Eye on Education

College Admissions Scandal Gets the Hollywood Treatment

“Is there any risk that this thing blows up in my face?” asks one parent in “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal,” a new Netflix documentary that debuted March 17. In this ripped-from-the-headlines exposé, celebrity parents attempt to game the college admissions process but instead get stung by the FBI, land in jail, and enrage non-celeb parents everywhere with their hubris.

The incidents that inspired the film beg these questions: “What are the deeper realities behind college admissions; are there secret strategies for circumventing its exclusionary, quasimystical process that are only available to the wealthy; and how can legitimate, fully certified college counselors help students navigate the difficult university admissions process the proper way?

“Netflix has done a service to prospective students and their parents by documenting what not to do to get into college,” writes Dave Tomar, editor of Inflection, the opinion, editorial, and news analysis journal of AcademicInfluence.com. “But getting into college isn’t about skirting the law. It’s why we want to look at the crime but also provide answers for how students can improve their admissions chances the right way.”

Tomar knows of what he writes. Author of The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat (Bloomsbury, 2012), he worked for a decade as an academic ghostwriter before bringing widespread attention to the thriving cheating industry that undermines higher education. As is clear, it’s a problem that persists.

Under the pseudonym “Ed Dante,” Tomar’s original “The Shadow Scholar” for The Chronicle of Higher Education remains among the journal’s most read articles.

In his recent Inflection article, Tomar shines further light on the dark side of the story by exploring the following: • how college counseling can lead down a slippery slope; • how the affluent use money to improve college admissions chances; and • the techniques unscrupulous advisers use to cheat the system. He also highlights the positive aspects of honest, fully certified college counseling, including: • legitimate admissions strategies that can improve acceptance; • qualities to look for in a trustworthy college counselor; and • the best college counseling services in the business.

“Competition is fierce for limited space at the top colleges,” Tomar says. “The Varsity Blues scandal showed us that some parents will do just about anything to win that competition. It also showed us that the college admissions process favors the wealthy. But if there is a positive takeaway here, it’s that the flaws have been laid bare. Let’s hope illumination brings change.”

AcademicInfluence.com is a technology-driven rankings site dedicated to students, researchers, and inquirers from high school through college and beyond, offering resources that connect learners to leaders. AcademicInfluence. com is a part of the EducationAccess group, a family of sites dedicated to lifelong learning and personal growth.

The Threat of a Teacher Shortage is Real

Education Dive reports that the teacher shortage problem has grown worse and threatens to jeopardize districts’ ability to reopen safely in California. The information comes from a Learning Policy Institute report, based on California data, which focuses on supply and demand, increasing resignations, retirements, turnovers and vacancies, and the number of new teachers entering the workforce.

Shortages in smaller rural districts are particularly severe, especially in math and science, and the shift back to in-person learning with smaller class sizes will further stretch the workforce. Workload and burnout are cited as concerns, as are increasing numbers of retirements and resignations.

“The problem is exacerbated in the pipeline by teacher license testing policies and inadequate financial aid to complete preparation programs,” says the article. “The report suggests building high-retention pathways into education through teacher residency, which makes the profession more affordable and attainable. It cites California’s Golden State Teacher Grant Program as an example of financial supports that help recruit and retain new teachers in highneed areas and subjects.

The teacher shortage problem isn’t new, nor is it limited to California. Following Hurricane Katrina, for instance, the Orleans Parish school district dismissed all of its employees as the city underwent a transition to a charter and choice-based system of charter schools. By the fall of 2007, approximately 50 percent of them returned to work in administrative, teaching, or other positions in the state’s publicly funded schools. That number includes two groups: 32 percent who were re-employed in New Orleans schools and 18 percent who were reemployed in other Louisiana parishes, reports the Education Research Alliance. But by 2013, the number of pre-Katrina teachers had dropped 22 percent.

In the wake of the pandemic, veteran teachers nearing retirement age may not choose to return to the classroom. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 29.2 percent of teachers are 50 or older.

Teacher demand has outpaced supply since 2012, reports Education

Dive, and that gap grew to more than 110,000 in the 2017-2018 school year, up from a 20,000-teacher deficit in 2012-2013, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Must-have Remote Learning Tool Wins International Design Award

TutorCam, the remote learning device created by a California dad at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, has grown into a tool used for online medical, business and leisure activities.

Honored with two wins at the prestigious International Design Awards, TutorCam shared the IDA podium with transformative designs by some of the world’s leading companies, including Apple, Google, Volvo, PepsiCo, Sony and Under Armour.

The TutorCam is a document camera stand designed to hold a smartphone, iPad, or tablet during a video conference. It has an extra viewing window to focus on participants’ desks and the materials they are working on, including their workbooks, notepads, mini whiteboards, and science experiments. A regular remote learning lesson only allows teachers and students to see faces, explains inventor Brandon Kennington from Los Angeles-based BlueKube. TutorCam’s extra camera space allows participants to also see their work live.

Like the hand-built, pure electric Evija hypercar from Lotus, which took the IDA Product Design of the Year Award, TutorCam has a beautiful, sleek and functional design. But unlike the car’s $2-million price tag, the TutorCam Go sells for $45 and the TutorCam Pro sells for $65.

Brandon came up with the idea in the early days of the pandemic. He was trying to help teach a remote math class at his son’s elementary school, and assist his daughter during a virtual piano lesson.

“When my daughter started her piano lessons remotely, I used one of those long, flexible selfie sticks to hold a phone over her hands so the teacher could see them as she played,” recalled Brandon. “We then used the same ‘invite link’ for the video conference for a laptop on the piano to view her face. It worked. The same link could be used twice by two different devices. That’s when the lightbulb went on.”

The key was a design that used both the front and rear cameras on a smartphone or tablet. Glass prisms were the solution.

“We worked extra-hard to get the product into the hands of teachers and students before school started last fall,” he added. “We knew we wanted this to be a low-cost and lowtech solution, given most kids and teachers were already overwhelmed with new technology.”

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