Headline June14, 2014

''' AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATIONS

 REMAINS THE ENVY OF THE 

WORLD ''' : BUT?...BUT​!...BUT? "'

EVER,  - ever since, that mortal moment,  -the world has marvelled at the life of Steve Jobs, the adopted son of working class parents,-

Who dropped out of college and became of the great technologist and businessmen of our time. How did he do it?  Well, he was, of course, an extraordinary individual,-

And that explains much of the success, but his environment might also have played a role. Part of the environment was education. And it is worth noting that Jobs had a great secondary education.

The school he attended,  Homestead High   in Cupertino, Calif., was a first rate public school that gave him a grounding in both the liberal arts and technology. It did the same for Steve Wozniak,  the more technically oriented co-founder of Apple Computer, whom Jobs met at the same school.

In 1972,  -the year Jobs graduated, California's public schools were the envy of the world. They were generally rated the finest in the country, well-funded and well-run, with excellent teachers   

Be that it may, ever and forever, the stark truth is that America's universities are rejecting the wrong kids   -and undermining the idea of merit:

A  2009  study reports  that Asian Americans need  SAT scores  140  points higher than those of  white students  to have the same chance at  admission to elite private universities.

And in one indelible, momentous scenario:  YES,  -for some it is easily the best of the moment, -while for others it is the worst of the moment,  when fat and thin envelopes arrive-

When Colleges across the U.S. send out admission and rejection notices to well over a million high school seniors.

For all the problems with its elementary and secondary schools, American higher education remains the envy of the world. It has been the nation's greatest path to social and economic mobility-

Sorting and rewarding talented kids from any and all backgrounds. But there are broad changes taking place at U.S. universities that are moving them away from an emphasis on merit and achievement-

And toward offering a privileged experience for an already privileged group.

State universities  -once the highways of advancement for the middle-class  --has been utterly transformed under the pressure of rising costs and falling government support.

A new book, Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality, shows how some state schools have established a  ''party pathway,'' admitting more and more rich out-of-the-state kids who can afford hefty tuition bills but are middling students.

These cash cows are given special attention through easy majors, lax grading, social opportunities and luxurious dorms.

That's bad for the bright low-income students, who are on what the book's authors, Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton, call the mobility pathway.

They are neglected and burdened  by college debt and fail in significant numbers.

The country's best colleges and universities do admit lower income students. But the competition has become so intense and the percentage admitted so small that the whole process seems arbitrary.

When you throw in special preferences for various categories   -legacies, under represented minorities and athletes   -it also looks less merit based than it pretends to be.

In an essay in the  American Conservative, Ron Unz uses a mountain of data to charge that America's top colleges and universities have over the past two decades maintained a quota:

An upper limit of about   16.5%  for Asian Americans, despite their exploding applicant numbers and high achievements.

''Some of Unz's data is bad,'' cites this brilliant author. His numbers do not account for the many Asian mixed-race students and others who refuse to divulge their race   -largely from the fears that they will be rejected because of a quota.

Two Ivy League admissions officers stated that Asian Americans probably make up more than  20%  of their entering classes. Even so, institutions that are highly selective but rely on more objective measures for admission:

Have found that their Asian American populations have risen much more sharply over the past two decades.

Caltech and the University of California, Berkeley, are now about 40% Asians.

New York City's Stuyvesant High School admits about  1000  students out of the 30,000  who take a math and  reading test   -''and this us twice as selective as Harvard-:

It is now  72%  Asian American.

The U.S.  math  and science olympiad winners are more than  70%  Asian Americans. 

In this context, for the U.S.'s top colleges and universities to be at 20% is, at least, worth some reflection?!

TEST SCORES are not only one measure of a student's achievement, and other qualities must be taken into account. But it's worth keeping in mind that the arguments for such subjective criteria are precisely those:

That were made in the 1930s to justify quota for the Jews. In fact, in his book The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, scholar Jerome K Karabel-

Exhaustively documented how nonobjective admissions criteria such as interviews and extracurriculars were put in place by Ivy League schools in large measure to Keep Jewish admissions from rising. 

The Honour and Serving of this Post continues: Catch ya all on the one that follows.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professor, and Teachers of the developing world. 

See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' WorldView '''

Good night and God bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless