Needy students left behind

[ckramer]

Another revolution is stirring at the influential University of California system. A faculty committee there concluded this week that National Merit Scholarships - the academic plums that high school strivers dream of winning - should be abandoned.

Based on recent history, the suggestion may stir up a storm.

Four years ago, the University of California president declared he would dump the SAT college admissions tests unless changes were made. The College Board, which administers those tests, scrambled. As a result, last weekend thousands of students took a new, longer SAT that included a writing sample.

Now the merit scholarships, based on different tests taken by 11th-graders, are under fire out west. The California professors complained that too few minorities and poor students win the awards, which range from $500 to $10,000 and are financed by corporations and colleges.

This raises interesting questions. Are the tests a fair way to measure merit? And, more broadly, how much aid for college students should be based on financial need and how much strictly on academic merit?

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[renaissanceguy]

1. If John Kerry were president

we wouldn't have to worry about this, with his plan to make state college education free for all students.

This could be a HUGE winning issue to run on in 2008.


http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues/466053

[ckramer]

3. I think state college should compete with private college

in terms of price. They should attract the brightest and smartest to the public college by offering them free education.

The tuition rates in higher education is another bubble of privatization. Kerry should mention that in 2004 shouldn't he?

Democratic party failed to address these important issues concerning the common people in 2004 election: housing, education, health care, immigration and living wages.

[salin]

2. Big national study (big = huge sample size)

indicated that rigor of course taking (eg the larger number of honors and high level courses) in high school was a better predictor of completing college than SAT scores, and high school gpa. Sorta puts the emphasis of tests on its head. Think about it - even at a "C" level - more high level courses (persevering and learning how to be successful in them at high school) better predicts than simple gpa - success in graduation from college.

Now - the bigger question is equity in opportunity. Do high school serving students of lower economic status offer many of these courses? Do they only offer a few (so best students can only take a few) or do they offer a number but limit the pool of who can take those courses?

Way back when the UC trustees and governor (then Gov Wilson) attacked the UC system and affirmative action - the governor said that the real reform needed was in the K12 system in order to give more equity of opportunity. That was 1996. We learned five years later that the premise (per reform of educational opportunity) was correct - but that there had NEVER been an effort, as had been promised, to correct the presumed problem - eg pouring more resources into preparing students for those courses or offering said courses. It was all a farce.

[bobbieinok]

4. when son was applying for college, 90+% of aid was based on need

rest were athletic or band scholarships........I found it very frustrating.....surely there should be some reward for academic achievement and ability

when I applied, 90+% was based on achievement and ability, rest were athletic scholarships .... today's set-up is better, has opened college up to many more individuals/groups

yet I still think there should be room for some scholarships based on academic merit