<p>Well folks, ready or not, here he comes: According to the latest updates on the EC site, Thacker has unveiled his plans for the EC thinktank which include: </p>
<p>"Honorable Admissions": a web page for colleges to describe their successes in aligning admission practices with educational values Beyond Commercial Criteria-cooperating to get there. A College and University leaders is scheduled for February.</p>
<p>and (I think we can safely assume that this is where the bulk of the Mellon grant is going)</p>
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Pivotal Research Project</p>
<p>EC is conducting pivotal research regarding the impact of college admission processes on student attitudes and behaviors. What follows is an excerpt from the research proposal's introduction. The research is slated to begin January 1, 2007 and conclude in May 2007. The project will be led by Lloyd Thacker and John Lee and Associates, and supported by an advisory team of Lynn Barendsen, Rick Detweiler, Howard Gardner, Don Hossler, Larry Litten, Pat McDonough, and Robert Massa. For more information please contact EC directly.</p>
<p>The college admission environment has changed significantly during the past twenty years: more stakeholders, more actors, more money, more media involvement, more recruiting, more messages, more testing, and more confusion. Amid this new landscape, there is growing concern that individual institutional actions, as well as the related activities of parents, schools, and other actors in what we refer to as the admission process may no longer be serving the values and purposes traditionally associated with higher education. What do students think colleges are seeking in admissible students? What are their perceptions of the admissions process and how are they responding to the perceived demands? How is their relationship with education-and society-shaped by their college admission expectations and experiences? What are students learning about themselves and society in this process? For example, are aspects of the process generally judged to be fair? And how do students behave if something is considered unfair?</p>
<p>Such questions shape this proposed exploratory examination of the impact of explicit admission practices and implicit messages on the attitudes and behaviors of students applying for college. It may be that the current selective college admission environment has led to adverse student attitudes and behaviors that contrast markedly with the espoused ideals of higher education. There are indications of unanticipated consequences such as excessive competition, dishonesty, disloyalty, narcissism, distorted views of fairness, and "gaming the system." Rather than taking courses of interest or pursuing activities for personal enrichment, students may simply be compelled by what they think colleges seek. This could have a profound effect on the way that incoming college students approach education as well as citizenship beyond college.</p>
<p>This exploratory study will serve two purposes: first, to determine whether there are indications of problems of significant scope to warrant a larger study. Second, the results from this initial study would help to design a more comprehensive research project. The results of this exploratory study will also be used to guide the Education Conservancy as it advocates for changes in the admission process.
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