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Writer's pictureJoanne Jacobs

The honesty gap: 'How are parents supposed to understand this?'

The "honesty gap" is getting wider, writes Linda Jacobson on The 74. Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Alaska and New York have lowered the bar for proficiency, and Illinois and Colorado are considering similar changes.


It hides pandemic learning loss from parents.


“The crummy thing is, I am an educator and I don’t understand it — so how are parents supposed to understand this too?” Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly wrote in a June 2023 email. “For example, what does Proficient mean vs. Advanced? That they are at grade level vs. the next grade level?”

The National Assessment of Educational Progress sets a high bar for "proficiency," higher than grade-level performance, Jacobson writes. States set a much lower bar, creating the "honesty gap."


Just before the pandemic, some states were trying to raise expectations. Wisconsin had set tough standards for reading and math. Now they're back down again.


“States that have been more ambitious are now sticking out like sore thumbs,” said Quinton Klabon, senior research director of Institute for Reforming Government, a conservative think tank. “It’s kind of a race to the bare minimum, rather than a race to the top.” I


Grade inflation has persuaded many parents that their children are on track for college success.


State tests provide "objective information -- and spotlight students who need extra help, says Christy Hovanetz, a senior policy fellow at ExcelinEd.



Virginia, which had set low standards for reading proficiency, is aiming much higher, writes Jacobson. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin "drew attention to the honesty gap in 2022, announcing sweeping changes to the state’s testing regimen that include stricter standards, assessments and cut scores." The state is bracing for the new school rating system, which takes effect in 2025-26. It's expected most schools will be labeled off track or in need of “intensive support.” 


"Some critics accuse the Youngkin administration of fueling a negative perception of schools in order to promote private school choice, including education savings accounts, which failed in the state legislature last year," she writes.


Oklahoma, under a Republican administration, is going the other way, Jacobson notes. In 2017, Superintendent Joy Hofmeister raised proficiency scores to be closer to the NAEP standard. “The whole idea was trying to get an honest indicator of student readiness as early as third grade when kids start testing,” said Maria D’Brot, a former deputy superintendent. Scores fell sharply.


The change "was wildly unpopular and demoralizing,” said Richard Cobb, superintendent of the Mid-Del District.


Now, under Superintendent Ryan Walters, the bar is lower and the scores are higher.

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JK Brown
JK Brown
Sep 26

The greatest trick ever played was convincing parents and students that what is taught in government schools is what is needed to be successful in life. And now they won't even keep those standards up.


The "educators" are stealing these kids lives by pretending they are doing well for 12 long years. The when students graduate, they learn that what they were taught is school, by professional teachers, was not what was needed and not anywhere near the level needed. And the response of the "professional educators" is to use up more of the child's time with homework learning useless things.


Then when at 18, the "professional educators" declare, now you must go to college at great expense and we…


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Bruce Smith
Bruce Smith
Sep 26

The scores are not higher; the grade descriptors make them appear that way, but the general trend in achievement, around the world, has been downward, even before the pandemic, due, I think, to bad investments of time, energy, and money in technological distractions, habits that Generation Z is likely to regret, if it doesn't already do so.

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