SAT "Adversity Score" Is Abandoned in Wake of Criticism [nytimes]

The flava:
The College Board, the company that administers the SAT exam, said on Tuesday that it would withdraw its much-debated plan to include a so-called adversity score on student test results, saying it had erred in distilling the challenges faced by college applicants to a single number.

The adversity score was made up of the average of two ratings between 1 and 100 — one for the student’s school environment and the other for the student’s neighborhood environment — that indicate the obstacles a student might have overcome, like crime and poverty. The school and neighborhood scores will still be provided to admissions officers, along with other socioeconomic information.

The article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/27/us/sat-adversity-score-college-board.html

Wombat of the Copier sends a message to a dean

Dear Dean of Another University,

     Using your title in your e-mail requesting that I discuss your daughter's grade with you does not make me feel intimidated.  In fact, it makes me less afraid of blowback than had you used
SusiesMommy@Kmail.com.  The fact that you're demanding that I violate FERPA gives me reason to suspect that you've violated FERPA yourself at some point and, if anything, I now have something on you, not the other way around.  FU.

Love,
--Wombat of the Copier

2019: Green River College Graduates Transfer to Top Universities.

Deep Springs College - "CBS News Sunday Morning" April 19, 1998

Fall 2019 Admitted Student Day for Stony Brook University

Christian School Fires Professor for Writing Novel With Un-Christian Characters [patheos.com]

The flava:
This spring, T.J. Martinson received a job offer to teach English at Olivet Nazarene University, a religious school outside Chicago where he, his parents, and his grandparents all attended. No doubt he was excited about the opportunity as a newly minted Ph.D.

But last month, before even stepping foot in a classroom, Martinson was told he was fired. All because of a novel he published in March called The Reign of the Kingfisher. (A novel, mind you. Not a memoir or a work of non-fiction or anything else that suggests his own beliefs.)

The article:
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/07/11/christian-school-fires-professor-for-writing-novel-with-un-christian-characters/

A former admission officer at the University of Pennsylvania speaks.

"I certainly was not struck by any sense that I'm sitting before a genius. Certainly not a super genius."
--James Nolan

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/09/trump-overstated-academic-record-report-says

Cokie Roberts and Steven Roberts: No more 'poverty' naps

"The public policy goal should be completely clear and compelling: No more growling stomachs in classrooms. No more 'poverty naps' instead of lunch."

--Cokie & Steven Roberts

Boston’s community college problem: Abysmal graduation rates are failing young people of color [commonwealthmagazine.org]

The flava:
Less than 3 percent of newly enrolled, full-time students graduate on time from community colleges in Boston: 2 percent at Bunker Hill Community College and 1 percent at Roxbury Community College. It’s college decision time, and most students in Boston Public Schools will become part of a broken system of “well-meaning” adults, who are severely allergic to accountability.

The article:
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/bostons-community-college-problem/

The Surreal End of an American College [theatlantic.com]

The flava:
Like most other colleges across the country, Newbury College, a small, private liberal-arts school in Brookline, Massachusetts, held classes through the end of this past spring semester and then bid farewell to cap-and-gown-wearing seniors. But unlike almost every other college, those classes, and that farewell, were the school’s last: Newbury officially ceased operations at the end of May.

The article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/06/what-its-like-when-your-college-shuts-down/591862