Dumbing Down America's Schools

Pushed by the spirit of the times, school districts across America are dumbing down education. Colleges and universities are no longer paying attention to standardized tests. Elementary and high schools are dispensing with grading. 

The reason: white and Asian children do much better than minority children. Therefore, by the pea brains of the administrators, the game must be rigged. The solution: to eliminate grading, to eliminate competition, to allow all students to imagine that they are equal. It is so stupid it takes your breath away.

Of course, these idiots believe that this is the best way for America’s children to acquire the skills they will need to compete in the world economy. 

Here’s the story, from NBC San Diego. 

Students will no longer be graded based on a yearly average, or on how late they turn in assignments. Those are just some of the major grading changes approved this week by California's second-largest school district.

The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is overhauling the way it grades students. Board members say the changes are part of a larger effort to combat racism.

“This is part of our honest reckoning as a school district,” says SDUSD Vice President Richard Barrera. “If we’re actually going to be an anti-racist school district, we have to confront practices like this that have gone on for years and years.”

No longer does these morons believe that their goal should be to educate children. They want to pretend that they are combating racism. Why? Because in world economic competition and the clash of civilizations, you gain extra credit for being anti-racist.

The problem is grading disparities. And, note the way the first sentence is constructed. The story claims that the fault lies with the teachers who fail poor students. It never crosses their mind that some students might outperform some others, perhaps because they work harder and place more value on education. 

You will note that children who do not know English do not do as well. Why is that a sign of bigotry?

The story continues:

According to data presented by the district, under the old grading system, teachers fail minority students more than White students – a lot more.

During the first semester of last year, 30% of all D or F grades were given to English learners. One in four, 25%, of failing marks went to students with disabilities.

By ethnicity, 23% went to Native Americans. Another 23% of failing grades went to Hispanics. And 20% of D or F grades went to Black students.

By comparison, just 7% of failing marks went to White students.

In an effort to change that racial imbalance, the school board voted unanimously this week to make several big changes to its grading system.

Academic grades will now focus on mastery of the material, not a yearly average, which board members say penalizes students who get a slow start, or who struggle at points throughout the year.

Get that-- "mastery of the material." But, how do they know? In truth, without some testing they do not. It's pure obfuscation.

And, of course, if you want to dumb down the student body, you need to abandon any hope of disciplining students, of punishing those who disrupt the classroom. Oh, and children will no longer be penalized when they turn in assignments late. Is that the lesson you want children to be learning?

Another big change, teachers can no longer consider non-material factors when grading. Things like turning work in on time and classroom behavior will now instead count towards a student's citizenship grade, not their academic grade.

“I think this reflects a reality that students have described to us and it’s a change that’s a long time coming,” says Barrera.

Naturally, they found a student who loves these reforms. After all, there will no longer be a record of his inadequacies-- besides if the whites and Asians do better, it must be bigotry:

Student School Board Member Zachary Patterson, who is also a junior at University City High School, says while some classmates expressed concerns about grade inflation, overall the feedback from his peers is positive.

“I know students all across the school district are really happy with the idea that these other accountability measures are no longer going to be defining their understanding of knowledge,” says Patterson.

After Patterson expressed concerns at this week’s meeting, the board will also review potential student disparities stemming from its zero-tolerance disciplinary policy on cheating in the coming weeks.

Nearly 106,000 students attend a San Diego Unified School District school.

Guess what-- it’s time for an exodus from these schools. Private schools are becoming a necessity, not an option. The minority children who remain in these public schools will be forever damaged, unable to compete in an economy that is not deigned to lie to them about their abilities.