<p>As many of the wonderful parents here know, I’m applying to Georgetown this year. However, it’s irrelevant for this post. :-)</p>
<p>As you may know (or not), I am the battalion commander for my school’s ROTC program for the past year and a half (and still have a half-year to serve out)… </p>
<p>In our ROTC program, we have promotion boards to determine the leadership of our cadet battalion… Now, as you may know, our school performance-wise isn’t that great… so I do what I can to try and encourage better academics.</p>
<p>So far, I’ve been utilizing a GPA component, giving bonus points during promotion for students who hold a 3.0 and extra bonus points for those who hold a 3.5 and higher. </p>
<p>Now I’m thinking of introducing bonuses (for promotion board) for SAT and AP rigor. Obviously, I’m not going to require that you need a 1500 to gain a 100 extra promotion points (I think 1000 to 1200 sounds fair, our school’s average SAT score is around 800)… </p>
<p>Am I doing the wrong thing? Many of my cadets are not exposed to the whole idea of college, so maybe… maybe I can do my part to try and get them to start early – by giving bonuses for exposing themselves to that whole arena… </p>
<p>Maybe instead of giving bonus points for a certain SAT score, you could give points for improvement from their baseline. Does everyone take PSATs in 10th and/or 11th at your school? This could be the baseline to judge the improvement on the SATs gained by studying, since probably little studying goes on before the PSATs.<br>
Neither of my kids (who are very different types of students) took an AP prep course, but both studied on their own and greatly improved from their original baseline PSATs (which were very different from each other). I think someone who improves to 1080 from 800 should receive as much credit (in the ROTC context) as someone who improves from 1000 to 1280, for example.</p>
<p>I like the idea of giving extra points for AP classes but requiring a certain improvement or achievement in SATs may open a mine field. The SAT scores have been shown to be biased against certain minority groups and females. (see <a href=“http://www.fairtest.org%5B/url%5D”>www.fairtest.org</a> for a description of research on this). Also, if I remember correctly, there is a tendency fror most people taking the SAT to automatically improve a certain number of points from year to year. </p>
<p>How about making just taking the PSATs and SATs - no matter what your score -a bonus of some sort for your cadets?</p>
<p>I was leaning towards that… I stated myself very wrong – I was looking to give extra incentives for a) just * taking * the SATs and b) marked improvements from the base score. I wasn’t necessarily going to require a certain improvement but just was using that as an example.</p>
<p>I am so impressed with your concern not just to improve your own performance but also of your fellow students. I, too, like the idea of giving extra points for AP classes. I am not sure what to do about bonus points for the SAT and PSAT.</p>
<p>But the important thing is to signal well ahead that these points will be available so that students can prepare to take AP and SAT. Such preparation must begin by taking appropriate courses in 9th and 10th grades. Are you able to devise a system for advising students at such an early stage? That would be great if you could.</p>
<p>When the cadets begin their year in the ROTC program, they have an “in-processing” period of a few days when they process their paperwork and the such. Usually, my officers use this time to orient many of the first-year-cadets with how the program works and such. So this would probably be the best time to show them the incentives of preparing ahead for college.</p>
<p>Now, as far as the system of advisement… Yes, I can, but to a limited extent. Since I’m an aide for our magnet office, I have access to class availability and stuff like that – tools which will allow me to construct a four-year-advisement plan to ensure that cadets take a rigorous courseload. But that’s about as far as my powers go. ;)…</p>
<p>I think that was a little bit confusing, even for me. :)</p>
<p>If you think the best (potential) military leaders are the ones with the highest gpa’s and test scores you are mistaken. There are many other things that are equally and maybe even more important; Like: character, leadership, and physically abilities, just to name a few. </p>
<p>I hope your adult jrROTC leader will advise you so. If not, he/she is letting you down.</p>
<p>I understand your concern, and I was merely bouncing this idea around – not only to the College Confidential community, but to my instructors and staff as well.</p>
<p>And the reason I bring up GPA and SAT scores is because Cadet Command requires us annually to send the average SAT and GPAs of the ROTC program…</p>
<p>Obviously, those two elements will not be the premise nor the determining factor of leadership in our JROTC program. Additionally, the program’s emphasis has shifted drastically from military leadership training to citizenship and leadership throughout the years.</p>