The Observer, November 17, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 11
Outside the circle
Missouri State sued for religious discrimination
Emily Brooker, a graduate from the School of Social Work at Missouri State, sued the school recently for its reaction to her Christian beliefs. She said that the school's reaction against her beliefs violated her First Amendment right to free speech.
Frank G. Kauffman, who was head of the program at the time, taught a class inwhich all students were required to compose and sign a letter to the Missouri Legislature supporting homosexual adoption. Brooker refused to sign the letter, saying that it violated her Christian beliefs.
Brooker stood for two hours before a college ethics committee, where she said faculty members asked her questions like, "Do you think gays and lesbians are sinners?" and "Do you think I am a sinner?" She said they also asked her if she could help gay and lesbian people in social work.
Brooker was required to sign a contract pledging to follow the National Association of Social Work's code of ethics, which does not mention homosexuality. She said the contract made her change her religious beliefs to conform to the standards if she wanted to continue her studies in the School of Social Work.
The school has settled out of court, and will pay Brooker $9000. It will also waive fees for two years of work toward a Master of Social Work degree and pay for living expenses.
Speaker attacked with cream pie at Ball State
Two Ball State students were arrested recently after trying to attack controversial author David Horowitz with a cream pie before a speech he was presenting to the campus. He was approached in a doorway by one student during an interview, and the student attempted to hit him with a cream pie. The pie missed Horowitz and hit university public safety director Gene Burton, who was Horowitz's bodyguard for the night.
The two students involved, Cassandra Reed and Grace Mitchell ,were both arrested and were later released on bond.
After the incident, Horowitz proceeded with his talk about fair presentation in college classrooms. Several professors and the university president have been singled out in his books, which address the freedom of ideas in school. He worries that students miss out on true education and that professors are sometimes just pushing their own political viewpoints.
"A professor should be professional in the classroom," Horowitz said. "They can teach about controversial issues, but they shouldn't try to force their students to take their view of a controversial issue."
New SAT might place low-income students at a disadvantage
At College Board's annual board meeting, they stated that the new SAT writing section was very coachable. With even a small amount of preparation, poor writers could drastically improve their scores. This was a surprising move, because the test makers have been under scrutiny for years over the coachability of their test – with critics saying that it gives an upper hand to students who can afford to pay for a tutor.
In the past, The College Board has said that many coaching services overstate their success and that most students make little or no gains in scores. However, in a recent focus group of college freshman, half were given a nine-hour coaching program and half received no tutoring and then the whole group took a writing test. The students took the test before and after the coaching, and it was found that, after coaching, students who did poorly the first time were able to increase their scores by an average of three points on a 12-point scale.
The experiment also showed that the students performed better on other kinds of writing, which has led College Board to say that writing coaching might not be a bad thing. Unlike coaching for the other SAT sections, which doesn't encourage learning, coaching for the writing section has actually increased the knowledge of the students.
In regard to the advantage given to upper-income students, College Board maintains that public schools could offer the same type of preparation for free, giving all students an equal advantage.
