<p>This week's Chronicle of Higher Education (November 19) had a front page article about a former high school guidance counselor who has formed a nonprofit organization to try to reform college admissions. He has also written and self-published a book that I have ordered (available at <a href="http://www.educationconservancy.org%5B/url%5D">www.educationconservancy.org</a>). The story is too long to copy in its entirety and you need a subscription to link to it but I thought it is somewhat appropriate to this board and the ongoing discussion on the Peter Sacks thread so I will highlight a few excerpts for those interested.</p>
<p>"The Education of Lloyd Thacker"</p>
<p>They have come to hear Lloyud Thacker, the prophet in the tweed jacket. The room bulges with college admissions deans and high-school guidance cousnelors, who sit int he aisles and squeeze against the walls. Today's talk is called "College Unranked - as if Education Matters" Rigth now, nothing else does.</p>
<p>Mr. Thacker begins: "May I quickly see the hands of those people who had enjoyable and rewarding college experiences?" It's unanimous. "Now, may I see the hands of those who realize they could have had similarly rewarding experiences attending a different college?" When the arms go up again, he asks, "What does that say?"</p>
<p>He could end the lesson there, letting the question hover like a blimp, and make his point: there is no such thing as the one perfect college. But he is just warming up, and for that his audience here at the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (Nacac) is grateful. After all, they believe that Lloyd Thacker is the man who can save their world.</p>
<p>Mr.Thacker, who had been a high school guidance cousnelor since 1987, quit his job in February to found the Education Conservancy, an onprofit group based in Portland, Oregon. Its mission:to help students, colleges, and high schools overcome "commercial interference" in higher education and to promote ethical admissions practices.</p>
<p>He argues that colleges have perpetuated the myth of the perfect-fit campus through self-serving marketing strategies, including early decision, that compel high-school students to search for a glass slipper instead of thinking about what they want from a college. He believes that the popular US News & World Report college rankings have warped academe's mission. He is not the first to make such arguments, but he is the first to start an organization designed to "give conscience to a market dominated by fear and hype."</p>
<p>His first project was to commission, edit and publish College Unranked: Affirming Educational Values in College Admissions, a collection of essays by counselors, deans, and college presidents about what ails the admissions system. The book assails the status quo, combining critiques of the College Board, a vivid portrait of nausea-inducing hysteria among students at a college recruitment session, and recommendations for easing pressures on applicants. </p>
<p>...[After working in college admissions at the University of Southern California and Pacific University in Oregon] Thacker took a job in 1987 as college-counseling coordinator at Jesuit High School in Portland. He sat side by side with the students he counseled. Nearly all of them were motivated, talented.Each year a vast majority reported acceptances at their first-choice colleges.</p>
<p>But there were things that worried Mr. Thacker. As colleges came to resemble businesses, more students and parents were treating admissions as if it were a contest. He saw party invitations that listed the colleges to which a student had been accepted. He listened to a worried junior who said she would end up "stupid" if she had to attend a public university. He stammered when two parents asked him what sport their 9-year-old daughter should play to improve her chances at getting into an Ivy League college.</p>
<p>He recalls trying to "calm the frenzy" among students and their parents who fretted about their first-choice colleges. He wrote students many glowing letters of recommendations, but generally declined to lobby admissions officers on their behalf. He believed that his job was to prepare kids for college - not to sell them. Some parents did not like that, and their expectations weighed like lead on his shoulders. </p>
<p>Mr. Thackers crusade began with an email message. In the fall of 2002, he asked 12 xollege officials to write essays for a book on how colleges could change their admissions practices to better serve students. Within three days he had received a yes from ten of the officials. In the fall of 2002, he told the New York Times about his plan for the book. Literary agents started calling. He told them he did not want to creat a how to guide on getting into college but rather a "how not to book" a straight talk antidote to number-heavy college guides. Thacker spent months drafting a proposal. At first, there were no takers. Then last fall, he and his literary agent met with Harper =Collins in New york. Editors raved about the idea but the marketing staff concluded that the book would not sell. Mr. Thacker and his agent tried to sell the book elsewhere, to no avail. "It's a complete uphill battle because the books that sell are the ones that promise to get you into the best colleges," says his agent. She told him that to get a contract, he would have to write a book on how to beat the admissions system, trimming the essays down to bullet-point bits of advice. He considered a compromise. But as he tinkered with his proposal, his message lost its purity. He decided he would have to publish the book himself. After delays, the first 4000 copies of College Unfanked arrived just in time for Nacac's annual conference.</p>
<p>Like any guru, Mr. Thacker has developed his own catch words. He rails against "ranksters" and preaches the importance of "studenthood" which he defines as immeasurable qualities, like curiousity and imagination, that allow young people to learn...He's passionate that students do not have a voice in the admissions process...</p>
<p>Mr. Thacker wins praise even from the man behind his favorite target, the US News rankings, Robert Morse, director of data research for the magazine. Morse calls Thackers message "inspiring" and he too ordered a copy of the book. Mr. Morse doubts, though whether one man, or one book can sway college administrators to drop early decision policies or stop requiring the SAT. And naturally Mr.Morse denies that college rankings are the root of all competition among colleges and that rankings themselves harm students. "People want this kind of information to help them make a choice," hesays, "because everyone can't have a Lloyd Thacker helping them."</p>