According to The Harvard Crimson, Harvard will offer high-school-level math courses to its students. The remedial assistance has rekindled criticism over Harvard’s move away from standardized tests in making admissions decisions.
For years, Harvard has been accused of lowering admissions standards to achieve “equity” goals in its classes. The school opposed efforts to uncover its admissions data. When that data was ultimately revealed, sharp differences emerged based on race. The differences led to the historic decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181 (2023) barring the use of race in college admissions.
As court decisions made it clear that the period of race-based criteria was coming to an end, systems like the University of California dumped standardized testing, while others decreased the reliance on such scores. Without standardized testing as an objective measure of comparison, challenges based on race would be more difficult to establish.
Critics have raised that history in light of the recent announcement. It would have been unthinkable in prior years for Harvard to offer remedial high-school-level courses for admitted students.
Nevertheless, Harvard’s director of introductory math, Brendan Kelly, told The Harvard Crimson that the cause was the pandemic. He said that Harvard students “don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum. We want to make sure that students are on a path to success starting from their first day.”
It is an odd explanation since most students deemed competitive for the top schools have excelled on standardized tests. The school was obviously selecting on other criteria than proven excellence in basic areas of study.
Since 1636, Harvard long insisted on the very top scores from students for admission. The result was that it became one of the world’s premier and most exclusive universities. Yet, in one generation, the current faculty and administrators have reduced its standards to the point that students must retake basic high school courses.
While the university’s standards have obviously declined, faculty and administrators have substituted their own priorities — and interests — for those of the institution.
Many agreed with Ibram X. Kendi that standardized testing was based on racism and perpetuated racial inequality. He insisted in 2020 that “standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade black and brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools.”
Ironically, standardized tests have been found to be the most predictive measure of success in college.
As noted by the New York Times, studies at Ivy League schools show that GPAs hold limited value as predictors of success while test scores are highly indicative of success.
It does not matter in today’s academic environment. Then University of California President Janet Napolitano caved to this movement.
Notably, academics in the California system came to the same conclusion as Dartmouth years ago. Napolitano, however, overrode those conclusions.
Napolitano responded to the claims of racism in the use of SAT scores with a Standardized Testing Task Force in 2019. Many people expected the task force to recommend the cessation of standardized testing. The task force did find that 59 percent of high school graduates were Latino, African-American or Native American but only 37 percent were admitted as UC freshman students. The Task Force did not find standardized testing to be unreliable or call for its abandonment, however.
Instead, its final report concluded that “At UC, test scores are currently better predictors of first-year GPA than high school grade point average (HSGPA), and about as good at predicting first-year retention, [University] GPA, and graduation.”
Not only that, it found: “Further, the amount of variance in student outcomes explained by test scores has increased since 2007 … Test scores are predictive for all demographic groups and disciplines … In fact, test scores are better predictors of success for students who are Underrepresented Minority Students (URMs), who are first generation, or whose families are low-income.” In other words, test scores remain the best indicator for continued performance in college.
That clearly was not the result Napolitano or some others wanted. So, she simply announced a cessation of the use of such scores in admissions. The system will go to a “test-blind” system until or unless it develops its own test.
Even the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) yielded to this movement during the pandemic by dropping the use of standardized testing requirements. However, MIT later reversed that decision and reinstated the use of the tests as key to preserving its elite status as an educational institution.
Of course, this controversy cannot ignore that our high schools are cranking out students who cannot do high-school level math. Indeed, many have moved away from standardized tests to achieve equity. Others have lowered standards or dropped proficiency standards for graduation. Others have eliminated gifted and talented programs to avoid inequitable results.
The combination of such equity policies has finally reached Harvard which is now compelled to reduce classes to high-school levels to meet minimal standards for students.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Our education system is abysmal. Our kids, at all levels are NOT learning anything. How are they going to compete in a world job market?
“How are they going to compete in a world job market?” Simple. AOC explains: “Why do Americans need to do jobs foreigners can do? Instead in five years 10% of Americans will be recording artists, 10% will be actors, 20% will be “social-media influencers” (the fastest-growing job class in the world!), 12% will “do podcasts,” 17% will be selling formerly-illegal-but-newly-legalized drugs, 8% will have government jobs, and the rest will be drawing welfare while being paid by Soros to burn Teslas or anything else ordered by “organizers of totally spontaneous, grass-roots protests.” SEE?
🙂 🙂 🙂 I certainly hope this is NOT the case!
In addition to test scores, elite universities should up their scholarship requirements for acceptance.
Applicants should enter with the following one-year courses and competencies:
1. Calculus (this implies geometry, trigonometry and algebra)
2. Physics
3. Chemistry
4. Language (at least 3 years)
5. Rhetoric
6. American history, including civics
7. European history
Additionally, the schools should establish a minimum test score threshold for entry and then not use the scores for ranking candidates. Say, a 1400 for the SAT, with a minimum of 650 for each of the subsections.
they are applying to undergrad school not medical school.
Get a grip
If they are not well rounded in their primary education they will be unable to advantage a higher level of education because of their lack of a sound foundation to their knowledge. You simplify only to resist logic – you don’t even begin to understand the 2,000+ years of western culture based on knowledge as the foundation of civilization. A liberal arts degree is the building block of an education and the specializations for particular fields come after the BA makes you aware of your world and its cultures. Ignorance of part of the world may work if you are a plumber but I do not want a professional who is ignorant of a good part of things just so he/she/it can slide through a university for the sole purpose of making money. If that is what you think is important, go to a trade school and leave higher erudition to those with more brain power.
I have to disagree with you in one respect – Trade School is a form of higher education. In Trade School, there is no “Here’s my theory!”, with analysis of the results either never coming, or coming so far after the fact, that the damage is done. Nope, the car either runs when you fix it, or it don’t. The water leak either stops when you fix it, or it don’t.
Most “professionals” that I have met in my life, are relatively stupid, and unable to figure out basic problems. Because their line of work usually does not require that. And many are simply incompetent, and untrustworthy. That is why so many “educated” people, are leftist Democrats. Because they can not think, and can not adjust to new facts.
Meanwhile, a plumber or a mechanic must think and adjust to new facts. If the car battery still dies, after the battery has been replaced, the mechanic must reassess his repair. Is it the cables, is it the generator, is it the computer chip, is it a short in the electrical system?
According to former members of his administration, Trump is ignorant of economics, world history, US history, and yet you support him unquestioningly–why, when you say you “do not want a professional who is ignorant of a good part of things just so he/she/it can slide through a university for the sole purpose of making money? Excerpted from “CNN”, dateline 1/15/2021:
“Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson painted a scathing picture of his old boss President Donald Trump as someone who made uninformed decisions that were not based in reality – a stark contrast to Trump’s top diplomat Mike Pompeo, who is heaping praise on the outgoing President in his final days in office.
“His understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of U.S. history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this,” Tillerson said in a lengthy interview with Foreign Policy conducted prior to Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol that was published this week.
Tillerson, who was ousted in March 2018, told the magazine, “I used to go into meetings with a list of four to five things I needed to talk to him about, and I quickly learned that if I got to three, it was a home run, and I realized getting two that were meaningful was probably the best objective.”
He added that he “started taking charts and pictures with (him) because I found that those seemed to hold his attention better.”
“I think the other challenge that I came to realize early on is there were so many people who had access to his ear who were telling him things, most of which were untrue, and then he began to listen to those voices and form a view that had no basis in fact,” the former secretary of state said.
“So then you spent an inordinate amount of time working through why that’s not true, working through why that’s not factual, working through why that’s not the basis on which you want to understand this, you need to set that aside, let’s talk about what’s real. I think that was as big a challenge as anything,” Tillerson said.”
I am sure that Gen. George McClellan had a dim view of Gen. U.S. Grant, because Grant drank too much, and did not know all the latest dances from France.
Gigi, you try so hard. TDS is cutting off the blood flow to your brain. But the demonic left is all about burning it down and losing even more power.😂🙏
Absolutely, Anonymous! Dere iz NO need fo’ college fresh-pyrsyns to know if 87/119 is bigger or smaller than one, or how many millions in a billion, or whether a kilometer is longer or shorter than a mile! Absolutely trivial! Same for history: “Get a grip” indeed! Why should college students need to know who fought who in WW2, or our Civil War, or what happened on 9/11/2001, or where Ukraine is on a map, eh?
All dat is SOOooo racist! No one other than scientists (like Dr. Fauci–“Doctor Science”!) needs to know stuff like dat.
I would add at least one foreign language as that was a requirement when I received my BA back in the 70’s
That was the minimum for acceptance when I entered university in 1968. We have allowed lowered standards so that sub-par students would appear to be successfully passed through the system thereby establishing the myth that equity was the same as an equal opportunity.
Never forget that Harvard admitted David Hogg.
And just check where most of these “minority” congressional representatives have received gratuitous degrees in the name of affirmative action. We will be plagued for decades with people who think they are educated when, in fact, they are ignorant of their own ignorance but convinced that they know it all ( see AOC for details).
Dunning-Kruger effect.
This is such a bombshell. Simple observation over the years could have told us all the same thing. When people are smart, work hard, study and go to class, they strangely seemed to do well on tests and seemed to rank high in class.
When I was in the Atlanta Public schools so long ago I was told I was a great student and went to Emory University expecting to burn up the place. What a shock. Everyone else was also the top student from their high schools and they kicked my butt the 1 st year. I had to up my game to a different level. I was lazy at studying because I could rank near the top of my class in high school without breaking a sweat. Not so anymore. I had to learn to study and how to study. Lots of hard work and long hours.
I made it into Medical School but that 1st year in college nearly killed my dream. By med school though, the tools were there and the work ethic and smart studying and that changed my life and how I judged myself in competition and how to adjust.
The strange thing was that everyone else who was right there with me was doing the same thing. That’s the key to college. You’re supposed to be kicked out of your comfort zone, confront new ideas and points of view and stretch yourself. You cannot grow if you’re not forced out of your happy little shell.
The testing we did made the appropriate predictions. Those who hit 1600 or nearly that seemed to be crowded up there at the very top and the rest of rest us trailed behind. This has been evident for centuries. I think that is why they did testing. It usually predicts how you perform. Not perfect but damn near that.
The main thing I also observed was that kids that came from small rural schools or poor city schools hit the wall in college because they had never dealt with the level of competition and had only the rudimentary tools and were further behind than me and never caught up.
The obvious thing to do is transform elementary and secondary education so all students have the right tools and then they will achieve. Race has nothing to do with it.
Harvard has castrated itself with how it trains and teaches. The question is will they realize that and perform the necessary corrective surgery or will the patient die and just leave a stinking carcass near the Charles River
If we cannot remove the boards that hire they ignorant faculty, there will be no change. The fish rots from the head.
Unfortunately, race does have something to do with it. Where you have large numbers of black students, you will not have a school environment conducive to learning. Because most of the little monsters have no respect for education, and they come from a home environment that sucks. They will be too busy swinging from the chandeliers, and fighting, to permit the education process to happen.
It doesn’t have to be this way, and it is not genetic. But it is the black culture in this country, for many of them, and it’s getting worse. That is why there needs to be school vouchers, so that those black parent(s) that do respect education, can get their kids to a private school, where they can make something out of themselves. And the same with white and other races, because if their kids are going to schools with large numbers of blacks, odds are they are not learning as well as they should be either. Look at what just happened in Texas, where the young, black monster stabbed a 17-year-old white guy to death at a track meet. Or the young, black monster who whacked another black girl with the baton in a relay race. There are a large number of soul-less young black monsters in our society, and as hard as it may be, we need to face that fact.
This is a hard and bitter pill to swallow, because we have been preached to, and taught, and indoctrinated for decades, that all cultures are equal. But they simply ain’t. Brown vs The Board of Education did not work. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it didn’t work. Integration has killed the public schools, and our cities, too.
What will Harvard do when it becomes obvious that the majority of the students required to enroll in these remedial math classes are predominantly of non-white, non-Asian ethnic groups? Further, can one imagine the stigma within the student body of being required to take such classes? How in the world does this raise any chance of “inclusion” or “equity” for these students?
@Lily – How about after they enroll in the classes they fail? Hmmm what then?
I cannot abide the progressive ideology that claims to be able to “perfect” mankind via government fiat.
The entire “Great Society” legislation was, and has proven to be, a failed anthropological experiment in social engineering. The hubris of those who thought that they could re-engineer human nature and create an utopia on earth is revealing.
If they began from a stance of evolutionary change, they took it upon themselves to attempt to manipulate the phenomena of natural selection and have failed to incorporate the savagery of the concept of survival of the fittest or;
If they began from a stance of a divine creator, their hubris was even more pernicious to think that the could “perfect” the creator’s design.
As far as their plan to achieve equity among the various factions of mankind; all that affirmative action and DEI managed to do was to increase the animus between the races by pushing a narrative that denies the ultimate and natural instinct to strive for rewarding merit first in promoting the best path for survival of the group.
What the progressives have done is create a false caste system almost as absurd as the feudal system that begins with the privilege of some over others based on an unnatural system created in an intellectuall bubble.
How to undo almost a century of promoting this false narrative into the minds of those who were either; not discerning enough to note the danger of such a flawed ideology or gladly and willingly glommed onto a scheme that offered unmerited benefits.
Convincing people to offer up personal gain for the ultimate benefit of the group has always required a voluntary group adherence to this notion by means of a societal commitment based on a common and agreed upon set of total values.
Here is where another concept, multicilturalism, has been proven throughout the history of civilizations, to be a path to societal collapse. Just look to any current western nation that has adopted multiculturalism and compare their societal chaos to the orderliness and stability of nations who have maintained their identity of cultural unity.
In the end, the notion of removing the notion of merit as the foundation of a cultural has proven almost fatal to our ability to feel a stability to our endeavors – we have lost our faith in the rational and we have begun to mistrust the very ground upon which our nation and culture are based.
Dear Mr. Turley, Harvard’s attempt to help their students with High School math is 60 years too late. This problem needed addressing back when I was in school. It was easy to see how in the over-crowded public-school classrooms (32 students, at the same grade level, with one teacher) would miss many of the students who may have required additional help. We were bumped on up ahead. The following autumn saw the teachers spending the first nine weeks repeating the previous year’s math program. Yes, as an earlier comment stated, the various Universities and Tech Schools have been doing remedial math classes for years. My question: why have these Universities not complained about precious time and resources used on what should have been learned in High School? The answer: they are in bed with each other. I also remember the Black students did not want to participate in the classroom, gym or the swimming classes offered. They believed they would “Look White” if they did.
Mao’s Long March through the institutions in the US reached its peak a decade ago. Now we are seeing the effects of Progressive and communist (same thing) educational policies in the entirety of our education system. Fortunately these insane policies are being exposed everywhere.
This is Harvard UNIVERSITY. What that means is that here, as in other universities, the students are recognized as having a universal education. The education process is , theoretically, a confirmation of what subjects the applicant is conversant in. If the students meet the math requirements…..good. Move on to more specialized training, but you must demonstrate that you have fundamental skills in your repository of knowledge. Otherwise you are not exceptional. Otherwise you are mundane.
Time to END Federal Aid to colleges/students. Also tax any non-profit where anyone gets $100k…like virtually Every College!
OT; Leonard Leo the libertarian Heritage foundation scholar is suing Trump over his tariffs. He claims they are unconstitutional. Apparently cratering the economy is too much for even the Heritage Foundation.
Commerces Secretary Lutnick is a certified idiot. It seems Trump’s penchant for hiring incompetents continues.
And what judge did he give the suit through? If it’s not SCOTUS, the admin can tell him to pound sand.
Our economy and society have been cratering for decades. Our wealth is fake, stocks are fickle, our debt catastrophic, our national IQ abysmal
Trump is doing the right thing by making Americans produce again, stop relying on overseas cheap slave labor for crappy goods, and make “Made in USA” count for value
Americans are sick of Made in China
Don’t forget we’re playing with monopoly money. Just a thought – Trump is ramping up deployment of military personnel to the Middle East. We cannot afford to be involved in any more wars at this point. When a country has to depend on a whole lot of other countries for goods, medicine and materials, we could very easily have our butts kicked while sacrificing people for no reason.
Yes our congress outsourced us right out of business and it is impossible to compete with slave labor, although the US gave it the old college try with low wages and inflation undermining the middle class. Time to bring it all home.
Harvard is just experiencing what every College and University in the nation has been offering for years. Remedial classes. Because states at various levels have been poorly funding their schools and changing curriculum according to political views or new fangled methods. Standardized testing IS a problem. Teaching to the test is also another.
We also have the problem of not letting teachers use the best methods and their best ideas to teach. They are often hampered by administrators who are more focused on raising test scores and only the scores instead of actually educating.
Now that there is a greater emphasis on private schools will students from those schools show improvement? Will private schools prove that they are indeed better at producing better prepared students? Studies show they do not or that there is no discernable difference. Many private schools don’t do standardized testing.
What is becoming evident is that school choice is getting more expensive for states to maintain. More access to private schools and FSA’s or vouchers are costing more. Are they showing improvement in outcomes or not?
Fun Fact, even Turleys George Washington college offers remedial courses. They are required as part of normal course work to get a degree.
FCK the “poor funding of schools” bullshlt! It is the poor parenting in the black community that has caused the problems. Money can’t fix that, nor teacher raises. Although, I do think that teachers in schools with large black ratios, need combat training, lessons in Krav Maga, Brazilian jujitsu, kung fu, etc., and combat pay. Plus, a good Bowie Knife!
Floyd, in New York City, the situation is clear: Democratic politicians have prioritized political power over student success. When a solution, namely charter schools, began reversing failure rates and producing real academic gains, they viewed it as a political threat rather than a model to expand. Ever since, many have worked to undermine these schools, effectively choosing to preserve their influence at the cost of children’s education.
Sorry that it comes to this due to Covid or other reasons. I am glad the university is helping the students, once admitted, to potentially achieve sucess. Maybe Harvard should have a Harvard Prep School run by the University to prepare students who need this kind of help. Pass the prep school courses and you get to move on to become a freshman. Fail and at least you are better prepared for enrollment elsewhere.
I agree that the pandemic left huge gaps in math, but this measure is being taken four years late.
The pandemic generation is graduating either this year or next.
I would like to know how they spent the entire curriculum?
Pathetic.
Bourgeois universities such as Harvard should be left to themselves for their own self destruction.
Question: Are the poor math skills of students entering Harvard or any other college a result of poor teaching in high school or instead a result of the “success” of efforts at equity? The end result of achieving “equity” now appears to be regression of high school math (and English) skills to a lowered mean. Teaching to a lowered mean is certainly easier for government public school teachers than is striving to teach all students to a raised bar. Why should there be any surprise at these results?
Or could it be that after decades of the dumbing down of America, be the culprit?
Or just plain bad DNA mixing?
No child left behind means no child gets ahead. GW Bush program
While it is funny Harvard claims these students are ready for academic rigor, the sad part, the lost part, these students are most likely public school students.
Randi Weingarten must be proud.
my white son with 1600 SAT scores was not accepted by harvard.
Find that hard to believe. But if you say so. I think your bank account was too meager or you don’t have a fat trust.
Or they knew you’re a republican. In any case, sue em. Class action is best.
Count your blessings; send him to be educated somewhere instead of indoctrinated.
my white 1600 SAT daughter didn’t apply because I refused to let her. Though she went to another Ivy League. She tutored writing and the stories she told…astounding. Was also complete with segregated housing.
Because being ‘white’ is now the new exclusion. Merit doesn’t matter, only melanin.
So, Harvard becomes HCC, Harvard Community College, and at astronomical tuition rates. The truth is out. They’ve been running a B-level university for years, appealing to full tuition, foreign and domestic clients. As perks for these students, they have allowed discrimination by religion and violent demonstrations. To lock in their new status, they’ve even hired college presidents with a solid records of plagiarism. And for the “crème de la crème,” they now do remediation classes. Peel away the ivy on those hallowed halls. and you’ll find a giant cash register.