Replacing Standards with Sympathy

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | September 10, 2025 | Gregory A. Brown

[karpov]

Higher education once stood for rigor, accountability, and personal responsibility. But grade inflation and diluted curricula have already eroded the pretense of academic excellence. Now, a new initiative at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), titled the “Ecological Validation Model for Student Success,” threatens to finish the job. Disguised as inclusion, the model abandons rigor, absolves certain students of responsibility, and replaces objective standards with politicized discretion. What’s unfolding at UNK is not an isolated case—it’s a warning sign of a deeper crisis spreading across American universities.

Billed as a “campus-wide approach to student success” in which “every staff and faculty member actively connects students to resources and networks,” the new framework redirects institutional focus from academic excellence to emotional support and to inconsistent expectations based on students’ socioeconomic status or identity group. Instead of reinforcing core principles such as content mastery, discipline, and merit-based achievement, the model promotes a subjective, shifting standard that erodes the value of a college degree. While supporting students is essential, genuine support must rest on high expectations and consistent standards, not selective exceptions that excuse underperformance.

“Ecological validation” is a hollow term that obscures more than it explains. In psychology, it refers to the real-world relevance of research, but, as education policy, it becomes a word salad of vague, feel-good rhetoric. The “Ecological Validation Model for Student Success” is described as “rooted in the belief that students come to college with assets, strengths, and capabilities.” The program aims to “nurture and develop those existing qualities,” with no acknowledgment of the need to build new ones essential to academic and professional success. This language signals a shift away from clear academic expectations toward an indulgent, affirmation-driven philosophy that confuses encouragement with achievement.

[Paal Gulli]

Does the phrase, "The soft bigotry of low expectations" ring a bell?

[blueunicorn6]

There is a shared responsibility between teacher and student.

Teachers must do their best to educate the student.

Students must do their best to learn.

My experience has been that the biggest failures in this shared responsibility have come from the teachers.

[aquila48]

I’m sure China would love for this to take hold here.