As a college professor and former academic dean, I have long heard that Advanced Placement courses are generally not the equal of their college equivalents. Each of the 38 AP courses has a related college course, for which a qualifying student may receive college credit. Upon completing an AP exam, each student receives a score … Continue reading “AP Economics is a Model of Academic Rigor”
When I was in high school in the mid-1990s, we were all required to swim in gym class. This was before wokeness. Since then, concerns over “accessibility,” “inclusion,” “acceptance,” and changing clothes in a locker room have all but killed physical education. The decline was already in motion, even back then. The girls and boys … Continue reading ““Contract-Grading” and the War Against Academic Excellence”
What will they learn? That is the question that the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has been asking America’s colleges for thirteen years in a report by the same name. ACTA is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to holding America’s colleges and universities accountable for promoting academic excellence. Their annual report, What … Continue reading “Many NC Students Are Missing out on Core Knowledge”
The Chronicle of Higher Education has just published the latest assault on academic standards, Jordynn Jack and Viji Sathy’s “It’s Time to Cancel the Word ‘Rigor’.” Jack teaches rhetoric and comparative literature, Sathy psychology and neuroscience; both teach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their article cloaks a radical ‘equity’ agenda in … Continue reading “Don’t Cancel Rigor”
In early August, archivists and other scholars erupted in protest when the American Historical Association (AHA) wrote a letter asking broad questions about how archives plan to reopen. The AHA framed its letter as an effort to advocate for professional historians and countless other researchers who were without access to most physical archives throughout the … Continue reading “Archivists Serve Historians? A Case of Academic Hubris”
As Massachusetts was considering signing on to a national curriculum and testing plan called Common Core, one of its lead writers gave a presentation to its state board of education. Even Common Core advocate Professor Jason Zimba agreed this national program would prepare students “for the colleges most kids go to, but not for the … Continue reading “How Common Core Damages Students’ College Readiness”