Reforms We Want in 2024 (in higher education)

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | January 1, 2024 | Martin Center Staff

[karpov]

Bring Back Standardized Testing

When university campuses shuttered in response to COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, other parts of the higher-education complex quickly followed suit. Most notable was the so-called “suspension” of standardized testing. At the time, it seemed to make sense. Students weren’t allowed to gather in groups at testing centers, and student performance, some claimed, wouldn’t be predictive anyway because of the significant education disruption.

That disruption, which we once thought would last just a few weeks, has continued to affect all aspects of education. K-12 students are still behind on reading and math, with fewer than expected performing at grade level. Lax grading policies instituted during the pandemic are still in place, allowing students to disregard deadlines or turn in sub-standard schoolwork. Daniel Buck detailed the post-Covid failures of K-12 education here.

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Rebuke the Mob

College leaders must learn how to deal with controversial issues, campus disruptions, and demands from students. They have been poor at these things for decades, but the terrible events of October 7 and their aftermath underscore the need for drastic change.

Let’s begin with student demands. In two recent instances, groups at Harvard and Columbia issued demands to school officials. At Harvard, as Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn relates, students insisted that the school divest from any investments that might relate to Israel’s “occupation” of Palestine and that it reinstate a proctor who participated in mob action against Jewish students. At Columbia, as we read here, students demanded a boycott of Israel and the establishment of a Center for Palestinian Legal Studies.

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Reform General Education

For those concerned about what students are learning in college, general-education curricula present a promising opportunity for reform.

[ClearCase_guy]

End government schools.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Student loan deadbeats should be able to identify their correct gender and apply the correct pronouns before they are given a “college” participation diploma.