widely, it’s nearly impossible to know how many essays the average student writes over the course of their academic life. It’s reasonable to assume a single student writes well over 100 essays by the time they leave university. Their professors, on the other hand, will have graded thousands that year and will have thousands more to go. Therefore professors try to provide clear guidelines that will make grading process easier. Students are expected to follow these guidelines and show they value professor’s time and efforts.

Rule 2. Get Rid of Extra Text

With so many essays submitted, how can professors be expected to keep up? Even if they skim-read most of the essays, the time involved in processing such amount of papers is staggering. A recent Reddit discussion revealed that professors and their staff (usually TAs) do in fact read through every essay. One TA reported that he had gone through more than 2,000 essays a semester with the help of only two other TAs. So what do these graders look for? Usually instructors skim read student writing to grasp the adherence to guidelines and understanding of topic.

In fact, many professors agree that skim reading gives the ability to establish a grade while closer inspection determines the difference between a B and a B+. Therefore, it is a good idea to structure your essay so the key points are visible when skim reading and are clear enough and get the message across. Get rid of extra words and phrases, use clear constructions and stick to the point. Striking the right balance between the quality of your content and your style is often the key to a good grade.

Rule 3. Formatting Is Important!

Essay writing is not about formatting, of course, but it influences the first impression of your paper. If you think that if your essay has original idea and witty language constructions, nobody cares about the font size and margins – you are wrong. Teachers pay much attention to formatting when grading essays as it is an academic work and in case you are not assigned with the creative writing which allows more or less freedom you should stick to the standards. You’d better double check and ensure your essay formatting adheres to the guidelines put forth at the beginning of your class or to the standards set by the Modern Language Association (MLA). The example of basic essay formatting guidelines:

 

• One-inch page margins on all sides
• Double-spaced paragraphs
• Header placed one-half inch from the top of each page. This header should include the author’s last name and page number
• Single spaced list of the author’s name and the name of the professor, course title and the date of the paper on the first or title page
• References, notes or works cited page which begins on a separate page at the end of the paper

Note that students who manipulate font size or kerning in order to hit the page minimum risk to end up with poor grade and get to professor’s ‘blacklist’ even if the content of essay is impecable.

Rule 4. Mind Your Style

 First and foremost, professors want to see the correct essay style and structure depending on the topic and essay type students have to tackle. This is the first thing professors notice so nailing it gets you off on the right foot. In many cases, the style meant to be used in the essay is laid out in the directions or has been established beforehand. If you’ve lost the original assignment or haven’t paid much attention to the guidelines, it may be possible to figure out which essay style and structure should be used based on characteristic features of essay type assigned. Here is a short prompt for you to differentiate between essay types.

Narrative essays are written in the first person and are meant to tell a story, typically your own one. Essay questions that want a narrative response will ask the student directly about their own experience. For example, typical narrative essay topic may sound like ‘The way your childhood influenced your approach to higher education’, ‘What was your most painful relationships lesson’ and other similar topics.

 

• Descriptive essays are just what they sound like – papers aim to describe a person, place or concept in details. Descriptive essay questions may vary, focusing on specific concepts such as describing the best study practices, or giving information on well-known personality as well as describing some procedures such as protecting your identity online. In each case you should keep in mind that a descriptive essay has to give the most detailed picture of the notion described.

 

• Expository essays lay out the facts in a balanced way. The assignment for expository essays may contain cue phrases such as ‘compare and contrast’, ‘describe the cause and effect relationship’ or ‘track the evolution of‘. Expository questions won’t ask you to take a side on an issue, simply to lay out each point of view or how cultural attitudes have changed on an issue over the years.

 

• Persuasive essays may also be known as argumentative essays. In this type of essay you should leave emotions out and base your arguments or views on the solid facts. Persuasive essay assignments will require writing about  hotly charged topics such as gun rights, domestic spying or societal issues such as homelessness and civil rights.

 

Rule 5. Use Proper Language

Professors and staff grading essays are looking for signs that students understand the subject and are familiar enough with it to draw their own conclusions. Professors want to know students can speak clearly about the topic, substantiate any claims they make with relevant facts from current research or literature and apply that knowledge to create detailed arguments about the topic or cast an eye to the future. Achieving that level of clarity and eloquence means producing a well-written paper.  An effective way to achieve that is by making smart use of language. The following list set phrases may come in handy:

 

• There have been dissenters to the view that …
• It might be (convincingly) argued that
• There are five main arguments that can be advanced to support …
• Although there has been relatively little research on [your topic], anecdotal evidence supports …
• The data appears / appear to suggest that
• On these grounds, we can argue that

These phrases can help steer and solidify your writing, but they should never be used to the point of excess. Using clichés and trite phrases throughout your essay won’t show an understanding of the material – it will show an ability to parrot what you’ve read or seen before.

Rule 6. Never Skip the Revision

Before you hit ‘Save’ and print the final version, check your essay thoroughly to make sure you’ve covered all the basics. Professors hate when you break the guidelines or submit the writing that reminds more of a draft than the polished final version of academic essay. The more time and efforts you spend on revision the less is your risk to miss out something important. It is a good idea for the students to find essay revision checklists on educational sites like EssayUniverse.org. Using such checklists a student will revise essay like a professor and will be sure that nothing important is missed out.

Writing a successful essay means balancing between meaning and format, adherence to strict guidelines and revealing creativity, proving your understanding of a topic and ability to defend your point of view. Students should try to impress the professors during the initial essay skim and show that they did their best to meet the guidelines. That will boost the chance to get a good grade and create a positive image of a diligent student.

Author’s Info

Tracy Collins is a writing instructor, education enthusiast and the author of the site Essay Universe on academic essay writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Tips on How College Students Get Motivated

 

 By Oksana Sbitneva

Have you ever sat down surrounded by a bunch of books and stared at them until you fall asleep? You know there’s no time to put off the studying process but you just have neither will nor energy to read at least some words? You feel tired and emotionally exhausted and the material you have to search (and study as well) seems to be a really high mountain to climb? Or, who knows, maybe it’s the weather that puts you in a nostalgic mood and all you want is to get thickly muffled in a rug with a cup of herbal tea? Hopefully these simple ideas will help you to get motivated and get all those tasks done within the deadline.

Set Special Goals…the Realistic Ones!

If you start feeling slightly nervous when the question is about the amount of work you have to get done, make sure to set some realistic goals. Let’s say, you have got 11 000 words to write for your research paper. Divide the task into more manageable parts. Make certain to set an individual deadline for every segment of work. It is highly important to remember that while A+ is awesome, all you’re in need of is a pass! Just accept that one can’t do everything and try to work out what is really possible.

If you feel like this is not going to work out, do not hesitate to get help! Approach your college tutor for some professional learning guidance. What is more, there is always online assistance available for every student! Various Exact Science, Art, rush essays writing services representatives are ready to provide you with a helping hand. And make sure to ask for help sooner rather than later for the reason that there is always a certain deadline assigned with every task you get.

Please Yourself with Little Awards

It’s amazing how positive the effect of gratification can be! If you need to get urgently motivated to study, make sure to set a specific goal and think about the most suitable prize that you will get once the goal is completed. The technique is pretty simple but you will be astonished by its effectiveness! Through rewarding yourself, whenever the set goal is reached, your brain is diving into the positive emotions. This, in turn, makes you realize that a good effort results in a great reward.

Dance Your Inspiration Out

Music is a great way to wake your inspiration and motivation up, as well as bring some positive emotions down the way. If picked wisely, any song get you absolutely motivated to deal with the studying and provide you with the feeling that you can actually do anything.  Of course music is one of the simplest techniques to get motivation. However, you should be careful when choosing the right song. While some people can work listening to some good old ballads, the others prefer AC/DC or Marilyn Manson as the right background tune. Give preference to the songs that you find inspiring and motivating. They will 100% energize your whole body and ensure that impossible is nothing!

Nothing Lasts For Ever…Remember That!

There are many students that are overburden with the school and college tasks and feel like there will be no light at the end of the tunnel. They are about to throw in the towel in regards to the college. If you’re one of them, keep reminding yourself that it won’t last till the end of your days and all you have to do is to keep going.

Author’s bio:

Oksana is a  student of English literature department and a freelance journalist. As a current student she is interested in trends in education and she would like to share her experience with community.

You may contact Oksana via e-mail: oksana.sbitneva.1408@gmail.com

My Nominee For Best Book of Year on Universities

Arizona State announced today a credit bearing freshman year entirely on line. This is one of the many innovations by ASU President Michael Crowe

See also: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/22/arizona-state-edx-team-offer-freshman-year-online-through-moocs

But you need to read his book to get the full story on his innovative ideas and actions

Designing the New American University by Michael Crow and William B. Dabars

Arizona State University President Michael Crow and William Dabars, who is a senior research fellow at the New American University, examine the future evolution of the American research university by highlighting an institutional model committed to academic excellence, inclusiveness of a broad demographic, and maximum societal impact. This book is a guide to building the colleges and universities we need for the 21st century.

 

Tools and Resources for Students to Stay Organized in College

 

By Jane Hurst

As a college student, chances are that you have a lot going on in your life, and there are always things that you seem to forget to do. What you need are tools and resources to help you get better organized, and stay that way. Here are some of our top choices for organizational tools for college students.

• Pocket – Use Pocket to keep track of your personal learning network (PLN). Bookmark articles so you can reference them later, add tags to articles to make them easy to find, and more. This lets you read the articles you want to read when you actually have the time to read them.
• Quizlet – This free app is great for students who need help in their studies. In fact, over 20 million students are using this app to compile flashcards that will help them with their exams, and with their studies in general. Set things up so the cards come up in a certain order, or make them random to really test your knowledge.
• Sunrise – This is an alternative to the calendar apps you are using now, or if you aren’t already using one, the best one for you to check out. The interface is crisp and clean, and it will integrate with many platforms, including iCloud, Microsoft Outlook, and Google Calendar. It will also connect with LinkedIn, Facebook, and many other apps.
• Khan Academy – Here you will find free video libraries, as well as assessments and interactive challenges for students. This is also a great site for parents, teachers, and coaches to use so they can keep track of what students are actually learning.
• Black Mold Removal – A lot of dorms are located in older buildings, and it’s not uncommon for these buildings to have sick building syndrome. Mold is one of the causes, which is bad for your health. It can lead to illness and breathing problems, which are going to make it more difficult for you to study and get good grades. To get rid of mold in your dorm, contact this service.
• Voxer – This awesome walkie-talkie app is great because it allows you to connect with colleagues or your PLN so you can share information quickly and easily.
• Coursera – This app lets you find free online courses from some of the best universities in the world. You will find a huge range of topics, from biology to math to computer science to humanities and a whole lot more. Whether you want to pad your resume, make a career move, or simply want to expand your knowledge, this is a great tool to use to help you find the courses you want.
• Common Core – This tool offers the Common Core State Standards app from MasteryConnect that lets you see standards from your mobile devices. Enter keywords and search the standards, or tap the screen to jump between various study areas and grades. This is the official website of CCSS, and it makes it really easy to find information when you want it, without having to wade through a bunch of paperwork because you’ve printed out articles to read later on.
• UDACITY – This comes from Stanford University, when they offered the free class, “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence”. There was so much interest in this class that UDACITY was created to provide courseware that is even more open.
• Remember the Milk – This tool will ensure that you never forget to complete a task again. This app can be synced with your calendar and email, and you can use the prioritizing function to schedule your important tasks to be done. You will need to have an Internet connection to use this app, but it is free and available for all mobile platforms.

Byline:

Jane Hurst has been working in education for over 5 years as a teacher. She loves sharing her knowledge with students, is fascinated about edtech and loves reading, a lot.

High costs, uncertain benefits: What do Americans without a college degree think about postsecondary education?

Andrew P. Kelly, AEI Read Online Printable Copy   Key points Many adults without a college degree aspire to some higher credential, but most overestimate the cost of higher education, which could deter them from furthering their education. Many adults without a degree in our survey were uncertain as to the wage returns to different postsecondary pathways. Those who did offer estimates tend to see the bachelor’s degree as the most valuable credential and certificates as the least valuable. Adults without a postsecondary degree do not always see the value in returning to school, and efforts to encourage education and training should clarify the benefits to various postsecondary pathways. Read this publication online View a printable copy

 

Should Community Colleges Offer 4 Year Degrees? : Am Overview Of The Issues And Status

 

 

New Longitudinal Study Of 10th Grade Postsecondary Attainment

The Changing Ecology Of Higher Education

By Carol Christ, UC Berkeley

Michael Kirst and Mitchell Stevens’ recent book, Remaking College: The changing ecology of higher education, asks nothing less than that we reconceive the character of American higher education.

They believe that our attention to elite colleges has led us to ignore the schools doing the lion’s share of undergraduate instruction – community colleges, comprehensive public universities and for-profit institutions.

Such attention has also blinded us to changes in patterns of early adulthood. Many students move in and out of college, integrating their education into complex personal and work lives. They are older, and they often attend school part-time.

By imagining the traditional college student as the norm – the student who goes to a residential college, away from home, immediately after graduating from high school, and who completes his or her degree in four full-time years – we distort the picture of American higher education and fail to attend adequately to the needs of the invisible majority of students.

The subtitle of Kirst and Stevens’ book – “the changing ecology of higher education” – is methodologically significant. They insist that higher education is an ecology – “as comprising myriad service providers, instructional and administrative labour, funders and regulators interacting in a messy system of educational production”.

They feel we must attend to this ecology if we are to make adequate sense of the enormous changes unsettling higher education. They are critical of the methodologies that social scientists have used to study higher education – cohort analysis, assuming linear models of students moving through college, models that fit well with an interest in social mobility and with linear regression analysis.

Even the traditional classification of colleges and universities, developed by the Carnegie Foundation and now reified in ranking systems such as US News & World Report, has a distorting impact, the book argues, as schools may have membership in a number of different categories.

Although there may be homogeneity among elite research universities, lower-tier broad access institutions have much more heterogeneity. Our classification system obscures these differences and even exerts a normative force.

Imagining the future

Remaking College is a collection of essays by a group of writers on higher education whom Kirst and Stevens assembled, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to engage in a series of discussions on “the fate and future of US higher education at this moment in history”.

They chose the most provocative writers they could identify, regardless of field, and asked them to reimagine “how the study of college might be pursued in light of the seismic changes taking place in US higher education”.

Although attention to digital technologies is not absent from the book – indeed, one of its most provocative essays, by Anya Kamenetz, is entitled “DIY U”, about a future world in which students may be able to create their own degrees from online resources – this is not primarily a book about college in the cloud. Rather, it seeks to shift our attention to broad access institutions and the students who attend them.

Our attention to making the student bodies of elite colleges and universities more diverse, Regina Deil-Amen argues in her essay, excludes and makes invisible the realities of most non-traditional students with non-traditional pathways, thus narrowing the diversity agenda.

Invisible students

Kirst and Stevens address their book principally to scholars in the field of higher education. They call for a different research agenda, one that attends to the complexity and messiness of the higher education “system” in the United States, that seeks to understand how it is changing, and that focuses attention on the invisible majority of students and strategies to help them succeed. However, anyone interested in US higher education can learn much from this book.

Indeed, Kirst and Stevens raise the question of whether the greater public scrutiny devoted to higher education may lead to a kind of governmental intervention that has been more characteristically exercised in K-12 (primary and secondary education).

Kirst’s essay in this volume analyses the conditions that led to policy changes in K-12 and speculates about those that might lead to governmentally initiated changes in higher education.

Accreditation, Kirst and Stevens believe, is a weak coercive instrument; they wonder whether what they term a “policy window” may open for governmentally mandated policy changes in higher education.

For the prospective student coming from outside the United States, Remaking College gives a richer, fuller and more complex sense of the landscape of American higher education – the ecology as Kirst and Stevens term it. It thus may lead to a broader sense of choices, although this is not a book about college choice.

It also provides a fuller understanding of the space college occupies in adult lives, as one factor in a web of interdependencies.

“Lives today have irregular rhythms,” Richard Settersten Jr argues in his essay “The New Landscape of Early Adulthood”. Four-year institutions, in his view, are not the only route to a successful adulthood.

Perhaps international students, like domestic students, may take more advantage of “the most varied and flexible academic ecology the world has ever known”.

Carol Christ is director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education, or CSHE, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Job Searching:Where Should Graduates Start From?

By Julie Petersen

 

Over the years, the job market has become more and more challenging to the freshly graduate students. Graduates are finding a hard time when it comes to getting their first time employment. According to the infographic about popular professions among grades, in addition to giving information about the most popular jobs, it also gives the stats about the challenge faced by graduate students in relation to their job search. Out of a possible 100%, only 50% managed to become employed on a full time basis.

How to get started   

A strategy is required when it comes to searching for a job whether you are looking for your first or the tenth job. You need to know where to start, acquaint yourself with the industries that are hiring and make the most of the different social media channels. The fact that the world’s economy is not currently at its best, jobs are becoming hard to find with time and it will only take those with the will power to succeed and the enthusiasm to push through to land on a lucrative job opportunity. Even with that said, the job market is not all desolate. If you come up with a good strategy to approach the job market, you’ll not only land a stimulating job but get one that is in line with your passion and interest. Preparations should start early enough; probably while on your last semester of college. This will get you psychologically prepared for the real world.    

a)    Focus on getting a job that will help you land a your dream job

If your attention is to entirely land your dream job, chances are that you might get frustrated along the way if in case it takes you longer than you hard anticipated. You need to start somewhere. While still having your dream job in mind, as a freshly graduate, you may want to consider lowering your expectations and land a job that will in turn springboard you to your dream job. This will not make or break your career but most certainly it will help you in the meantime. What you need to know is that choosing your first job is not an automatic indication of your future. Use that opportunity to explore the different fields and possibly build your network.

b)    Make arrangements to meet up with career services  

As a job seeker, you need to make this your top priority because these career services are a wealth of experience. These services can provide you with information regarding to internal job boards and self-assessment tests among others. Perhaps one of their most lucrative service which they offer is to link you with career experts who will you a lot when it comes to reviewing your CV, help you with your 90 second pitch, conduct mock interviews and help you to link up with your alumni.

c)     Establish your network

Anyone doing an active job search needs to consider everyone they interact with as a potential network source because you just never know where your conversation with them will take you. Whenever you get a chance, mention what you are thinking about to your peers, professors and even you fellow students. Failing to do so is a critical mistake that might cost you. To increase your chances of landing your first job after college, you need to establish your connections as early as possible. Use social media to find new contacts concerning your job search, where Linkedin is considered to be one of the most effective networks to establish connections.

d)    Pick a career

You need to know what you really want to pursue as your career so that it becomes easier for you to lay your foundation. If you feel sort of stuck over your career path, you might want to consider doing research on the companies and the roles you feel you are best suited for. After identifying this, you can then start building it. You need to build on your experience if you want to be successful with all your career goals.

These are basic but a few of the tips that can help a graduate student with their first job search. Besides the above, you also need to know how to write a captivating graduate CV, know how to draft a cover letter and know how to approach interviews.

Author’s Bio

Julie Petersen is a young blogger and writer, who features the latest educational and career trends in her writings. At present time she works at Essaymama.com as a writing consultant and a blog editor.

Why Colleges Should Care About Common Core

BY Harold Levine and Michael Kirst For Education Week

Now that the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics have been adopted in much of the country, states are busy with their implementation. We have no doubt that, over time, these new K-12 standards will produce larger numbers of college-ready (and career-ready) students—as promised. College-bound freshmen can expect to head off to their colleges of choice ready for the deeply engaging learning experiences that await them.

Or can they? We are concerned that the common-core learning experiences of these students can be a bridge to a more enriching educational experience only if the colleges and universities they are entering are ready for them. For the most part, we have doubts that they are.

Our observations and conversations with colleagues nationally indicate that, in general, higher education has only recently begun to appreciate the breadth of the potential impacts of the common core on their own practices, from admissions to instruction to student outcomes. In a recent letter to California’s state board of education, the leaders of all four public and private higher education segments wrote to affirm their support for the implementation of the common core: “We believe California’s implementation of the common-core standards and aligned assessments has the potential to dramatically improve college readiness and help close the preparation gap that exists for California students.”

Such across-the-board, state-level higher education support for a set of K-12 standards makes history, certainly in California and quite likely in the nation. Even so, California is not alone in higher education in making a public commitment to the common core; the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, and a new organization named Higher Ed for Higher Standards, among others, have signed on. The support seems to be growing, despite state and local politics around state standards and high-stakes assessments tied to accountability.

In fact, higher education is increasingly coming to focus on what many of the proponents of the common core had hoped would be the positive outcomes of its adoption for colleges and universities: the reduction of remediation and associated costs, the alignment of standards of the two systems, a way to benchmark the high school common-core assessments for admissions and placement purposes, and the opportunity to rethink the curricula used in teacher education programs.

“The common-core learning experiences of college-bound students can be a bridge to a more enriching educational experience only if the institutions they are entering are ready for them.”

It is also true that some faculty members are familiar with the common core because they had a role in shaping the standards. Others have a voice in their states in defining what “college readiness” means in the new assessments. And the research of many academicians was used both to identify college-ready knowledge and skills that would be central to the common core and to help construct new testing regimens consistent with the new standards. Finally, in some states—including California’s two- and four-year systems—faculty members are having a role in setting the criteria for course and subject-matter admissions requirements in English and mathematics that align with the common core.

So far, so good. But we have a different concern, one that stems from the historical disjuncture and lack of alignment between K-12 and higher education. As common-core implementation continues to expand and evolve in the K-12 system, how are the thousands of higher education faculty members who teach freshman and sophomore courses in English and mathematics (and the sciences, of course) preparing for their newly admitted students (roughly 3.3 million first-time freshmen projected for 2016), who will almost certainly have different expectations of what and how they learn and are taught? It is worrisome that we do not yet see the broad-based discussions, let alone planning initiatives, among either higher education leaders (including deans and department chairs) or, especially, their faculties and academic senates, to alter the curriculum or the pedagogy for all those introductory courses to take advantage of the new style of learning and teaching engendered by the common core.

An informed and engaged faculty is crucial to the success of common-core implementation. That’s why California was awarded a grant by the National Governors Association to focus on the role of higher education in this transition. The project has brought together representatives of the governor’s office, legislature, department of education, commission on teacher credentialing, and the four higher education systems to convene as a state team. The team identified a need for better communication with faculty members about the expectations for more rigor and instructional complexity within the standards, and assessment-system goals and expectations before institutions can begin to think seriously about the implications for placement; curricular alignment; and other complex, related matters.

What will be characteristic of common-core students entering college are learning experiences featuring more inquiry-based learning and collaborative problem-solving, sequenced skills by grade level and learning across the curriculum, and more hands-on work. In addition to the essential skills in math, students will focus on “conceptual” math, that is, understanding the reasoning behind the correct problem solution rather than the algorithm. They will also have experienced applying mathematical concepts to real-world problems, and will have been focused on fewer subject areas. Finally, students will be used to testing on computers and, in states with testing developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, testing that is adaptive.

These are not likely to be the skill sets or course-taking experiences called for in the majority of today’s college-level freshman and sophomore courses. Rather, these tend to be large-enrollment, minimally interactive, and textbook-based. For the sciences, there is likely to be a lab section, but as an adjunct to the lectures and where the experiments have known outcomes. Memorization of materials in the arts and sciences at the college level is critical to performing well on tests, as is performing procedures.

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The shortcomings of undergraduate instruction, particularly in the sciences, have been known and debated for some time. Such peerless professional organizations as the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, and the American Institute of Biological Sciences have all raised important questions about undergraduate teaching in their fields. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has for a number of years sponsored a grant competition to try to change the trajectory of life sciences curricula and pedagogy. In a similar vein, the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society have demonstrated interests in changing undergraduate teaching to make mathematics more accessible to students; both have formally supported the common core for mathematics. Finally, for the last several years, the annual conference of the Modern Language Association has had sessions that discuss how the common core will affect introductory college courses.

The support of all of these professional organizations, as well as foundations and government agencies such as the National Science Foundation, is critical to any changes in how undergraduate education is delivered. If leaders in the disciplines decry current teaching and curricular practices, there is a real likelihood for change and much-needed alignment with the common core’s principles.

We believe that with the support at the classroom level by university faculty and departments, and more concerted efforts toward the alignment of K-12 standards with higher education admission and “knowledge and skill” requirements, the common core that is implemented in our public K-12 schools will lead to a far more meaningful college learning experience for generations to come. It’s now time to ensure that when the common core creates more “college ready” students, the colleges they enter are ready for them—and what they know and don’t know, and how they have been taught to learn.

Harold G. Levine is the dean of the school of education at the University of California, Davis. Michael W. Kirst is the president of the California state board of education and a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.