For Low-Income Students Considering College, a Nudge to Aim High

The group that administers the SAT has begun a nationwide outreach program to try to persuade more low-income high school seniors who scored high on standardized tests to apply to select colleges. 

The group, the College Board, is sending a package of information on top colleges to every senior who has an SAT or Preliminary SAT score in the top 15 percent of test takers and whose family is in the bottom quarter of income distribution. The package, which includes application fee waivers to six colleges of the student’s choice, will be sent to roughly 28,000 seniors. 

The program is the largest response so far to new academic research showing that most low-income students with high test scores and grades do not even apply to, yet alone attend, select colleges. Forgoing significant financial aid, many students may instead enroll in nearby colleges with low graduation rates.[Read more]

Navy Yard shooting underscores how mental illness can be misdiagnosed among black men

“For African American males, there is a huge disparity in access to mental-health treatment and gross under-diagnosis of mental illness,” said William Lawson, chairman of the psychiatry department at Howard University’s College of Medicine. “They are much more likely to be viewed as having a behavioral problem rather than a mental disorder.” [Read more]

University of Alabama Sororities Still Won't Rush Black Women

In a fantastic and depressing exposé, the Crimson White reports that at least four traditionally white sororities at the University of Alabama had their alumnae blatantly block two black women from pledging this year, women that current sorority members had already targeted as prime candidates who they wanted to offer bids to.

The sororities mentioned in the article are Alpha Gamma Delta, Tri Delta, Chi Omega and Pi Beta Phi, four sororities part of a robust Greek life at UA that felt they were, in the words of Alpha Gamma Delta member Melanie Gotz, "powerless over the alums": [Read more]

Blacks and Hispanics Are Falling Behind Whites in Retirement Coverage

The shift from traditional defined-benefit pensions to 401(k) plans over the past two decades has left the vast majority of Americans unprepared for retirement. Minority workers have been disproportionately affected. In 1990, black workers were almost as likely as white workers to have pensions, as shown in the figure below. Over the next two decades, blacks started falling behind whites. By 2010, only 43 percent of black workers age 26-61 were participating in an employer-based retirement plan, compared to 50 percent of white workers the same age. Hispanics, meanwhile, who already lagged behind both groups, fell even farther behind. [Read more]

Hundreds Line Up For Little Caesars Jobs

[Every year or so I see basically this same article. Some service sector employer opens a new store and hundreds of people who some conservatives like to say don't want to work show up hoping to get a job that pays minimum wage with few, if any, benefits. We probably need to see these stories at least once a month for the truth to sink into public consciousness broadly.]

When he saw a “now hiring” sign outside a new fast-food pizza joint near his house, Andre Earl got in line and waited over an hour for a minute-long interview.


Earl, who’s 30, was one of over 200 people who streamed through Little Caesars Pizza shop Thursday at the corner of Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and Whalley Avenue. The store is set to open Sept. 10 in a space formerly occupied by Dunkin’ Donuts.


Earl said he’s been searching for work for six years, since the toy store he was working in at the Milford Mall closed. He said he has put in applications up and down Whalley Avenue to no avail. [read more]