RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.mcall.com/2023/10/11/act-test-scores-for-us-students-drop-to-new-30-year-low/

High school students’ scores on the ACT college admissions test have dropped to their lowest in more than three decades, showing a lack of student preparedness for college-level coursework, according to the nonprofit organization that administers the test.

Scores have been falling for six consecutive years, but the trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in the class of 2023 whose scores were reported Wednesday were in their first year of high school when the virus reached the U.S.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, chief executive officer for the nonprofit ACT.

The average ACT composite score for U.S. students was 19.5 out of 36. Last year, the average score was 19.8.

The average scores in reading, science and math all were below benchmarks the ACT says students must reach to have a high probability of success in first-year college courses. The average score in English was just above the benchmark but still declined compared to last year.

Many universities have made standardized admissions tests optional amid criticism that they favor the wealthy and put low-income students at a disadvantage. Some including the University of California system do not consider ACT or SAT scores even if submitted.

Godwin said the scores are still helpful for placing students in the right college courses and preparing academic advisors to better support students.

“In terms of college readiness, even in a test-optional environment, these kinds of objective test scores about academic readiness are incredibly important,” Godwin said.

At Denise Cabrera’s high school in Hawaii, all students are required to take the ACT as juniors. She said she would have taken it anyway to improve her chances of getting into college.

“Honestly, I’m unsure why the test was ever required because colleges can look at different qualities of the students who are applying outside of just a one-time test score,” said Denise, a 17-year-old senior at Waianae High School.

She’s looking at schools including the California Institute of Technology, which implemented a five-year moratorium on the standardized test score requirements during the pandemic. Denise said she knows the school is not considering scores but she doesn’t want to limit her options elsewhere.

About 1.4 million students in the U.S. took the ACT this year, an increase from last year. However, the numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Godwin said she doesn’t believe those numbers will ever fully recover, partly because of test-optional admission policies.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/13/college-students-backtrack-on-hamas-rush-to-hide-connections-and-pro-hamas-statements/

Less than a week after Israel was struck by a devastating mass invasion by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, American college students who initially voiced support for the terrorists have now been forced to recant their statements for fear of being canceled.

As Just The News reports, perhaps the biggest example thus far is the story of Ryna Workman, the president of NYU Law’s Student Bar Association. Workman, a black woman who identifies as “non-binary,” had applied for a job with the law firm Winston and Strawn; after she had initially been accepted, the firm then sent out a public statement revoking her job offer after she stated that Israel “bears full responsibility” for the terrorist attacks, which she described as “Palestinian resistance” and “necessary.”

Elsewhere, students at Harvard are now facing backlash after over 30 student groups signed onto a public letter denouncing Israel as an “apartheid regime,” calling the Jewish state “the only one to blame” for the violence. Three days after the attacks, the list of signatories was removed, although archived versions still exist which include the full list.

After the list’s publication, Harvard alumnus and hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman said that “a number of CEOs” had approached him to ask if Harvard would reveal the identities of the student groups, “so as to insure that none of us inadvertently hire any of their members.”

Members who defend “inconceivably despicable acts” against civilians should “not be able to hide behind a corporate shield,” Ackman added.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/12/act-test-scores-fall-to-30-year-low/

A new report shows that the average high school student’s ACT college admissions test scores have fallen to their lowest point in 30 years, reflecting an ongoing decline in the quality of education in the United States after the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic.

As Fox News reports, the average scores for the American College Testing (ACT) exams have fallen for the last six years in a row, with the decline becoming noticeably faster in the years during and after COVID. The average score in 2023 was 19.5 out of 36, which comes out to a percentage of 54%. In 2022, the average score was 19.8.

Furthermore, the average scores for reading, math, and science all fell below benchmark levels that are necessary for students to have a chance at succeeding in their first year of college. The only score that remained above the benchmark was English, which nevertheless also saw a decline compared to last year.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, CEO of ACT Inc., the nonprofit organization of the same name which administers the tests.

At least 1.4 million American students took the ACTs this year, which is an increase from the number of students who took them last year. But that number is still below the levels seen before the pandemic. Out of those 1.4 million, only about 21% – roughly 294,000 – reached their benchmark levels for success in college. Of those who succeeded, ACT Inc. determined that there was an approximately 75% chance of students achieving a score of C or higher in the corresponding college courses, and a 50% chance of achieving a B or higher.

Godwin also emphasized the importance of the tests despite numerous college campuses increasingly turning away from standardized test scores as a factor in the admissions process. Some universities, such as the University of California system, are outright ignoring an applicants’ ACT or SAT scores, even if the scores are submitted in the application.

“In terms of college readiness, even in a test-optional environment, these kinds of objective test scores about academic readiness are incredibly important,” said Godwin.

https://www.thefp.com/p/exodus-of-wrongthinker-university-professors

One sentence in a blog post almost ruined Thomas Smith’s career.

“If you believe that the coronavirus did not escape from the lab in Wuhan, you have to at least consider that you are an idiot who is swallowing whole a lot of Chinese cock swaddle,” commented Smith, 65, a law professor at the University of San Diego.

He wrote it back in 2021, in a piece questioning the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic on his personal legal blog, which usually received only a few hundred visitors per day. 

But the backlash was swift. Smith estimates 60 students submitted a formal complaint to the administration and accused him of being racist, using derogatory language, and promoting conspiracy theories with “detrimental consequences.” Smith later updated his post to clarify that his ire was directed at the Chinese government, not its people.

A week later, Robert Schapiro, the dean of San Diego’s law school, announced an investigation into Smith in an email to the student body, stressing that “University policies specifically prohibit harassment, including the use of epithets, derogatory comments, or slurs based on race or national origin.”

So Smith hired an attorney known for defending other “cancelled” professors across the country. The university’s in-house counsel investigated him for two months, and ultimately concluded that the blog post was protected by the school’s academic freedom policies. Smith kept his job, but the ordeal left a sour taste in his mouth. 

“I felt anxious, I felt angry, I felt hurt, and I felt done,” Smith tells me with a nervous laugh. 

He said he loved to teach, but lately he’d been struggling to get published in prominent legal journals due to his traditionally conservative ideas arguing against DEI and ESG policies in corporate America. He also found himself self-censoring in his classes so as not to inadvertently offend his students or colleagues. 

But the attempt to cancel him in 2021 was the last straw. 

To hell with this, he thought. In November 2022, he submitted his formal plans to retire. 

Smith is now one of five right-leaning professors out of the 40 faculty at the University of San Diego School of Law who will retire after the spring of 2025. The others include civil rights and labor law scholar Gail Heriot, constitutional law professors Larry Alexander and Steven Smith, and criminal law expert and former law school dean Kevin Cole.