John Merrow noted the intense media attention on the recent college admission scandal, where rich parents found ways to buy higher test scores or pay for guarantees of admissions by pretending they were star athletes or paying off coaches to ask for them to be admitted or hiring a ringer to take the SAT for them.
He offers eight ways to repair the college admissions process.
Here are a few of his recommendations.
1) Elite colleges should stop participating in the annual US News & World Report college rankings process. Just stop! Because US News uses a college’s rate of rejection as an important measure of its quality, many colleges have stepped up their efforts to recruit applicants–just so they can turn them down. After all, the more it turns down, the better US News says it must be. If Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton, MIT, Stanford et alia just said NO to US News, that would be a step in the right direction.
2) Get rid of the common application. It’s now too easy for high school students to apply to dozens of colleges with one keystroke, and many kids do just that, particularly if their parents don’t mind paying the fees. If we want to level the playing field, then colleges should do more reaching out to high schools in low- and moderate-income schools and help students apply.
By the way, the US News frenzy and the common application changed the admission process dramatically between our coverage of Williams in 1986 and Amherst in 2004. In 1986 prior to the common application, every application was read by at least two members of the committee, and the entire committee met as a whole for days (often arguing passionately about particular candidates). However, by 2004 the flood of applications had forced Amherst to establish a SAT/ACT cutoff point; applicants below a certain number were rejected without a reading. In 2004 Amherst had what amounted to two committees, which met and admitted and rejected candidates separately.
3) Administer–free of charge–the PSAT to all high school sophomores and juniors, because that test is a good indicator of talent and potential. It might be an eye-opener for many kids in low income areas, because now many of them don’t even try to apply to “elite” colleges because they feel they don’t or won’t qualify; their PSAT scores might help change their minds. Always remember that talent is randomly distributed, while test scores are closely related to parental income.
There are eight in all. Read them and see what you think. Equitable funding of all high schools is another.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Getting rid of the common application would hurt most students – especially those who lack support in school and at home as it would make the application process much more arduous and time-consuming. Plus many schools do administer the PSAT for free and that hasn’t helped in terms of equity but it certainly has helped College Board beef up its profits by selling the test and the personal student data the pre-test surveys generate.
I agree and have amended that recommendation: Cap it at four, the number of free applications allowed for those who qualify. Allowing more benefits only the wealthy, who can easily pay the $85 or more per application.
I stopped reading after
Administer–free of charge–the PSAT to all high school sophomores and juniors, because that test is a good indicator of talent and potential.
Talent and potential for what? Taking tests?
Ha ha ha.
Merrows is back to his cheerleading, I see.
You beat me to it. What a joke. All those tests do is convince a lot of poor and minority students that they are as dumb as they’ve always thought themselves to be, since the test essentially “measures” (sorry, Duane) affluence and whiteness. My stepdaughter is absolutely brilliant, an extremely dedicated student, an around amazing human being and an asset to any college (not bragging – she came to me like that when she was 14, I had nothing to do with it), but she thinks she’s a failure because she’s been getting around 1100 on the PSAT.
Dienne
I think what Merrow probably meant is that the PSAT is a good indicator of talent and potential for taking SATs and ACTs for other people’s kids at $10k a pop and making a killing on it the way Hawvid grad Mark Riddell did for six years before he was caught.
But apparently his talent and potential did not extend to getting away with the crime.
You need the GMAT (business school test) score to predict the latter.
It makes me ill every time I hear about someone like your step daughter.
My father was involved in adult education for his entire career. My brother has been a science teacher for nearly 30 years. They are both REAL experts.
I’m tired of tall the faux expert know it alls who don’t know squat.
Think I exaggerate?
The thing that PSAT score correlates most highly with is the subsequent score on the SAT.
There are more circles involved with deformer logic than epicycles in the Ptolemaic system.
After what happened to me on this website yesterday…..I am in no position to tell anyone that I think they exaggerate. Education experts are very territorial.
Mr. Merrow has lots of great ideas until he doesn’t. Support for the PSAT…wrong. Support for TFA….wrong. Getting rid of Common App….wrong. He is always straddling the line between good and bad because he can’t decide what team he wishes to play with. The man is not stupid…..he’s conflicted. He can’t decide if it’s better to be friends with the upper crust, “monied” folks or the poor, moral folks. He needs to pick a side and deliver on the goods because he was excellent in his career.
I think the problem is that he DOES pick a side, despite his pretense not to.
Merrow is different from most of the people in this debate in that he is a journalist — or st least claims to be.
It’s not his job to pick a side.
In fact. It is his job NOT to pick a side.
He has failed in that endeavor.
John Merrow is retired. He is free to express his views.
I have amended my suggestion about the Common App, recommending instead that the number be capped at FOUR, which is how many applications are free for students who qualify. Allowing more than four benefits only those whose parents are wealthy enough to pay the application fees, which can be $85 or even more per application.
However, my central point is that it’s not enough to try to close the loopholes that benefit the rich (such as unlimited use of the Common App). We need to fund schools fairly so that all students have a fair chance to excel. So (another rethinking), it’s not enough to provide counselors. Underfunded schools also need modern facilities like physics labs, advanced curricula, and skilled veteran teachers.
John Merrow
Then let me ask you this. Why would you support TFA? They are NOT skilled teachers, in fact, they are NOT teachers at all. Why do you support small, “private” Charter schools? They aren’t accountable to the public tax payers? You seem to support all the things that take money away from fully funding public schools. You speak with forked tongue. Choose a side and commit…..fully.
OK, now I’m starting to get some of the vitriol against Merrow. His point 6 is so full of fallacies and hypocrisies that my head is having a hard time stopping the spinning. The TFA-ish proposal needs no comment for anyone who’s been paying attention. That’s worth condemnation alone. But to blithely write “I think the ‘free college’ talk is bogus” and then follow it with “If we as a nation invested in the post-secondary education of our young people, that would have a ripple effect” is intellectually timid and dishonest. I’m surprised he doesn’t see the obvious linkage between the two. According to estimates I have found, it would cost $70 billion annually to cover tuition at public colleges and universities. Under Bernie Sanders’s proposal, the federal government would contribute 2/3, the states the rest. But let’s assume the feds would pick it all up. We’re talking less than 10% of annual military appropriations. And if we cut that, we’d still be spending more than two times annually than our nearest “competitor.” Additionally, the economic multiplier effect on the economy of education vs. military spending is significantly higher. Merrow, it seems, would accept the status quo without even trying to advocate for a change in spending priorities. He cheers the idea that young people “would jump” at the opportunity to engage in destructive TFA-lite scams. He invokes the dreams of JFK. But talk of “free college” (a complete mischaracterization, which he should well know) is “bogus”. Selective idealism about goals that require hard work and new thinking to achieve seems to me to be the very opposite of idealism. Here he sounds like the stereotypical southern good ole boy who dismisses ideas “because that’s just not the way we do things down here.”
Get rid of the bonus point for taking an AP class. In California, the AP frenzy to game the grade point average is so bad that students are literally and tragically losing their minds because of the workload. They are taking AP classes in subjects for which they have little interest or aptitude. Subject is taught to the test, a mile wide and an inch deep. There is no guarantee that passing the test translates to college credit (many schools require a 4 or 5), and the AP class is in no way equivalent to the actual college class. But, this rush to AP makes tons of $$$ for the College Board, at $90 per test. And, charters love to market their schools by requiring that students enroll in AP courses. Cherry-picking at its finest.
Oakland sounds a lot like Howard and Montgomery Co in Maryland. The AP craze is alive and well here. In our high schools there are AP and Regular classes only….and if you don’t want to (or shouldn’t take AP), you will sit and rot in a classroom doing absolutely nothing. It’s sinful, but we get that good old US News and World Report honors every year because they force all the children into the AP nightmare. The slimiest part of all of it is that the families living in the wealthy areas don’t pay for the test, but the kids who live in less affluent areas have to pony up the $90 for the test. It works the system for the good of the county because you want to boast that a high % of students take AP classes AND you only have the kids most likely passing the test taking the test. It’s a scam!! Get rid of AP…get rid of SAT and ACT.
Oakland and Howard and Montgomery Co in Maryland sound like my district in Montana. There are two choices for students: Take AP classes with other overachievers and get completely overwhelmed — OR– sit in “regular” classes and have underachievers drag everyone down. Our school used to offer three levels and that fit students better because it got closer to the bell curve.
Another model was decades ago when there was only one level for each subject, but that level was medium-high. Students learned a lot in every class. Now there are only two choices: Be overwhelmed or be bored. Creating AP stress for students can even fuel mental illness.
If AP is having this effect across the country, why aren’t more people advocating for a different model?
I have many doubts about “dual credit”–Two for the price of one! Too good to be true! Get college credit from a teacher who may not be qualified! Get college credit from a teacher who isn’t given a college schedule–from someone who is not being given enough time to prepare, grade, research, etc. like a real college professor.
Dual credit is about economics–not education.
@ Montana teacher….The system is set up as a competition. Competition and education can never go hand in hand. Children are not learning, they are test prepping and parents don’t realize it….parents just see a score and know that they can raise it by paying for test prep.More AP classes “look better” on an application. It’s all a fight over Merit Scholarship money, other scholarship funding and social status. I believe I read somewhere that funding for Merit Scholarships has not increased in 20 yrs but the number of applicants has increased by over 40% in the same time period?…..someone can correct me if I’m wrong because I can’t pull up the numbers. Being a parent is really hard these days when the money vultures see children as a $ sign and the parents as nothing more than an ATM. It’s in education, it’s in youth sport. Nothing in life can be fun and meaningful…it has to be a full on competition with a winner at the end. AP is the biggest evil in high school…and I have a Jr in HS.
You are both right.
The admissions mess (which is a euphemism for scam) goes FAR beyond what most of the self styled experts are suggesting fixes for — certainly FAR FAR beyond the 50 some odd people caught in the recent FBI sting.
The whole thing is rotten to the core and speaking of Core, the whole stinking pile of manure seems to have it’s source at the College Board.
It’s like a giant (cash) cow in that regard. The manure is so high that it has completely engulfed the barn, the farm, the county, the states, the country and now threatens to engulf the entire world.
David Cowman ueber alles!
I love you!!! You share my thoughts exactly on College Board and David Coleman.
I think it would make more sense to invite high school counselors and teachers to post recommendations on how to fix the admissions mess rather than a fellow who is so CERTAIN about the wisdom of his recommendations that he has already amended one of them since he first posted them.
Clearly, all the people who have been involved to date — college admissions officials and University Presidents, College Board and ACT, US News with it’s bogus rankings, the Federal government and loan shark banks profiting from student loans, and yes, even some journalists (won’t name any names) have made a complete DISASTER of things and in a very real sense INVITED the latest scandal, which is small potatoes compared to the real scandal: that everyone who should be looking out for students and their families is instead out to make a buck (or a million) off of them.
I welcome Merrow’s proposal to refuse to participate in the magazine’s annual rankings. Its only purpose is to build circulation.
The whole US News thing is a scam. The hospital rankings are just as useless. I’ll leave it there.
I mentioned Kamala Harris’ ranking of d- based on billionaire contributions in one of the categories of the network of public education post yesterday…..it is no longer easily found, though the search engine will make it available. Is discussion of POTUS candidates not an acceptable subject? This seems like a year in which public education could be given some long overdue attention from the media, even if the people themselves have to drag them into furnishing it.
NPE will continually update ratings as peopleon the ground report back and the candidatesexpress their plans.
Where is it? In the old restaurant?
Sent from my iPhone
I had a brief flicker of hope when Merrow proposed that colleges should not make the ACT/SAT mandatory (but then why the heck should high school students take the PSAT???), but then he goes and says those tests should be replaced with a video game that “gauges” (hell, at least he didn’t say “measures”) “critical thinking”. What a maroon. And I mean the Bugs Bunny type, not the University of Chicago type.
Dienne
Merrow is just following the latest Hawvid-dropout scheme to make a billion dollars.
It’s called Imbellus (aka Imbesull) Inc
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-19/a-harvard-dropout-s-plan-to-fix-college-admissions-with-video-games
It’s not based on any education research, just the belief of someone who knows nothing about education that she can use a video game to determine job and college “potential”.
“She argues that by harnessing advances in computing power, artificial intelligence, and data science, her assessments can deliver a quantitative picture of how a worker thinks.”
In other words, she claims she will be able to figure out from a video game something that neuroscientists have not yet been able to do after more than a century of research.
Sure.
Yet another bottle of silicon 🐍 oil.
Reminds me of another company in the news recently. That one did not end well.
It should be pointed out that Mr. Merrow is not correct about the way US News is currently constructing the rankings. US News no longer takes college acceptance rates into account. See https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/articles/2018-09-10/whats-new-in-the-2019-us-news-best-colleges-rankings
US News rankings are worthless and harmful and a waste of paper
Harvard put out this report 3 years ago purportedly because they were so concerned with the negative impact college admission process has on high school students. As far as I can tell, the only thing to come of it is an additional writing prompt on the common app for personal essay – write about whatever you want. That’s it.
https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/turning-the-tide-college-admissions
I’d add personal interviews as ninth. You might say, it’s not practical for a college to arrange those, but then colleges have way too many students, and they keep working on getting more. They have the growth mindset and state funding is also related to graduation rates.
You are correct regarding administering the PSAT free to students. As principal of Newman Smith HS in Carrollton, Texas for years we have the PSAT free to all students grades 9-13. This not only was an indicator of academic potential but motivated learners to achieve! This policy became part of our academic environment of achievement, increased SAT scores and college enrollment. High expectations for all!
I noted this admissions report in an article I wrote some time ago and updated recently advising parents and students in our local school districts about dealing with the AP class crisis.
The AP system continues to have strong support from many high school administrators who think it is a “high quality curriculum.” There is no doubt that it is a challenging curriculum, and is clearly designed to “spread out the curve” to help college admissions offices see through grade inflation.
Whether or not it is good pedagogy for high school students is a completely different question. Local schools in our area “advise” students to limit AP classes to about 2 per year but students often take around 5. This is in response to both competitive peer pressure and counseling “advice” to “take a demanding schedule.”
http://eduissues.com/2019/02/08/2019-2020-high-school-class-sign-up-time-please-read-this-article-first/
Thanks.
I know Diane had a post on one of your articles on AP, but would like to see Diane post some of your thoughts on admissions (in lieu of Merrow’s 😉)
I think people need to hear more from those who are actually working in the trenches and (much) less from the armchair quarterbacks.
Thank you!
My AP article that she noted a few years ago was
http://eduissues.com/2017/04/29/its-ap-exscam-time-again/
which detailed how the College Board sets the percentage grade to pass its physics and math tests as low as 36% and hides this info from the public.
David
I read your article and agree fully with your thesis.
Even a score of 5 on AP tests like physics and calc does not mean all that much.
I used to teach physics and know this for a fact.
The very idea that AP courses are equivalent to college courses is just a joke. Always has been. It was when I took AP calc decades ago and nothing has changed that I can see.
AP has completely distorted our high school education system and much of the blame lies with those at College Board who have pushed it (though high schools and colleges and universities also share blame for playing the game)
I would liken college Board pushing AP to Purdue Pharma pushing Oxycontin.
In both cases, they have made billions of dollars at public expense based on lies.
Dear Poet,
I agree with you completely, but we may be the only two people still reading this thread 🙁.
Sincerely,
Dave Kristofferson
I read every comment, more than 500,000 and counting…
And you also wrote a book while doing so. Very impressive!
Not true.
Máté, not sure what you were replying to. Do you disagree regarding AP classes or are you simply saying that others are still reading the discussion?
Sry, I usually quote the sentence I am replying to because I know that WordPress will mess with the orders. I just meant, there are still living creatures reading this thread.
How the College Admissions Scandal Was Uncovered:
http://eduissues.com/2019/03/31/how-the-college-admissions-scandal-was-uncovered
Seems to me that there is only one fix for this, not eight.
1) Lengthy jail sentences
2-8) Refer to item 1
I agree! Every big problem has a simple solution.
Perhaps you are being facetious here; generally I am wary of simple solutions, but if a society has lost all respect for the the law, then enforcing it is priority one. Anything more complicated would fail if this basic foundation is missing.
I think freedom seekers are poorly well controlled in this country: freedom to accumulate an enormous amount of wealth at the expense of others, freedom to buy as many guns as you want; freedom to influence as many people as you want, freedom to lobby politicians for your own interest, freedom to conduct human experiments on millions, etc.
Too many people in our society seem to have the attitude that rules do not apply to “upscale VIPs.” Sadly, this attitude now seems to go all the way to the top.