OCTOBER 10, 2019
NEWS AND VIEWS
I’M GLAD HE’S GETTING BACK IN THE SADDLE
AGAIN. THOSE HEART OPERATIONS SOUND SCARY TO ME – PUTTING A WIRE THROUGH A VEIN
AND PUSHING IT THROUGH TO THE HEART. THOSE WHO HAVE HAD IT DONE THAT I’VE KNOWN
SAY THEY IMMEDIATELY FELT BETTER WHEN THE PLAQUE THAT LINES THE ARTERY IS COMPRESSED
SO THAT FREE BLOOD FLOW IS RESTORED. I EXPECT HIM TO DO WELL IN THE FUTURE.
Sanders plans to resume campaigning ‘as
soon as possible’
Politics Oct 10, 2019 12:46 PM EDT
By —
Will Weissert, Associated Press
PHOTOGRAPH -- Democratic 2020 U.S.
presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) arrives for a
campaign stop in Hooksett, New Hampshire, U.S., September 30, 2019.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder - RC172B96E9F0
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders says he’s
“getting my endurance back” and “getting stronger every day” after last week’s
heart attack, while promising to return to the presidential campaign trail “as
soon as possible.”
“I am feeling great,” the 78-year-old
Vermont senator said in a 7-minute video posted online Thursday.
He said that, while lying in a hospital bed
in Las Vegas, “I thought about a lot of things, needless to say,” including
“what would have happened” if he didn’t have health insurance through his job
as a senator and Medicare.
Sanders insisted that “made me feel even
more strongly the need for us to continue our efforts to end this dysfunctional
and cruel health care system.”
“Understand the enormous opposition that
we’re facing from the drug companies and the insurance companies,” he said of
his promises to provide universal health insurance, if elected, through his
proposed “Medicare for All” plan. “We are going to win this struggle. History
is on our side.”
Sanders also said he thought, “Yeah, I’ve
had a rough week. I’ve suffered adversity and that’s true and I don’t wish
anybody to have a heart attack and get scared the way that our family did.” But
he added that many people are dealing “with a lot more pain than I am”
including homelessness, working multiple jobs but not making enough money to
pay the bills or forgoing college because of fears about being overwhelmed by
debt.
“We’re going to be out there on the campaign
trail,” Sanders said, providing no details except that he would attend next
week’s debate in Ohio.
His wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, has said he
would stay in Vermont recuperating until then.
The self-described democratic socialist was
hospitalized after experiencing chest discomfort while campaigning in Nevada
last week. His staff initially said the stents were inserted for a blocked
artery, revealing only two days later that he had had a heart attack.
Sanders took his message directly to
supporters in the video after saying he “misspoke” when he previously suggested
he may slow his campaigning pace after his health scare. Sanders backtracked in
a Wednesday interview with NBC News just a day after indicating that health
could force him to change “the nature” of his campaign and perhaps to not do so
many events per day — in the short term, at least.
One of his national co-chairs, Nina Turner,
seemed to back up that original sentiment, though, saying in a Tuesday
interview with The Associated Press that the campaign was examining where and
how to make changes to reflect concerns about Sanders’ health.
The focus on Sanders’ health comes as age
plays a significant role in the 2020 presidential campaign. Should Sanders win
the Democratic presidential nomination, he would be the oldest person ever
elected. So would his 76-year-old Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe
Biden.
HILLARY WAS DEAD RIGHT ABOUT SOMETHING WHICH
AT THE TIME I THINK SHE CAUGHT SOME HEAT FOR SAYING, THAT WE ARE FACING “A VAST
RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY!” I WILL ADD ONE THING, THAT IT IS ALSO A VAST CRIMINAL
MOB-BOSS CONSPIRACY WITH INTERNATIONAL CRIMINALS AND IN MULTIPLE PLACES AROUND
THE GLOBE -- WHEREVER THE MONEY IS. TRUMP IS ABOUT POWER, YES, AND WOMEN, BUT
ABOVE ALL HE IS ABOUT MONEY. I THINK, TOO, THAT HE ENJOYS THE CRIMINALITY IN THE
GAMES THAT HE PLAYS TO GET IT. MERELY GETTING RICHER IS NOT A SUFFICIENT THRILL
FOR HIM. I AM SAD THAT I EVER LEARNED ANYTHING ABOUT HIM.
Support for Trump impeachment inquiry
rises, new poll shows
Politics Oct 10, 2019 2:00 PM EDT
By — Laura Santhanam
More than half of Americans say they
support the impeachment inquiry launched by the House of Representatives
against President Donald Trump. And nearly as many are ready to see him
impeached and removed from office, according to a new poll from the PBS
NewsHour, NPR and Marist.
These latest poll findings are consistent with
a trend in rising public support for impeachment proceedings into Trump’s use
of the powers of the presidency. The House launched an impeachment inquiry
against Trump in September following a July phone call with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky, where Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to dig up incriminating
information on the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, who could be
Trump’s political rival during the 2020 presidential election.
Fifty-two percent of Americans said they
supported the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, and 49 percent of
U.S. adults said he should be impeached. When asked what should happen after
he is impeached, 48 percent of Americans said Trump should be removed from
office.
These poll findings are consistent with a
trend in rising public support for impeachment proceedings into Trump’s use of
the powers of the presidency.
The American public has had to absorb a lot
of rapidly developing news in recent weeks. On Sept. 13, reports first emerged
of a whistleblower complaint. Within days, it was revealed that the complaint
was centered around the July call between Trump and Zelensky.
By Sept. 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump. Since then, the Trump
administration released a memo that compiled notes from the call, and the
whistleblower’s complaint was released.
According to the poll, most Americans say
it is unacceptable for a president to ask a foreign leader to investigate
political opponents — sixty-eight percent of respondents said such a request is
not permissible. That includes 94 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of
independents and 40 percent of Republicans polled. Meanwhile, 26
percent of U.S. adults found the behavior acceptable.
While Trump has called the complaint
against him “a terrible thing for our country,” and said that it’s important
to know who the whistleblower is, 59 percent of U.S. adults want to protect
that person’s identity. Another 38 percent of Americans want to reveal whoever
reported Trump’s behavior, according to the poll. More broadly, the public is
split over whether Trump’s leadership as president has strengthened or weakened
national security. Forty-seven percent of U.S. adults say he has worsened the
nation’s safeguards, while 43 percent say he has improved them, and 10 percent
have no idea.
One thing rubbing the public the wrong way,
especially among independent and moderate voters, is that there is “greater
public recognition that Trump’s behavior is outside the boundaries,” conservative
strategist Rick Wilson told the PBS NewsHour. “This is an example of Trump
directly trying to benefit himself by using the power of government.”
“This is an example of Trump directly
trying to benefit himself by using the power of government.”
The new poll is similar to others released
in recent days. According to a Washington Post-Schar School poll
released Monday, 58 percent of Americans agreed with Congress’ decision to
launch the impeachment inquiry. And on Wednesday, Fox News released a poll that
showed 51 percent of registered voters said Trump should be impeached and
removed from office.
Historians have reflected on similar
moments in presidential politics, and pollsters have looked for shifts in
public support before, during and after the few times in U.S. history when a
president was impeached. But much of what the nation sees now is “uncharted
terrain,” said Barbara Carvalho, who directs the Marist Poll.
Throughout his entire impeachment
proceedings, former President Bill Clinton sustained job approval ratings at or
above 60 percent, according to Gallup polling. But Trump has not
enjoyed such an advantage, according to Marist’s historic data since February
2017. His approval numbers have hovered from the low-30s to the mid-40s. In
this latest poll, 42 percent of U.S. adults said they approved of Trump’s
job performance as president.
Even with such high criticism of the Trump
administration, Americans trust lawmakers on Capitol Hill even less, according to
the PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist poll. Fewer than a third of Americans said
they trusted Congress, while 40 percent of U.S. adults said they trusted the
White House a great deal or a good amount. That is still significantly more
than the 29 percent of Americans who say they trust the media. That erosion of
trust in the nation’s institutions could affect the way people interpret the
impeachment proceedings and any outcomes from them, Carvalho said.
The institutions that guided the country
through earlier impeachments “are not really trusted,” she said. That applies
not only to the White House but also to Congress and the media, and that lack
of trust fuels further division to historic levels, Carvalho said.
“I’m not sure the past is going to be our
guide on this one.”
“I’m not sure the past is going to be our
guide on this one,” she said.
People, especially Democrats who want to
discuss policy and not just Trump’s conduct, are concerned the impeachment
inquiry into Trump could overwhelm policy debate, and fuel feelings of
disconnect between politics and public concerns. Democratic
strategist Antjuan Seawright said Congress needs to take its time to gather
information during the inquiry while “also passing legislation that people
are hungry for.”
But the impeachment proceedings likely will
drain Congress’ ability to do that, according to 50 percent of U.S. adults who
responded to this latest poll. Another 42 percent of Americans believe Congress
will still be able to press forward with lawmaking despite what promises to be
a long political ride.
On Oct. 15, Democratic presidential
candidates head to their fourth debate in Westerville, Ohio. When they take the
stage, they will face an electorate that is split over whether or not they
think impeachment should be up for discussion.
READ MORE: Americans split on support for
Trump impeachment inquiry
In this latest poll, 51 percent of U.S.
registered voters said the candidates should not talk about impeachment during
the debate, while 45 percent of voters said they should. Even Democrats
were reserved in their support of hearing the candidates talk about
impeachment during the debate with 57 percent saying they should, joined by
43 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans.
Looking beyond the debate and toward the
2020 election, half of Americans feel the nation is prepared to secure the
nation’s electoral processes, while less than half were not so certain.
“What happens now — one way or another — is
going to be a chapter in the American history books,” said Jeff Engel, who
directs the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas.
“I believe his intent was malicious, and he
was using his power in office to gain an advantage.”
While on a grocery run for her sister in
Tampa, Florida, Megan Heath told PBS NewsHour she “wouldn’t put it past
the Bidens that they did anything” in the Ukraine. But under the circumstances,
Heath, a politically independent 33-year-old who runs a marketing company in
Boulder, Colorado, said Trump could have launched such an investigation at
any time. For Heath, Trump’s timing mattered and thinks that his call with the
Ukrainian leader was personally and politically motivated. That is why she
thinks he needs to be impeached and removed from office.
“I believe his intent was malicious,” she
said, “and he was using his power in office to gain an advantage.” [sic][This whole
sentence is a duplication from Jeff Engel’s statement above.]
The impeachment inquiry is “a big political
waste of time and money because they will never be able to impeach” Trump,
said James Ruben Dye, 49, a home renovator and self-described Trump
Republican in Tupelo, Mississippi. Dye supports the president, and he said
he keeps a copy of one of Trump’s books in his truck, his voice bouncing off of
walls in a house he was gutting.
“If you dig enough dirt on politicians, you
could do that to any of them.”
He views the proceedings as a power grab
to gain political control rather than working to improve the economy or health
care nationwide. He thinks no politician is without fault or flaws,
saying, “If you dig enough dirt on politicians, you could do that to any of
them.”
PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist conducted a
survey Oct. 3-8 that polled 1,123 U.S. adults with a margin of error
of 3.4 percentage points and 926 registered voters with a margin of error of
3.8 percentage points.
Photograph -- Left: U.S. President Donald
Trump answers questions from reporters during an event to sign executive orders
on "transparency in federal guidance and enforcement" in the
Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 9, 2019.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Related
How do congressional subpoenas work?
By Candice Norwood
By — Laura Santhanam
Laura Santhanam is the Data Producer for
the PBS NewsHour. Follow @LauraSanthanam
THIS IS A TREND THAT I AM GLAD TO SEE,
BECAUSE STANDARDIZED TESTS ARE JUST THAT – EMULSIFIED AND REPLICATED VERSIONS
OF WHAT IS IMAGINED TO BE “STANDARD” KNOWLEDGE AND THEREFORE WILL BE
REPRESENTED IN THEIR TEST QUESTIONS; BUT NO STUDENT COMES THROUGH THE K-12 MENTAL
PROCESSING SYSTEM WITH AN EQUALLY EMULSIFIED MIND, AND WE MUSTN’T TOSS THEM ALL
INTO THE ROTTEN AND BRUISED APPLES BIN BECAUSE OF THAT. I THINK THAT IS WHAT
HAPPENS NOWADAYS. I’M GLAD TO SEE A MOVEMENT AWAY FROM THAT DEVELOPING.
MOST KIDS ARE CAPABLE OF LEARNING, AND
SHOULD BE GIVEN A CHANCE TO DO IT. THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO DON’T NEED TO
STUDY FAIRLY HARD TO PASS A GOOD COLLEGE LEVEL COURSE OR EVEN IN HIGH SCHOOL IS
SMALLER THAN MANY THINK, AND EACH MUST LEARN IN HIS OWN WAY. IF THEY HAVE COME
FROM A REALLY SUPERIOR HIGH SCHOOL THEY WILL FIND IT EASIER, BUT IF THEY TAKE DIFFICULT
COURSES THEY WILL CERTAINLY BE CHALLENGED ALSO.
THESE STANDARDIZED TESTS ARE MEANT TO CULL
OUT THOSE WHO ARE LIKELY TO BE TRULY INCAPABLE OF SUCCEEDING, BUT JUST BECAUSE
A STUDENT HAS TO LEARN MORE VOCABULARY WORDS OR MORE MATH AND SCIENCE SKILLS
WHEN THEY GET TO COLLEGE, THAT IS ACTUALLY THE WAY THINGS SHOULD BE. TACKLING
SOMETHING DIFFICULT IS PART OF WHAT WE NEED TO LEARN TO DO. THE SYSTEM OF
FOSTERING THOSE WHO SCORE BETTER ON STANDARDIZED TESTS BECAUSE THEY HAVE GONE
THROUGH THE PREP SCHOOL ROUTE AND ARE FROM THE MORE HIGHLY “ADVANTAGED” HOMES IS
DEEPLY UNFAIR TO THOSE WHO ARE BURNING TO DO GOOD FOR THE WORLD AND LEARN ENOUGH
TO DO IT, IF ONLY THEY CAN BE ADMITTED TO COLLEGE.
WE HAVE SOMEHOW LOST TOUCH WITH THE FACT
THAT REALITY IS COMPLEX AND CHANGES CONSTANTLY, SO WHAT IS DEEMED TO BE TRUE IS
FLEETING. TESTS CAN’T MEASURE THAT. THOSE CASES WE’VE READ ABOUT OF TEACHERS
GETTING INTO DEEP TROUBLE FOR ACTUALLY CHANGING THE CHILDREN’S ANSWERS ON TESTS
REPRESENTS SOME KIND OF DISCONNECT WITH REALITY. ARE THOSE TESTS REALLY
ACCURATE ENOUGH TO BE USED?
WHEN I WAS GOING THROUGH SCHOOL, 1952 TO
1963, WE WEREN’T OVERTESTED TO THE DEGREE THAT MODERN KIDS ARE, NOR WAS OUR
TRUTH PRESENTED AS JUST A BUNCH OF MANDATORY FACTOIDS WHICH CAN BE MEASURED ON
A STANDARDIZED TEST. LEARNING, AS A RESULT, WAS ACTUALLY A PLEASURE. IF KIDS
CAN EXPERIENCE THAT PLEASURE, THEY ARE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO DO WELL IN THEIR FUTURE
STUDIES. I WANT TO SEE COLLEGE BROADEN AND SHARPEN THE MIND AND, EQUALLY AS
IMPORTANT, THE MORAL AND ETHICAL SYSTEM. IF YOUNG ADULTS COME OUT OF COLLEGE
HAVING LEARNED HOW TO BE AN ELITIST RATHER THAN ONE WHO CARES ABOUT PEOPLE,
THEY HAVE MISSED SOME IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE WHILE THEY WERE THERE. THAT CAN’T BE
MEASURED ON A TEST, EITHER.
Record number of colleges stop requiring
the SAT and ACT amid questions of fairness
Education Updated on Oct 10, 2019 3:07 PM
EDT — Published on Oct 9, 2019 6:11 PM EDT
By — Alina Tugend, The Hechinger Report
PHOTOGRAPH -- Left: A California bill would
require the public University of California system and largest-in-the-nation
California State University system to examine the fairness and usefulness of
standardized tests in the admissions process.
Julia Tomasulo took the ACT three times
hoping to get to get the best possible score when applying for colleges.
Even though she had good grades and was a
two-sport athlete, “of the whole college process, the testing was the hardest,”
Tomasulo said. She took practice tests daily. Her parents spent about $3,500 on
tutoring.
Tomasulo, 19, of San Diego, fell short of
her magical number, though she did get into her chosen school. But having seen
the stress on her daughter — and watching another, who is still in high school,
start the process — Alisson Tomasulo wishes less emphasis would be placed on
these standardized admission tests.
“I would hope more colleges would go to
test-optional,” she said. Students “should be judged on their merit. I think
the ACT or SAT just show how they regurgitate information.”
Students “should be judged on their merit.
I think the ACT or SAT just show how they regurgitate information.”
With frustration like the Tomasulos’
compounded by reports of test-takers gaming the system or out-and-out cheating,
more and more people seem to agree — including some colleges themselves, and a
few elected politicians.
This means the SAT and ACT are facing what
could be the greatest challenge in their histories, which stretch back to the
early 20th century.
“There are a number of things merging that
pose a significant threat to standardized admissions tests,” said Michael
Nietzel, president emeritus of Missouri State University, who writes frequently
on higher education.
One in four institutions no longer requires
these tests for admission, for example, Nietzel said. Combined with tutoring
that wealthy families can afford, extra time their kids are more likely to get
than lower-income classmates and downright cheating, he said, “they’ve lost
their luster as a common yardstick.”
READ MORE: To help first-generation
students succeed, colleges enlist their parents
What would happen if the SAT and ACT played
much less of a role in the admission process is hard to predict, however. So
far it appears to be leveling the playing field for some students who don’t
always get accepted. The University of Chicago, which created a stir by making
these tests optional last year, reports a record enrollment this fall of
first-generation, low-income and rural students and veterans.
“Research is mixed, but with a consensus
that points toward a bit of increase the diversity of the applicant pool and
pretty strong evidence that the overall number of applicants increases,”
Nietzel said.
Every 10 days, on average, another
university makes these tests optional for admission. Forty-one schools have
jettisoned this requirement in the last year, the largest number ever.
A resolution now wending its way through
the California legislature calling for the public University of California
system and largest-in-the-nation California State University system to study
the usefulness and fairness of standardized tests in the admissions process.
Although a long shot, it would be “the
grand prize” if California’s public universities went test-optional, said
Robert Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest, a nonprofit
organization focused on the misuse and overuse of standardized testing.
A June analysis by the Georgetown Center on
Education and the Workforce suggests that the 200 most selective colleges and
universities already look at more than candidates’ standardized test scores
alone. It found that, if SAT and ACT results were the sole basis for admission,
53 percent of students who were accepted wouldn’t have gotten in.
Critics of the tests have long argued that
they reflect income more than ability, a chorus that is growing louder. And
this year’s notorious Varsity Blues admission scandal — in which parents,
through an intermediary, bribed test administrators to change test scores or
let students cheat — reinforced the idea that the tests can be gamed, legally
or illegally, by families with enough money.
The College Board, the $1 billion-a-year
nonprofit organization that administers the SAT, is fighting back, including by
introducing a dashboard it says will help admission offices compensate for
socioeconomic and racial disparities. But it’s not clear that this will slow
the test-optional bandwagon.
More than 1,000 accredited
bachelor’s-degree-granting higher education institutions now allow prospective
students to decide whether or not to submit standardized test scores with their
applications, FairTest says.
READ MORE: High school graduation rates for
one important group are starting to get better
Although some are open-enrollment, most are
not, said Schaeffer.
The goal of going test-optional, for many
of its advocates, is to increase diversity; low-income students typically have
lower scores than their more affluent peers, putting them at a disadvantage in
admission. This is because families with more money usually live in wealthier
school districts with more resources and can afford tutors to help with test
preparation and other educational assistance.
The average ACT composite score was 23.6
for higher income students and 19.5 for lower income ones in 2016, the last
year for which the figures are available, according to the ACT’s own research.
The College Board last year stopped asking
test-takers about their parents’ income, but answers from previous years showed
scores going up as family income increases; scores overall were also lower on
average for black and Latino students than for whites and Asians.
Researchers remain divided about whether or
not doing away with the tests would help to fix this.
The adoption of a “well-executed
test-optional admission policy” can increase the number of applicants in
general and the number of first-generation and low-income students in
particular, according to the largest and most current study, released last
year.
The study looked at student-record data
from 28 four-year degree-granting public and private non-profit institutions
that are test-optional.
READ MORE: In Puerto Rico, the odds are
against high school grads who want to go to college
Two of the three co-authors were connected
to Bates College, which has long been test-optional.
But a separate compilation of studies
published last year, two of three editors of which are connected to the College
Board, largely questioned the assumption that test-optional policies add
diversity.
“We found instead, that it increased
selectivity,” meaning the reported SAT or ACT scores of students who were
enrolled in schools with test-optional policies were higher than for than those
that weren’t, said Kelly Ochs Rosinger, an assistant professor in the
Department of Education Policy Studies at Pennsylvania State University and a
co-author of one of the studies, which examined 180 liberal arts colleges.
Of those, the institutions that went
test-optional did not see an increase in their proportions of students who were
low-income or from racial groups that are typically underrepresented on campus.
The University of Chicago, which made the
SAT and ACT optional last year, reports a record enrollment this fall of
first-generation, low-income and rural students and veterans.
This could also be because students with
lower standardized test scores didn’t submit them, however, pushing up the
averages, she said.
“Our findings are really important, but we
need better and newer data,” Rosinger said. “There is no clear, easy solution
to expand access to higher education. There are so many barriers beyond test
scores.”
The University of Rochester took the middle
ground and became “test-flexible” in 2011. That means students could submit
Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate scores in lieu of the ACT or
SAT.
In hundreds of cases, said Jonathan
Burdick, the university’s vice provost for enrollment initiatives and dean of
admissions and financial aid, after students were accepted based on other
factors, their ACT or SAT score would show up and be put in their record.
“There wasn’t a basis to say that those
tests scores would have made us make better or even different decisions,”
Burdick said.
Students who were admitted on the basis of,
say, their IB scores and later had low SAT scores submitted “have graduated in
equivalent numbers to anybody else, in four years and in many cases with
honors,” Burdick said. “Had we had the SAT it might have made us less likely to
make the good decision.”
The university will go fully test-optional
in the fall of 2020.
What really bothers Burdick is the “the
distortion of two years of your life during high school,” studying for the ACT
or SAT. “You could be spending that 60 hours or more doing test prep doing
other, more meaningful things that actually are more productive for your life
in the long run.”
The College Board and ACT say standardized
testing plays an important role in the admission process and that the best way
to predict an applicant’s success in college is by looking at a combination of
his or her GPA and test scores.
While students take the ACT and SAT in
about equal numbers – the SAT edged out the ACT last year with 2 million
students, versus 1.91 for the ACT – the higher-profile College Board has taken
a more active role in pushing back against the anti-testing movement.
Although the College Board declined to
comment for this story, Steve Bumbaugh, senior vice president for college and
career access, has written for The Hechinger Report and elsewhere that the
answer is not to take away the SAT, but that “the poor kids need what the rich
kids have.”
To that end, the College Board has
introduced a number of initiatives to address the needs of low-income students,
including free test help through a partnership with the online Khan Academy.
(The SAT itself costs $64.50 per exam; the ACT, $67.)
This year, to some controversy, it also
unveiled what it first called an environmental context dashboard, later
revising it and renaming it Landscape. After piloting the dashboard for three
years, the College Board decided to drop the idea of offering colleges a score
to represent a student’s socioeconomic background. The score – which had been
dubbed an adversity score – had been calculated using school and neighborhood
information.
Criticism of reducing such information to a
single score, and concern about how that score would be used, caused the
College Board to revise and rename the tool.
Information offered to admissions officers
by Landscape will include the number of children eligible at the student’s
school for free or reduced-price lunches; average number of seniors taking AP
courses; and average AP score at that school. Landscape will also evaluate
neighborhood factors such as median family income; number of single-parent
households; vacancy rates; and typical educational attainment.
These characteristics often affect the
performance of even the most talented students, or make them less able to
smoothly navigate the complex college admissions process.
Although the original dashboard model had
its opponents – and it’s too early to know how Landscape will be viewed –
admissions officers say they welcome any additional information to better
understand a student’s application.
READ MORE: Can California export enough
students to shore up college enrollment in other states?
“Admissions officers don’t have great
information about a high-school context,” said Rosinger, who previously worked
as an admissions officer at the University of Georgia.
There has been some criticism of the
dashboard, the most prominent that it doesn’t address individual differences
among students, Nietzel said.
Schaeffer, of FairTest, said the dashboard
is an effort by the College Board to reposition its product.
“It’s a pushback at test-optional,” he
said. “It proves what we’ve long said – the test is not a level playing field.
It’s a better measure of accumulated opportunity than a measure of school
success.”
“There is no clear, easy solution to expand
access to higher education. There are so many barriers beyond test scores.”
Initial experiments showed that admissions
officers were 25 percent more likely to enroll lower-income students if they
had better data about the high school, however, said Michael Bastedo, a
professor of education at the University of Michigan School of Education who
has long researched this area and was a paid consultant to the College Board on
the dashboard.
“You can be against standardized tests and
in favor the dashboard,” he said. The key point is to “put every applicant in
the context of the opportunities they have.”
Besides, he said, simply going
test-optional, without increasing financial aid to poorer students and
supplying other support, may not make much difference.
The University of Chicago, for example,
along with going test-optional, also announced new scholarships and access programs
and an initiative to pay the full tuition for families that earn less than
$125,000 a year.
The dashboard has been piloted over the
past few years and the College Board said it hopes that as many as 150
institutions will use it this fall.
Editor’s Note: Since the original
publication of this story by The Hechinger Report, the College Board renamed
its environmental context dashboard. This report has been updated to reflect
the changes.
This story about SAT and ACT was produced
by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on
inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education
newsletter.
Left: A California bill would require the
public University of California system and largest-in-the-nation California
State University system to examine the fairness and usefulness of standardized
tests in the admissions process.
Related
Should the SAT be optional? Bribery scandal
renews debate
By Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press
Race in college admissions: Read the Trump
administration’s statement on reversing policies
By Meredith Lee
Why finding out how much a college costs is
harder than it looks
By Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report
Admissions scandal highlights ‘disconnect’
between colleges’ message and action
I DON’T LIKE TO HAVE TO SAY THIS, BECAUSE I
WOULD MUCH PREFER A CLEAN AND FAIR AND (THEREFORE) DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT; BUT
THE LEVEL AND VARIETY OF CRIMES THAT HAVE SHOWN UP IN THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE IS
TRULY SHOCKING. IT’S LIKE THROWING A FISHING NET OUT INTO THE WATER. YOU NEVER
KNOW WHAT KIND OF CREATURE WILL COME UP WHEN IT’S REELED IN. THIS DOESN’T SEEM
LIKE DRAINING THE SWAMP TO ME, BUT BRINGING IN NEW AND MORE DANGEROUS CREATURES.
2 Florida men tied to Giuliani arrested on
campaign charges
Politics
Oct 10, 2019 10:58 AM EDT
By — Michael Biesecker, Associated Press
By — Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
By — Eric Tucker, Associated Press
FILE PHOTO: Rudy Giuliani delivers remarks
before Donald Trump rallies with supporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S.,
September 28, 2016. Photo By Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Florida
businessmen tied to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani
have been arrested on campaign finance violations resulting from a $325,000
donation to a political action committee supporting Trump’s reelection.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested on
a four-count indictment that includes charges of conspiracy, making false
statements to the Federal Election Commission and falsification of records.
Parnas and Fruman were central to
Giuliani’s efforts to get government officials in Ukraine to investigate
business dealings by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in the
war-torn former Soviet republic.
Records show that Parnas and Fruman used
wire transfers from a corporate entity they controlled to make a $325,000
donation to the America First Action committee in 2018. But wire
transfer records that became public through a lawsuit show that the
corporate entity reported as making the transaction was not the true source of
the money.
John Dowd, an attorney for the men, hung up on an
Associated Press reporter calling about the case.
READ: Whistleblower protection, explained
The men, who were arrested at Dulles
International Airport, were expected to appear later Thursday in federal
court in Virginia. Two other men were charged in the case.
The indictment says Parnas and Fruman “sought
to advance their personal financial interests and the political interests of at
least one Ukrainian government official with whom they were working” and
took steps to conceal it from third parties, including creditors. They
created a limited liability corporation, Global Energy Producers, and “intentionally
caused certain large contributions to be reported in the name of GEP instead
of in their own names,” according to the indictment.
Prosecutors charge that the two men falsely
claimed the contributions came from a liquefied natural gas business. At that
point, the company had no income or significant assets, according to the
indictment.
WATCH: Why the White House argues it can
reject the House’s impeachment requests
The big PAC donation in May 2018 was
part of a flurry of political spending tied to Parnas and Fruman, with at
least $478,000 in donations flowing to GOP campaigns and PACs in little more
than two months.
The money enabled the relatively unknown
entrepreneurs to quickly gain access to the highest levels of the Republican
Party, including face-to-face meetings with Trump at the White House and
Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
The AP reported last week that Parnas
and Fruman helped arrange a January meeting in New York between Ukraine’s
former top prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, and Giuliani, as well as other meetings
with top government officials.
Giuliani’s efforts to launch a Ukrainian
corruption investigation were echoed by Trump in his July 25 call with
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. That
conversation is now at the heart of a burgeoning congressional impeachment
inquiry.
A whistleblower complaint by an unnamed
intelligence official makes reference to “associates” of Giuliani in Ukraine
who were attempting to make contact with Zelensky’s team, though it’s
not clear that refers to Parnas and Fruman. That could put the two men
squarely in the middle of the investigation into Giuliani’s activities.
Neumeister reported from New York City,
Mike Balsamo contributed from Washington.
THIS STORY FROM PEOPLE.COM OF 2016 IS MORE
TRUTH TELLING THAN WE’VE HEARD ABOUT BERNIE’S PERSONAL LIFE FOR THE MOST PART.
I’M GLAD HE’S OPENING UP, AS HE HAS SEVERAL TIMES IN THIS SECOND RUN FOR THE
PRESIDENCY.
I’M GLAD HE HAS A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH
HIS WIFE. IF THE NYT SAYS THAT HE’S SOMETHING APPROACHING “HEN PECKED,” I DOUBT
IT. HE HAS SAID THAT HE RESPECTS HER AND THAT SHE IS “BEAUTIFUL.” WHAT I SEE IN
BOTH OF THEM FROM THE TEN OR SO PHOTOS AND VIDEOS I’VE SEEN OF THEM TOGETHER IS
A TRUE LOVE MATCH, AND THERE AIN’T NOTHIN’ WRONG WITH THAT!!
How Bernie Sanders Romanced His Future Wife
While They Were on a Friends-Style 'Break'
Bernie Sanders employed various methods,
including playdates, Christmas presents and a fateful date at Friendly's
By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall January
20, 2016 01:30 PM
PHOTOGRAPH -- Jane and Bernie Sanders
MARTIN SCHOELLER
If “romantic” isn’t the first image
presidential candidate Bernie Sanders conjures, think again.
The cantankerous-sounding Vermont senator
hot on Hillary Clinton‘s heels for the Democratic presidential nomination is
also a slow-dancing-in-the-living-room kind of guy, his wife Jane O’Meara
Sanders tells PEOPLE.
And he’s not a quitter.
In an expansive at-home interview for the
new issue of PEOPLE, Jane, 65, recalls how she and Bernie, 74, met – at his
first mayoral debate in Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. As Sanders was at the
lectern, challenging the then-incumbent mayor, “I sat in the second row and I
fell in love with Bernie’s ideas,” Jane recalls.
“We met eyes – a few times, which I thought
was interesting.”
Jane and Bernie Sanders
At an election-night party weeks later,
Sanders asked her to dance “and that was it,” says Jane, then a divorced mother
of three young children.
The couple dated for eight years before
breaking up for about a year. “I wanted to get married and he didn’t,” Jane
says. Then, evoking Ross and Rachel of TV’s Friends, she adds, “We were on a
break.”
But Bernie did not give up – on Jane or her
children.
“He still came over that Christmas to give
them presents and be with them,” says Jane. “And he made it a point to go out
with them even though he and I weren’t together anymore. He taught them
basketball, baseball, checkers, chess.”
“It wasn’t that he just went away. When he
finally asked me to marry him, I thought about that, about how he’s somebody
you can count on.”
And, about that marriage proposal – Sanders
himself winds up the story: “Look when you do a proposal, it has to be done
with ambience. Proper moment, proper lighting. Right? I’ll let Jane tell you
the rest of the story.”
Continues Jane: “We were on a break and he
was trying to get me back and I said, ‘No. I want to get married and you
don’t.’ We finished our ice cream sundae at Friendly’s and we walked out to the
parking lot and he said, ‘You want to get married?’ ”
“I said, ‘You know I do. Let’s not talk
about this again.’ ”
“I wasn’t getting it, so he took me by the
shoulders and said, ‘Will. You. Marry. Me.’ And I said, ‘When?’ ”
More than 27 years later, Jane says, the
couple are still dancing together – at home in the living room.
“It just happens. Not around other people.
Slow dance. Just swaying.”
So, is Sanders a romantic? Says Jane, “He’s
romantic enough for me, believe me.”
For more of our at-home interview
with Senator Sanders and his family, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on
newsstands Friday
Comments
Post a Comment