'Disconnected' diplomas are useless

Lowering academic standards and dropping graduation exams don't reduce student stress or promote a "holistic" education, writes Chris Cerf on The 74. They make it look as though students are prepared to succeed without doing the hard work of teaching them. Students with "diplomas disconnected from proficiency" will experience plenty of stress when they discover they're not prepared for job training or college classes.    

"The New Jersey Assembly recently moved to eliminate the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment, writes Cerf, who served as New Jersey commissioner of education, superintendent of Newark Public Schools and New York City deputy schools chancellor.

It's a national trend, he writes. Fewer than 10 states still require high school exit exam, down from a peak of nearly 30. Students get diplomas "without any objective evidence that they have mastered the minimal skills necessary for future success."

A graduation exam warns students they need to improve their skills before they try to enter the workforce or higher education, he writes. It's an objective metric, unlike course completion, which has become meaningless due to grade inflation and "credit recovery."

"When policymakers eliminate a uniform metric, they don’t eliminate inequity," writes Cerf. "They hide it."