This is just a test: Yesterday, Harvard became the latest elite college to announce it would reverse its test-optional policy for student applicants. The California Institute of Technology also reinstated the test requirements. This represents a major victory against anti-testing forces.
The argument against mandating SAT or ACT scores for student applicants was that making standardized tests optional would help increase diversity in the student population. AS The New York Times relationship in Harvard’s announcement notes, the goal was to encourage”poor and underrepresented students who had potential but did not score well on the tests they submitted.”
Indeed, how ReasonEmma Camp did it writtenthe opposite is true: effectively eliminating standardized test scores from applications bad disadvantaged children, while giving support to children from wealthy families. “Tests are simply harder to get around than non-academic factors,” Camp wrote last year. “Wealthy families can hire tutors to write polished admissions essays for their children, ensure they have a variety of extracurricular activities, and sports, and ensure they attend schools where they qualify. guidance counselors know how to write an enthusiastic letter about a candidate.”
There is growing evidence that eliminating tests helps the wealthy and hurts low-income applicantsand it looks like Harvard I couldn’t ignore it.
Harvard’s announcement of a return to testing requirements cited an Opportunity Insights study showing that test scores were a useful predictor of success in higher education and could help admissions officers choose low-income students that they would probably get good results.
Harvard is not the first high-profile school to reverse its test-optional policy. Georgetown, Brown, Yale, Dartmouth and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have all returned to mandatory applications. But with Harvard now on board, the case should be closed on this unfortunate experiment. The anti-testers have been educated.
Complete and utter defeat for the anti-test crusaders pic.twitter.com/ubfbg2QTxL
— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) April 11, 2024
Biden expands gun background checks: President Joe Biden has approved new federal background checks for private gun sales, intending to close what has sometimes been called the “gun show loophole.” This is the largest expansion of background check requirements since 1993.
The gun show loophole wasn’t really a loophole. Rather it was a legal exception for some sellers who were not officially”in the firearms trade.” But how Axios relationshipsthe new rules will impose “Anyone who sells a firearm for profit must register it with the federal government.”
So: new government registration requirements for gun sales. Does this seem likely to come into force smoothly and without widespread legal opposition? Yes, I’m thinking… no.
Biden’s rule will almost certainly be challenged in court. Meanwhile, two Republican senators, John Cornyn (R–Texas) and Thom Tillis (R–NC), have already indicated that they intend to do so to introduce a resolution to overthrow Biden’s government because, they say, it is unconstitutional.
It is impossible to predict how all this will end. But the timing makes the motivations more than a little suspect: It’s probably no coincidence that Biden approved the new background checks during an election year. Maybe he’s just shooting blanks.
The gist is loose died: OJ Simpson died of cancer at the age of 76. Simpson was an actor, football player and sports broadcaster. But in the 1990s, he became a central figure in the American media ecosystem for a year after he was accused of killing his ex-wife and her friend.
The lurid details of the murder and the bizarre celebrity horror show of the trial that followed were irresistible to the era’s supermarket tabloids and the nascent 24-hour cable news business. It’s hard to overstate how much the O.J. story dominated the American media and how obsessed the nation was with that story: I was in middle school when the trial took place and class stopped so we could all see the verdict in real time.
It’s a shame that comedian Norm MacDonald, who made jokes about OJ’s guilt a major part of his speech, isn’t here to send him away. In any case, here’s 11+ minutes of MacDonald brutally ripping Simpson. You won’t laugh harder today.
Scenes from Washington, DC Area brewery DC Brau introduces a non-alcoholic beer. This isn’t a huge shock: the category has grown rapidly in recent years, with brands like Athletic Brewing are turning themselves around the otherwise struggling beer market.
But it turns out there are political reasons too, namely Maryland’s liquor laws. AS Washingtonian relationships: “The move will allow DC Brau to expand its presence in Maryland in particular, where restrictive liquor laws limit which retailers can sell their alcoholic beer.” DC Brau owner Brandon Skall told the magazine that the new beer , nicknamed NA Brau, “gives us an easy in many places where it is not legally allowed to carry our product at this time.” Now this is (not) alcohol you can use.
QUICK SHOTS
- Inflation continues to be a big, big problem for President Biden’s reelection campaign. But he has a plan: he will say it’s Trump’s fault!
- The Federal Highway Administration has an emergency relief fund, and some states have waited decades to access it for their infrastructure projects. But those on the list may not get any money because the entire existing fund could go toward repairing the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, reports The Washington Post.
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has taken aim at regulators for rejecting his company’s proposed deal with Roomba maker iRobot. US antitrust regulators, he says, “rely on these two big Chinese companies to map the inside of US consumers’ homes more than they do Amazon.”
- Wait, didn’t we win the war on measles? No! Apparently not.
- The feds are investigating Morgan Stanley, though The Wall Street Journal.
- Elon Musk x Javier Milei is obviously a huge brand collaboration.
- Amazon has turned sneaky libertarian Fall video game franchise into a TV show. It comes out this week. The reviews are pretty strong.