Based On
The Following Recent Research Paper
  " Test Scores and Self Esteem"

To See The Solution In Action In A Public High School

It is the opinion of Life Skills U that self-esteem is only part of the solution to more effective education and raising of test scores.   Without a foundation of self-identity, and social soft skills, self-esteem is meaningless and is often used only to support emotional immaturity and “feel good programs”.   Life Skills U offers a foundation of:

•   Discovering True Self Identity - The reality of who you are (true identity and a foundation for self-esteem) and who you are not (false ego)
•   Understanding and trusting self
•  Intuition – Knowing what to do without any prior knowledge or experience.
• Creativity – Knowing how to do it without any prior knowledge or experience.
•  Spontaneity – Knowing when to do it without any prior knowledge or experience.
• Confidence – experiencing the courage to do it, in spite of fear (knowing the difference between “Can I” and “Should I”)
•     Interpersonal soft skills regarding leadership and peer relationships

Life Skills U believes that for test scores to improve and for education to be effective (resulting in measurable individual improvement and social change) an educational process must be provided that brings together these critical personal awareness and interpersonal skills.

Life Skills U offers a unique learning infrastructure that delivers this critical foundation for learning. The Process has been tested under a federal research grant and also proven with antidotal evidence.   The results were to create a foundation for learning that results in a student being able to more effectively learn information and convert it into practical use in their life.   Follow-up testing reflected long term and permanent change resulting form this process.   The final result is that these students not only dramatically improved their own attitudes but they also had a positive affect from the attitudes (social culture) of people they came in contact with after the class was completed.   In order for this profound change to have occurred for these students, five premises were necessary in order to attain a definition of Self-Identity, Growth and Social Development. These five premises include:

• Principle Based content that allowed for...
• Social Interaction based on emotional equality allowing for a...
• Content Delivery System which enables students to take responsibility for learning thus developing...
• Self-Examination whereby providing the necessary feedback for learning enhancement, leading to...
• Self-Expression, which enables an environment of true self-identity to emerge. And as a result a true self-esteem. This is done without breaking a person down but instead building them up.

Research Findings
(Why Self-Esteem is not THE answer)

Several years ago a group called the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem (no, I am not making this up) conducted a study to explore the relationship between self-esteem and academic performance.  The study found, to its own evident chagrin, that higher self-esteem does not produce better intellectual performance.   Nor does it produce more desirable social outcomes, such as lower teen pregnancy or reduced delinquency.

These findings have been corroborated by academic studies comparing the self-image and academic performance of American students with that of students from other industrialized countries.     Consistently, American students score higher on self-esteem.   Yet on actual reading and math tests the American students perform near the bottom.   These results show that it is possible to have a healthy ego and be ignorant at the same time.     Similarly, within the United States, black males have the highest self-esteem of any group.   Yet on academic measures black males score the lowest.   The reason is that self-esteem in these cases is generated by factors unrelated to studies, such as the ability to beat up other students or a high estimation of one’s sexual prowess.  

None of this is to suggest that the research on self-esteem shows no relationship between self-confidence and academic performance.   There is a relationship, but it runs in the opposite direction.   Self-esteem doesn’t produce enhanced achievement, but achievement produces enhanced self-esteem.   In other words, feeling good about myself doesn’t make me smarter.   But when I study hard, when I discover the meaning of a poem, when I find the ameba under the microscope, when I see my way through a difficult math problem, then I feel exhilarated, and my self-esteem is justly strengthened. That’s a lesson that I wish more educators would take to heart. http://www.dineshdsouza.com/SELF_ESTEEM_HOAX.htm

As a final conclusion read the research paper titled,
  Test Scores and Self Esteem.