One of the extremely frustrating aspect of teaching in public schools today is watching the declining value of our students’ diplomas. By declining in value I am including several factors and stats into my reasoning. Things to quickly come to mind include: graduation rate increases the past two decades, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the average number of years it takes to attain a college bachelor’s degree increasing, and several other factors.
When I graduated high school in the mid-1990s, we were not pushed to believe college was the only way to go for our future to be bright. We were pushed to have a post-high school plan and to research how to make that plan work. Then we were instructed on what we needed to do to graduate high school to be best prepared to for our plan. The final step rested on our shoulders. We had to earn our diploma. We had to prepare appropriately for own plan. We were not given grades, we were not passed to the next grade level until we earned it, and we certainly were not graduated without earning the diploma.
Now teachers are forced by school boards and administrations to do any and every thing to pass students on to graduation; whether they earn it or not. We are no longer encouraged to teach our students. Instead, we are told to “get them through”. A student sits in class and does zero work and teachers must give them a 50% at the end of the quarter. In my current school system we use a 10 point college grading scale, meaning we have to put their grade at 10% below passing. They have done none of the work, they have learned none of the information, but they are almost passing.
I understand the urge to have every student graduate. However, the answer is to find ways to approach struggling students in a way to encourage their continued effort. The truth is that it will not work for every student, and that is a tragic fact. The hard truth is; when it does not work, the student will fail. Giving a student a diploma, or even a passing grade, does not benefit the student. Worse is the negative impact this has on the students who find a way, who do what they need to do to earn their diploma. It now takes an average of five-and-a-half years to earn a college degree due to the devalued diplomas we are issuing. Colleges know some students are graduating high school unprepared for college.
We are cheating all of our students. Those graduating without earning it are left believing they can keep a job without doing the work they are assigned. Worse, some go to college assuming they will simply be given the grade until they graduate. Those doing to work to earn their diploma are placed in introductory courses their first year of college to ensure they are ready. This costs these students a semester, or year, of time and money.
Public School Truth 