SOAR^® Covers 100% Common Core Anchor Standards!

You can now get a free digital review copy of the 2nd Edition of SOAR^®! SOAR^® Study Skills-2nd edition is now SOAR^® Soft Skills for College & Career Readiness.

SOAR^® now covers 100% of the Common Core Anchor Standards! This 2nd edition has all of the same great content you loved before plus three new chapters to ensure full coverage of the Common Core Anchor Standards.

There’s an interesting story behind this 2nd Edition of SOAR^® Study Skills. It starts with me struggling in school more than 20 years ago… and has a curious intersection with Common Core.
On a personal note, I’m very proud of this second edition and want to share the story of how it came to be. We’ve been collecting feedback for several years. Over time, two specific areas of focus emerged as most needed:

There’s an interesting story behind this 2nd Edition of SOAR® Study Skills. It starts with me struggling in school more than 20 years ago… and has a curious intersection with Common Core.

1. Interpersonal communication skills. I addressed this topic lightly in the previous edition, but our clients were asking for more details.
2. Tips and tools for managing technology. Most of the skills in SOAR^® are fundamental; whether the tools used to execute them are digital or analog, the basic skills are the same. However, there are certainly strategic ways to leverage technology.

Meanwhile, Common Core hit the national stage. I must confess, I didn’t pay too much attention at first. Frankly, we’ve all seen so many initiatives roll in and out with the seasons and the politicians. They all bring their unique headaches. But fundamentally, they’re all the same. Or, so I thought.

I now understand that Common Core has moved in a necessary direction; it still has its headaches. But, it has made a critical shift that had been overlooked in all previous initiatives; it addressed the real-world needs of students as they enter, well… the Real World. Not only has Common Core addressed the “real-world” needs of students, this is the very foundation for all of Common Core!

Startling as it may sound, previous initiatives missed the connection between “school-is-supposed-to-prepare-students-to-be-independent-and-contributing-members-of-society” and “the-real-world-needs-of-society.” The good news is that Common Core has created a bridge between these two, previously isolated islands of thought.

Even more good news is that Common Core has identified its most critical skills for grades 6-12; the Anchor Standards for College & Career Readiness. These anchor standards are the “80/20” of Common Core; they are the 20% of the skills that have 80% of the impact.

When I discovered the Anchor Standards, I was shocked (but not surprised) to discover… they are “study skills!” I was not surprised because this confirmed what I’ve been preaching since I was a student, myself. I was shocked to see an education initiative actually embrace this notion!

I’ve been waiting for this revelation for years! Now, don’t get me wrong, I know there are criticisms and challenges of Common Core. (From what I see, nearly all criticisms are actually about the implementation of Common Core, which is worthy of another discussion at another time.) Nonetheless, Common Core has made a dramatic shift in the right direction.

The fault line has cracked; the earthquake is yet to happen. Ultimately, this earthquake will shake things up for the better. Much better. In the meantime, for educators who don’t understand the paradigm shift, it will be dramatically uncomfortable.

Back to how I happened to write this 2nd edition… During my “shocked-but-not-surprised” evaluation of Common Core, I discovered that SOAR^® already covered nearly all of the Anchor Standards. However, there were a couple of gaps. Wouldn’t you know… those gaps directly coincided with the feedback and conclusions I had been collecting for the last several years. I didn’t feel I had the time to do it, but I knew I didn’t have an option… it was time for the 2nd edition!

On one hand, the correlation between SOAR^® and the Anchor Standards seems a little “too good to be true.” In reality, however, it makes perfect sense; all of the pieces snapping into place are out of the same puzzle, which is meeting the real needs of our students for the real world.

If you’re willing to make the paradigm shift before the impending earthquake shakes things out of your control, get started by getting your digital review copy SOAR^® 2nd Edition: Soft Skills for College & Career Readiness, when you click here.

Sincerely,

Susan Kruger, M.Ed.
Author of SOAR^®, the #1 best-selling test-prep and study skills book in the world!

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