Mediocrity on the march: A poster on kindness isn't 'critical thinking'
New York's plan to drop Regents exams as a graduation requirement is "one more sorry milestone on America’s educational march to mediocrity,” the Wall Street Journal editorialized.
"Concrete, measurable, academic benchmarks" will be replaced by a melange of "vague aspirations" known as Portrait of a Graduate, writes Daniel Buck on The Hill.
Students are supposed to demonstrate their ability to be a “critical thinker” and “global citizen” through “multiple measures.”
While 21 states have dropped high school exit exams -- only six still test would-be graduates -- 26 states have adopted some variation of “Portrait of a Graduate,” Buck writes.
A 2024 Digital Promise report analyzed more than 60 "portraits" and provides models to emulate, he writes. For example, middle-school students can spotlight their problem-solving abilities through spaghetti tower challenges or demonstrate “collaboration” by "crafting tri-fold posters about potential gluten-free Taco trucks."
Battelle for Kids praises a presentation analyzing Tupac and Lil Wayne lyrics and a collage of political posters on gun control and abortion rights.
When goals are mushy and impossible to measure, "anything goes," writes Buck, a former teacher who's now a research fellow and the director of the Conservative Education Reform Network at the American Enterprise Institute.
Nobody's held accountable for whether students can add fractions or name the three branches of government if the standard of excellence is building a spaghetti tower.
"How can a school foster grit?," he asks. "Maintain demanding academic gauntlets. How can schools create self-discipline? Set behavioral standards and hold students to them. How can schools enable critical thinking? Provide them the knowledge of history, science, literature, grammar, and the arts that become the tools of critical thought."
Students don't become"global citizens" -- or just a plain old good citizens -- "through kitschy activities where they make posters about how kindness is cool," Buck concludes.
But they might become "changmakers."
I see that Texas' governor-elect, Gina Hinojosa, has pledged to "end the STAAR test and tests like it, and "pause the rigged A-F accountability system for school districts. She wants "real accountability," which means . . . ??? And higher pay for teachers.
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