Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium transmitted to humans via a tick bite.  The CDC (Center for Disease Control) claims that Lyme Borreliosis is the most common and fastest growing infectious illness in the United States.  The disease can cause a variety of flu-like symptoms such as fever, achy joints, fatigue and headache.  Additionally, Anaplasmosis/Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Bartonella, Tularemia, and more recently, Borrelia Miyamotoi (a distant relative of Lyme Borreliosis) are other recognized tick-borne infectious diseases in the United States.

Experts have been unable to agree for decades on whether a case definition called chronic Lyme disease exists. Yet, some Lyme victims, even after taking the standard treatment of antibiotics, continue to suffer long-term and often serious health problems for years after they first contract the disease.  Does chronic Lyme disease exist or is the condition which some patients experience an autoimmune or nervous system response triggered by the infection, or indeed is it a bit of both?  These are some of the major questions researchers are trying to figure out as they take on the enormous challenges of identifying better Lyme diagnostic tools and treatment plans for what is becoming a growing global public health crisis.

Today in The Global Search for Education, I take a look at tick-borne illnesses in Finland.  I am joined by Docent Jarmo Oksi, Finland’s leading researcher in the field of Lyme disease, who is based at the University of Turku in Finland.  In addition, I welcome Markku Kuusi, Chief Medical Officer from Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare.

What is the annual incidence of Lyme disease in Finland and in Europe at large?

Jarmo: Laboratory reports on Lyme Borreliosis cases (based on positive serology) have doubled in ten years and are now about 1500. The estimated number of Lyme Borreliosis infection cases is about 4 times this number – i.e. estimated incidence in Finland is 5000-6000 annually (population 5.5 million), which is about 100 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. However there are areas in the Southwestern Archipelago with incidence of 1000 per 100,000 inhabitants per year.

Markku: Based on the National Infectious Disease Register, the incidence of Lyme disease in Finland has been about 30/100,000 during the past few years. In terms of the annual incidence in other Nordic countries, in Norway it has been about 6/100,000 and in Denmark, 1 – 2/100,000.  It is hard to believe that there is such a difference in actual incidence, so that is why I believe the diagnostic criteria are truly different.  The weakness of the Finnish surveillance system is that we don’t collect any clinical information on patients, we only get notifications from laboratories; so it is difficult to say whether the symptoms of our cases really are compatible with Lyme Borreliosis.

Would you comment on the annual incidence of any of the other tick-borne illnesses which are endemic in Finland in addition to Lyme.

Markku: Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE) is another important tick-borne disease in Finland.  The incidence has been particularly high on Aland Island and therefore TBE vaccination is included in the national immunization program.  Before the vaccination program, the annual incidence was up to 100/100,000 population.  Now it has decreased substantially.  It seems that in other parts of Finland (apart from Aland Island), the incidence is increasing, and therefore other areas may also be included in the immunization program in the near future (for example, the Archipelago around the city of Turku).

Do you believe that chronic Lyme disease exists or that it is a misnomer for other diseases triggered by Lyme disease?

Markku: This is a difficult question.  I think it is clear that some patients have a prolonged course of the disease which may last several months.  The most experienced clinicians in Finland think that a continuing Borrelia infection is possible if the patient has not received adequate treatment for the illness, resulting in disseminated infection.  Even after adequate treatment, some patients have symptoms due to immunological mechanisms, but it is very hard to say whether these symptoms are related to Borrelia infection or to some other causes.

If you believe in chronic Lyme disease, what do you believe are the most effective ways to treat it?

Jarmo: If you mean chronic infection, I think that this entity after standard antibiotic therapy is very very seldom (I see about one case in five years). However, if detected – e.g. with cultivation or PCR (the most specific way to detect), the treatment I give is individual antibiotic treatment – maybe double the length compared to the initial treatment.

What do you believe is the most effective way to treat symptoms triggered by the infection, e.g. chronic auto-immune reaction?

Jarmo: During the first months I wait for gradual improvement.  If there is no improvement after 6 to 12 months, I then start low-dose corticosteroid treatment for a certain subset of patients.  Some other subsets may get help from, for example, amitriptyline, which raises the threshold for pain sensation.

What tests currently available to the general public, other than the Western Blot test, do you believe provide a better degree of certainty?

Jarmo: PCR (and culture) are useful in some situations (culture only in research settings), but even PCR is not sensitive enough to detect all cases – e.g. in CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) of neuroborreliosis cases. Besides Western Blots, ELISA tests based on C6 peptide are generally good as confirmatory tests.

Are you aware of any other promising tests in development?

Markku: Last year, a Finnish group reviewed the diagnostic tests in our country.  It is my understanding that right now there are not unfortunately any new reliable tests available.  So we shall have to wait awhile for them.

To what research do you believe scientists around the world must give priority in order to overcome the challenges the public faces with finding a cure for Lyme disease?

Markku: I think it is important to better understand the mechanism behind the sequelae of acute borreliosis.  Therefore, we need more research on the immunology of the disease.  In other words, how does the bacteria actually cause joint symptoms or neurologic symptoms.  I think this will help us to develop better diagnostic tests and hopefully better drugs.  I believe antibiotics are not the only solution.

What is the focus of your research and how does it relate to the challenges of identification and cure of Lyme disease and diseases triggered by Lyme?

Jarmo: We are currently enrolling patients into a study on neuroborreliosis: comparison of IV Ceftriaxone for 3 weeks vs. oral Doximycin for 4 weeks. Hopefully this study (with control CSF specimens) and long follow-ups of patients also will give us new knowledge on markers of how to identify patients with reactive symptomatology triggered by Lyme neuroborreliosis.

How can technology help us find a cure for Lyme disease faster? 

Markku: This is not really a field in which I am knowledgeable, but I believe that better molecular and immunological methods may give possibilities for new diagnostics and for the development of new drugs.  What I really hope is that there will be better and more specific laboratory tests for Lyme Borreliosis in the future.  I think that one of the key issues is to harmonize the laboratory methods so that we can get a better understanding of the epidemiology of Lyme disease in Finland.

For more information about Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases, and Prevention and Protection, go to http://www.TBDAlliance.org.

Photographs courtesy of CDC, National Institute for Health and Welfare Finland, and Docent Jarmo Oksi.

In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today. 

The Global Search for Education Community Page

C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.

Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld

Texas considers a proposal to reverse grade inflation

By Thomas K. Lindsay

Grade inflation is real, rampant, and ravaging a university near you. It would be a scandal if more people knew about it.

A bill filed in March in the Texas legislature looks to ensure that more do. Called “Honest Transcript,” it is a model of brevity, at only a little more than 300 words. Yet its sponsors expect it to shake up higher education in the state and beyond. They believe that when the public gets wind of higher education’s widespread grade-inflating practices, it will put a stop to them. Others, less hopeful, think that public transparency will merely reveal public indifference.

The bill would require all public colleges and universities to include on student transcripts, alongside the individual student’s grade, the average grade for the entire class. This would help potential employers determine whether a high grade-point average signified talent and achievement or merely revealed that the student had taken easy courses.

The Honest Transcript bill was introduced in the Texas house by Republican Scott Turner, a freshman representative and former NFL cornerback (Redskins, Chargers, Broncos), and in the state senate by veteran Republican Dan Patrick. Supporters argue that its modest transparency requirement would show how grade inflation has severely degraded the significance of college degrees.

A half-century of grade inflation has been demonstrated repeatedly by national studies. Today, an A is the most common grade given in college — 43 percent of all grades, as opposed to 15 percent in the 1960s, according to Stuart Rojstaczer, formerly of Duke, and Christopher Healy, of Furman, who conducted a 50-year survey of grading. Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, has also studied the trajectory of college grades. He finds that in 1969, 7 percent of two- and four-year college students said their GPA was an A-minus or higher; by 2009, 41 percent of students did. Having been either a college student, a professor, or an administrator for nearly 30 years, I am not surprised by such findings. Nor, I suspect, is anyone else in the academy. And neither are employers. People who make hiring decisions here in Texas complain to me that grade inflation makes it virtually impossible to rank job applicants accurately, because nearly all have A or B averages.

It gets worse. A 2011 national study published as the book Academically Adrift, by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, found that our puffed-up prodigies are learning much too little. Thirty-six percent of the students it surveyed show little or no increase in their ability for critical thinking, complex reasoning, and clear writing after four years of college. Small wonder that employers are frustrated, with the annual parade of impressive transcripts hiding empty heads.

Employer concerns notwithstanding, universities have a higher calling than simply preparing future workers. Almost all of them proclaim in their mission statements that they seek to enhance their students’ capacity for independent thought. In undermining this, their noblest calling (which harkens back to Socrates’ declaration that “the unexamined life is not worth living”), grade inflation is especially harmful: It eats away at the essence and morale of an academic institution. For Rojstaczer and Healy, “when college students perceive that the average grade in a class will be an A, they do not try to excel. It is likely that the decline in student study hours, student engagement, and literacy are partly the result of diminished academic expectations.”

This, then, is the academic reality whose veil the bill would lift: Too many students are learning too little, yet their grades have never been so high.

via Higher Education Revalued | National Review Online.

by Donna Garner

4.15.13

 

ACTION STEPS ARE POSTED IN RED!

 

 

I hate to say that I told you so, but “I told you so.”  (Please go to the World Net Daily link from 4.13.13 posted at the end of this e-mail – “Homeschoolers and private school students alarmed at plans to track all students.”)

 

 

I began warning the country about the federal takeover by the Obama administration of the public schools way back on 12.11.09 — “Children and the Future of Our Country” – by Donna Garner —/blogs/7704.html.

 

Naturally, I was vilified and accused of being a conspiracy theorist.  Over and over again, I explained that the Common Core Standards/Race to the Top would produce:

National standards  →  national tests  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  →  national indoctrination of our public school children  →  national database

 

Soon other alert Americans began to see the approaching “train wreck,” and experts far more articulate than I started speaking out.  Here is an Anti-Common Core Standards resource list that contains some of the most outstanding ones:

LIST OF ANTI-COMMON CORE STANDARDS RESOURCES – COMPILED FROM 12.11.09 THROUGH 4.14.13

 

http://nocompromisepac.ning.com/profiles/blogs/updated-4-14-13-anti-common-core-standards-resources-list-by

 

Then on 2.24.11, Henry W. Burke and I wrote a comprehensive report with documentation that explained in detail exactly how the Obama administration was nationalizing our public schools – “Let’s Get Off the National Standards Train” by Henry W. Burke and Donna Garner – http://alinahan.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/lets-get-off-the-national-standards-train-2/ .

 

We who saw what was coming were not crazy then, and we certainly are not crazy now. The only difference is that now that it is almost too late, people all over the country are beginning to wake up and realize the eminent danger that is almost upon our children and the future of our nation.

 

ACTION STEPS:

#1:  We have begged Congressmen to shut down the funding for Common Core Standards Initiative/Race to the Top. So far, they have been totally aloof, ignoring the obvious.  Please help us get their attention.  It will take thousands and thousands of American citizens contacting their Congressmen to get them to take action.

#2:  Also, please sign any and all petitions that take a position against the Common Core Standards/Race to the Top.  There is strength in numbers of people:

http://www.nccivitas.org/2013/common-core-what-can-we-do/

http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?SEC={2CC263EB-DB6D-446B-9B0E-FC0A4C2778D3}&Type=B_BASIC

http://cuacc.org/Petition%20to%20Stop%20the%20Implementation%20of%20Common%20Core%20State%20Standards%20Initiative.pdf

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no-mo-common-core/

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/citizens-of-utah-can-speak-out-against-the-common-core/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/louisianians-against-common-core/

http://www.change.org/petitions/florida-state-legislature-stop-data-collection-on-our-children-through-common-core-standards-2

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/we-vote-no-to-common-core/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=button

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/south-carolinians-oppose-common-core-state/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-common-core-in-new-york-state/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=button

 

#3:  Subscribe to various anti-Common Core Standards organizations so that you can stay up on the latest efforts to fight Common Core Standards/Race to the Top:

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/

http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/

http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/stop-common-core-presentation-by-christel-swasey/

http://pioneerinstitute.org/videos/jamie-gass-on-common-core-national-standards/

http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/kansas-joins-anti-common-core-fight-cjonline-com/

http://restoreokpubliceducation.com/node/751

http://www.auee.org/states-who-oppose-common-core.html

http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/tag/teachers-against-common-core/

http://www.flagainstcommoncoreedu.org/

http://commoncorestopit.blogspot.com/p/connecting-states.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pennsylvanians-Against-Common-Core/566916409995216

http://conservativeteachersofamerica.com/tag/common-core-state-standards/

http://cincinnatiteaparty.org/common-core-information-forum/

http://www.ceopa.org/education-standards.aspx

http://usagainstcommoncore.blogspot.com/p/states-by-group-who-oppose-common-core.html

https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonUnite

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Common-Core-in-Tennessee/322248557894269

https://www.facebook.com/ArkansasAgainstCommonCore

 

#4:  Learn more about the tremendous financial cost to state taxpayers the Common Core Standards will put upon your state.  Sometimes appealing to people’s economic concerns will get their attention:  “States’ Taxpayers Cannot Afford Common Core Standards” by Henry W. Burke, 10.15.12 — http://educationviews.org/states-taxpayers-cannot-afford-common-core-standards/.

 

4.13.13 – world net daily

 

HOMESCHOOLERS ALARMED BY PLANS TO TRACK STUDENTS

‘Big Brother’ mentality ‘has no place in a free society’

Published: 4.13.13

 

Homeschoolers alarmed by plans to track students

 

 

Donna Garner

[email protected]

By Barry E. Stern, Ph. D.
Senior Adviser, Haberman Educational Foundation

Despite educational reform efforts to raise standards, develop better tests and improve teaching, most conclude that the majority of high school graduates are still not ready for college. That said, the Nation is generally proud of its community college system that provides among other things a second chance for many. For those who left high school without the skills to succeed in college, or whose skills have atrophied over time, colleges provide remedial courses to help them catch up and eventually qualify for college credit courses.

Unfortunately, college remedial or developmental courses don’t help much. We spend over $2 billion a year on these courses for the over half of community college entrants whose reading, writing and/or math skills are insufficient to qualify for credit-bearing courses. Yet only 10 to 20 percent of completers of developmental courses (grade C or better) ever earn a college degree or certificate within 8-10 years.

Well, if developmental students don’t persist long enough to earn a credential, do they at least learn enough to qualify for college courses? The track record here is also poor. On average 60-70 percent pass developmental reading, but only 30-40 percent pass developmental math. In today’s knowledge economy where unskilled jobs have all but disappeared, how do those who don’t make the cut ever earn a family wage, let alone the ones who never completed high school? People’s lives depend on acquiring these fundamental skills!

Dissatisfaction with developmental education has prompted a cottage industry of studies that parse every aspect of these courses and have spawned dozens of pilot projects. One popular variant lets participants take a developmental course while enrolled in a regular college course. Although such pilots yield marginal gains, most fail because they are still in the business of correcting deficits rather building better people. Here’s why college remedial courses fail so many of their enrollees and what colleges could do to improve them:

1. Remedial courses are neither long enough nor intensive enough. Six hours a week aren’t enough to build competence and confidence among those who never mastered the basics in high school. They need at least 16-20 hours a week of intensive instruction. Ask any athlete what it takes to make significant improvement in fundamentals. Why do sports teams have intensive pre-seasons lasting several weeks to annually refresh them? The fundamentals of college and the workplace are reading, writing and math. You do them every day. One cannot be too good at fundamentals.

Such time commitment is not convenient for those with heavy work and family responsibilities, which characterizes many community college students. Clearly, considerable sacrifice and commitment would be required to pursue an immersion-type program. But that’s what it takes to gain the skills that are needed. Remedial courses of only a few hours a week tend to waste students’ time and tuition.

2. Colleges teach remedial reading, math and writing as separate courses. Wrong! Better to integrate these fundamentals in gradually more complex combinations to solve increasingly more difficult problems like those encountered in the workplace. Moreover, courses ought to build on student strengths in the course of overcoming weaknesses. Otherwise, students get bored or demoralized.

3.Although computers and personal digital assistants are the paper and pencil of the 21^st Century, few college remedial programs teach computer application skills along with reading, writing and math. Too bad. You can teach a lot of reading and writing through word processing; math through spreadsheets, and presentation skills through graphics programs. Students like using these tools particularly when they can see their progress accelerating. And when students feel they are in an accelerated program not a remedial one, their self-confidence grows and learning speeds.

4. Remedial courses tend to rely on lecture-discussion methods, homework and quizzes. Boring!! And not terribly effective! People remember only 5 percent of what they learn from lectures, 10 percent from directed reading, 20 percent from audio-visual, and 50 percent from participating in discussions (IF they participate). Yet we retain 90 percent of what we learn through Explaining and Experiencing with Others. So why not try a curriculum that is highly experiential, team-oriented, and project-based, and which integrates soft skills like teamwork, customer service, time management and conflict resolution into the teaching of academic skills? These features motivate students, engage long-term memory and thus prevent forgetting.

5. College remedial programs ignore the social aspects of learning. Yet individuals perform better when part of a group with a higher purpose and winning mission. Orchestras, sports teams, astronauts and Navy Seals know this. Teaming with others to control obesity, drinking and smoking has been proven to be far more effective than individuals trying to go it alone. So how could developmental education draw on the natural preference of humans to work in groups or teams, in this case to improve academic performance? One way would be to replace the traditional one teacher for one class format with one that requires a cross-disciplinary group of instructors to team teach basic skills to the same group of students for several hours a day. Instructors with different specialties in effect would serve as “position coaches,” but all would be well-versed in the fundamentals of their craft. As they do with sports teams, coaches would continually communicate with one another to improve the performance of both individuals and the entire team/class.

Thus, the new developmental program would upgrade reading, math, writing, communication, computer and employability skills all at the same time. All 2-4 instructors with different specialties would stay with the same group of 25-50 students for most/all of the instructional day, modeling the kinds of teamwork and collaboration seen in the best companies. This accelerated 4-8 hours-a-day model that molds instructors and students into a high performance team actually exists. It is called Fast Break. Students work to not only get themselves over the bar but their classmates as well. Results are outstanding:  2-3 grade level gains in reading and math in only 8-12 weeks. This social or team approach is not only faster but cheaper than the narrow skill building approach of most developmental courses.

6. Remedial courses tend to leave out career development and emotional intelligence, thus perpetuating the reductionist, assembly-line, industrial era mentality that characterizes the very high schools that failed these remedial course-takers in the first place. Let’s take these one at a time.

a. Career development. Along with basic skills, developmental courses should help students develop or refine their career plans, defend them in front of others and then begin to carry them out. This develops several skill sets: Internet and library research, writing resumes, practicing interviews, filling out job and college applications, public speaking (career speech), etc. Such career planning activities actually improve English and communication skills and help students understand the reasons for what they are learning. It’s a virtuous circle –once students feel themselves becoming more proficient, they tend to raise their career aspirations and gain a deeper appreciation of how their skills can someday translate into earnings.

b. Thinking styles and emotional intelligence. As adjuncts or part-timers college remedial instructors are told their job is to teach subjects. Thus, they tend to ignore other aspects of human capital (social, moral, cultural, aspirational and cognitive). And they wonder why so many fail. An ideal course in basic skills would help students apply knowledge of thinking-styles to accelerate learning, understand others and build effective teams. Moreover, armed with such knowledge instructors could differentiate instruction by teaching students to use their preferred thinking style in the course of strengthening non-preferred styles that might be essential to solve a problem– that is, to build on strengths in the course of overcoming weaknesses. Students also learn needs-based communication strategies to improve interpersonal relations and de-escalate/ resolve conflicts. Such emotional intelligence training improves the social climate (respect and cooperation) in the classroom which translates into improved academic performance.

7. Most students work to afford college. Why shouldn’t developmental education help with both? Imagine how powerful a message it would be for instructors to say, “We don’t care if you go to work or college after this program; our role is to help you succeed in whatever you do next. When you are ready to earn a post-secondary credential in order to earn more, colleges will be ready for you.”

To summarize, most college remedial courses fall short because they are insufficiently intensive, integrated, demanding and attuned to the desire of most students to become part of a group with a higher purpose. Moreover, these courses tend to ignore socio-emotional and career development although they powerfully support academic development. For greater success in helping students become college ready, remedial programs must transition to a holistic approach that is highly concentrated, applied, experiential, computer-assisted, cross-disciplinary and team taught. This new model is more cost-effective than current remedial courses and much more aligned with what today’s students value, how they learn and like to be treated.

The exhibit below summarizes the differences between traditional remedial programs and the Fast Break accelerated learning program that represents the holistic approach:

Feature	Traditional College Remedial Course	Fast Break accelerated learning
Intensity	Meets 3 days/week for 50-90 minutes	Meets 5 days/week for 5-8 hours/day
Duration	16 weeks for each course (math, reading, writing, etc.) Average 72 hours/course	8-12 weeks, 5-8 hours a day for total of 300 hours.
Course content	Reading, Math, Writing at different remedial levels – all taught separately. Assumes students should only take subjects in which they need remediation	Bundles/integrates Reading, Writing, Math, computer applications (e.g. Word, Excel), employability & generic work skills (inter-personal skills, teamwork, customer service, etc).  Competence in one skill area assists acquiring skills in other areas (build on strengths to overcome weaknesses).
Class organization	One teacher for one class. Class size = 10-20 students	Team taught –2-4 instructors with different specialties remain with same group of 25-50 students for most/all of instructional day, Instructors become cross- trained in course of helping one another.
Teaching methods	Lecture-discussion, homework, quizzes and tests.	Highly experiential, team-oriented, and project-based. Integrates soft skills like teamwork, customer service, time management and conflict resolution into teaching of academic skills. Frequent quizzes embedded in computer courseware.
Courseware and other software	Courseware sometimes used to facilitate practice in basic skills.	Off-the-shelf courseware supplements class instruction to accelerate reading and math achievement. Other software used to build work habits, manage time, select careers, conduct job search.
Computer application skills (e.g. Word, Excel)	None	Word processing assists reading + writing. Spreadsheets assist math learning. Presentation skills aided by graphics programs (e.g. PowerPoint). Some progress enough to earn employable certificates (e.g. MOUS certif)
Thinking Styles	None	Students and instructors apply knowledge of thinking-styles to accelerate learning, understand others and build effective teams. Helps instructors differentiate instruction by helping students build on strengths in the course of overcoming weaknesses.
Emotional Intelligence	None	Needs-based communication and teamwork strategies improve interpersonal relations, de-escalate/resolve conflicts, improve social climate (respect) which translates into higher class morale and student achievement.
Career Planning and Development	None Colleges provide career counseling outside of remedial courses	Career planning integrated with reading, math, oral and written communications. 10-minute career speech to defend written career plan in front of faculty and peers. Requires Internet and library research, resumes, interviews, job and college applications, etc. Students act on career plan before completing program.
Community Service	None	Students develop own service projects, sometimes with small group or entire class. Reading, writing, math, and oral presentation assignments for each service project. Graduates speak to current classes (and sometimes high schools) about job/college experiences following Fast Break.
RESULTS	* 10-20% of remedial completers earn degree or credential within 8-10 years;* 60-70% pass reading; * 30-40% pass math.Passing = Grade C or better	* 2+ grade-level gains in math and reading in only 8-12 weeks;* 80% graduates obtain career track jobs or enter college not needing remedial courses.* 80% complete all the following standards:10thgrade math and reading skill or betterAt least one grade-level gain from starting pointNo more than 3 unexcused absences or tardiesPass computer literacy testAcceptable career speech in which student orally defends career plan before peers & facultyRemains drug free (random testing)
Follow up	Counselors encourage completion of developmental courses and then a credential or degree.	Instructional staff spends 1-2 days per month visiting graduates and their work supervisor or college counselor to assist graduate’s success. Staff surveys graduates every six months to learn job/college status, wage rate, etc.

For more information about Fast Break, write Barry Stern at [email protected] or Bill Stierle at williamstierle.com, or contact the Haberman Educational Foundation (www.habermanfoundation.org) .