top of page


DEI backlash
In the name of DEI -- diversity, equity and inclusion -- many colleges and universities "have violated their constitutional commitments...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 15, 20242 min read
Â


On our way to the promised land
Here's the transcript of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, which includes the unfashionable call for judging people on "the...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 15, 20241 min read
Â


Present and paying attention: Smartphone detox is worth it
Smartphone detox is difficult, but worth it, writes Seth Lavin, principal of a Chicago middle school. After his school equipped...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 14, 20242 min read
Â


Wary students seek no-debt degrees -- and no-degree jobs
Young Americans are trying to avoid student loans or find low-debt paths to good jobs, reports Nirvi Shah in USA Today. Janika Cook...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 13, 20242 min read
Â


Teaching the Chinese Exclusion Act won't end anti-Asian bias
California students will learn more about Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) history in hopes of preventing racism and hate,...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 12, 20241 min read
Â


'School math' is boring: Students want 'real math'
"Math is important, but we’re being taught the wrong kind of math," say high school students in a YouthTruth survey. While 57 percent...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 11, 20242 min read
Â


NY high school becomes storm shelter for migrants
Students at Brooklyn's James Madison High School "were kicked out of the classroom" today "to make room for nearly 2,000 migrants" from a...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 10, 20241 min read
Â


Truancy is the 'new normal' -- and a growing business
Tracking down absent students and persuading their parents to get them to school every day is a booming business, writes Alex MacGillis...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 10, 20242 min read
Â


To gain public trust, make college admissions less 'murky'
College admissions are "murky," and getting murkier, writes Peter Arcidiacono, a Duke economics professor, on Persuasion. "Test-optional"...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 9, 20241 min read
Â


Why Americans don't trust higher ed: It's the lying and the whining
Only 36 percent of Americans expressed "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of trust in higher education in a 2023 Gallup survey, down from 57...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 9, 20242 min read
Â


SAT/ACT scores predict success, open doors for 'diverse' students
Want equity? Require college applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores, writes David Leonhardt in the New York Times. The progressives' "war...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 8, 20242 min read
Â


The new Irish: Hispanics are upwardly mobile Americans
Hispanic immigrants are a lot like Irish immigrants who came to American in the 1800s, writes Noah Smith. They are working-class folks...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 7, 20242 min read
Â


It starts with a goal
What's the point of school? Where am I going? Do I need to go to college? How much could I earn? The Make It Movement is helping young...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 6, 20241 min read
Â


The Great Renaming: Adios to DEI, hello to 'Belonging' bureaucrats
Is DEI dead -- or just disrupted? Texas' state colleges and universities were forced to close diversity, equity and inclusion offices...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 5, 20242 min read
Â


Graduation exams can be 'ladder of social mobility' -- or useless
For more than a century, New York students have taken Regents exams in multiple subjects to prove they were ready for college-level work,...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 4, 20242 min read
Â


LA celebrates 'blackness' while black students fail in reading, math
Black students are "disastrously behind" in math, reading and attendance in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), writes Heather...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 3, 20242 min read
Â


'Identity doesn't learn algebra and history'
"You can't lift up people based on identity," Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, says in a conversation...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 3, 20242 min read
Â


Gay's gone: Is diversity hiring dead?
Claudine Gay has resigned as president of Harvard University after new charges of plagiarism. "Confronting hate and . . . upholding...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 2, 20242 min read
Â


Activism gives bored, lonely students something to do
Students who've worked hard to get into prestigious colleges don't seem to have enough to do once they get there, writes Rick Hess,...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 2, 20243 min read
Â


Happy New Year!
One of my resolutions is to be less compulsive about blogging, so I'm taking the day off to watch football games.

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 1, 20241 min read
Â
bottom of page