Template:Did you know nominations/Susan Dynarski

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Kierano (talk) 23:36, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Susan Dynarski[edit]

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... that economist Susan Dynarski, who advocates for simplifying the US Federal Student Aid application process, was the first member of her family to attend college? Source: “My dad was a high school dropout. And I’m a professor. I’ve testified before Congress, and I’ve gone to the White House, and I write for the New York Times, and all of this would have been completely unimaginable for my mother and my father. So education can be transformative,” Dynarski begins. However, Dynarski clearly recognizes how unusual her own experience is, citing “enormous disparities by income—by accident of birth—in who goes to college.” A huge barrier to college for low-income and first-generation students is the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, with 108 questions and, as Dynarski says, “dozens of pages of arcane instructions.” Through extensive research, Dynarski has found that two simple questions could replace the FAFSA with minimal impact on aid calculations: 1) What is your income, and 2) What is your family size. Both questions, she explains, are already included in IRS tax forms, eliminating the need for a complicated form that presents a formidable barrier that stands “between low-income kids and the education they deserve.” Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy News Source2: "Susan Dynarski, a U-M professor of education, public policy, and economics at the Ford School of Public Policy shares her experience as a first-generation college student..."[1]

review: I am exempt from the QPQ requirement because this was my first DYK nomination.

Created by EAWH (talk). Self-nominated at 20:37, 7 December 2016 (UTC).

Note: This is minor and hopefully can be fixed, but the article is presently ineligible because the short (separate) paragraph stating "She is married and has two children." does not have an inline citation, per D2 of the DYK Supplementary guidelines. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 20:10, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

I have removed the short paragraph without inline citation from the article. EAWH (talk) 02:21, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
Full review needed. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 03:17, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

Long enough, nominated in timely fashion, no QPQ needed (2nd DYK). Hook is interesting, sufficiently short, neutral and not negative. However, I found a number of problems. Earwig found that substantial parts of the article are copied from a range of sources. Only one of the references in the article (ref 7) is independent of Dynarski & the institution she works for so assessing its neutrality is difficult. The hook might need tweaking; there's no reference stating she's primarily an economist and she seems to work primarily in education policy, and the sources aren't 100% clear on her being "the first member of her family to attend college" though she does say she is a "first-generation student". Also the quotation you give here in DYK is not cited immediately adjacent to the fact in the article, which is a requirement.
Other points not required by DYK: Much of the lead should instead be in the body. Some of the facts in the infobox need referencing. The infobox could do with slimming down; the students field is intended for notable students (ie people with articles or who should have them), the awards for highly notable awards (others can go in the text), the third website has no content. You could add a few (3–5 is good) "Selected publications" with some of the ones with high citations here. Hope all this is not too intimidating; Dynarski is obviously a notable and interesting subject, and I hope the article can be reworked to feature on DYK. Espresso Addict (talk) 08:49, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for the useful comments! I think I have now addressed these issues:

I have rewritten most of the sentences that Earwig highlighted as potential copyright violations; the remaining sentences contain items such as journal titles, which cannot be paraphrased.
The references state that Dynarski has a PhD in economics and is a professor of economics, so I believe it is reasonable to call her an economist.
I have added another source to address the "first-generation college student" concern
I have commented out the unsourced information in the infobox and added the selected works, as suggested EAWH (talk) 02:14, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

There is still way too much use of the exact phraseology of the sources, not just one source, but several, see here. Sentences such as "Dynarski's research focuses on the effectiveness of charter schools, the optimal design of financial aid, the price elasticity of private school attendance, the relationship between postsecondary schooling and labor market outcomes, and the effect of high school and community college reforms on academic achievement and educational attainment" should be written in your own words. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 10:14, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

I have rewritten additional sentences to reduce similarity with the sources. The sentences that earwig continues to highlight involve institution names and journal titles, and these cannot be paraphrased.EAWH (talk) 21:27, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. The Earwig comparison still looks rather pink, but as you say, the matches are nearly all titles of organisations and suchlike and I think the article is now satisfactory from a copyright point of view. Otherwise, the newness, length, hook citing and neutrality meet DYK requirements, so this is ready to go. I am sorry it took so long. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:37, 24 February 2017 (UTC)