There was more to the year than celebs buying their kids’ way into college. Take a look back through some of these top news stories.
News early last year that some wealthy parents were buying their children’s way into elite colleges was consuming, and the whole affair is still playing out. But the Varsity Blues scandal wasn’t the only topic to light up higher education in 2019.
At the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary Betsy DeVos continued her push for deregulation, rewriting several Obama-era rules. Colleges continued to drop standardized tests from their admissions requirements — a slow-burning trend that got fresh oxygen late in the year when advocacy groups sued the University of California System over its use of the SAT and ACT. Meanwhile, affirmative action supporters netted a win as a federal judge ruled in Harvard University’s favor for its use of the policy in admissions.
For-profit college operators encountered new hurdles in their attempts to outrun heightened regulation. The College Board pulled back on its adversity score, while U.S. News & World Report continued to tweak its rankings formula to reward institutions for increasing access to higher ed. And Hampshire College became a microcosm of how small liberal arts colleges were responding to growing financial challenges.