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If the purpose of college is something other than babysitting and coddling young adults while they socialize, the vast majority of kids going to college should

If the purpose of college is something other than babysitting and coddling young adults while they socialize, the vast majority of kids going to college should not be going to college. In the vast majority of cases they take easy majors that have nothing to do with the work they end up doing. I agree with the author. There is a credentialing arms race that must be cut off at the root - easy access to student loans. The solution is simple - Government predicates receiving a federal student loan on demonstrating high academic ability, beyond just getting into a college. Standardized tests must be leveraged more to this end - not less - since they're the purest intellectual measure we have left.

eesmith 4y ago
High school grades are a better predictor of college success than standardized tests. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X20902110 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X20902110 > High school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, whereas test scores (e.g., ACT scores) are seen as comparable. This study tests those assumptions, examining variation across high schools of both HSGPAs and ACT scores as measures of academic readiness for college. We found students with the same HSGPA or the same ACT score graduate at very different rates based on which high school they attended. Yet, the relationship of HSGPAs with college graduation is strong and consistent and larger than school effects. In contrast, the relationship of ACT scores with college graduation is weak and smaller than high school effects, and the slope of the relationship varies by high school. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0002831219843292 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/00028312198432... > Since World War II, high school report card grades and standardized college entrance exams—most prominently the SAT and ACT—have been the two gatekeepers of university admissions ... It is surprising, perhaps, that high school grades are a stronger incremental predictor of college outcomes—including what is arguably the most important outcome of all: graduation.

eesmith 4y ago

High school grades are a better predictor of college success than standardized tests. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X20902110 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X20902110 > High school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, whereas test scores (e.g., ACT scores) are seen as comparable. This study tests those assumptions, examining variation across high schools of both HSGPAs and ACT scores as measures of academic readiness for college. We found students with the same HSGPA or the same ACT score graduate at very different rates based on which high school they attended. Yet, the relationship of HSGPAs with college graduation is strong and consistent and larger than school effects. In contrast, the relationship of ACT scores with college graduation is weak and smaller than high school effects, and the slope of the relationship varies by high school. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0002831219843292 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/00028312198432... > Since World War II, high school report card grades and standardized college entrance exams—most prominently the SAT and ACT—have been the two gatekeepers of university admissions ... It is surprising, perhaps, that high school grades are a stronger incremental predictor of college outcomes—including what is arguably the most important outcome of all: graduation.