Wednesday, August 03, 2022


Google, Apple Back Affirmative Action in Harvard Case

Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Apple Inc. are among nearly 80 companies filing a brief with the US Supreme Court in support of affirmative action programs being challenged at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

The brief filed Monday argues corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts “depend on university admissions programs that lead to graduates educated in racially and ethnically diverse environments.”

“Only in this way can America produce a pipeline of highly qualified future workers and business leaders prepared to meet the needs of the modern economy and workforce,” the brief said. The cases are the first on affirmative action to come before the justices since conservatives gained a 6-3 majority.

More companies signed the amicus, or friend of the court, filing arguing affirmative action is a business imperative than in a 2003 case involving the University of Michigan Law School or two more recent cases involving the University of Texas at Austin.

This time, businesses risk inflaming a conservative backlash against companies taking progressive stances. Diversity, equity, and inclusion advocates say it’s still important for the business community to make its voice heard.

“This is the perfect time for the corporate world to not just sit on the wayside,” said Lael Chappell, the director of insurance distribution at Coalition, Inc. who works on diversity, equity and inclusion issues.

While both Apple and Microsoft had signed at least one brief in the Michigan or Texas cases, companies that joined in 2022 for the first time include Google, Meta, Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, and Verizon.

One notable absence is Arkansas-based Walmart Inc., which signed briefs in both Texas cases.

Other signatories include The Kraft Heinz Company, Mastercard Inc., and United Airlines Inc.

Corporate Argument

In the latest cases, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, the plaintiffs say affirmative action not only hurts white applicants, but amounts to an “anti-Asian penalty,” too.

UNC responds that race is only one of “dozens of factors” that the school “may consider as it brings together a class that is diverse along numerous dimensions—including geography, military status, and socioeconomic background.”

“Empirical studies confirm that diverse groups make better decisions thanks to increased creativity, sharing of ideas, and accuracy,” the companies said in support of the universities.

“These benefits are not simply intangible; they translate into businesses’ bottom lines,” they said.

And the increasingly global nature of business makes diversity even more important today that it has been in the past, the companies argued.

International Business Machines Corp. joined a separate STEM-focused brief, noting the increased significance of diversity in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“While the benefits of a diverse student body are widely observable, they are all the more salient and compelling in STEM, which has historically been marked by greater limitations in diversity than most fields of study,” the brief said.

Changed Environment

Yet, the environment has changed considerably in the six years since the Supreme Court last ruled in an affirmative action case.

Shareholders are pushing companies to disclose racial and gender workforce data, said Heidi Welsh, executive director of Sustainable Investments Institute, an institutional investor research group. A new, separate push focuses on publishing racial justice commitments, she said.

Weighing in on politically controversial issues also carries new risks as stakeholders like employees and legislators press companies in different directions, The Conference Board research group warned in a May 2022 report.

Risks were evident this year when Walt Disney Co. criticized a Florida law that limits what teachers and administrators can discuss with young students regarding sexual orientation after intense employee pressure.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he viewed Disney’s public comments against the law as “provocation,” and vowed to “fight back.” Weeks later, Florida lawmakers stripped the entertainment giant of is its decades-old special tax status.

More recently, Sidley Austin received a letter from a group of Texas state legislators threatening to sue and hold criminally liable the global law firm’s partnership after announcing it would pay travel expenses for employees seeking abortions in states where they are outlawed. The Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in June.

But companies have gained a greater understanding of the business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Welsh said. “In that context, it’s not at all surprising that there would be a lot of companies in support of affirmative action,” despite the potential political backlash, Welsh said.

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Many graduates would like a college do-over — and would change careers

For the majority of Americans attending college, it’s not just about the quality of education — it’s also about the social and life experience.

Out of 2,000 adults surveyed, 73% agree that college is important to educate people about adult life beyond the classroom, with a little under half saying they want to try college again to gain more life lessons according to OnePoll.

Approximately 44% of respondents of the OnePoll survey — taken on behalf of Texas Tech University — say they want to try college again not because they disliked their first experience but because they didn’t learn enough vital life skills, such as banking or time management.

Forty-six percent say doing well in school and getting good grades was found to be the hardest part of college, with 45% listing time management, more responsibilities (44%) and living on your own (43%) as some of the main challenges.

44% said they are keen to try college again to learn more life skills.

“We all hear the national conversations about the costs of attending college, asking whether the experience is worth it,” Jamie Hansard, the Texas Tech vice president for enrollment management, said. “While what students learn in the classroom can be foundational for the goals and careers they want to pursue, it’s important to understand that the value of college goes far beyond a person’s academic achievements.”

Of the respondents who have attended college, most (85%) believe college prepared them for adult life, but 80% agree if they could go back, they would change some things about their college experience.

Of those surveyed, 42% are interested in learning new skill sets and 39% want to change their career path. However, many respondents appeared happy with their college choices.

Of the life skills those respondents picked up during their time in college, organizational skills (53%) and discovering their passions (47%) ranked as the top two.

When asked what skills college taught them that they still apply to adult life, they listed: “How to be independent,” “How to arrive when instructed” and “How to approach people in the correct way” as life skills they learned.

Respondents also suggested improvements for the college experience and to help them gain employment.

Ranking high on this list: Forty-two percent said helping with job interviews and applications and 39% said being affordable for all students.

Nearly a third of respondents who attended college said the highlight of their experience was making friends, and 70% of those who attended college work in the field associated with their degree.

Seventy percent of all respondents agree that their career goals are more attainable if they attend college, with some surveyed listing a few specific factors when choosing a school.

Forty-one percent said they’d prefer classes or seminars that teach about life beyond the classroom, and positive testimonials from current or previous students would sway them to choose a certain school.

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Teachers to get helping hand preparing for lessons

Teachers will be given curriculum lesson plans, texts and learning materials in a bid to ease the pressure of rising workloads as the profession struggles to find enough time to prepare classes.

The rollout of new resources for NSW public teachers from term 4 comes after a national survey of 5400 primary and high school teachers found 92 per cent said there was inadequate time for their core classroom teaching duties, including critical lesson planning and reviewing students’ work.

Research by the Grattan Institute found 92 per cent of teachers said they don’t have enough time to prepare for effective classroom teaching
Research by the Grattan Institute found 92 per cent of teachers said they don’t have enough time to prepare for effective classroom teachingCREDIT:DEAN SEWELL

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said access to a bank of “high-quality, sequenced curriculum resources” would transform education and eliminate the need for teachers to continually reinvent lesson plans. “Teachers have told us that finding or making high-quality resources that align with the curriculum is the number one tax on their time”, she said.

“We’ve listened closely to our teaching staff, developing an online, high-quality, centralised, universally available learning materials they can draw on. This is a game-changer for teachers in NSW.”

She said the resources, which will include step-by-step guides for delivering lessons with videos and other materials, would improve student outcomes.

Recent research by the Grattan Institute revealed 88 per cent of teachers said having access to common units and assessment materials could save three hours each week and avoid having to “re-invent the wheel” by trawling the internet and come up with lesson plans.

It also found teachers could reclaim about two hours a week if extracurricular jobs such as bus duty and assemblies were handled by support staff.

Education program director at the Grattan Institute, Jordana Hunter, said giving teachers access to a suite of curriculum resources could be a “major step forward as teachers wrestle with workloads that have blown out in recent years”.

“It is important to try and reduce administrative load and lesson planning time. There is also evidence that student needs have become more complex,” Hunter said.

Teachers often draw on their own resources, sharing with colleagues, using Google, Pinterest and online marketplaces to buy educational materials, which can cause huge variation between what is taught in schools.

“Provided the resources are easy for teachers to use and can be adapted in the classroom this is a big step forward,” Hunter said.

“The government shouldn’t underestimate the amount of support needed to roll this out. Even high-quality resources can be challenging for teachers to pick up and run with unless they have professional training and learn how to use it effectively.”

Pressure on teachers has grown in the past decade, she said, as more data was collected to track student progress and there was increased emphasis on student assessment.

While some teachers have argued standard curriculum resources encroach on professional freedom, experts say this view is generally held by a minority.

Mitchell said the resources were “not about taking the creativity out of teaching, that’s what our teachers do best”.

“It’s about providing teachers with a basic recipe for student success, while allowing them to contextualise how they use the ingredients to get the best outcomes for their students.”

A NSW Department of Education review of teacher workload of more than 4000 submissions found overwhelming support curriculum resources.

Hunter said there was “major room for improvement in terms of support for teachers to implement the curriculum in the classroom. In the US, UK and Singapore more support is provided.”

In 2014, a UK government working group found teachers were frequently preparing lessons from scratch and searching the internet to find lesson plans. A pilot program was subsequently set up where schools share high-quality curriculum resources with others in their networks.

“Teachers need to focus on the learning needs of the students. The rise of the internet has allowed for a lot more sharing of resources many of which are of highly variable quality. Years ago there were more textbooks in classrooms and many commercial resources are of mixed quality,” Hunter said.

Draft new NSW syllabuses for years 3-10 English and mathematics were released earlier this year, with the English syllabus to put more focus on literacy skills amid concerns, while NSW primary schools will intensify their focus on literacy and numeracy, with the introduction of a new syllabus mandating the use of phonics.

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My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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