Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

‘Intrusive caring’ for UMass (to improve minority graduation rates)
Boston Globe ^ | January 23, 2011 | Lawrence Harmon

Posted on 01/23/2011 5:45:44 AM PST by reaganaut1

IN THE polished halls of academia, it’s known as “intrusive caring.’’ The objects of this attention are shaky students — often minorities from weak high schools — who are shown a straight path to graduation if they care to follow it. Towson University in Maryland raised intrusive caring to an art form in the last decade. Along the way, it wiped out the graduation gap between white and minority students.

The trustees of the University of Massachusetts were amply impressed. Last week, they named Towson president Robert Caret to head the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. His role in raising black graduation rates by 30 points was just a part of the appeal. Caret, 63, enjoys a strong record of transforming campuses with lackluster reputations and securing higher budgets for public higher education. Basically, he blew away the competition for the UMass post by his successes and a personality described as hyperactive minus the annoyance factor.

Nationally, the graduation rate for minorities at four-year colleges persists at about 20 points below that of their white peers. UMass Amherst does somewhat better, with about a 16-point gap. Still, nearly every college president can point to efforts to diversify the student body. They tout mentoring programs and initiatives to help minority students acculturate on campus. Yet only about a dozen campuses, including Towson, can point to the elimination of the gap between both white and black students and white and Hispanic students, according to a recent survey by The Education Trust in Washington. At Towson, graduation rates for whites and blacks are identical at 67 percent. Hispanic students top both groups at 70 percent. Towson enrolls about 18,000 undergraduates, of whom 12 percent are black and 3 percent Hispanic.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: bellcurve; college; collegeretention; robertcaret; towsonuniversity
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
I thought college students were supposed to be adults and primarily responsible for their own success or failure. Now it is supposed to be university's job to make sure they graduate.

Studies have found the average IQs of East Asians, whites, and blacks to be about 105, 100, and 85. One reference is the book "The Bell Curve". Charles Murray estimated in the book "Real Education" that an IQ of 115, one standard deviation above average, is needed to understand that is truly at the college level. If that is true, most people of all races are not enough to get worthwhile 4-year degrees, and a considerably smaller fraction of blacks than whites are "college material". Liberals scream "racist" at someone who mentions these ideas.

1 posted on 01/23/2011 5:45:46 AM PST by reaganaut1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Mention of “The Bell Curve” is politically incorrect, it’s almost down right racist to boot.

(May even be hate speech)


2 posted on 01/23/2011 5:49:03 AM PST by Graybeard58 (Don't tell Obama what comes after a trillion)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Also to even things out further, Asian students were regularly brought to wild beer parties


3 posted on 01/23/2011 5:54:02 AM PST by MNDude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“IN THE polished halls of academia, it’s known as “intrusive caring.” “

I wonder how much of it could pass for “unfair” or “cheating” ?

If someone had held my hand in college I probably could have been a brain surgeon...or at least graduated.


4 posted on 01/23/2011 6:00:43 AM PST by PLMerite (Thanks for fixing the clock.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Do we want our surgeons and engineers to graduate with training wheels?


5 posted on 01/23/2011 6:04:27 AM PST by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic is now on Kindle.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Adults? Are you kidding. I graduated from U-Mass after 4 years of drugs, sex and rock and roll. Went to grad school after I grew up (10 years later). Don’t expect much more from a state with an affirmative action Governor. Fits right in with our affirmative action President.


6 posted on 01/23/2011 6:04:32 AM PST by Mr_Peter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

The should revoke the tenure of any professor who gives any minority member a grade lesson than a B. Problem solved.

I remember attending a college recruiting event at my company. We had about 12 candidates and 12 interviewers. We each interviewed each candidate. The whole thing was handled pretty well, with group introduction about 3:00 PM, a group meal at 6:00. Around 8:00 after all the interviews, the interviewers and HR folks met to decide which three candidates we would make offers to. We all agreed on the top candidate, a kid from WPI who had long hair, wore sneakers to the interview, played in a rock band, and had fathered a child by his girlfriend and really wanted a job to support them. He was also very smart and had done some nice work as a graduate student, designing and building a phased array antenna.

Most of us ranked the others more or less consistently. There was one kid from Tuskeegee who was easily the most personable and least qualified. The woman from HR, who was black, put a lot of pressure on us to agree to make him one of our choices. I absolutely and steadfastly refused. I liked the kid, but he should probably have been successful in another line of work, not science or engineering.


7 posted on 01/23/2011 6:04:40 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Socialists are to economics what circle squarers are to math; undaunted by reason or derision.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“”It’s the responsibility of administrators, he said, to accept students they know will graduate. And that usually comes down to grades in high school, not SAT scores, which, he said, “make zero difference for retention and graduation.’’ At Towson, Caret made some noise about doing away entirely with SATs. But administrators and faculty pulled him back. He might make another run at it at UMass, he said.””

____

I knew there had to be a punchline somewhere. So he only wants to look at inflated high school grades and give those kids inflated college grades and then claim success.

Notice he wanted to get rid of SAT tests, because that measures without a bias.


8 posted on 01/23/2011 6:04:42 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Liberalism is a Mental Disorder that unfailingly corrupts or destroys everything it gains control over, to wit the declining quality of American education in recent decades ... yet the cost to acquire a degree from acadumbia continues to soar. Sweet.


9 posted on 01/23/2011 6:06:33 AM PST by steelyourfaith (ObamaCare Death Panels: a Final Solution to the looming Social Security crisis ?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steelyourfaith

“” yet the cost to acquire a degree from acadumbia continues to soar”””

____

There is a reason for the soaring cost. In former days we had to EARN a degree, today the parents BUY a degree for their kid.


10 posted on 01/23/2011 6:09:37 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“””Shortly after, he guaranteed admission and financial aid to Baltimore students who finished in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. Some of the students arrived with outstanding grades but lacking such basic courses as Algebra I.”””

____

Hi program is all smoke and mirrors. The only thing these kids had going for themselves was HIGH ESTEEM. What is going on in the inner city high schools is crazy. Graduate in the top ten percent of the class without ever taking ALGEBRA I.

Such is what happens when Communists run the Communist Schools and turn out little Communists with no skills other than to rant and rave as directed by the Commissar.


11 posted on 01/23/2011 6:14:31 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PLMerite

“IN THE polished halls of academia, it’s known as “intrusive caring.” “

In the unpolished world of hiring it’s called Affirmative Action or Making the Quota.

Whatever it is called it is giving unfair advantage to one race as opposed to another. Some call it reverse discrimination.

As badly as I hate it I have to admit that it will be around forever,because it is the only way incompetent and unqualified blacks will ever get a job.

The original idea of lowering standards until blacks caught up with whites in education has gone out the window. The fact is they will never catch up, but they are doing the best they can at breeding up the intelligence by marrying into the white race. Hybrids are everywhere . We have one in the White House Incompetent, Unqualified, refuses to show his college records or even his Birth Certificate.Elected because so many people thought it was time to meet a quota.

I know there are mny who will disagree with this post, they only refuse to see the truth.


12 posted on 01/23/2011 6:19:30 AM PST by Venturer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“And that usually comes down to grades in high school, not SAT scores, which, he said, “make zero difference for retention and graduation.’’

‘Retention’ is a big buzz word with the racial accountants in the academy...I once talked with an administrator whose sole job was to keep minorities in school...having minorities influenced how much money the school received...so the goal was to keep them in school; even if they felt humiliated in class because they couldn’t do the work.


13 posted on 01/23/2011 6:22:58 AM PST by STONEWALLS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Our educational system has changed from teaching people to learn trades and professions that will carry them through the rest of their financial lives to:

Self-esteem training: Giving a student a project that they can’t possibly fail at and them giving them massive praise for doing it. The don’t let them know in the real world you have to REALLY EARN it.

Sensitivity training: Teach the student not to be a bully or to exceed the expectations of any individual in a group. They don’t teach them that competition is a way of life in the real world and it comes as quite a shock when they grow up and go out on their own (if that really happens) and are faced with a bully on every corner and people who actually compete for life’s rewards.

Diversity training: Students are taught to forget their heritage (if they are white) and to condemn all of their ancestors for their crimes against humanity. On top of that they are taught NOT to pass on the customs and heritage of the white culture.

Socialist training: Students are taught that everyone is equal but some are more equal than others. Orwell was absolutely correct in his foresight and now our educational system turns out robots that are programmed for communism without the knowledge of the past.

In all, today’s generation is taught that you don’t need an education that actually benefits man, but an education no matter what (along with that prized piece of paper) so that you earn the right to mandate that an employer hire you to do nothing and produce no tangible product or service for society.

Universities have become second stage day care centers for high school students and are sucking the life’s blood out of taxpayers and our society. They are the “finishing school” for raving liberals and Marxists (K-12 are the primary indoctrination centers) who are currently destroying our country, society and culture.


14 posted on 01/23/2011 6:33:35 AM PST by DH (The Second Amendment is the only protection for the First Amendment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Presbyterian Reporter

Yes but the Communists establish private schools for their own children with higher standards and more rigor.


15 posted on 01/23/2011 6:36:54 AM PST by Maine Mariner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Maine Mariner

The Left has managed to ruin the post secondary education system like everything else they touch. But just like the tragic MSMedia, it will result in destruction of the corrupt system as another system will take its place. This will happen very soon there is too much at stake to allow the current system to stand. JUST IMO!


16 posted on 01/23/2011 7:10:59 AM PST by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“Achievers” and “top students” who didn’t take Algebra I in high school? That was a ninth or tenth grade course when I was in high school.


17 posted on 01/23/2011 7:11:31 AM PST by Will88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1
So your kid excels because of hard work and the others who know they have the upper hand can sit back and enjoy the same outcome with little effort. So you got your degree because of the color of your skin or your ethnic origin, will not be the comment an employer will be asking at an interview I assume.
18 posted on 01/23/2011 7:27:33 AM PST by ronnie raygun (V.........................................FOR VOMIT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Presbyterian Reporter

“today the parents BUY a degree for their kid”

...or in many cases, the taxpayer makes the purchase.


19 posted on 01/23/2011 7:28:55 AM PST by Starboard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

My gawd, Massachusetts, your colleges have lowered their standards enough to Obama go graduate.

You really cannot get much lower, can you?


20 posted on 01/23/2011 7:42:28 AM PST by Da Coyote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson