OT: You get an A and you get an A, we all get A's!

And then there is the path Oregon has taken. Dropping all requirements for reading and math to be able to graduate. Under 50% of graduates last year were proficient with English, and 31% with math. I guess a dumber society is easier to rule control govern.

I have watched plenty of videos of teachers being told by administrators to change grades because of parents, that is a huge part of why teachers are leaving. The entitlement and audacity is absolutely ridiculous. There are also parents that threaten to take donation money away from the school if the grade isn't changed. It's disgusting 

My brother is attending a traditionally prestigious college right now, and will finish with a triple major in four years with not a ton of academic stress. He's very intelligent but he's also flat out told me pretty much exactly what this article is saying. It's easier for teachers and professors to move kids along than it is to challenge them. My brother is using that to his advantage by triple majoring but for many kids who are getting a traditional bachelors degree (like the one I have), I think school has gotten significantly easier post-covid. No idea what the solution is or if it even needs fixing, just a second-hand observation.

@"pattersaur" said:

My brother is attending a traditionally prestigious college right now, and will finish with a triple major in four years with not a ton of academic stress. He's very intelligent but he's also flat out told me pretty much exactly what this article is saying. It's easier for teachers and professors to move kids along than it is to challenge them. My brother is using that to his advantage by triple majoring but for many kids who are getting a traditional bachelors degree (like the one I have), I think school has gotten significantly easier post-covid. No idea what the solution is or if it even needs fixing, just a second-hand observation.

Many parents don't really care if their kids are working hard and performing academically in actuality.....they just want to brag to other parents and want what they feel is social capital amongst their peers. And if that means cheating or bullying teachers to get it, they don't give a shit. Here's the equation many parents think is reality: smart kids = good parenting/happy kids. What a joke. Reflected glory. Same with the sports scene: great athlete = great parents. Riiiight. 

Focus on your kids actual happiness than how what they do academically/athletically 'reflects' upon you. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/us/lori-loughlin-felicity-huffman-admissions-scandal.html

@"Vikergirl" said: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/us/lori-loughlin-felicity-huffman-admissions-scandal.html

What I find interesting is we know a gal who started college this year.  Her professors routinely cancel class.  10-20% of the time by her guess.  She had classes scheduled for the first 3 days of thanksgiving week.  All but 1 canceled the whole week.
I joked, I had a BS art class that didn't cancel for 9/11 (2PMish class time if I recall correctly). 

Good thing we have a department of education at the national level that is ensuring a quality public education for all kids across the nation.  Maybe its time to put it all back at the local level,  fund your own schools.  Set your own standards,   and when your kids can't get a job..
 To bad.

I don’t think there’s any 100% correct answers at a societal
level, because there’s no way to force people to care and sometimes people
care, but the money isn’t there.  I think
the only thing that I feel confident is that parents who actively want the best
for their kids and can afford to make it happen will probably ensure their kids
are sufficiently educated no matter how shitty the education system is.  I think the more levels of bureaucracy you
have between the person paying for the school, the parents and the students,
probably the worse it’s going to be.  The
less money available to invest in the kids education, probably the worse it’s
going to be.  That said, a lot of schooling
is pure BS that isn’t really going to help the kid.  Our whole education system is built out of
the scientific management of people where kids are taught how to be good workers
at the factory, learn how to remember dumb facts that aren’t interesting to
them and ultimately don’t matter or get retained, but don’t understand most of
the things a person needs to live a happy and fulfilling life.

All good points . . . but I'm not too worried about kids who got into Yale. I'll bet they can all read at whatever level you'd like them to read and can all do college level math. The acceptance rate at Yale is around 5% and their applicants are unbelievably qualified.

If you want to talk about the below-average kids and those who get pushed along from one grade to the next regardless of achievement, fine. (If I were a high school teacher and you failed my basic H.S. class, I sure as hell would not want to see you back in my class the next year. I would hope you would be someone else's problem next year.) But to use Yale as the starting point for the failure of US education is quite the stretch.

If you got into Yale on your merits - not because your parents donated $50M or because your dad is George Herbert Walker Bush - it hardly matters if you got an A for doing B level (Yale level) work. These are among the top of all H.S. students in the country.

@"dadevike" said: All good points . . . but I'm not too worried about kids who got into Yale. I'll bet they can all read at whatever level you'd like them to read and can all do college level math. The acceptance rate at Yale is around 5% and their applicants are unbelievably qualified.

If you want to talk about the below-average kids and those who get pushed along from one grade to the next regardless of achievement, fine. (If I were a high school teacher and you failed my basic H.S. class, I sure as hell would not want to see you back in my class the next year. I would hope you would be someone else's problem next year.) But to use Yale as the starting point for the failure of US education is quite the stretch.

If you got into Yale on your merits - not because your parents donated $50M or because your dad is George Herbert Walker Bush - it hardly matters if you got an A for doing B level (Yale level) work. These are among the top of all H.S. students in the country.

But keep in mind that a decent portion of students at Yale or other Ivy League schools are legacy, close to 16%. That means they'd have never gotten in otherwise. Another percentage are diversity inclusions, which also are allowed in on lower standards. So yes, Ivy League schools are very good, but they also are not exactly what they are cracked up to be either.

I wish they'd install that policy at my daughter's school. 

@"Vikergirl" said: I have watched plenty of videos of teachers being told by administrators to change grades because of parents, that is a huge part of why teachers are leaving. The entitlement and audacity is absolutely ridiculous. There are also parents that threaten to take donation money away from the school if the grade isn't changed. It's disgusting 

@"MaroonBells" said: I wish they'd install that policy at my daughter's school. 

@"minny65" said:

@"Vikergirl" said: I have watched plenty of videos of teachers being told by administrators to change grades because of parents, that is a huge part of why teachers are leaving. The entitlement and audacity is absolutely ridiculous. There are also parents that threaten to take donation money away from the school if the grade isn't changed. It's disgusting 

Parents are also a large part of the problem.  All these kids on learning plans that the teachers have to accommodate every single criteria or get sued.  Every kid is special and needs to be accommodated unlike years past where it was up to Johnny to keep up not handheld.   Parents are posting on facebook and tiktock bitching about teachers all day and teachers cannot respond.  They have to wait until parent teacher conference and then guess who doesn't show up :)

@"AGRforever" said:

@"MaroonBells" said: I wish they'd install that policy at my daughter's school. 

We’re fortunate enough to be able to send our kids to private school. They beat the ever loving snot out of them on tests and homework. We have to be careful they aren’t getting hit with to much homework. I’m not particularly worried about them when they enter college. They’ll breeze right through. 

@"StickyBun" said:

@"AGRforever" said:

@"MaroonBells" said: I wish they'd install that policy at my daughter's school. 

We’re fortunate enough to be able to send our kids to private school. They beat the ever loving snot out of them on tests and homework. We have to be careful they aren’t getting hit with to much homework. I’m not particularly worried about them when they enter college. They’ll breeze right through. 

My son was lucky enough to go to a top 1% public school system in the whole country (Blue Valley, Overland Park, Kansas). Great education. But if we didn't have something like that, we'd have definitely gone the private school route. Night and day education.

@"AGRforever" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"AGRforever" said:

@"MaroonBells" said: I wish they'd install that policy at my daughter's school. 

We’re fortunate enough to be able to send our kids to private school. They beat the ever loving snot out of them on tests and homework. We have to be careful they aren’t getting hit with to much homework. I’m not particularly worried about them when they enter college. They’ll breeze right through. 

My son was lucky enough to go to a top 1% public school system in the whole country (Blue Valley, Overland Park, Kansas). Great education. But if we didn't have something like that, we'd have definitely gone the private school route. Night and day education.

The top percentages schools are getting gamed now days as well. They’ll expel or move kids with bad scores. All in the name of gpa. 

Up here by Seattle, there was a constant litany of grades, accountability, etc in schools all being "racist"...and it bubbled back up with annoying regularity.

I'm going to let some of you in on a secret: nothing is as terrifying to a severe cynic as society actually proving to be DUMBER than he/she thought.

@"Zanary" said: Up here by Seattle, there was a constant litany of grades, accountability, etc in schools all being "racist"...and it bubbled back up with annoying regularity.

I'm going to let some of you in on a secret: nothing is as terrifying to a severe cynic as society actually proving to be DUMBER than he/she thought.