nothing makes you question your beliefs more than seeing those who share them
James S. Murphy
@jamessmurphy.bsky.social
Sometimes I write slow, sometimes I write quick. Mostly about college stuff. Weak on crime. Email: jstephenmurphy@gmail.com Website: www.jamessmurphy.com
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called the CLT the nation’s new “gold standard.” USA Today’s blockbuster investigation suggests a more accurate label would be “boondoggle.”
Charlie Barone@charliebarone.bsky.social · 6d agoWhen “Rigorous” Becomes a Euphemism for “Rigged” USA Today Investigation Shows Classic Learning Test is Dumbing Down What It Means To Be College and Career Ready charliebaroneedu.substack.com/p/when-rigor...
Another year, another attempt for a higher education compact.
Liam Knox@liamknox.bsky.social · 2d agoScoop: The Trump administration is sending a letter to college presidents asking them to pledge a series of policy changes by the end of the year. Unlike last year's Compact, this effort was devised with input from higher ed leaders. Free link to my exclusive: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Colleges are pursuing lots of options to put (sweaty) butts in seats. Now flag football joins the list of sports bring added as an enrollment management strategy.
Women’s Flag Football Gains Traction in the NCAA
Nearly 400 colleges will compete at the club or varsity level next spring, making women's flag football one of the fastest-growing collegiate sports. Athletic directors say it’s a useful recruitment t...
insidehighered.com
Remember when Trump asked oil companies for a billion dollars on the promise that they would make record profits?
The Upshot@upshot.nytimes.com · 4d agoIran War Drives Oil Profits to Highest Levels in Years www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/b...
Florida loves the Classic Learning Test, an ACT/SAT competitor. It’s not about college applications though. High school leaders use it to pass students who failed the state’s exit exams. Grad rates are up, but some educators ask if that's good, my latest: www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...
Hegseth’s ‘gold standard’ college exam tests middle-school math
Held up as a new route to college admissions, the Classic Learning Test has instead become a remedial high-school graduation test in Florida.
usatoday.com
The Iowa Board of Regents voted to suspend all courses offered through the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom until 2028 as the search for its permanent director continues.
Center for Intellectual freedom classes on hold
This is an installment in a multipart series The Iowa Board of Regents voted Wednesday to pause all courses offered through the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom, citing the need to...
dailyiowan.com
Held up as a new route to college admissions, the Classic Learning Test has instead become a remedial high-school graduation test in Florida.
Hegseth’s ‘gold standard’ college exam tests middle-school math
Held up as a new route to college admissions, the Classic Learning Test has instead become a remedial high-school graduation test in Florida.
bit.ly
This doesn't seem to get much attention ever but it is so bizarre to see the federal government announce in a press release it is going to investigate something, and issue a press release bashing the "radical left" and essentially saying from the outset what the investigation will conclude
If nothing else, this post provides useful context for understanding why so many states come up short on NAEP--only 2 states (MA & RI) sets their 4th & 8th grade Reading and Math proficiency standards as high as the NAEP does. nces.ed.gov/nationsrepor...
NAEP State Mapping - A Preliminary Mapping of 2023-24 State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scale
NAEP State Mapping - A Preliminary Mapping of 2023-24 State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scale
nces.ed.gov
From the Ivy League playing field to the corporate office. #HigherEd #AcademicSky www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
New Study Shows How Ivy League Playing Fields Turn Into Job Pipelines
A new NBER working paper finds a strong influence on where Ivy League graduates take their first jobs through an "old boy" network formed by participation in athletics.
forbes.com
Lets hear it for the meritocracy! If you think this is bad, don't forget that athletics is one of the three big reasons that the 1% is so overrepresented at elite institutions.
I've been write for many years, but I've never having a headline so bad.
Last week, I explore "What's a Good School" in a bar with a bunch of strangers (and some friends). @lecturesontap.bsky.social
Today I learned that in some school districts teachers are required to watch videos about how to apply a tourniquet when their students are shot.
Not said (or heard) nearly enough.
Andrew Ho@andrewdeanho.bsky.social · 2w agoI talked about 100 years of the SAT for the @harvard.edu Gazette. I hope my "five-legged stool" analogy helps folks to keep our use of admissions test scores in perspective. Also, yes, my chair is named for that guy. news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
Really interesting story about how the National Civics Bee might have been rigged. @ezraklein.bsky.social @danagoldstein.bsky.social
Sam Fortier@sam4tr.bsky.social · 2w agoWas a national civics competition for high-school kids ... Rigged? Biased? Botched? I followed one family through Trump's patriotic contest and found a remarkable story about our age of suspicion. For @notus.com: www.notus.org/national/ame...
Trump Administration Can’t Cite Changed Priorities to Terminate Grants www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
Agencies Can’t Cite Changed Priorities to Terminate Grants
The ruling limits the Trump administration’s power to cancel research and other funding based on the Office of Management and Budget’s termination clause. OMB’s proposed rule may change that.
insidehighered.com
Using an open-source pipeline to read every comment on OMB's proposed grants rule that could have significant impact on science and technology research funding, Christopher Steven Marcum and Abigail Haddad find the verdict "clear and lopsided": ~94% oppose it.
The Public Rejects OMB's Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Tens of thousands of scientists, clinicians, and ordinary citizens warned OMB about putting political appointees in charge of which research gets funded.
buff.ly
“Compared to what?” is always the essential question when asking about critiques of higher education & universities, whether we’re discussing declining trust, freedom of speech, viewpoint diversity, or any of the other things.
Ryan Enos@ryanenos.bsky.social · 3w agoThis is crucial and often unmentioned. Almost every single diagnosis of declining faith in universities fails to mention that it is runs in parallel to declining faith in almost all American institutions. Any failure to recognize this means it is really flawed or not a serious effort.
There were 11 people working at the CDC lab that responds to outbreaks of the parasite cyclospora. Now there are 3 thanks to DOGE
The CDC Has a Cyclospora Lab. DOGE Downsized It Last Year
“Based on simple math, these outbreak responses—which require rapid, timely responses—are going to be greatly diminished,” the former CDC lab director tells WIRED.
wired.com
“The story of literacy decline echoes so many similar narratives that have blossomed into conventional wisdom over the past few years, and which look to me now, upon closer inspection, a wee bit more complicated,” David Wallace-Wells writes.
Opinion | Is This Really the End of Reading?
It’s not the children who stopped reading. It’s their grandparents.
nyti.ms
starting a literary magazine where all it says is you’ve read your last free article this month
This is a misleading headline, and the Chron should know better. If you read the article, it's about the 53 most selective IHEs, not about "selective colleges." The reporter is clear on this. Heck, even the post here is clearer, but the headline is irresponsible.
Chronicle of Higher Education@chronicle.com · 3w agoNearly 70 percent of the most selective colleges saw the number of underrepresented minority students on their campuses decline in recent years according to a new Chronicle analysis of institutional enrollment data. https://chroni.cl/4yDiTNZ
The data are irrefutable: remedial reform in #California has resulted in huge increases in the numbers of community college students passing gateway #math in their 1st semester, the numbers in STEM pathways, & the numbers transferring to bachelor's programs: buff.ly/eWpsIbF #highered #AcademicSky
Revised approach to math yields results
Something impressive is happening at California's community colleges. In fall 2024, 58% of students taking a transfer-level math course for the first time completed that class on their first attempt…
buff.ly
Graduation and acceptance rates are bad proxies for the quality of a college...is an idea I'd like to see more NBER papers explore.
A Norway fan has gone viral for not taking part in their Row celebration after matches and won't do it if they win the World Cup "It’s factually wrong; they didn’t row, they sailed over the Atlantic”
