17 hours Ago
From pandemic screen-learning to Education School disregard for content, American schools are rapidly reducing the learning required for achieving a high school diploma or a college degree. To previously accommodate the extremely rare super-student we previously called a “Doogie Howser,” or today a “Young Sheldon,” we allowed those rare individuals to jump grades in elementary and high school and occasionally graduate college before they were eligible to drive. Then two decades ago, the “dual credit” system allowed high school juniors and seniors to go next door to sit in genuine college courses on a local campus, earning bona fide college credit that also counted toward high school graduation.
This was soon extended down to high school sophomores. And the college credit could be earned for a course taught in high school by a secondary teacher with at least 18 masters-level college credits in the field being taught. But as of last December, the Higher Learning Commission, one of our major college accreditors, ended that requirement, allowing the formerly unqualified HS teachers (who had been given 5 years to gain the graduate training) to continue teaching dual credit without that graduate coursework if the local associated college approves.
Now a growing number of high school students earn so much dual credit by the end of their high school, they are just one college course away from an associate’s degree. This same mindset now extends further down, as a California district school is allowing eighth-graders to earn high-school credit in courses in algebra, biology and Spanish before entering high school. Grade inflation has likewise been raising students’ high school grades while actual student performance has been in continual decline well before the pandemic.
The very reliable ACT test provided in many states revealed that composite student scores dropped from 21.0 to 20.3 from 2010 to 2021.
But the students’ high school grade point average jumped from 3.22 to 3.39 during this same time period.
Major drivers of this inflation are: 1) directives from state education officials to raise the high school graduation rate from 70% to 95%, and 2) schools imposing a “zero equals 50%” grading scale for missing assignments. During the pandemic, grade inflation became even worse as a large number of U.S.
schools ordered teachers to give no F’s, or scores lower than prior student work. Normally a bachelor’s degree requires 120 credit hours of coursework, but Johnson & Wales University, a private university, will begin awarding a bachelor’s degree for college students and require only 90 to 96 credit hours. This reduction in a bachelor’s degree from four to three years was approved by the New England Commission for Higher Education.
Usually there is more respect for the disciplinary accrediting agencies that inspect nursing, medical and other professional programs. However, the accrediting arm of the American Bar Association just approved a new process allowing law schools to admit students without taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) that has been an important academic gatekeeper. The reduced number of American students attending college has resulted in this lowering of standards.
Many colleges have switched from tenured faculty to hired adjuncts. These instructors realize that they will likely not be rehired if they have too many student withdrawals or give too many D&F grades. The earlier online college programs of questionable value likewise led to the public devaluing higher education as much online “education” proved ineffective.
Many such institutions raided the most recent G.I. Bill funds and provided veterans with “coursework” of little value.
Today, the two largest “college” enrollments involve office fronts but no college campus. They operate on the take-a-test, get-course-credit “competency-based” system where a student may never encounter a teacher or professor. This has “graduated” students with highly questionable knowledge and skills, feeding public skepticism of the value of higher education.
Meanwhile, both political parties have contributed to the anti-college movement by removing college degree requirements for state government positions, due in part to the reduction in future high school graduates. For some American colleges and universities, admission requirements have reduced down to a student having a credit card and a heartbeat. And they will waive the heartbeat.
John Richard Schrock writes a weekly Kansas newspaper column on education, produces public radio commentaries, and appears monthly on Kansas television. Contct him at 785-864-4530..
