Over the last 20 years, education experts have increasingly questioned whether standardized tests are the best way to measure how students perform.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of institutions let high school students decide whether to submit their standardized test scores with their admission applications, and many colleges and universities continue to have “test-optional policies” today.

So how much weight do these tests actually carry, and what do they fail to tell us about student achievement? This week on Created Equal, we were joined by Elaine Allensworth — a researcher who has studied testing and other measures of achievement for 20 years — to discuss America’s affinity for test culture and the shortcomings that come with it.

Allensworth says standardized tests can often be overused and over interpreted to the point of causing adverse effects on students and classroom instruction.

“There’s so much in school that is not captured on standardized tests and can’t be captured on standardized tests,” she said. “…beyond that, how students perform in the test is also affected by a lot of factors other than those specific academic skills that we intend to test.”

Guests:

• Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring Executive Director of the University of Chicago Consortium

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

Once dominated by non-local LLCs exploiting the system for quick returns, new data suggests that fewer outside investors are “milking” the system, and more Detroiters are taking advantage of opportunities to participate in Detroit’s recovery.

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A new article entitled “Detroit’s Sweat Equity” from Alex Alsup, published in Substack newsletter The Chargeback, discusses the change from outside investors to residents purchasing and rehabbing homes from the tax foreclosure auction. Alsup says local buyers are flipping the script on the traditional narrative of Detroit real estate. By investing personal labor — or “sweat equity” — into rehabbing homes, they reduce the costs associated with renovation and create value in a way that large, outside investors can no longer exploit. 

Foreclosures are at their lowest since 2005, and new ownership trends show a citywide gain of about 9,000 re-occupied homes since the pandemic. The old “milking” model — where the value was in extracting rent from undervalued properties — doesn’t work anymore because Detroit’s homes have gained too much value. This lucrative foreclosure-rental-foreclosure pipeline is drying up, and Detroiters are stepping up to take advantage of the opportunity. 

Chase Cantrell, CEO of Building Community Value, a nonprofit that helps Detroiters become property owners and rehabbers, says that the Detroit Land Bank Authority now privileges local buyers, giving them a better chance to purchase and improve properties. 

Online bidding on properties in the Wayne County tax foreclosure auction begins September 11 and runs through September 18, 2024. There are 1,748 Detroit foreclosed properties listed on the Wayne County Treasurer’s auction site.

 Guests: 

• Alex Alsup is the Vice President of Research and Development for Regrid and the author of the Substack newsletter The Chargeback.
• Chase Cantrell is the CEO of Building Community Value, an organization that provides training and resources for Detroiters interested in small-scale real estate development.

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on Detroit Public Radio 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

One might believe that people perceive individuals who live in poverty as in greater need of help when faced with hardship compared to more affluent people, but research indicates the opposite is true.

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The “thick skin bias” is a belief that individuals who live in poverty are more resilient than affluent people when facing a challenging situation. The assumption could, as a result, influence the degree of support those who are struggling receive from others.

Today on Created Equal, the team continued Wednesday’s conversation about a Wayne County judge who singled out a student for falling asleep in court during a field trip, and how society perceives and responds to people in poverty.

Psychology professor Nathan Cheek joined the discussion to help unpack the “thick skin bias,” where it comes from, and why this assumption is the wrong one.

“We are deeply uncomfortable with injustice and inequality, and we have deep motivation to believe in a just world. A world that is fair where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get, and so it’s really threatening to us when people confront inequalities.” he said. “So one of the strategies that people adopt to get through life is adopting beliefs that justify inequality.”

Guest:

• Nathan Cheek is an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

In August, Eva Goodman was placed in handcuffs and a jail uniform for sleeping in a courtroom during a field trip. Goodman, 15, was visiting with a group organized by the nonprofit the Greening of Detroit. During the visit, Judge Kenneth King of the 36th District court scolded the teen for her “attitude” and behavior.

Goodman’s mother told the Free Press after the incident that their family did not have permanent housing and got in late the night before. Judge King was temporarily removed from the court docket, and his classes at Wayne State University were reassigned due to his suspension.

Since the incident, the Created Equal team has been examining through conversations how society responds to people who live in poverty.

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Dr. Rema-Vassar, a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Wayne State University, spent 20 years working in education and studies race, gender and class implications in schools. She says King’s response to the incident in court was inappropriate.

“My adviser at UCLA used to say, ‘all behavior is functional.’ There’s a reason for all behavior. So if the baby is sleeping in the court, the human response is to figure out why,” Vassar said. “Teachers get to come in and say, ‘I haven’t had my coffee. Don’t bother me for five minutes,’ right? A judge can say, ‘I have to take a recess, I need to compose myself and come back.’ Why aren’t children allowed to do that? Why can’t children say, ‘hey, I’m tired.'”

Vassar joined the show on Tuesday to talk more about how a student’s behavior in school can be a reflection of their circumstances at home.

Guest: 

• Dr. Rema-Vassar is a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

Now that the major parties have officially selected their nominees for president and the conventions have passed, how do the two stack up?

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Recent polls show Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump following the Democratic National Convention. Now, the attention turns to the first and only scheduled debate between the two — set to take place on Sept. 10.

But what other opportunities lie ahead for the two candidates to make an impact on the presidential race?

To discuss this, Washington Post columnist E.J Dionne, political analyst Jessica Taylor, and WDET reporter and All Things Considered host Russ McNamara joined Created Equal on Thursday.

Guests:

• Jessica Taylor is the Senate and Governors Editor at Cook Political Report.
• Russ McNamara is a reporter and host of All Things Considered at WDET
• E.J. Dionne is the Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a columnist for the Washington Post.  He says mocking former President Trump is a new strategy for the democrats.

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

When Lori Tucker-Sullivan’s husband Kevin died from cancer, she took it upon herself to merge her life-long passion of writing with music, a hobby she shared with her late husband. Though her husband was not a musician, the subject of her writing became clear after she heard Yoko Ono talk about life after her husband, John Lennon, was killed. Ono continued to build a name for herself as a multimedia artist and activist, and that inspired Tucker-Sullivan to explore other stories of women in the spotlight who lost their husbands.

Tucker-Sullivan interviewed widows of rock musicians who navigated the complicated aftermath of their partner’s passing. Some of these women’s lives were upended by legal battles, other’s reputations were distorted because of who their husbands were. Like Yoko Ono, many of these women were committed to defining their own narrative. In Tucker-Sullivan’s book “I Can’t Remember If I Cried: Rock Widows on Life, Love, and Legacy,” she documents and shares those stories. She joined Created Equal to discuss what lessons she learned from these women who persevered through all the commotion.

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Guest

Lori Tucker-Sullivan is a music writer and author. She says these women and their stories are a good reminder that life goes on. “…regardless of the depth of your loss, you can keep going, you can find purpose, you can find new love.” She goes on to say, “I hope they take from it that people who 10, 15 years on still have grief in their lives, but it’s not the central focus of their lives.”

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

In museums across the United States, you can see artifacts and human remains that belong to the native peoples who were here before our country existed. But do you ever wonder where the institutions got those things or whether native people had any say about these displays of their culture?

The federal government considered these questions when the Interior Department enacted the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) over 30 years ago. The regulations require museums and federal agencies to identify and return Native American remains and belongings. The interior department issued a final ruling in December of 2023 that encouraged museums across the country to remove Native American items and remains from display and begin the process of returning them to native peoples.  

Chip Colwell was the senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for 12 years. He was responsible for repatriating the museum’s collection of Native American items. Colwell joined Created Equal on Monday to discuss the movement to reconcile science and history with the delicate nature of native possessions. 

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Guest

Chip Colwell is the founding editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, an online magazine about anthropological thinking and discoveries. He was the senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for 12 years. Colwell says repatriation is the process of untangling the conflict between science and culture.

“Our bodies are maps of our histories and identities, and the science can use those to understand who people were and the larger human story, and that’s not to be discounted. But what’s to say is that not everyone shares that view. When it’s your ancestor, your grandmother, or your great-great-grandfather you have something different at stake,” he said.

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.