«”Are we sure that Hur let his political bias get in the way of his professional judgment? Can we draw that from his background as a politically connected Republican lawyer? I don’t even think it’s a serious question. The lengthy and gratuitous comments speak for themselves. Of course he did.”»
«Many lower-income students, it turned out, had made a strategic mistake.
They withheld test scores that would have helped them get into Dartmouth. They wrongly believed that their scores were too low, when in truth the admissions office would have judged the scores to be a sign that students had overcome a difficult environment and could thrive at Dartmouth.
…
Dartmouth admits disadvantaged students who have scores that are lower on average than those of privileged students. The college doesn’t apologize for that. Students from poor neighborhoods or troubled high schools have effectively been running with wind in their face. They are not competing fairly with affluent teenagers.
“We’re looking for the kids who are excelling in their environment. We know society is unequal,” Beilock said. “Kids that are excelling in their environment, we think, are a good bet to excel at Dartmouth and out in the world.”…
I also asked whether she was worried that conservative critics of affirmative action might use test scores to accuse Dartmouth of violating the recent Supreme Court ruling barring race-conscious admissions. She was not. Dartmouth can legally admit a diverse class while using test scores as one part of its holistic admissions process, she said. I’ve heard similar sentiments from leaders at other colleges that have reinstated the test requirement, including Georgetown and M.I.T.»
Huh. (One journalist’s experience in “twitter rehab”.)
«do not mistake certainty for accuracy. The scientific literature on decision making is replete with studies showing that confidence and accuracy are often not highly correlated[viii]. Being more confident does not make it more likely that an analyst is right. The challenge, of course, is that confidence is often persuasive[ix].
….
we must be mindful that if we are typically more confident than right, then the analyst, briefer, or other persuader is too. Some will boldly saunter in with an “obvious answer.” In these instances, we have to take extra care to separate the objective evidence from the subjective experience and the delivery. We may need to re-orient ourselves to listen to ideas that start with “what if…” or “I wonder what would happen….” or “this may seem silly, but…” Those ideas do not have to prevail, but they should not be summarily dismissed. Quiet voices can also speak truth.»
«The Ackland itself has a connection to the exploitation of a race of people, but in its own country. William Hayes Ackland, whose bequest founded the museum and whose body is entombed within it, inherited his fortune. His mother’s first husband made the money by founding what became the largest slave-trading company in the United States. The museum acknowledges this bitter truth on its website.»
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article284751221.html
Here, Read This 