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Here are the numbers of OPTs in recent years - caveat this is from Trump rule document so take with grain of salt.

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Trump would have veto power over any such law. There’s no way Congress has the votes to override his veto. And I’d even doubt even a Democratic majority Congress has the votes to pass such a law. My sense is it is a done deal until maybe next presidency. Even then, I’m not optimistic.

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Very interesting new article linking historical racism and contemporary attitudes.

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Gordon Hodson @gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Terrible news for higher education. This will effectively kill OPT, which is major incentive for international students. $70k fee university must pay. Seems like game over for OPT. Will go into effect after 30 day public comment and 60 day implementation delay.

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#AcademicSky Disturbing numbers Surely universities can do better? www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

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Nate Bowling @natebowling.com · 04/10/2026

Tiffany Sloan is a joke stealing AI generated stand-up comedian that has amassed a following of 350K users on Instagram. AI is supposed to transform the world and it's doing it in the worst and dumbest possible ways. buttondown.com/natebowling/...

buttondown.com

The Joke Thief

The AI Powered Joke Thief (or Fine, Somebody Wants This)

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Antarctic sea ice extent has dipped below 2023's record low, at least for the moment

Chart showing southern hemisphere sea ice extent by year, witha red line for 2026 dipping just below the previous record low in 2023, with other years above that

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Gordon Hodson @gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

#PsychSciSky #SocialPsychology #PrejudiceResearch Help me out with stereotype threat I feel that some of field has moved on, saying it's not real But multiple meta-analyses show effects. & there's failed replications but not that many? What's the state of our literature on #StereotypeThreat?

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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Interesting, but US Current Population Survey (ASEC) is still probability sample. Source for majority of economic outcomes like income, wages, employment, poverty. Its response rate stayed quite high and respectable until COVID and has bounced back some since. But we are relying on weights a lot.

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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Thanks for shout out Per. I think people do care about samples. I also think most are just doing the best they can given complete collapse of survey response rates. But I would insist sample selection - and even more “population selection” - are EQUALLY important to causality as internal validity.

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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Life has changed dramatically in the last 30 years. We all use the internet far more, and are far less likely to read books, host friends, attend parties, play cards, attend classes, join clubs, go to picnics, and stay late to work. www.derekthompson.org/p/the-death-...

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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For my new research unit Politics of Democracy at the Berlin Social Science Center @wzb.bsky.social, we have 3 open research positions. 2 postdocs: 4 + 2 years (100%) 1 doc: 2 years (75%) Starting date: 1 March 2027 (negotiable) Application deadline: 1 November

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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Twitter is such a bad experience because if you go on algorithmic, you get a bunch of 1,000 word LinkedIn posts about using AI to maximize testosterone and then, all of a sudden, there's someone calling for the genocide of an ethnicity you've not heard of and getting 60k likes.

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Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

An interview of me on the Micah Zarin podcast, on AI consciousness, human weirdness, moral motivation, the value of philosophy, the value of diversity, and more. youtube.com/watch?v=tzjGGBB9YIM&feature=youtu.be

youtube.com

Why Is Being Human So Weird? | Eric Schwitzgebel

YouTube video by Micah Zarin

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Strong agree. Soc has other big problems that Rubin’s report doesn’t address: plummeting undergrad enrollments, a preference for publicity over science, elite sponsorship, etc etc. If anything Rubin being so biased and shoddy enables Soc to not take the problems as seriously as they should.

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This report by Levi Martin is both smart and fair in laying huge and justified criticisms on Rubin’s highly problematic report. I’ve said sociology does have a lot of problems, but it was a total sham for Washington U and Vanderbilt leaders to pay Rubin for this joke. osf.io/preprints/so...

osf.io

OSF

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The survey also has one third undecided. Not sure what we’re even doing here in survey research these days…

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I guess YouGov survey I did a few years ago had no response rate and we trust online panel is representative with weights. Berkeley is probably doing something like that I guess. But with like a third undecided and no response rate, the survey results seem pretty meaningless.

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The @latimes.com reports today that Raman has a big lead on Bass in LA Mayor’s race. As far as I can tell, survey does NOT report a response rate. I know we’re all just relying on weights to do lifting these days. But it seems weird to have no response rate. igs.berkeley.edu/sites/defaul...

igs.berkeley.edu

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Last one, the Urban Institute adjusts for poverty and doing so makes MS #1. But article points out Urban just uses free and reduced lunch. And MS adopted policy that ALL kids qualify for free & reduced lunch. Voila 100% of kids are coded as poor. Lol.

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The article I’m quoting from is very reasonable and demonstrates convincingly why you shouldn’t believe the hype on MS.

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They also notice lack of improvement in 8th grade reading scores: “8th grade NAEP scores have increased by only 2 points. Eighth graders tested in both 2022 & 2024 would have been exposed to the full 4 years of the intervention…the effect of the miracle had apparently run its course by 8th grade.”

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“Of course, Mississippi had been retaining 3rd graders for all sorts of reasons long before 2015. But the criteria changed in 2015 to focus just on the reading score. Similar to what happened in Houston and El Paso, low scorers were held back and prevented from participating in the 2015 NAEP.”

“The same goes for the four-point increase from 2017 to 2024. With the new retention policy holding back over 9 percent of 3rd graders in 2018–19 and 2021–22 based on low reading ability, the NAEP increases should be higher.”

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“The percentage who were tested with accommodations increased from one to 12 percent.28 It is hard to imagine that such testing accommodations would not have some positive effect on scores.”

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Here are some telling facts from the article: “From 2003 to 2024, the percentage of Mississippi 4th graders classified as having disabilities for the NAEP increased from 9 to 20 percent. This increase was second only to West Virginia.”

The Mississippi Miracle: Smoke and Mirrors vs. Reality

Thanks to several people who pointed to Gelman’s blog, which discusses the unbelievable results in math too. But, this piece does an excellent job raising questions about the reading results: www.skeptic.com/article/miss...

skeptic.com

Mississippi’s test scores have soared, but is it a genuine education breakthrough or statistical sleight of hand? Two researchers expose seven inconvenient truths behind the celebrated “Mississippi Mi...

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Thanks! As usual, Gelman is useful. But I’m not seeing anyone mention how MS 8th grade reading scores are so bad. This whole thing has a BS quality that makes me doubt the right wing meme.

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Another possible explanation is there is some discrepancy in who takes test. I would ask if anyone knows how consistently states are having all students take test?

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So maybe story is MS maintained same level while rest of country collapsed in 4th grade reading. Not sure. Maybe one has story of keeping schools open during covid but that wouldn’t explain it bc MS wasn’t only one staying open.

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Yet that same cohort is doing very bad by 8th grade reading scores in 2024. MS ranks 28th in 8th grade reading. How could that same cohort fall so far relatively? nces.ed.gov/nationsrepor...

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Even weirder to me is MS had basically same level in 4th grade reading scores in 2019-2020. So whatever effect of curriculum would’ve happened by then.

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“In 2024, students who were identified as economically disadvantaged had an average score that was 26 points lower than that for students who were identified as not economically disadvantaged. This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 1998 (26 points).”

“In 2024, Black students had an average score that was 25 points lower than that for White students. This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 1998 (26 points).”

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Another weird thing is MS is seeing rising scores despite massive and *stable* disparities by race and class. Here’s MS 4th grade report for reading in 2024. nces.ed.gov/nationsrepor...

nces.ed.gov

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One weird thing is the story is actually that Mississippi held steady while rest of country declined. MS gets credit for traditional reading curriculum - which teacher friends suggest is a fair point. But even that is a little inconsistent with timing. U.S. decline is fairly recent.

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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

There’s this Right wing meme going around about the rise of Mississippi 4th grade reading scores being so triumphantly high. In 2024, they’re like 2nd or 3rd highest. I wonder if this is believable… curios if education experts like @mpolikoff.bsky.social have views.

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When asked whether the AfD poses a greater threat to Jews, she says, “Of course it does.” She says that as a Jewish woman living in Berlin, she is “…The AfD is helping to normalize a völkisch and exclusionary understanding of who belongs to this country.” Good coverage! www.wsj.com/opinion/trou...

wsj.com

Opinion | Troubling Times at the Jewish Museum Berlin

‘The only thing I would add to it,’ says architect Daniel Libeskind, ‘would be a bell to ring the alarm of today’s growing antisemitism.’

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Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality @stone-lis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Apply now! Applications are open for our postdoctoral scholars program. These 2-year positions start in August 2027 and are based at the GC CUNY Stone Center. One is focused on wealth inequality, the other more broadly on economic inequality. Deadline is Nov. 2.

stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu

Applications Are Open for Two Postdoctoral Positions at the GC CUNY Stone Center - Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality

The Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality is seeking applicants for a ninth cohort of postdoctoral scholars. These full-time, two-year positions will begin in August 2026.

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Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

With fewer than 100 days until the midterms, a shameless plug: If you want to understand just how much our systems of electoral democracy have been degraded, especially for racial and ethnic minorities, you could do worse than preordering our book. Out Oct 6! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

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Lukas Lehner @lukaslehner.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The American Sociological Review issue with our paper on labor unions and Walmart's buyer power, with @joshuachoper.bsky.social and @zparolin.bsky.social, is now out alongside several other articles that are worth checking out: journals.sagepub.com/toc/asra/91/3

journals.sagepub.com

American Sociological Review - Volume 91, Number 3

Table of contents for American Sociological Review, 91, 3

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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

South Dakota icon The Corn Palace.