Dumber and dumber: SAT scores hit bottom in city and nation

Students starting college this week posted some of the lowest reading and math scores on the SAT college admissions exam in recent years - a dismal trend reflected in New York City and across the country. Testmaker College Board attributed the drop, in part, to increases in the number of poor students and students whose first language is not English taking the test. The College Board, which released the scores yesterday, called the Class of 2007 high school grads the largest and most diverse group ever to take the competitive exam.

Of the 1.5 million students who took the test this year, 24% did not identify English exclusively as their first language compared with 17% a decade ago. The College Board said 35% of test-takers will be the first in their families to go to college. In New York City, 38,937 kids from the Class of 2007 took the exam last year - an increase of 8.7% over 2006. The number of black students taking the test was up 15.4%, the number of Mexicans was up 22%, Puerto Ricans were up 11.9% and kids who identified themselves as "other Hispanic" were up 22.7%, city officials said.

City public school kids averaged their lowest scores in math and reading since at least 2003, with the average student scoring 462 in math and 441 in reading out of a possible 800 points in each. The city math average is down five points since last year and 10 points since 2005. The reading score is down three points compared with 2006. That's compared with national average where reading scores were at their lowest level - an average of 502 - since 1994. Math scores across the country averaged 515, the lowest since 2001.

In New York State, math declined five points to 505 since last year and average reading scores dropped two points to 491. Scores also dropped on the exam's new writing section, which was introduced last year.

City public schools are hoping for an increase in SAT scores this year after beginning, for the first time last year, an initiative to administer the PSAT - a practice exam - to every 10th- and 11th-grader during the school day and for free. "We're encouraging students to think seriously about college and think about it earlier in their high school career," schools spokesman Andrew Jacob said.

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Setbacks for academic antisemitism

Venues are cancelling appearances by the authors of a book criticizing the impact of the "Israel Lobby" on American foreign policy. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, university professors who penned the forthcoming book "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," have had a number of promotional appearances canceled, The New York Times reported.

The City University of New York, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Jewish cultural center in Washington and three organizations in Chicago have turned down or canceled events with the authors over concerns with their controversial thesis or the event format.

At the Chicago council, where both authors have spoken, President Marshall Bouton was reported to have told Mearsheimer that he had a "political problem" and needed "to protect the institution."

The book, an elaboration on a controversial paper the professors published last year, argues that Israel is a strategic liability for the United States and that continued support for the Jewish state is due only to the successful efforts of a broad coalition of groups referred to collectively as the Israel Lobby.

Critics charge that the book echoes traditional anti-Semitic charges. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote a book refuting the Walt-Mearsheimer thesis. Both books will be released Sept. 4.

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Australia: Does Monash University have different standards for Muslims?

We are entitled to expect that those who lecture at our universities are appropriately qualified. Otherwise, we would be misleading the students that the university is supposed to serve. So for instance, if I have a degree in psychology, I would not be qualified to teach law. If I have a degree in law, I would presumably not be considered for a post in politics.

It used to be, and I hope is still, the case that if one wanted to even tutor at Monash University, the minimum requirement was achievement of a Class 2A Honours.

If one was to be considered for employment as a lecturer; the minimum requirement would probably be at least a PhD, or significant completion thereof, or perhaps a substantial portfolio of works published in refereed journals in the field that the candidate is to lecture in.

What then does one make of the recent appointment of Mr Waleed Aly, of the Islamic Council of Victoria, formerly a lawyer, as a lecturer in Politics at Monash's School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts? Mr Aly graduated in 2002 from Melbourne University with degrees in Engineering and Law.

He obtained a Class 2B Honours in completing the LLB, finishing 8th from the bottom of the list of H2B recipients. He is best known for his newspaper articles, and a recent book, People Like Us, How Arrogance is dividing Islam and the West (Picador Australia). Otherwise he is best known for being the public face of the Islamic Council of Victoria in ICV v Catch The Fire Ministries, a matter heard under Victoria's religious vilification laws.

How the above qualify him to be an academic in the field of politics is a question which is not likely to be answered by Monash VC Richard Larkins. Larkins has yet to provide any answers as to how/why the Monash Asia Institute hired one Zulfikar Shariff, a known supporter of Osama bin Laden, as a research fellow despite the Shariff not having any academic qualifications at all.

Located at adm.monash.edu.au are advertisements for the various positions, including that of lecturer within the Arts Faculty, Monash University, which includes the School of Politics. Readers can see for themselves that the minimum requirement is a PhD or equivalent.

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