Perhaps most troubling, on both tests, the gap between low-performing and high-performing students has grown, despite decades of education reforms meant to close those divides. A Crisis in Elite College AdmissionsThe most explosive education story of the year was undoubtedly Varsity Blues, the federal government’s investigation of a corrupt college admissions consultant, Rick Singer, and the dozens of parents who paid him to cheat and bribe their children’s way into elite colleges like Stanford, Yale and the University of Southern California. News of prison sentences for TV stars and business leaders who fabricated athletic records and standardized test scores for their offspring captured media attention. A growing group of colleges have made the SAT and ACT exams optional in an effort to diversify their student bodies. All of this coincided with a closely-watched federal lawsuit in Boston arguing discrimination against Asian-Americans in Harvard’s admissions process.

Source: International New York Times December 27, 2019 09:56 UTC