Comments on: Cutting race-based scholarships blocks path to college, students say https://hechingerreport.org/cutting-race-based-scholarships-blocks-path-to-college-students-say/ Covering Innovation & Inequality in Education Mon, 16 Sep 2024 17:25:29 +0000 hourly 1 By: Kadidia Thiero https://hechingerreport.org/cutting-race-based-scholarships-blocks-path-to-college-students-say/comment-page-1/#comment-77269 Wed, 28 Aug 2024 20:47:34 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=103160#comment-77269 Interesting article and varied points about what students are doing to access historically uneven admission practices in the US, given the changes to the Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action. What could provide more context and nuance are the following:
1. Replacement of the outdated term “underrepresented”, which places the accountability on systematically marginalized people to address the injustices of the centuries-old laws and practices, rather than the majority, which remains the reason for the lack of diversity in these educational institutions and spaces. Another perspective from N. Chloe Ngwangu’s “Why We Should Stop Saying ‘Underrepresented'” article in the Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2023/04/why-we-should-stop-saying-underrepresented

2. The reason behind the Supreme Court ruling, why is the controversy surrounding Affirmative Action still so contentious? What laws were in place that necessitated these measures in the first place? Why are there civil rights offices/departments in every federal agency?

3. Why are SAT/ACT scores considered biased and not an accurate measure of knowledge? What are the SAT/ACT questions based on? Where does one see these questions? Who takes Advanced Placement (AP) courses? Who is excluded from AP courses? Where are AP courses offered?

4. The admissions panels at universities – how many implement implicit bias training for their employees, panelists?

5. Secondary education in the US is uneven in public schools at best, even with the advent of the Next Generation Science Standards and core-curricula; nor is it aligned with basic post-secondary attainment. How does the US Department of Education plan to address this basic injustice, where most children are educated in this system?

I could go on, however, one can see the many flaws in the secondary education system, and then the competition for the few higher eduction spaces becomes even steeper, and removing scholarships and Affirmative Action is not the answer. Post-secondary education should be free. That would be a start to leveling the field.

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