Posted on 03/28/2022 8:03:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
What are you giving up for Lent? California State University is giving up academics — at least where standardized testing for admission is concerned.
The school’s Board of Trustees issued the decision Wednesday.
Due to the pandemic, CSU had temporarily axed ACT and SAT considerations. Now it’s been made permanent.
Why would a school terminate tests which determine how good a student is at school in order to decide whether they should be let into a school that doesn’t let everyone in? Well, maybe the school lets everyone in. But according to CSU acting Chancellor Steve Relyea, it’s about leveling the playing field. He made that clear to CBS News:
“This decision aligns with the California State University’s continued efforts to level the playing field and provide greater access to a high-quality college degree for students from all backgrounds.”
Down with stress:
“In essence, we are eliminating our reliance on the high-stress, high-stakes test that has shown negligible benefit and providing our applicants with greater opportunities to demonstrate their drive, talents and potential for college success.”
If someone has “drive, talents and potential for college success,” they’d presumably do well on tests. Then again, maybe doing well on tests is no longer necessary for college success:
Professor Razes the Evil of Writing Rules, Whacks White Supremacy by Gonging Grades
University Professor Goes the Route of ‘Ungrading’ — in Math
Excellence Awaits: Professors Make Their Case for Ending Grades
That may only be fair, since university newcomers won’t necessarily have been previously required to garner good grades:
Virginia School District Targets Inequity by Shooting at Grades and Deadlines
Oregon’s Education Dept. Takes a Stand Against Standards — Racism, to the Layperson
In Order to Attack ‘Systemic Racism,’ a School Eliminates Failure and Time Constraints
As for the SAT, the test itself has undergone adjustment. In May of 2019, RS Editor-At-Large Kira Davis explained:
Typically, we think about this idea in terms of the rich shutting out the poor, but a new strategy for judging SAT scores throws the old stereotype out the window. In this newest scheme to “even the playing field” the College Board (which oversees SAT testing) has decided they will add a new “adversity score” when grading their college entrance exams. The intention is to add points to the grades of students who come from areas that score higher on the “adversity” scale. It will take into account crime rates, poverty rates and property values.
In education, it’s a new day. Meritocracy is, well, old-school. As such, it’s not earning merit with cutting-edge experts.
Some of those, evidently, sit on the California State University Board of Trustees. The vote to sack the SAT and ACT was unanimous.
Standardized test scores can still be used for placement in subjects such as math, but that’s on the move, too:
A Major News Outlet Asks if Math is Racist
https://t.co/YxxOsvu8wd— RedState (@RedState) December 10, 2021
Major University Professor Fights Math's 'Harbor for Whiteness' https://t.co/6NWoqgBpsD
— RedState (@RedState) August 18, 2021
Any area that becomes female-heavy also sinks in value automatically. Women take over universities; men turn to trade school. We'll eventually return to the Victorian days of women being in charge of culture and men being in charge of structure and function. Men build society; women hang the curtains.
They will.
I know—and I liked the SAT as it was so objective—maybe over time the GPA being the best correlation to high performance in college will fade. I see a lot of grade inflation going on at Cal State as well. I went to UC in the late 1980s and there was no extra credit, open book/open note tests, etc. I see lots of that now at Cal State, and lots of “online learning” where it’s easy to cheat.
These will be our future engineers and pilots and surgeons so it’s scary. Not sure where the excellence is anymore.
In the UK I read it’s now 70% women at universities! Men are rapidly losing interest.
I think taking bribes from millionaire actors is a much better way to determine admissions anyway.
I hope that means guys are going into useful trades, not on the dole.
Well, in CA, SATs are not only NOT required (for anyone), they are NOT even optional (for anyone). UC and Cal State now refuse to accept them for admission purposes at all.
Not at all, because an AP class offers a grade boost—a B in an AP class is an A.
Would you rather hire a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo engineering major, or a Stanford “woke” major?
As a mom of three young adult men, I think it’s a dangerous trend (men shunning college) for many reasons. My boys all went to college, obtained BS degrees (Econ, Business, Computer Science) and ignored all the “wokeness.”
A college degree still opens many more doors. And do we want all of our surgeons and engineers and pilots and teachers and lawyers to be only women?
College has become a participation trophy anymore. I do not accept 4-year college degrees because of this.
Far too many kids in college ‘graduate’ with so little knowledge or skills. They feel entitled to be patted on the head for anything and everything. They have failed to achieve and cannot grow as they did not learn the life skills necessary to achieve.
Also, most of their classes are “Introduction to...” type of classes. That is for High School, not college.
I know a number of large companies going back to internally publishing colleges and degree programs they will accept for employment. They are also reviewing transcripts for grades and course content. They take out “Women’s Studies” and other useless classes from the transcripts. What is left had better have the required courses or the degree program is rejected.
I, personally, only hire doctorate graduates from specific programs. College is far too soft on education for a Bachelor or Master’s program to be accepted. No online programs qualify, too much fraud.
I taught college, and was a student up until two years ago, and I saw the utter contempt for education in universities. I saw a black female in a Calculus course get passed with a D- because she simply wrote her name on the test paper. I saw students who couldn’t write a complete sentence get a C if they turned in a paper because the submission rate was only 15% for the class. I saw capstone projects with 5 people on a team and only 1 did any work but all passed. Colleges are money mills now, not institutions of education.
The Big Education Cycle
Make unlimited borrowed funds available to students from govt
Schools raise prices to scoop up available cash
Schools pay profs and admins big salaries
Profs and admins donate to Democrats
and repeat
A turd world education for turd world people...
Exactly. The democrap college money laundering scheme. They get a twofer: Indoctrinate kids and fund communism at the same time.
So what tests do they accept?
None. No tests or essays. GPA and transcript only for admission.
So why pay for a private school? Why even live in a high property tax district? Attend mediocre schools in mediocre towns and be top of the class. That is if getting into top colleges are your primary goal.
Well, there are a lot of issues here. Why pay for a private K-12 school? Or college? Lots of reasons. Why live in a high property tax district? Lots of reasons.
CA funds its K-12 public schools very differently than other states do. The wealthiest areas receive the least amount of funding per student. I live in the “3rd wealthiest” school district in CA (that accepts state funding—the very, very wealthiest simply do not!) and as a result my district receives the 3rd lowest amount of funding. It’s a formula—Local Community Area. But I wouldn’t move to areas that receive the highest per-pupil funding either.
Wow—you only hire PhDs? Only 2% of the United States population has a PhD. Very rare.
Well, the Bell Curve does suggest that the very brightest should be hired for any job—bus boy, whatever. Choosing from only PhDs would be one way to guarantee you are indeed hiring the brightest people.
That’s “progress” for you.
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