Thread by @JonBoeckenstedt

Thread: I was in an online meeting today with people talking about making the college admissions process better. I was in a room with people who literally have forgotten more about statistics than I'll probably ever know.

So I guess I should have shut up. But I didn't.

In the room were faculty experts on measurement and assessment. People from CBOs and other NFPs who were trying to make a difference in the lives of students. High school counselors. People from testing companies. And a few people who had actually done admissions.

We heard a lot about what things we could collect to make prediction better. We heard about measuring potential, about the problems with grades, about new tests and new measures and better ways to "increase access."

The three of us from admissions waited our turn.

They finally asked what we thought about all of this.

Here's sort of what I said:

It seems odd to work in this profession that at one time was almost considered so ignoble it barely had a place in the academy. That to be the focus such attention from esteemed researchers now was both tragic and comic.

I said I thought reducing admissions to a prediction equation was curious. People who do admissions would probably think so, too. After all, at the highly rejectives, things like leadership and musical talent and athletics came into play, too.

I said that if an alien from another planet came to earth, they might look at the data and surmise that the children of white, wealthy, college-education parents were the most intelligent, or the most meritorious, because that's how college admissions looks at some places.

I quoted David Brooks (not well, since he's not my favorite guy in the world): “…let’s say you work at a university or a college. You are a cog in the one of the great inequality producing machines this country has known.”

I quoted the late Fred Hargadon, who was among the first conference sessions I ever attended in 1985 in AACRAO in 1985. He was filling in at the last minute for someone else, but was still among the best things I've ever heard.

He said, "In all my years of doing this, I've learned two things: If we had to pick the worst age for someone to choose a college, it would be 17; and that the block on which you are born has more to do with where you end up in life than any other single factor."

I should have quoted @HarryBrighouse1 and his excellent talk about America's tendency to equate achievement and call it merit, and how achievement only happens if someone invests in you.

Maybe next time.

I probably broke some rule by dividing "admission" into "ad" (toward, in Latin) and "mission." I suggested admission was based on institutional mission.

And I cited Cardinal Newman's "first principles" and asked: What is the role of the admission office?

I suggested that external assessments that students haven't had the chance to study for probably don't tell us much about what they're capable of.

I reminded them that four years of high school is more similar to four years of college than anything else, and that we already had a way to measure what's happened in high school, and at most places, it's sufficient to make good decisions.

Of course, even I think GPA can be made better, and that better context will help. I offered some ideas about that, too.

I said that I was gratified by the California Regents and the discussion of testing, and happy to hear a few of them talk about how we shouldn't be mostly about "high quality in --> high quality out."

Along the way I mentioned that the largest expansion of educational attainment and the largest expansion in our economy happened when almost no one was taking college entrance exams. It was mostly GPA (not essays or LORs or anything else.)

So that's what I said. I thought it was interesting, but I'm not sure many appreciated hearing me drone on. Admissions needs fixin', people seem to think. So fix it we must.

It was good to get that off my chest, anyway. Even if it might not make much difference in the long run.

We'll see.

Oh, and #EMTalk