Grades and test scores are way out of whack in San Diego, reports Jakob McWhinney in Voice of San Diego.
At the School of Creative and Performing Arts, a magnet school, "96 percent of juniors passed science classes during the 2022-23 school year," but only 16 percent met state science standards, he writes. At Lincoln High, 86 percent of students passed English classes, but only 23 percent met English standards. The pass rate in math was 85 percent at Madison High; 13 percent met math standards.
Disparities between grades and test scores were greatest for math and science.
"San Diego Unified is part of a wave of districts that have ushered in standards-based grading," which is meant to "more equitable, especially for students from challenging backgrounds," writes McWhinney. Often students are allowed to turn in work late and retake tests.
Francine Maxwell, the former president of the San Diego chapter of the NAACP, said new grading standards have made an old problem worse. “There’s nothing like walking across that (graduation) stage and making your family proud and then going to college and thinking that that A or B (grade) was real and having to take remedial classes at the college level."
Wow! If we could buy them for what the state says they're worth, and sell them for what the schools say they're worth, we'd make a fortune. Something similar is going to happen to all these kids when their overdue bills get sold to collection agencies. #PublicSchoolIsChildAbuse
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing parents and students that getting good grades meant the student was actually learning. Not to mention, that what is taught by government schools is what is needed to get ahead in the world. Schooling is becoming an actual impediment to acquiring human capital.
"Social justice is an actual impediment to acquiring human capital"
--Thomas Sowell
Is getting a diploma dependent on the class grades or the state tests? If one can get a diploma without hitting a certain score, then what is the point of the test and why would any student try?