Death threats and denial for woman who showed college athletes struggle to read

[martyfan]

The death threats, Mary Willingham expected.

More shocking is that the University of North Carolina is now disavowing her research as a whistle-blower -- research that showed between 8% and 10% of the school's football and basketball players are reading below a third-grade level.UNC issued a statement Wednesday night saying it did not believe

Comments

[meadowphoenix]

Well, UNC did see her data, which they later admitted when faced with the emails about it, and her data is in fact linked at the source. How else should she share it?

[strandedinaber]

I would imagine that she probably is trying to get it published. But with this kind of data it's pretty unusual to wait the year or more to go through peer reviewing, editing, waiting for it to be released. And then it would likely be embargoed and so inaccessible to most folks.

I agree that it would be interesting to see the raw data, though, but if she's gathered it from the university then ownership lies with them, not her, and I can't see them agreeing to release it...

[strandedinaber]

If she doesn't own the data (which she doesn't, it's the university's and she's used it for her study with their permission) then she's not allowed to release the full dataset. It's ot hers to release. All she owns is the findings and analysis, which she has reported. I'm with you in that I would love to see the methodology employed and the raw data, but she can't do that without getting in a whole lot of trouble if it doesn't belong to her.

[meadowphoenix]

pass this off as a legit study

I kinda really object to language like this, because it presupposes that studies with good evidence will actually be peer reviewed regardless of how controversial the material. That's simply untrue, and if her study never gets peer reviewed, it is no less legitimate. What is linked at the source has plenty of information for even those not in the enclave of academia to determine it's accuracy and perspective.

Academic review is not the only way to determine legitimacy, it's just simply the only way in academia to determine legitimacy. But not every conversation occurs in that discourse.

[meadowphoenix]

So you're saying, you've looked at the link at the source, and you don't think that's enough information?

[meadowphoenix]

Well, here's what it says at the source:

And purported e-mail exchanges obtained by CNN since August show that Willingham did share her findings at least twice -- once with Executive Vice Provost James W. Dean Jr., and once with a member of a university committee on academics and athletics.

In addition, Willingham says her research on the students in the athletics programs that make money for the university was done based on screenings that the university itself paid for. And, she says, she has gotten permission from the university several times since 2008 to access those findings to continue her research.

"It's already available to them," Willingham said. "It's in their system. ... They have all the data and more. It belongs to them, and they paid a lot of money for it."

Then, after being shown the e-mails, a spokesperson admitted that Willingham did share her findings and did have permission from the university to do the research in the first place, and said a meeting with Willingham was being scheduled.

[roseembolism]

Do you honestly think that data is ever going to be made available to anyone at this point? Almost certainly the University will claim that it's proprietary, claim that there's privacy issues, claim that it's not in the right format, etc, etc, whatever it takes to keep it from being made public. And undoubtedly eventually it will be lost in a "tragic computer failure".

The link that is linked at the source

[moonchylde]

Argh, guys, the article links to another page; CNN appears to be the ones that asked for the study:

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/01/us/college-scores/index.html

To get an idea of reading levels of athletes at universities, CNN consulted several experts in different fields, and then submitted open records requests for SAT and ACT entrance exam scores. CNN chose only public universities where open records laws apply. In cases where those scores were not available, we then asked for results of adult reading placement tests, used by some -- but not all -- universities after an athlete is admitted. CNN sought records from nearly 40 public universities, and got data back from 21. Each school gave us something slightly different. The feature below details what CNN received from each school and the institution's response to the findings. ( ... )

Re: The link that is linked at the source

[paksenarrion2]

Cunningham said he's confident in the admissions process at UNC, and that the university is making sure that only students who can do the work are admitted.

"I think our students have an exceptions experience in the classroom as well as on the fields of competition," he said.

Okay, how is the university making sure that students can do the work are admitted when

-- Of 183 athletes in revenue-generating sports admitted to UNC between 2004 and 2012:

-- About 60% were reading between the fourth and eighth grade reading levels.

-- Between 8% and 10% were reading below a third grade levelI wouldn't say that almost 3/4 of the 183 students athletes studied that read at an eigth grade level or lower are completely capable of doing the work. It's possible with tutoring, yes. (My college experience is many years past but the text books were definitely not at a grade school level, nor was the course work. Especially once you get out of the 101 level course