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...
top of page
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 14
- 1 min
Advanced math puts all achievers on path to equity, excellence
All high achievers should be placed in challenging math classes that prepare them to take algebra in eighth grade, write Brenda Berg and...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 14
- 2 min
College kids turn away from free speech, tolerance for dissent
"Young Americans are turning their backs on basic American principles of free speech, tolerance and due process," writes Brad Polumbo of...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 25
- 2 min
Schools spend $20 billion a year for equity training, but does it work?
Public schools spend billions on equity training, but have no idea what works, writes Katherine Reynolds Lewis in USA Today. "None of the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 18
- 2 min
'Hungry Caterpillar' is banned as school purges pre-2008 books
Books published before 2008 have been removed from school library shelves in a school district near Toronto, Canada, reports Nicole...
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 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 19
- 2 min
Students don't learn more from a same-race teacher
Elementary students don't learn more from a teacher who matches them in race or ethnicity, concludes a new study. There is little...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 9
- 2 min
Columbia goes 'holistic,' dumps SAT/ACT requirement
Columbia University, know for its core curriculum in humanities, has become the first Ivy League school to drop SAT/ACT scores as an...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 7
- 2 min
1 classroom, 5 achievement levels: The learning chasm
Trying to teach students who are way above and way below grade level in the same classroom puts an impossible burden on teachers, reports...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 28
- 3 min
Who gets in? Try dartboard admissions
The college admissions race is a waste of time, argues Rick Hess, education policy director of the American Enterprise Institute. Except...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 7, 2022
- 1 min
Don't push good teachers over the fiscal cliff
School districts are hiring more staffers, even as enrollments decline. When federal pandemic relief funds run out in 2024, who will be...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 2, 2022
- 2 min
America is not black and white any more
Affirmative action was created at a time when most Americans belonged to a white majority or a black minority, writes Megan McArdle in...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 2, 2022
- 2 min
Diversity on trial
Diversity is a "fig leaf" for elite colleges' desire to discriminate on the basis of race, says linguist John McWhorter in a New York...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 1, 2022
- 3 min
What will replace racial preferences in college admissions?
Based on yesterday's oral arguments, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority appears likely to reject race-based affirmative...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 23, 2022
- 1 min
Without test scores, college admissions is 'chaotic' -- and still unfair
Without SAT or ACT scores, deciding who to admit is "chaotic, admissions officers told Kelly Slay, a Vanderbilt researcher. It's hard to...
bottom of page