Education Archives - Newshacker

Why Going Test-Optional Won’t Make College Admissions More Equitable or Fair

The SAT, along with its counterpart, the ACT, has long played an integral role in college admissions. In recent years, however, there has been a slow push to eliminate these tests from admissions, with claims that they disadvantage low-income students and are racist. The push only sped up with COVID-19: many schools went test-optional to facilitate students who were unable to take the test. But the tests aren’t nearly as inequitable as activists say, and dropping the tests won’t do much to make college admissions fairer.

Is COVID-19 the End of Standardized Testing?

Here are some completely arbitrary numbers that most students will be all too familiar with (and will probably have obsessed over): 1,600, 36, 5, 800, 4.0, 45. (To anyone not in the know, in order, the numbers are a full SAT score, full ACT score, full AP score, full SAT subject test/sectional score, full GPA, full IB score.) These numbers, and what each student’s numbers are, basically defines whether or not they will go to college, and if so, which ones. However, like just about everything, COVID-19 may be about to change that.

Should We Reopen Schools?

With schools’ fall semester starting soon, a debate has been ignited over the reopening of schools. Generally, Democrats (being more open to stay-at-home lockdowns and other such measures) are against reopening schools for in-person, on-campus classes, while Republicans (generally against pandemic prevention measures), especially the president and his Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, is very much in favor of reopening schools. However, reopening schools, especially before the virus is contained, and particularly in hard-hit urban areas, is a terrible idea. Here’s why.

Having an Internet Connection is a Civil Rights Issue

In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of schools across the country (and the world) have switched to all-online, remote distance learning. Unfortunately, this move to an all-online model has once again widened America’s social divide and urban/rural divide. It is demonstrating that a high-speed, stable internet connection is now not something reserved for the privileged few, but a service required for everyone.

Online Learning: Good or Bad?

In view of the coronavirus pandemic and to practice social distancing and avoid large group gatherings, school campuses are closed, classes are canceled, and virtually the entire world is attending class online from home. Like many other changes that have been forced onto our lives due to the pandemic, online learning has both its pros and cons. Let’s take a look at some of them.