Not quite post-racial at the Chicago public schools

Has Chicago, the city that gave us Obama, arrived at a post-racial era in its public school system?  Last week, the New York Times reported that the city’s public schools have decided to use student socio-economic profiles rather than race to assign students to schools. Those who believe that race is merely a clumsy and inaccurate [...]

Religious schools and church-state relations

As is well known, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, among other things, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. This is usually understood to mean, in Jefferson’s words, that there should be a “wall of separation” between the church and the state. [...]

Idea of the day: ditch standardized tests

Why do colleges and universities require millions of students each year to take standardized tests as part of their college applications?  The conventional rationale goes something like this: there is a vast quality difference in the nation’s high schools, so GPA alone may not accurately reflect the true ability of the students.  After all, an [...]

Asking for accountability in “legacy” admissions

It’s definitely constitutional for a university, even a public one, to give admissions preference to the children and relatives of its alumni — “legacies” in the vernacular.  But does it work?  Critics call the preferences a school gives to the children of its alumni “affirmative action for the rich.”  Defenders claim that the practice is both [...]

Idea of the day: forget acceptance rates

Acceptance rate is often perceived as an important indicator of a university’s quality.  In the U.S. News and World Report‘s college rankings, acceptance rate determines 10% of the student selectivity score for a university, which is 15% of the total score.  U.S. News also publishes a list of colleges with the lowest acceptance rates.  The [...]