A top executive for the College Board is playing a central role in advancing legislation to "limit what teachers can say regarding race, history, and politics in Indiana classrooms." The executive, Todd Huston, is paid $460,738 to serve as the College Board's
Neo Nazis, religious bigots and a motley array of hysterical parents wound up by Fox News pundits are standing for election to local school boards. And the gerrymandered GOP Missouri legislature also has various school censorship bills in progress. Unless we resist by putting up rational candidates in municipal elections this is only going to get worse and teachers are going to leave the profession in droves. Our school superintendent - a highly qualified woman, just prematurely ”retired”. I have published our city school board meeting schedule and website. As soon as elections to school boards and other influential local municipal positions come up, we should put up candidates. Resistance has to be local.
This is gross, and completely unsurprising. My kids' (private) HS does not and has not ever offered AP classes, because it's a moneymaking scam for the College Board. They do have Honors classes, but they also don't do class ranks, and they don't calculate a GPA (you can calculate it yourself if you like). The whole college admissions scamalamadingdong is based on this garbage, and we'll never be free of it until people realize that the right college is the college that wants your kid as they are, and where your kid wants to be, and that includes no college, community college, vocational/technical school, on and on. Great piece, I've shared it far and wide!
Racism, misogyny, paternalism, white-supremacy anti-Semitism and islamophobia are all alive and well in the U.S. Trump and others made it OK to hate and rage again under the guise of personal freedom. We are in a civil war. The weapons so far are voter suppression, taking away women’s rights, book banning, curriculum washing, immigration, masks and vaccinations. The guns are out there and, so far, only occasionally used. Our democracy is at grave risk, and individual safety is, too.
More whitewashing of history from the racist republican party. How is this not a conflict of interest? Why is every single republican double dipping and how are democrats ok with this? We need to call this out EVERY DAY until there is change. Great article, but I feel helpless...
What an excellent column. Thanks, Judd, for taking the time to tease out this piece of chicanery. For many years, school boards in all parts of the country have cramped any sense of pedagogical style in our classrooms (I teach teacher-librarians among others). The media pays far too much attention to the histrionic sideshow in Congress and far too little attention to what has happened to the education of future voters. As noted by Ian Sirota below, this presents us wit a dystopian scenario.
I read about Todd Huston from @santiagomayer_ on Twitter; someone I follow retweeted or subtweeted him. For many years a long time ago I was a college admissions & financial aid officer and at the time I had three observations about AP tests: few students with AP scores that crossed my desk had earned the required score to qualify for advanced standing in college, it was common belief that students with AP classes regardless of test scores would be better prepared in the college classroom and students who took them were from large suburban high schools or private schools. I was too naive then to make anything of it. Many colleges today do not require the SAT for admission (AP exams have never been required for admission), and when that trend became the norm, the CB struggled with relevancy. I guess under the radar they have increased and widened their focus on using AP to control curriculum. A quick Google search shows that in 2018 about 4.2M AP exams were given to 1.2M distinct students, which is shown as a major increase over 10 years. The CB owns its data and controls what it sells and to whom. Summary data views are available on their website, though they don’t seem to include geodemographic data on the test takers, college graduation rates, how many AP test takers graduated early, etc., so there’s little accountability. Another possible issue is the CB’s role in financial aid. They offer the CSS Profile, which several colleges use in addition to or instead of the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to further qualify students for institutional discretionary grants and scholarships. The FAFSA uses one “federal methodology” (FM) to determine a person’s financial need. It’s widely known that the methodology uses income, number of people in college, student’s year in college and student’s courseload as major factors to calculate what a family can contribute toward the student’s education. Although many families will not qualify for federal grants, I believe at least a narrow majority of families file the FAFSA because it’s free and the gateway to qualifying for student and parent loans. The CB has an “institutional methodology” (IM) behind the CSS Profile to determine a person’s institutional financial need for grants and/or qualification for scholarships. Families that forego filing FAFSA may still file the CSS Profile. Colleges that don’t use IM typically use only FAFSA for need-based institutional aid and have their own methodology for awarding discretionary grants and scholarships. Note that I’m not saying the CSS Profile is bad, but I am saying that The College Board, a non-profit org best known for college entrance qualifying exams, probably shouldn’t also be a player in a methodology to calculate institutional grant or scholarship qualification.
That’s because they don’t want anyone to know how our school system is segregated. In the US, For a majority poor-middle-class American, quality education is something difficult to get, especially for minorities. When it comes to K12 education, the parents have to be rich enough to afford a house in a good school district. For higher education, if a kid wants to go to an out-of-state top-level university, parents have to be rich enough to shell out 100’s of thousands of dollars to support them. In addition to this, in K12 schools across this country, the overall grade rating for a school and the diversity ratings are inversely proportional. Please check the article below for further read
I wish people would remember WE are in charge. IMHO, we do not use our voices often enough together.
All the teachers in Indiana should align & strategize and ALL teach about racism in the same week, all be fired, sued, all have pro-bono lawyers and go to court until it reaches the HIGHEST court. Indiana will be w/o teachers and their courts will be a mess.
This isn't abortion like in TX. You want to bring courts into it? Fine, trachers should play that game. Or walk. This isn't choice. This is truth.
These scared white racist cowards are setting us up another civil war.
We in Indiana have been “blessed” with some of the most backward, reactionary representatives at all levels. I can’t imagine how deeply demoralized teachers are going to be. We’ll lose them, or they’ll have to engage in ugly fights.
Judd, once again, terrific reporting on a story the MSM is missing. It is blatantly obvious that the GOP will make race baiting a central feature of their 2022 and 2024 campaigns. Nixon's Southern Strategy pales in comparison.
That said, I have one complaint to make regarding your closing remark:
"The College Board's silence about these bills, and Huston's role, raises questions about whether it is truly committed to making AP courses more representative of the nation as a whole."
The College Board's silence does not raise a question. That question has been asked and answered for the last years or more. Republicans have blatantly, repeatedly, and publicly manipulated the system ever since Trump showed them that committing crimes in broad daylight. works. Our refusal to accept that the GOP has the gall to tear down our democracy is one of its greatest assets.
It is true for the media, and it is true for our politicians and their appointees. Perhaps that explains why Merrick Garland and the DOJ refuse to go after leaders of the ongoing insurrection with just 10 months left before the 2022 midterms. We all need to understand exactly what is taking place and take concrete steps to prevent the GOP's attempt to turn our nation into an autocracy.
In the past, talk like this would have been treated with derision. Now, if we don't take this seriously and act decisively, we might as well put our Constitution through the shredder and get this all over with.
I was so roiled by this information today that I spent the last two hours writing to three of my former PhD professors and one new one who heads diversity in the department. "Knowledge is power. Knowledge increases our awareness of options and possible passions and goals. To limit access to American history in every aspect of its being is criminal. Learning the truth didn't make me feel guilty for the past; it made me aware that I can only affect the future and now know that there are needs that I can address. And so can you." My two primary areas were in Tests & Measurement and Learning & Cognition. So these people are connected with such institutions as the College Board, at least indirectly. I am the child of white privilege even though my parents were literally crazy and it's taken their children a lifetime to recover from that. But we're not poor. We've always had options. We could always feel safe in a dog park. My letter to them was long, but I started with the link to Judd's post today and ended by asking them what actions they plan to take going forward. We'll see. Thank you, People at Popular Information. You give us the fodder to move us all forward. Did I mention that I have come to the conclusion that it is not just racism at political work here: it's that rich people feel so entitled that they want large swaths of humanity of any color and background to remain so poor that they will not have the time, every or the will to fight back from low wages, low services, etc., and the wealth gap will just keep growing. The wealth disparity alone could deal with any increased standard of living issues, just as it did during the two or three progressive eras in or country. And even they left too many people out. *sigh* Sorry, I'm just so angry about this.
Jeebus fracking crust. It's like the Nazis and their fetish of mythology "made real". I am sure glad I don't live in the USA any more, what a shit hole.
Maybe it was the photograph of Huston, but I find this article is more disturbing than usual. This whole issue makes my appreciation of George Orwell increase. That he was able to discern the dangers of incipient totalitarianism and write so brilliantly requires admirable inner strength. He turned what frightens maybe all of us and created something of great and enduring value.
Neo Nazis, religious bigots and a motley array of hysterical parents wound up by Fox News pundits are standing for election to local school boards. And the gerrymandered GOP Missouri legislature also has various school censorship bills in progress. Unless we resist by putting up rational candidates in municipal elections this is only going to get worse and teachers are going to leave the profession in droves. Our school superintendent - a highly qualified woman, just prematurely ”retired”. I have published our city school board meeting schedule and website. As soon as elections to school boards and other influential local municipal positions come up, we should put up candidates. Resistance has to be local.
Somewhere, George Orwell is smiling right now (or he's cringing at the accuracy of his dystopian prediction)............
This is gross, and completely unsurprising. My kids' (private) HS does not and has not ever offered AP classes, because it's a moneymaking scam for the College Board. They do have Honors classes, but they also don't do class ranks, and they don't calculate a GPA (you can calculate it yourself if you like). The whole college admissions scamalamadingdong is based on this garbage, and we'll never be free of it until people realize that the right college is the college that wants your kid as they are, and where your kid wants to be, and that includes no college, community college, vocational/technical school, on and on. Great piece, I've shared it far and wide!
Racism, misogyny, paternalism, white-supremacy anti-Semitism and islamophobia are all alive and well in the U.S. Trump and others made it OK to hate and rage again under the guise of personal freedom. We are in a civil war. The weapons so far are voter suppression, taking away women’s rights, book banning, curriculum washing, immigration, masks and vaccinations. The guns are out there and, so far, only occasionally used. Our democracy is at grave risk, and individual safety is, too.
More whitewashing of history from the racist republican party. How is this not a conflict of interest? Why is every single republican double dipping and how are democrats ok with this? We need to call this out EVERY DAY until there is change. Great article, but I feel helpless...
What an excellent column. Thanks, Judd, for taking the time to tease out this piece of chicanery. For many years, school boards in all parts of the country have cramped any sense of pedagogical style in our classrooms (I teach teacher-librarians among others). The media pays far too much attention to the histrionic sideshow in Congress and far too little attention to what has happened to the education of future voters. As noted by Ian Sirota below, this presents us wit a dystopian scenario.
I read about Todd Huston from @santiagomayer_ on Twitter; someone I follow retweeted or subtweeted him. For many years a long time ago I was a college admissions & financial aid officer and at the time I had three observations about AP tests: few students with AP scores that crossed my desk had earned the required score to qualify for advanced standing in college, it was common belief that students with AP classes regardless of test scores would be better prepared in the college classroom and students who took them were from large suburban high schools or private schools. I was too naive then to make anything of it. Many colleges today do not require the SAT for admission (AP exams have never been required for admission), and when that trend became the norm, the CB struggled with relevancy. I guess under the radar they have increased and widened their focus on using AP to control curriculum. A quick Google search shows that in 2018 about 4.2M AP exams were given to 1.2M distinct students, which is shown as a major increase over 10 years. The CB owns its data and controls what it sells and to whom. Summary data views are available on their website, though they don’t seem to include geodemographic data on the test takers, college graduation rates, how many AP test takers graduated early, etc., so there’s little accountability. Another possible issue is the CB’s role in financial aid. They offer the CSS Profile, which several colleges use in addition to or instead of the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to further qualify students for institutional discretionary grants and scholarships. The FAFSA uses one “federal methodology” (FM) to determine a person’s financial need. It’s widely known that the methodology uses income, number of people in college, student’s year in college and student’s courseload as major factors to calculate what a family can contribute toward the student’s education. Although many families will not qualify for federal grants, I believe at least a narrow majority of families file the FAFSA because it’s free and the gateway to qualifying for student and parent loans. The CB has an “institutional methodology” (IM) behind the CSS Profile to determine a person’s institutional financial need for grants and/or qualification for scholarships. Families that forego filing FAFSA may still file the CSS Profile. Colleges that don’t use IM typically use only FAFSA for need-based institutional aid and have their own methodology for awarding discretionary grants and scholarships. Note that I’m not saying the CSS Profile is bad, but I am saying that The College Board, a non-profit org best known for college entrance qualifying exams, probably shouldn’t also be a player in a methodology to calculate institutional grant or scholarship qualification.
That’s because they don’t want anyone to know how our school system is segregated. In the US, For a majority poor-middle-class American, quality education is something difficult to get, especially for minorities. When it comes to K12 education, the parents have to be rich enough to afford a house in a good school district. For higher education, if a kid wants to go to an out-of-state top-level university, parents have to be rich enough to shell out 100’s of thousands of dollars to support them. In addition to this, in K12 schools across this country, the overall grade rating for a school and the diversity ratings are inversely proportional. Please check the article below for further read
https://hram.substack.com/p/quality-education-a-privilege-for
I wish people would remember WE are in charge. IMHO, we do not use our voices often enough together.
All the teachers in Indiana should align & strategize and ALL teach about racism in the same week, all be fired, sued, all have pro-bono lawyers and go to court until it reaches the HIGHEST court. Indiana will be w/o teachers and their courts will be a mess.
This isn't abortion like in TX. You want to bring courts into it? Fine, trachers should play that game. Or walk. This isn't choice. This is truth.
These scared white racist cowards are setting us up another civil war.
We in Indiana have been “blessed” with some of the most backward, reactionary representatives at all levels. I can’t imagine how deeply demoralized teachers are going to be. We’ll lose them, or they’ll have to engage in ugly fights.
Judd, once again, terrific reporting on a story the MSM is missing. It is blatantly obvious that the GOP will make race baiting a central feature of their 2022 and 2024 campaigns. Nixon's Southern Strategy pales in comparison.
That said, I have one complaint to make regarding your closing remark:
"The College Board's silence about these bills, and Huston's role, raises questions about whether it is truly committed to making AP courses more representative of the nation as a whole."
The College Board's silence does not raise a question. That question has been asked and answered for the last years or more. Republicans have blatantly, repeatedly, and publicly manipulated the system ever since Trump showed them that committing crimes in broad daylight. works. Our refusal to accept that the GOP has the gall to tear down our democracy is one of its greatest assets.
It is true for the media, and it is true for our politicians and their appointees. Perhaps that explains why Merrick Garland and the DOJ refuse to go after leaders of the ongoing insurrection with just 10 months left before the 2022 midterms. We all need to understand exactly what is taking place and take concrete steps to prevent the GOP's attempt to turn our nation into an autocracy.
In the past, talk like this would have been treated with derision. Now, if we don't take this seriously and act decisively, we might as well put our Constitution through the shredder and get this all over with.
There’s a word for this: Fascism
I was so roiled by this information today that I spent the last two hours writing to three of my former PhD professors and one new one who heads diversity in the department. "Knowledge is power. Knowledge increases our awareness of options and possible passions and goals. To limit access to American history in every aspect of its being is criminal. Learning the truth didn't make me feel guilty for the past; it made me aware that I can only affect the future and now know that there are needs that I can address. And so can you." My two primary areas were in Tests & Measurement and Learning & Cognition. So these people are connected with such institutions as the College Board, at least indirectly. I am the child of white privilege even though my parents were literally crazy and it's taken their children a lifetime to recover from that. But we're not poor. We've always had options. We could always feel safe in a dog park. My letter to them was long, but I started with the link to Judd's post today and ended by asking them what actions they plan to take going forward. We'll see. Thank you, People at Popular Information. You give us the fodder to move us all forward. Did I mention that I have come to the conclusion that it is not just racism at political work here: it's that rich people feel so entitled that they want large swaths of humanity of any color and background to remain so poor that they will not have the time, every or the will to fight back from low wages, low services, etc., and the wealth gap will just keep growing. The wealth disparity alone could deal with any increased standard of living issues, just as it did during the two or three progressive eras in or country. And even they left too many people out. *sigh* Sorry, I'm just so angry about this.
Jeebus fracking crust. It's like the Nazis and their fetish of mythology "made real". I am sure glad I don't live in the USA any more, what a shit hole.
Maybe it was the photograph of Huston, but I find this article is more disturbing than usual. This whole issue makes my appreciation of George Orwell increase. That he was able to discern the dangers of incipient totalitarianism and write so brilliantly requires admirable inner strength. He turned what frightens maybe all of us and created something of great and enduring value.
$460,738 ? These sad howls from the wounded white men are drowning out the sound of those same men ripping the country to shreds.