If you are working in a high performing school, you probably know all too well that you have a lot of stressed out students. Still, you might be startled by new research that classifies students in high performing schools as having the same level of risk for serious mental health problems as students living in poverty, foster care or who have an incarcerated parent. There’s no magic bullet for addressing the complex set of societal issues that has gotten us to this point. Programs for social-emotional learning (SEL) and suicide prevention can help. Structured programming will take time and fidelity. Clearly, there’s no time to lose. Here’s a potential “quick win” that could make a big difference for stressed out students,… Read More

The following is a brief summary of the learning traits that drive most academic learning. Everyone has their own unique combination of these traits, just as we all have our own unique fingerprint. It’s what makes each of us special but can also make learning confusing or challenging at times.   The 10 skills are organized in four key domains. Click on the links for more in-depth information on each skill. Complex Reasoning Complex reasoning is the ability to analyze information and solve complicated problems. When students use reasoning skills, they are thinking through ideas in a logical way to arrive at a conclusion. This is often referred to as “higher order thinking.” Don’t be surprised if you have a student who is strong in one area of… Read More

If you read one education book this summer, consider Alan Lightman’s In Praise of Wasting Time. If it strikes too close to home, you’re not alone. Lightman articulates what many of us are feeling. That our very wired, very stressful lives are driven by a pervasive feeling of #FOMO (fear of missing out). We feel we need to be purposeful (or at least seen to be) every minute of every day. And it’s exhausting. The Joy of Doing Nothing Lightman begins with a vivid reflection on his childhood, as he describes, his “careless, wasteless hours at the pond.”  He makes us wistful for the joy of doing nothing.  While Lightman mourns that loss, at least he has memories. His concern is that today’s kiddos won’t… Read More

What is the NASA Twins Study?  Identical twin astronauts, Mark and Scott Kelly, agreed to be studied for two years. NASA tracked changes to their genes, cognitive skills and physical and mental health to understand the impact of long duration space flight on the human body and brain. Mark stayed on Earth throughout. Scott spent a full year at the International Space Station. NASA monitored their functions before, during, and after Scott’s flight. What’s Mindprint Got to Do with It? Mindprint’s research partners at Penn Medicine’s Brain Behavior Lab provided the cognitive assessment for the NASA Twins Study. Yes, it’s the same assessment Mindprint makes available to students around the world to understand their cognitive development. NASA describes the assessment as “a much-needed practical, yet comprehensive cognitive… Read More

Successful learners use metacognition to facilitate their problem solving. This is one of the key findings of the National Academy of Sciences’ synthesis of decades of research on the science of learning explained in How People Learn: Mind, Brain, Experience and School Below we explain metacognition and provide the vocabulary to teach it. In part two of this series we will focus on strategy selection. If you’d like to try our full metacognition approach, please contact us here. Start with Cognition Cognition is how you learn. Depending on the topic, the context, personal experiences and genetics, each of us relies on different proportions of cognitive skills to understand and remember what we read, see or hear. We begin learning the moment we are born and we never stop…. Read More

Attention is the skill that enables students to follow through even when the work gets challenging or boring. Note: This is one of a 10 blog series on learning traits. Read about all 10 learning traits here. What is Attention? Attention is your ability to sustain focus, even for tasks or classes that you might not find interesting. Attention difficulties can affect students in all subjects and activities, but it is likely to have the biggest impact in classes that students don’t have intrinsic motivation. Why is Attention so important ? Quite simply, if you’re not paying attention to what the teacher is saying, you’re not learning. If your mind wanders when you read, you are likely missing out on critical information. If you lose focus while doing an assignment or a test, you are likely to make… Read More

Visual memory is a key skill for STEM. Mathematicians, scientists and artists all rely heavily on this trait to be efficient in their work. Note: This is one of a 10 blog series on learning traits. Read about all 10 learning traits here. What is Visual Memory? Visual memory is the ability to remember what you see, including images, patterns, colors or what’s in “the mind’s eye”.  Why is it important? While you can definitely succeed in school without strong visual memory, your visual memory helps a lot. For elementary students, visual memory is key to memorizing math facts and sight words. As students progress in school, visual memory becomes increasingly important in subjects like geometry, algebra, and science, where you need to remember patterns, shapes and diagrams of multi-step processes. While it’s true that… Read More

Verbal memory is the skill that makes students most efficient in school and with homework, particularly in elementary school. Note: This is one of a 10 blog series on learning traits. Read about all 10 learning traits here. What is Verbal Memory? Verbal memory is the ability to remember what you read or hear. It includes your ability to hear or read a word, sentence or paragraph and then recall it when needed. Why is Verbal Memory so important? A lot of in-school learning involves reading, listening or studying and then recalling it when needed. Remembering vocabulary definitions, key details in a story, or the name of a species are all examples of verbal memory. While it’s true that technology is a good enabler so that students don’t need to memorize nearly as much… Read More

We are so glad you are considering Mindprint to help qualify for your school’s gifted program.  We are happy to assist you through the gifted program appeals process. Confirm your gifted coordinator will accept Mindprint. Every school has a gifted coordinator who manages the gifted program appeals process. If the coordinator is unfamiliar with Mindprint and would like more information about the Mindprint Assessment, please have the school contact us. They can also visit our website and you can share our research showing the validity and reliability. You might want to let them know that in addition to districts accepting Mindprint, Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG) and Summer Academic and Honors Institute, among others, accept Mindprint as a qualified assessment. Decide who will pay for and administer Mindprint. Your… Read More

All the buzz about college admissions this week is not just about the scandal of rich folks and celebrities. We are in the height of the college admissions season. For regular, non-rolling admissions it started on March 15th and extends through early April. The acceptance and rejection chatter naturally gets many parents of underclassmen (and middle schoolers) anxiously thinking if they should be planning ahead and how. Recognize there is no universal bullet that will guarantee admissions for any student these days, this week’s controversy aside. However, there are some guiding principles that will  increase your student’s chances and help you, and your family, maintain your sanity for what is, increasingly, an insane process. Yes, No, or Maybe? Start by being reasonable about the chances of getting… Read More