A new quota system at elite universities?

     At the start of the 1980s, about 5 percent of Harvard students were Asian-American. But the number of qualified Asian-American applicants rose so that by 1993 roughly 20 percent of Harvard students had Asian heritage.

      But, according to Ron Unz, a funny thing then happened. The number of qualified Asian-Americans continued to rise, but the number of Asian-Americans admitted to Harvard fell so that the student body was about 16 percent Asian. Between 1995 and 2011, Harvard’s Asian-American population has varied by less than a percentage point around that 16.5 percent average. Not only that, the percentage of Asian-Americans at other Ivy League schools has also settled at a remarkably stable 16 percent, year after year.

      "This smells like a quota system, or at least that was the implication left by Unz’s searing, sprawling, frustrating and highly debatable piece, 'The Myth of the American Meritocracy,' in The American Conservative," wrote David Brooks in the New York Times.

      "You’re going to want to argue with Unz’s article all the way along, especially for its narrow, math-test-driven view of merit. But it’s potentially ground-shifting. Unz’s other big point is that Jews are vastly overrepresented at elite universities and that Jewish achievement has collapsed," Brooks continued. "In the 1970s, for example, 40 percent of top scorers in the Math Olympiad had Jewish names. Now 2.5 percent do. The fanatical generations of immigrant strivers have been replaced by a more comfortable generation of preprofessionals, he implies."

SAT Myths Busted

          For high school juniors, SAT time has arrived. Many are beginning test prep courses and going online to register for winter and spring test dates. The SAT has undergone some significant changes over the last 5 years, making it a very different test from when parents were applying to colleges. And with these changes have come rumors and misinformation. As you forage your way through the SAT forest, here are a few myths and realities to help you.

What Good Are Standards If Funding Varies?

   The Common Core State Standards, adopted by the overwhelming majority of states and supported by the Obama administration, have worried liberals who question their quality and conservatives who fear they erode states’ traditional responsibility for education.

    At the same time, the budget pressure of the impending “fiscal cliff” could reduce federal support for education, which would add to the state and local responsibility.
    As these trends collide, we should all take a step back and ask: Should education standards and funding vary by state? If per-pupil spending is $13,384 in Philadelphia and $26,571 in its suburbs, how can one set of teaching standards make a difference?
    Yes, we should have a national discussion about what we feel is essential for all students to know. But, more important, we should have a national commitment to ensuring that every school has the human and capital resources to ensure that every child can succeed.

    For more information, or to join the discussion, go to http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/12/10/the-american-way-of-learning

Teaching Children To Be Organized

Teaching children to be organized means less chaotic mornings, fewer forgotten assignments and homework tasks, and never running out of time to study. Help your child record everything he or she needs to do in order to use time effectively. Online apps, colored charts and diaries can help make schedules that work. This should be something you teach them and supervise, but they need to learn how to manage their own time effectively.

Admission to College, With Catch: Year’s Wait

For as long as there have been selective colleges, the spring ritual has been the same: Some applicants get a warm note of acceptance, and the rest get a curt rejection. Now, as colleges are increasingly swamped with applications, a small but growing number are offering a third option: guaranteed admission if the student attends another institution for a year or two and earns a prescribed grade-point average. Read more: