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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
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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
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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
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College fail: Are the Covid kids ready to learn?
"(Are you ready?) Yes, I'm ready . . . I don't even know how to hold your hand Just to make you understand But I'm ready (ready) to learn...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 14, 20232 min read
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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...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 22, 20232 min read
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Disarming grades
"Handwringing" about grade inflation is "inflated," suggests Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. She offers a piece by Jack Schneider...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 16, 20232 min read
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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 27, 20231 min read
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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 26, 20232 min read
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'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 25, 20232 min read
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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
Oct 11, 20231 min read
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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 16, 20231 min read
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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
Sep 5, 20232 min read
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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 31, 20231 min read
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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 24, 20232 min read
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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
Aug 19, 20232 min read
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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
Jul 25, 20233 min read
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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 30, 20232 min read
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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 29, 20233 min read
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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 26, 20232 min read
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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, 20231 min read
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