Day: May 23, 2020

From a NYTimes article on why the SATs are really being canned:

According to the College Board, which administers the SAT, 55 percent of Asian-American test takers and 45 percent of white test takers scored a 1200 or higher on the SAT in 2019. For Hispanic and black students, those numbers were 12 percent and 9 percent.

I had no idea that the disparity was so gigantic.

But I understand now the impulse to hide the evidence by abolishing the test altogether instead of trying to do something about it. I don’t support this but I understand why it’s easier to pretend that the disparity doesn’t exist.

It’s still a pretty shitty thing to do, though. All those kids who will drop out of the colleges they were not ready to attend, leaving with a mountain of debt and a feeling of inferiority – they are on your conscience, supporters of this dishonest approach.

A couple of years back, there was an effort to place cameras in our classrooms (at my university, not in general) in order to create “a safer and more inclusive environment.” Meaning, obviously, to police wrongthink and speech crimes. Professors aggressively and successfully rejected the idea.

Now this plan has been resuscitated. Let’s place cameras in the classrooms and record everything because coronavirus! the administration says.

Because coronavirus what? you’ll ask. Well, I have no idea. Coronavirus something.

And everybody is so desperate to return to the classroom and not have to teach online that the idea is not getting much of a pushback.

See how easy it is?

Whitmer extended Michigan’s stay-at-home order until June 12.

Biden should make his pick already and stop these poor women from torturing themselves and others.

Today we are celebrating Cliff Arroyo, one of my most favorite commenters of all time!

Please join me in wishing Cliff a wonderful year and a prompt return to his favorite parts of pre-quarantine reality.