New Jersey just doubled the percentage of students who are "graduation ready" in reading, writes Chrif Cerf, the former state superintendent. It was easy. The state school board lowered the minimum passing score on New Jersey's high school graduation test.
The pass rate in reading went from 39 percent to 80 percent. In math, the pass rate went from 49.5 percent to 56.5 percent. This "undermines the critical goal of equity," argues Cerf.
One board member who supported lowering the passing score suggested that it was “unfair” to “Black and Latino students” to require underperforming students to demonstrate a higher level of proficiency in reading and math before graduating. This gets it exactly backward. Every student, regardless of race or economic circumstances, should be launched into adulthood ready for success.
The message to New Jersey families is clear, writes Cerf. "Expect less, get less."
We need a movement away from high schools towards apprenticeships for the majority of our youth, while a minority attend high colleges preparing students for university: through this state system, all teens should be able to launch into young adulthood successfully, unlike today, when 16 per cent are not in education, employment, or training, and the least skilled are more overpaid than ever before, or anywhere else in the world.
Give them a high school diploma after 8th grade and let them find their own way through life knowing absolutely NOTHING, but they know plenty about Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, TikTok influencers, etc...
Talk about setting up kids for failure in a few years out of high school
Why bother teaching them at all? Just give them all diplomas and call it good. It would certainly save a lot of money.
"Carthago delenda est" To modernize Cato: The public school system must be destroyed.
It's past the point where it can be "evolved" or "transformed" into something sane. It has to be destroyed and rebuilt from the ground up.