One of the most interesting things that happened during the Care & Equity module for me was that I kept hearing/reading about news stories that were related to the topics we were discussing.
Just before I read Terry Gross’ interview with Adam Harris (“The State Must Provide”) along with the group’s comments, I heard an NPR story about MIT reinstating standardized testing for admission (https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/04/13/mit-standardized-tests). In that story, the Dean of Admissions recognized that standardized testing is biased and problematic but made the argument that without SAT scores (for example), students who did not have access to advanced and specialized high school coursework had no other way of showing they were prepared for/capable of MIT’s curriculum. Interesting argument, but it made me think of some of the frustrations Harris spoke of – if the students didn’t have access to that advanced/specialized coursework, wouldn’t that translate into lower standardized test scores anyway– these aren’t IQ tests – they are tests that one PREPARES for. The cycle is frustrating.
In the comments on the Harris article, Wilson asked if anyone had ever challenged legacy admissions (similar to the way that affirmative action was challenged).   I thought that was a great comment/question. I do know that legacy admissions at some schools have been dropped (https://www.npr.org/2021/10/20/1047687657/amherst-college-ending-legacy-admissions) and that arguments have been made for that to happen elsewhere – even from attending students (https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2021/05/dokken-the-power-of-a-legacy). I have never thought really deeply about the obvious equity issues here and how those translate to the professional word. I think I might be thinking more about it now that I am a parent, quite frankly.
And finally, and sort of unfortunately – I was listening to a story on Marketplace (I did a lot of driving this week!) titled, “Does College Prestige Really Matter? Maybe” (https://www.marketplace.org/2022/04/14/__trashed-3/). In that interview, Ron Lieber (“The Price You Pay for College”) said, “But if you’ve got a daughter who is dead set on being an investment banker, and she’s [accepted] into the Penn State honors program for $100,000 for four years, and she’s [accepted] into Wharton, University of Pennsylvania undergrad for $300,000 — I can guarantee you that Goldman Sachs is not hiring as many 22-year-olds from Penn State as they are from Wharton.” In the context of our discussions of equity in education, that comment felt like a difficult blow.
