Higher Education

Resistance on the Right: Will Conservatives Ever Come Together on an Article V Convention of the States?

Did you know that the Constitution provides a means for the people, acting through their states, to propose constitutional amendments, without needing any support or participation from the U.S. Congress? Under Article V of the Constitution, if two-thirds of the states approve resolutions calling on Congress to hold an amendments convention, Congress has no choice...

November 7, 2019

Higher Education

Grade Inflation in U.S. Higher Education: Honor Roll of Schools Battling Grade Inflation, Part 4 of 4

(Author’s note: In response to my 10/29/19 Forbes piece, “Death to Merit —College Admissions Process Descends Into the Abyss,” a number of readers asked me to expand on a subject I mentioned in the course of that piece—grade inflation. What follows distills my research over the years on this subject.) In an honorable attempt to arrest grade...

October 31, 2019

Higher Education

Grade Inflation in U.S. Higher Education—Ending the Scam, Part 3 of 4

(Author’s note: In response to my 10/29/19 Forbes piece, “Death to Merit —College Admissions Process Descends Into the Abyss,” a number of readers asked me to expand on a subject I mentioned in the course of that piece—grade inflation. What follows distills my research over the years on this subject.) Why should we care that 45% of...

October 31, 2019

Higher Education

Grade Inflation in U.S. Higher Education—Critics and Defenders, Part 2 of 4

(Author’s note: In response to my 10/29/19 Forbes piece, “Death to Merit: —College Admissions Process Descends Into the Abyss,” a number of readers asked me to expand on a subject I mentioned in the course of that piece—grade inflation. What follows distills my research over the years on this subject.) Some 75% of all college grades earned...

October 30, 2019

Higher Education

Grade Inflation in U.S. Higher Education—We Have A Problem, Part 1 of 4

(Author’s note: In response to my 10/29/19 Forbes piece, “Death to Merit: —College Admissions Process Descends Into the Abyss,” a number of readers asked me to expand on a subject I mentioned in the course of that piece—grade inflation. What follows distills my research over the years on this subject.) There is a genuine crisis in American...

October 30, 2019

Higher Education

Death to Merit! –College Admissions Process Descends Into The Abyss

A recent headline in The Washington Post informs us that “a record number of colleges” are dropping their “SAT/ACT admissions requirement amid growing disenchantment with standardized tests.” Or is it “growing disenchantment with standards of merit”? Is this what is at the bottom of American universities’ moves to jettison the SAT and ACT tests as a requirement...

October 29, 2019

Higher Education

From Where Comes Fake News? — From Fake Academic Studies

Should we trust studies published in academic journals? A few decades ago, virtually all of us would have responded in the affirmative. But that was then. Now, too many academic studies have been shown to be substantially defective. The nonpartisan National Association of Scholars (NAS) has been documenting the “reproducibility crisis” that “afflicts a wide range of...

September 30, 2019

Higher Education

From Where Comes Fake News? From Fake Academic Studies

Should we trust studies published in academic journals? A few decades ago, virtually all of us would have responded in the affirmative. But that was then. Now, too many academic studies have been shown to be substantially defective. The nonpartisan National Association of Scholars (NAS) has been documenting the “reproducibility crisis” that “afflicts a wide range of...

September 28, 2019

Higher Education

Constitution Day Celebration Speech

I learned something new when I taught the very first class of the TPPF Summer Institute for high school civics teachers. “By the time student reach middle school age,” a teacher told me, “they come to class already cynical about the American form of government.” Another teacher added, “and it gets worse each year.” The challenge...

September 17, 2019

Higher Education

‘After All, Didn’t America Invent Slavery?’

If you think the title’s question is silly, you’re right. But here’s the problem: Increasing numbers of college students today would unhesitatingly respond, “Hell, yes!” to the query. Could it be because that is what they are being taught? I first learned of this misconception about slavery about three years ago, when a professor published the...

August 30, 2019

Higher Education

Is Free Speech On Campus Really ‘Doing Just Fine’?

As a former college professor and university senior administrator, I was saddened to read a recent op-ed by Columbia University’s president, Lee Bollinger. Titled, “Free Speech on Campus Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You,” the immediate object of Bollinger’s ire is President Trump’s March Executive Order, which threatens universities that fail to uphold the First...

July 31, 2019

Higher Education

New Report: Most College Students Agree that Campus Free Speech is Waning

Too many students feel afraid to speak honestly on campus for fear of offending someone, a new national survey of college students says. University censorship regimes are teaching some students not only to live with but to embrace the conformism of thought inculcated through university speech codes, speaker dis-invitations, “safe spaces,” “trigger warnings,” and campus...

May 31, 2019