Joanne Jacobs
Ivy dreams, but what's realistic?
"Safe to say Harvard is out," Demar Goodman, who's black, told a friend when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected race-based college...
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Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 16
- 2 min
Disarming grades
"Handwringing" about grade inflation is "inflated," suggests Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. She offers a piece by Jack Schneider...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 27
- 1 min
SAT scores fall, as the number of test takers rebounds
Despite the surge in colleges going "test optional," the number of students taking the SAT "is growing back to pre-pandemic figures,"...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 26
- 2 min
America needs strivers
Rewarding mediocrity is a losing strategy for America, writes Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion 3.0, on Education Next. U.S....
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 25
- 2 min
'A' is for 'awesome,' 'awful' and 'average'
"The most popular high school grade in America" is "A," writes Tim Donahue, who teaches high school English at Greenwich Country Day...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 11
- 1 min
Rejected by 16 colleges, 18-year-old takes Google job: Yes, he's Asian
Stanley Zhong earned nearly perfect grades (3.97 unweighted, 4.42 weighted) and SAT scores (1590 out of 1600). He founded his own...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 16
- 1 min
Yale changes admissions, avoids bias lawsuit
Elite colleges have "rolled out new application questions this fall to provide students with opportunities to discuss their racial...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 5
- 2 min
No tests, inflated grades and now AI is writing admissions essays (instead of Mom)
Colleges are trying to figure out whether to ban chatbots or see AI as a way to level the playing field for students who don't have Mom...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 31
- 1 min
Up, up and away: More A's, lower test scores
High school grades went up in all subjects from 2010-2022, reports ACT. Achievement did not. Grade inflation was the highest in math:...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 24
- 2 min
You may already be a student ! Colleges are admitting students who haven't applied
Doonesbury foresaw the trend 20 years ago: Desperate to counteract falling enrollment, colleges are admitting students who haven't...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 19
- 2 min
Colleges ask students to write about identity -- in a constitutional-ish way
Asked by his first-choice college about a challenge he'd overcome, "Frank" wrote about struggling with algebra in ninth grade. He'd...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 25
- 3 min
Very rich lacrosse-playing 'legacies' have an Ivy edge
The very rich are different: They can get their kids into ultra-selective universities. Upper-middle-class won't do it. And it helps -- a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 30
- 2 min
Racial 'gamification' will go on unless students refuse to play
Elite universities reward applicants -- students and job-hunting professors -- who can play racial identity games, writes Tyler Austin...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 29
- 3 min
SCOTUS: Universities can admit on 'challenges bested,' but not on skin color
Racial preferences in college admissions are unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, striking down affirmative action plans...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 26
- 2 min
Poor blacks get nothing from affirmative action
Affirmative action in college admissions has failed to help disadvantaged black students, writes Bertrand Cooper in The Atlantic. If the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 15
- 1 min
Race-based affirmative action isn't popular
Half of adults disapprove of colleges considering race and ethnicity in admissions, while one third approve and the rest are unsure,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 15
- 2 min
If colleges can't use race for admissions, what happens?
The U.S. Supreme Court to end racial preferences in college admissions, very soon, just about everyone predicts. So what happens next?...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 22
- 2 min
SATs are out. Published 'research' is in, but it's pay to play
Test scores are out. Everyone's got an A average. The "community service" trip to Mexico and the start-your-own-charity gambit are...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 16
- 2 min
Americans like merit, but Democrats aren't so sure
Most Americans -- "ordinary people" rather than academics -- believe in merit, writes Ruy Teixeira on Liberal Patriot. They want to help...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 11
- 2 min
Anxious teens: Are they working too hard in school?
Dropping SAT/ACT requirements at elite colleges could make ambitious teenagers even more anxious, writes Derek Thompson in The Atlantic. ...
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