> If all colleges would simply raise the bar and insist that only A and B average students got in.... <
The whole scam would then probably self-correct. Not enough students at High School Whatever are getting into colleges. Not enough B or better students.
Parents complain to the School Board. The School Board orders teachers to lower their grading standards. Presto! There are now more B or better students at High School Whatever.
By the way, something like that is happening at a big-city school district near where I live. The School Board has mandated that the lowest test grade be 50%. So put your name on the test, then turn it in. You get 50 points.
“Parents complain to the School Board. The School Board orders teachers to lower their grading standards. Presto! There are now more B or better students at High School Whatever.”
All those private pay high schools are the worst for that. Parents think paying big bucks to a high school results in a better education and A students. The schools feel pressured to give out As, so they, too, dumb down the curriculum to ensure the parents are proud of their straight A crumb crunchers.
It's called Mastery Grading, and we at LAUSD are under tremendous pressure to do it. The logic is that 60% to pass is too high, and besides, a zero pulls kids down so far that the poor, soft little darlings just give up and return to their feather beds with their iPads and chips and weed.
I've personally mastered the fine art of creating assignments where the first 50% is so easy, even the Geico caveman could do it, so that all kids who even make an effort (and I'm pretty good at drawing effort out of them) can get to the 50% mark, and from there I can usually get them to put forth the effort to get to the 70%. But it involves a lot of pulling and tugging and pushing and nagging and encouraging on my part.