studyskills.com#1 Study Skills Curriculum

Skip to content StudySkills.com SELskills.com MENU (800) 390 SOAR Contact Us Login 0 items MENU About SOAR ® Educators What Is SOAR ® Who SOAR ® Helps Why SOAR ® Works Curriculum Pricing Virtual Learning Proven Results How to Get Started Parents Virtual Learning Skills NEW! What Is SOAR ® ? Why SOAR ® Works SOAR ® Learning & Soft Skills App (Home Edition) Proven Results Special Help Students Proven Results Student Articles Articles Products Educator Store Parent & Student Store MENU About SOAR ® Educators What Is SOAR ® Who SOAR ® Helps Why SOAR ® Works Virtual Learning Curriculum Pricing Proven Results How to Get Started Parents What Is SOAR ® Why SOAR ® Works SOAR ® Learning & Soft Skills App (Home Edition) The At-Home Solution Proven Results Special Help Students Proven Results Student Articles Articles Products Educator Store Parent & Student Store LOGIN Today’s Skills for School. Tomorrow’s Skills for the Workplace! START HERE EDUCATORS START HERE PARENTS START HERE STUDENTS Six Steps to Conquer the Chaos Get Our Free Guide & Information on... How to Organize & Motivate Students for Success First Name * Last Name * Email * Your Role? * Teacher Administrator Tutor Parent Student Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Curriculum from America’s #1 Learning Expert… Susan Kruger, M.Ed. Author of the worldwide best-selling book, SOAR Study Skills I used to struggle in school ; I would study for hours for a test, then “bomb” it. My grades did not reflect my effort and I often gave up. I figured, “What’s the point of trying if I’m just going to fail anyway?” Does this sound familiar? As adults, we are frustrated to see our students and children wandering aimlessly through their schoolwork: losing assignments, poorly preparing for tests, and not working to their potential. Eventually, we see them develop a “bad attitude” and wonder how we can ever motivate them to do better in school. Employers are seriously frustrated because we are graduating students with NO useful skills! Data from countless sources: employer surveys 1 , International PISA scores 2 , and PIAAC scores 3 consistently confirm that our graduates are not getting the skills needed for success in the workplace from school. Teachers and administrators are under impossible pressure to improve students' performance and scores! "Impossible" because student motivation is at an all-time low 4 . And, with a turn-over rate that has more than doubled in the last ten years, teachers are burning out faster than ever! 5 Curriculum demands are so intense; teachers have no creative freedom to be the compassionate "coach" they envisioned this vocation to be. Instead, they feel like drill sergeants. Ineffective drill sergeants. Special education teachers are especially under pressure! The number of special education students has risen nearly 40% in the last three decades; while resources have shrunk, expectations have skyrocketed! On top of this, special education teachers often feel like they're on their "own little island," trying to support their dear students in schools (and a society) that don't understand their challenges. Let's not rush to blame students! Yes, they are disorganized. Yes, they are disengaged. No, they don't seem to care too much about school. But, that's The System's fault, not theirs! Students know better than us that most of what they learn in school is not relevant to the real-world demands of their future. Besides, education focuses on their "weaknesses" rather than celebrating their strengths. It's no wonder they aren't engaged! One Simple Set of Skills Solves ALL of These Problems! Students are struggling because we aren't teaching them how to learn, get organized, or think on their own. We haven't given them the tools to get engaged. Nor have we given them space to celebrate their strengths. Teachers are struggling because their mandates are growing and then... they have to do all of the work for their disengaged students! Employers are struggling because the can't find suitable employees who can learn, organize, or solve problems in a rapidly changing world of technological advancement. The SOAR ® Curriculum Is a Simple Set of Skills... The SOAR ® Curriculum is a simple set of skills to help students organize and study efficiently. Regardless if students are in 6th grade or college, the academic tasks they have to do are the same. Therefore, SOAR ® is appropriate for students in upper elementary , middle school , high school , and even college . SOAR ® teaches students how to: Identify students' strengths & “SuperPowers” (according to Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences) Set goals Establish priorities Manage time Organize papers, desks, lockers, & other space Speak & listen effectively Work with teachers & peers Read and understand textbooks Take notes Study for tests Write research papers Prepare for presentations Track long-term goals SOAR ® Soft Skills also covers 100% of the Common Core Anchor Standards for College & Career Readiness. The "Most Needed" Workplace Skills Are Also the Key to School Success My life changed when I learned how to learn. I went from struggling in K-12 to soaring through college with a 3.9 GPA, simply from learning study skills. My experience totally bucks the trend of the 50% college drop-out rate! More than 50% of students who enroll in college don't graduate because they can't meet the demands of school. Instead, I found college to be far easier than K-12. But, my experience is not unique... Study Skills Improve School Success by 600%! Ohio State University confirmed the great impact study skills have on school success. In a published study, they confirmed the graduation rates of students who took a study skills class rose by up to 600%! 6 Employers Are Begging for These Skills The same skills that transformed me into a confident, successful student are the same skills employers desperately need! Dozens of employer surveys consistently confirm that the most "in-demand" skills needed in the workplace are "soft skills." 7 In education, we call them "study skills." In one validated survey of employers from growing sectors (including technology and healthcare), 95% of the "most needed" skills cited were the same "soft skills" (aka "study skills") that I've been teaching since I was a college student. Princeton-based Educational Testing Services (ETS) found that the millennials in the United States perform at the very bottom of nearly all countries in the skills most needed by employers : literacy (including the ability to follow instructions), practical numeracy, and “problem-solving in technology-rich environments.” Even millennials with the most education –those in the 90 th percentile– “scored lower than their counterparts in 15 countries… and only scored higher than their peers in Spain,” according to the ETS report. 3 The Solution Is Simple. But, We All Have to Help. One afternoon, shortly after my first successful semester, I was overcome with intense anger! I had just earned better grades than I ever thought possible. I was discovering confidence I never imagined possible. My world had been radically changed for the better. Yet, one thought suddenly crippled me... "Why Didn't Someone Teach Me How to Learn Earlier?" The skills and strategies that had just revolutionized my life were so simple; I could easily have used them as early as 5th grade. Instead, I spent my years of middle and high school feeling "stupid." I was suddenly realizing all of that sheer frustration was totally unnecessary. Fortunately, I soon came to my senses, knowing there was no use being angry about a past I couldn't change. In that same moment, I knew... I might not be able to change my own past, but I could change the future for others! In that moment, I embraced my life mission... to get these skills to as many students as possible! That was more than 20 years ago and I've ma...