Posted on 04/29/2021 4:59:08 AM PDT by Kaslin
An article published this week in Quillette (which, along with Substack, is one of the best sources of thoughtful, intelligent journalism in America today) argues persuasively that grade inflation is destroying education in the United States.
Author Shane Trotter describes a system where grades are no longer tied to actual achievement, where high school standards have been lowered so much that a college degree -- and absurd levels of debt -- now takes the place of a high school diploma, where self-esteem is more important than achievement and where the performance of American students relative to the rest of the world keeps dropping.
As an educator of 30 years, I've seen what Trotter describes and then some. We are a society whose political and cultural leaders -- including educators -- are abandoning truth and facts in favor of other, nicer-sounding objectives, like "equity."
A perfect example is Virginia's recent decision to abandon advanced math classes for high-achieving students. There is no thought given to the high-achieving students this decision will hurt. But the existence of those classes embarrasses those who pitch the pretty lie that no one is smarter or works harder than anyone else -- or, let's face it, just enjoys more natural ability in some areas.
Advanced classes also embarrass those who sell the inflammatory headlines that often accompany those prettier lies -- for example, that the only reason some children achieve and others don't is because of "systemic racism" or "white supremacy." So those classes, and every other measure of "inequality," have to go.
An article published this week in Quillette (which, along with Substack, is one of the best sources of thoughtful, intelligent journalism in America today) argues persuasively that grade inflation is destroying education in the United States.
Author Shane Trotter describes a system where grades are no longer tied to actual achievement, where high school standards have been lowered so much that a college degree -- and absurd levels of debt -- now takes the place of a high school diploma, where self-esteem is more important than achievement and where the performance of American students relative to the rest of the world keeps dropping.
As an educator of 30 years, I've seen what Trotter describes and then some. We are a society whose political and cultural leaders -- including educators -- are abandoning truth and facts in favor of other, nicer-sounding objectives, like "equity."
A perfect example is Virginia's recent decision to abandon advanced math classes for high-achieving students. There is no thought given to the high-achieving students this decision will hurt. But the existence of those classes embarrasses those who pitch the pretty lie that no one is smarter or works harder than anyone else -- or, let's face it, just enjoys more natural ability in some areas.
Advanced classes also embarrass those who sell the inflammatory headlines that often accompany those prettier lies -- for example, that the only reason some children achieve and others don't is because of "systemic racism" or "white supremacy." So those classes, and every other measure of "inequality," have to go.
An article published this week in Quillette (which, along with Substack, is one of the best sources of thoughtful, intelligent journalism in America today) argues persuasively that grade inflation is destroying education in the United States.
Author Shane Trotter describes a system where grades are no longer tied to actual achievement, where high school standards have been lowered so much that a college degree -- and absurd levels of debt -- now takes the place of a high school diploma, where self-esteem is more important than achievement and where the performance of American students relative to the rest of the world keeps dropping.
As an educator of 30 years, I've seen what Trotter describes and then some. We are a society whose political and cultural leaders -- including educators -- are abandoning truth and facts in favor of other, nicer-sounding objectives, like "equity."
A perfect example is Virginia's recent decision to abandon advanced math classes for high-achieving students. There is no thought given to the high-achieving students this decision will hurt. But the existence of those classes embarrasses those who pitch the pretty lie that no one is smarter or works harder than anyone else -- or, let's face it, just enjoys more natural ability in some areas.
Advanced classes also embarrass those who sell the inflammatory headlines that often accompany those prettier lies -- for example, that the only reason some children achieve and others don't is because of "systemic racism" or "white supremacy." So those classes, and every other measure of "inequality," have to go.
The goal now is mediocrity, not excellence.
My girlfriends daughter is a math freak, loves it, college courses while in high school, that girl studies 4-6 hours of work a day outside of the classroom, straight As in high school and so far in college a 4.0 but she loves it and works very hard.
Well, duh.
The ignorant are far easier to control.
In STEM related fields lowering educational standards guarantees the students will not find a job. In the real world our standards are not going down, they are going up. Our projects aren’t getting any easier. No one cares if you feel good about your efforts or not, the customer and users only care if it works, is on time, and within budget. A good try isn’t going to get you a trophy. Only real, objective success counts.
Why is the thumbnail from the article repeated THREE times?
Something happened. I did not do it on purpose.
“Why is the thumbnail from the article repeated THREE times?”
*********************************************
I though I kept losing my place as I read or was having a severe attack of déjà vu.
“Why is the thumbnail from the article repeated THREE times?”
*********************************************
I though I kept losing my place as I read or was having a severe attack of déjà vu.
We can't have just some people being poor. So let's penalize the rich, so that now everyone is poor.
We can't have just some students failing. So let's eliminate the high achievers, so that now everyone is dumb and failing.
We can't have just some athletes not excel. So let's not recognize those who win, so that now everyone is a loser.
We can't have just some people who can't succeed. So let's stop those who do reach the top, so that now everybody is mediocre and mundane.
Instead of aiming to boost everybody up who has trouble making it, let's bring everyone down so that everyone is equally miserable.
Reward those who fail and penalize those who win.
This is the policy platform for the democRAT party.
And this is what socialism/communism does to a society. A few rich, winner elites versus the masses who are mired in failure, poverty and starvation.
Taxpayers are being defrauded. Standardized tests used to give a good representation of student performance. Not any more. A few years ago I filed a Freedom of Information act request for the New York State Algebra Regents Exam distribution. Their first error was trying to normalize a trimodal distribution of scores. Thus was statistical malpractice. There was a small group at the top who had a good understanding of the material. There was the expected group in the middle who had a some mastery. There was a large group at the bottom who were clueless.
Students need robust standards. I would note that music programs still have “seat check” competition. Sports programs still base playing time on performance. Why should academics be different? It should not.
One high profile RICO corruption case successfully prosecuted would end this insanity.
Of course, and they need school choice and competition.
Yes, they do!
The left has a name for people like that: racist!
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