Writing

All posts.

Merit, Measurement & Meaning
Test Scores Tell You Who Your Child Beat, Not What Your Child Knows
Why parents trust report cards over test scores — and why the researchers and journalists who call that a mistake are asking the wrong question.
2026-03-01
Testing & Assessment
Trying Out the CLT
A hands-on look at the Classic Learning Test — what it measures, how it compares, and whether it deserves the attention it's getting.
2026-02-11
Policy, Systems & Better Decision-Making
Beyond the Headlines: A Review of Miracle Children
A close read of a book about exceptional students navigating elite admissions — and what it gets right and wrong about the system.
2026-01-14
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
The ABCs of College Board
College Board is a marketing firm with a product to sell. Everything they do — including how they present data — is designed with that end in mind.
2025-12-20
Families & Practical Navigation
Do You Need a Private College Counselor? I Asked the Pros
A practical, unvarnished look at what private counselors actually do, who benefits, and whether the cost is worth it.
2025-08-14
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
The Myths of GPA in College Admissions Explained
GPA is the most trusted signal in admissions — and also the most misunderstood. Here's what it actually tells you and what it doesn't.
2025-06-08
Families & Practical Navigation
Should You Take the SAT/ACT in 2025?
A data-driven guide for students and families navigating the test-optional landscape in a year when the rules keep changing.
2025-05-03
Admissions, Rankings & Institutional Choice
It's So Hard (to get into college)!
The dramatic framing around college admissions obscures the reality: most colleges admit most applicants. Here's who benefits from the panic narrative.
2025-04-20
Admissions, Rankings & Institutional Choice
What Is a Good College?
Rankings tell you what someone else thinks is good. Here's how to build a framework that actually serves your family's needs.
2025-03-19
Access, Opportunity & Equity
First Black Graduate
Research into when colleges that use legacy admissions graduated their first Black student — and what a three-generation headstart really means.
2025-03-04
Families & Practical Navigation
College Sports and College Search
Your kid is good at a sport. Here's an honest guide to what athletic recruiting actually looks like, and how to use it in the college search.
2025-03-03
Policy, Systems & Better Decision-Making
Large Language Models (Misnamed AI) Are Not Intelligent
The education world is talking about AI as if it understands things. It doesn't. Here's what that distinction actually matters for.
2025-01-03
Access, Opportunity & Equity
HBCU vs HRC: The Value of Culture
The debate between HBCUs and highly rejective colleges isn't about prestige — it's about what you actually need from a college experience.
2025-01-12
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
The P in PSAT Doesn't Stand for Practice
Nearly 4 million students got their PSAT scores back. Most of them couldn't make sense of the report. That's a design failure, not a student failure.
2024-11-29
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
The Lionization of Testing and Other Weird Metrics
The Varsity Blues scandal revealed how colleges use test scores as a proxy for merit — and why that proxy is so easily gamed.
2024-10-23
Policy, Systems & Better Decision-Making
The NY Times Doesn't Cover College
The paper of record covers Harvard extensively and the rest of higher education rarely. Here's the data, and why it matters.
2024-05-06
Policy, Systems & Better Decision-Making
Cutting Room: The Misguided War on Test Optional
What gets left on the cutting room floor when journalists cover the test-optional debate — and why those omissions shape the conversation.
2024-02-29
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
Big Tobacco Is to ACT As…
The testing industry obscures data about its own products the way tobacco companies obscured data about cigarettes. The analogy holds up.
2024-12-10
Access, Opportunity & Equity
Merit: Myths and Money
Merit aid doesn't go to the most deserving students. It goes to the students colleges most want to enroll. Here's the difference.
2023-06-29
Admissions, Rankings & Institutional Choice
College Essay Trauma Porn
The college essay has become a genre that rewards suffering. What that says about admissions culture — and what to do about it.
2021-08-29
Policy, Systems & Better Decision-Making
#HateRead: Admissions, Testing, and the Media
Media coverage of college admissions follows predictable, self-serving patterns. Here's how to read it critically.
2022-04-29
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
Don't Believe the Hype
The promise of standardized testing as an objective measure has been questioned since 1936. We've just been very good at not listening.
2020-10-16
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
Standardized Testing: The Temporal Scan of Education
Temperature tells you something real, but you'd never use a single reading to decide whether a patient is healthy. Testing works the same way.
2020-10-26
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
Temperature Is to Testing As…
ACT's CEO said throwing away the thermometer won't cure a fever. He's right. But he's also missing the point — and so are most testing defenders.
2020-03-25
Families & Practical Navigation
Should You Take the SAT/ACT or Not?
A practical framework for families trying to decide whether to submit test scores in a test-optional world.
2021-10-02
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
Ben Simmons and Educational Testing
What a basketball player who can't shoot free throws teaches us about measuring skill, potential, and the limits of any single metric.
2021-12-19
Families & Practical Navigation
College Admissions Resources
A curated list of tools, data sources, and guides for families navigating the college process without the hype.
2021-08-09
Testing & Assessment
GRE: The One Test
The GRE has an outsized influence on graduate admissions. Here's what the research actually says about what it predicts.
2019-12-21
Policy, Systems & Better Decision-Making
Why Aren't More Colleges Test Optional?
The research on test-optional admissions has been clear for decades. So why do so many colleges still require scores?
2019-02-28
Access, Opportunity & Equity
Access Organizations: Providing Social Capital
Access programs help underrepresented students navigate elite admissions. The question is whether they should also be challenging the system they navigate.
2018-12-26
Merit, Measurement & Meaning
College, Career, and Cremation Benchmarks
The annual reports from ACT and College Board tell a story about America's students. They just bury the most important parts.
2020-05-21
Testing & Assessment
AI Cheating: The SAT-ACT Em Dash Controversy
Students are being accused of using AI because they use em dashes. The SAT and ACT taught them to use em dashes. The irony is not subtle.
2025-07-25
Admissions, Rankings & Institutional Choice
Cutting Room Floor: The Hidden Factors Influencing College Admissions Decisions
What got cut from a Word in Black article on college admissions paradigms — including quotes from admissions officers that every family should read.
2024-09-17
Policy, Systems & Better Decision-Making
What If... Thoughts on Education
Four alternative universes: what if access orgs challenged the system, philanthropy was decoupled from policy, and institutions valued educating over rejectivity.
2021-08-27
Testing & Assessment
Shuffling the Deckchairs of Testing
Boston Public Schools is looking for a new test. But the problem isn't the specific test — it's the reliance on testing in the first place.
2020-07-10
Testing & Assessment
It's Time to Fix Standardized Testing
Six concrete proposals for how standardized testing agencies could fix what is broken and actually serve students instead of sorting them.
2020-06-01
Access, Opportunity & Equity
IACAC 2019 Keynote Address
Highlights and resources from the keynote at the 2019 IACAC Conference on the Youngian meritocracy, testing, and what counselors can do about it.
2019-06-24