Standardized tests have been attacked for being biased against some groups of students. Is that true? Should we stop using them? Exams like the American College Test (ACT) are supposed to assess how much information students learned in high school and, by implication, their preparedness for college. However, they’ve been criticized as being biased against … Continue reading “The ACT is Still Useful”
Is higher education the highest priority for East Carolina University, or is the institution just pushing a political narrative? On August 19th, ECU held its 2022-23 faculty convocation, and the Martin Center was able to attend via livestream. The speeches and events that transpired were eye-opening and revealed much about the path ECU is encouraging … Continue reading “ECU Makes the Secret Hurt Visible”
It’s no secret that black students fare poorly on the academic achievement scale. Their scores on standardized achievement tests, their academic performance while in school, and their rates of enrollment and graduation lag far behind their white and Asian counterparts. The persistence of this achievement gap is harmful to society. But how can we close … Continue reading “Why Blacks Must Be Responsible for Closing the Racial Achievement Gap”
John Staddon is an emeritus professor of biology at Duke University and, thankfully, an academician who doesn’t fear being “canceled” for voicing incorrect opinions. His latest book, Science in an Age of Unreason, abounds in such opinions. Staddon argues that science is in dire straits in America due to the way that it has become … Continue reading “Higher Education is Complicit in the Politicization of Science”
In the fall of 2021, it appeared that Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe, would rather easily defeat his Republican challenger, Glenn Youngkin. But the election turned dramatically once a number of parents voiced their opposition to the racially-themed material that was being taught in schools. They didn’t think it appropriate to tell students that … Continue reading “The Origins and Impact of Racially Divisive Curricula”
During the years I taught college English, I had a ringside seat watching a new breed of Jacobins seize control of a university English department, then extend their reach throughout the humanities. Posing as the champions of “social justice,” they have built an empire cultivating “victims”—and silencing colleagues who oppose the new mission of the … Continue reading “Diary of a Mad Emerita”
The educational bureaucracies from the state level down to local school boards, including community college boards of trustees, are rushing to implement administrative regulations and board policies, as well as approve curricular changes, that will normalize antiracist and gender identity politics in our education systems for years and perhaps generations to come. The sudden rush … Continue reading “Institutionalizing Systemic Antiracism Racism”
The UNC School of Medicine just released an “update” to its lengthy Task Force to Integrate Social Justice into the Curriculum Report. According to the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion web page, “the UNC School of Medicine appreciates the Task Force’s work, its feedback, and recommendations,” and this status report “includes important context relative to … Continue reading “Diversity, Equity, and Confusion at UNC School of Medicine”
Race has arguably become the single most important defining characteristic of a person in today’s society. Rather than concerning itself with scholarship, character, personality, or work ethic, today’s universities now treat students and faculty as if their race supersedes all of their other qualities. One example of this is UNC-Chapel Hill’s Race, Racism and Racial … Continue reading “UNC Hosts a Symposium on “Race, Racism, and Racial Equity””
I have long been fond of saying that there are colleagues for whom I would be delighted to vote if they sought my support for service on a university committee, but not if they were running for political office. I’d like to think that Robert Boyers, a genuine literary intellectual who teaches at Skidmore College … Continue reading “A Frenemy on the Left: Robert Boyers on The Tyranny of Virtue“