Around 2012 (while working in the DC region), I had an associate that I worked with. This guy’s wife was desperately trying to get their kid lined up with a premium university in the region. While he fitted into every requirement....they mandated that he take a English and math placement test, prior to signing up. After the placement test, they had a chat with the mom.
The kid did badly on both tests, and their requirements mandated that he had to take a high-school level math and English course in that first semester (having zero credit toward his degree path). I asked my associate the cost of this, and it was near $1,200 for the two courses. Course, I asked as well...wasn’t this all material that the kid should have covered and learned in the last two years of high school? Yes was the answer.
The problem here...started a couple of decades ago in high schools, as they brought in marginally qualified instructors, and failed to hold standards. When those kids arrived at colleges....the college was forced to lower standards, or flunk out the unsuitable kids. For everyone (high schools and colleges), it’s all about money.
For everyone (high schools and colleges), it’s all about money.
Ditto all that....my FRiend
Where are the parents willing to cheat their kids into college, when it was time to make sure their high school preparation was adequate to get them in?
That’s one thing that really blows my mind - how is it that parents put up with far-left indoctrination replacing education in school after school in state after state for year after year after year?
Do you believe that if the instructors were more than marginally qualified, that more US high school students would be capable of college level work?
Or, even better, what percentage of US high school graduates do you believe are intellectually capable of college level work, assuming the best instruction and optimized funding?
I say it's less than 10%.
Our national delusion is that it's 100%, or close to it.
As long as that's the case, you will have a system founded on fraud and susceptible to bribery and many other forms of corruption.
“, as they brought in marginally qualified instructors,”
Think the funniest thing was the failure rate for people “training to be teachers”..i.e. Ed.Majors..So many ‘flunked’ here in Flori-DUH? that they merely lowered the standards to become a teacher...And that was many many moons ago.....
You get kids who are reading at the 3rd grade level and you're supposed to bring them up to grade level in one hour a week, in batches of 33. You cannot discipline them, they don't do homework, and their parents will reward them with electronic toys no matter how badly they do.
Only 25% or so are functional. The rest are non-starters fit only for manual labor, but if you fail 75% of your students, your principal will be on you like a duck on a June bug, and may even just "administratively" change your grades anyway. Especially if parents come in having a fit. The goal is to pass as many kids as you can.
By college age, the attitude is baked in with the pie.
Can’t be on the teachers alone. Classrooms are micromanaged very heavily today. Teachers teach in the way they are mandated too. Time to take a hard look at board offices and policies.
Parents try to cushion the kids and that ends up costing them. Kids don’t learn the fundamentals because they are too focused on standardized tests.
Schools ignore the English part of the SAT too much so you end up with students that a practically English-illiterate.
Totally correct. I actually taught at an elite prep school in the late 70s and those students were exceptional. But I got my first college job at a Wisconsin equivalent of a Juco, and they were horrible.
Literally, I had to explain the word “emancipation.” We’re talking probably a sixth grade level of vocabulary and historical understanding.
Over the next 30 years at a pretty good private OH university, I watched student quality decline. By the early 2000s, they were really bad-—then they changed, showing more intellect but far less ability to stay focused. I had to completely ban cell phones. Then I noticed a lot of “bathroom breaks,” so before class started (attendance in my classes was “voluntary” cuz really only 2-3 kids in my entire career managed to do even reasonably well without attending), I asked who needed to go, and there would be no breaks from then on. That finally solved it.
My husband tutors math to kids in our church. The stories about the teachers are stunning.
They do their homework in a computer program, and they just need the right answer. DH showed one girl HOW to arrive at the right answer. When the girl did well, teacher asked why she did so well and the girl explained the process — how to “work it out”. Teacher god mad, and the girl has been on her sh!t list ever since. (Teacher doesn’t know how to work it out, we expect.)