Posted on 03/24/2023 5:27:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The state of New York has decided to permanently lower both its schools’ math and reading proficiency standards-- due to a dramatic fall in test scores since the COVID lockdowns played havoc with children’s educations.
A scoring committee that reports to the Board of Regents recently decided that such action must be taken in light of last year’s abysmal test results for students in grades three through eight. For example, in Schenectady, not a single eighth-grader who took the math test scored as proficient. And the cumulative scores for the third through eighth grade tests throughout the state were much lower in 2022 than in 2019, a result attributed to the absence of in-person learning during the year-and-a-half or so following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic… and the preposterously damaging reactions to it from those in power.
The committee further reported that it believes student performance has been permanently damaged, and that lower competence has become “the new normal.” Ergo the Empire State will make it easier for students to reach “proficiency” on state math and English language arts tes by dumbing down the tests. (And, by extension, the students.)
In related news, the New York Police City Department has -- again -- lowered its requirements for police recruits, this time scrapping a 1.5-mile timed run in the Police Academy, or so the department’s head of training told The New York Post.
Training Chief Juanita Holmes said the move will help more women applicants make the cut. (However, it was controversial—and sparked an internal debate within the NYPD itself.)
The NYPD had already dramatically relaxed overall police fitness test requirements less than a year ago amid a record wave of retirements -- and a dearth of new recruits -- brought on by various anti-cop “progressive” attitudes and policies.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I wonder how many government departments and corporations in the U.S have a DEI organization?
How much lower can they go?
How high do the standards need to be when all that seems to matter is teaching kids to be trannys and scaring them about climate change and how bad white folks are.
Hey, how about holding everybody back a year? Call it COVID make up.
Consider that the "liberal world order," as Biden has said the US must lead, has become consistently a "dumbing down" of the nation, and indeed much of Western civilization.
The call to recognize this is now decades old, with such as titles like "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" from 1999, to the idiotic university protests led by the likes of Jesse Jackson ("Hey, hey, ho, ho Western Civ has got to go"), to the continual changing measures for inflation and the worth of the US dollar, and more.
A compliant and gullible herd is sought, not a nation of independent thinkers and those who would ask "inconvenient" questions. This will not succeed in the long term, as one cannot long rule an empire of lies and lunacy.
“Lead by lowering” is the new mantra of our dear leader. Remember folks...the future scientists, designers, architects and engineers are being dumbed down to the point of imbecility so next time you drive over a bridge, hop on a plane or get on an elevator to ride 30 or 40 floors up enjoy what safety there is now in the competency of the designers and builders. The future will be too dangerous to leave home to venture into the world around you. Just fyi.
Dunces in confederacy rather nicely capsules the reigning political class and their allies in the MSM and academia -- venal. dishonest and already well "dumbed down."
BTTT
There IS positive benefit from a diverse group of colleagues. There have been instances in my line of work where the perspective of a colleague from outside the US made a difference. Indeed, I attended a seminar where all of us folks from the "developed economies" saw a risky project but the folks from the "emerging markets" saw opportunity. We hashed it out, professionally. It gave me a new perspective.
Years ago when I was working in Manhattan, Danny Glover made a stink about how a black man can't get a cab. I thought he was full of it. A few days later, when walking with a very good black friend, I saw it happen with my own eyes. My friend didn't rant and rave (I did), he made a comment, and tried to catch another cab. That, too, gave me a perspective I'd NEVER have absent my black friend.
Again, this was in NYC. You basically have more unforced diversity there than most other places. I believe my life has been enriched by that diversity. But that was voluntary. And it was organic. Seeing that cabbie blow past my black friend was WAAAAY more "awakening" than any stupid presentation by a white professional woman opportunist (more on her later).
Diversity cuts both ways....I also saw lots of leftists in NYC et al and, WOW they are messed up. Just like my cabbie experience hardened me, experiencing left wing violence but being told it's "mostly peaceful frustration" hardened me.
Many people never left where I grew up. They're not racist. They hold certain positions and views to which I don't subscribe. They'd probably feel different if they experienced my cabbie episode. They probably consider me a liberal in certain regards (though they probably consider me a scary right-wing radical on homeschoooing etc.). But we aren't at each other's throats.
In contrast, A LOT of the DEI stuff in corporate America is really stupid and FORCED. I've seen reprehensible presentations by opportunists like Robin DiAngelo that do nothing but make you check your email and tune out at best. That kind of nonsense isn't diversity - it's shaking the jar with the employee's being the red and black ants.
If I have a job opening in my business, I DO see value in canvassing a wide swath of candidates. But if the job is, say, for a pastry chef, I want to see if you can make pastry.
Cops pulling over ny school kids for speeding- kids will get to plead “but I can’t do the maths”, and be let free.
I don’t think that was “an unpopular” post. I pretty much agree with all that you posted. I just don’t think that DEI programs are about reducing discrimination. DEI seems to be about justifying discrimination in the way the left wants to discriminate. Just look at what happens when a conservative is invited to speak on a college campus. There is no tolerance for diversity of opinion. I once saw Charlton Heston speak at CU-Boulder. That was quite an experience seeing the “tolerance” of the left up close and personal.
That’s okay. The cream will rise to the top. The dregs will sink to the bottom.
E Asians go to school 6 days per week.
I want to understand: The ‘in-class’ teaching was stopped due to pandemic; this lead to lower scores.
So now that ‘in-class’ teaching has been restored we must lower the standards?
Maybe with many people pulling their children out of gov’t schools, we’re seeing the who pays for the bar tab in real life.
Knowing a few profs with stories to tell, I can say that new kids in college are not ready.
Great question, by the way.
“this was in NYC. You basically have more unforced diversity there than most other places. I believe my life has been enriched by that diversity.”
I was offered many jobs in NYC over the years, and turned down all of them.
The “unforced diversity” has a dark side.
Many decades ago it was a young woman I dated a couple of times (who lived in the city) who taught me about it.
At one point she said she had been raped—and then shocked me when she said “it was no big deal”.
“Most pretty young women in the city get raped”.
This is not a place for decent humans to work—or to live.
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