Our latest Bootstraps episode looks at how the world’s most prestigious scholarship is wrestling with its legacy.
Scott Smallwood
Co-founder of Open Campus.
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Everything old is new again
Three higher ed news stories jumped out to us this week. And as is so often the case, they feel like shadows of stories we’ve seen — or written — before.
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Who could be against social-mobility rankings?
Such rankings suggest colleges “cause” social mobility, one expert says in his critique. But local conditions create much of the context that allows for a college degree to pay off.
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Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory
It changed the mind of one white conservative student who enrolled: “Why are they so fearful of people just theorizing and just thinking?”
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Is college admissions broken? Or working exactly as intended?
The “reputational model” of higher ed is based on a fundamental preoccupation with exclusivity, a new report says, and colleges must examine the consequences.
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When the SAT feels like a lock, not a key
“What I would hope that colleges are thinking about and looking for when they’re identifying students [is] asking, ‘Is the seed there enough to grow, nurture, and plant into something beautiful?’ Or are you looking for a static, ready-made product that you don’t have to do anything with?”
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When anything could happen
Often, one researcher says, some factor—such as the odds of life events keeping people from ever graduating—is missing from the analysis about the college choices people make.
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What do we even mean by merit?
This whole discussion of merit — what it even means, how it drives who gets to go to college, how it shapes people’s college dreams — is threaded through so many debates in higher education. And it can distort the conversation.
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An investment that will accelerate our growth
The American Journalism Project is giving grants to support a set of national news organizations working in local communities. We’re excited to be part of this group working to reimagine and strengthen local news.
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Follow our expanded national reporting
Connect with our new team of reporters covering the role of colleges in rural America, the future of postsecondary education in prisons, and higher education and racial equity.