<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">Now we’re seeing high-school-level work being brought into college,</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">there to count for credit toward bachelor’s degrees.</b></span></p><div class=""><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 2px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class=""><font size="5" class="">The collapse of academic standards</font></b></span></p><div class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);" class=""><a href="https://edexcellence.net/about-us/fordham-staff/chester-e-finn-jr" class="">Chester E. Finn, Jr.</a></span><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""> Fordham Institution</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 16px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">March 23, 2017</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 16px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">While <b class="">ersatz “credit recovery” and grade inflation devalue the high school diploma</b> by boosting graduation rates even as NAEP, PISA, PARCC, SAT, and sundry other measures show that <b class="">no true gains are being made in student achievement, forces are at work to do essentially the same thing to the college diploma.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Observe the <a href="https://edsource.org/2017/csu-to-overhaul-remedial-education-replace-no-credit-with-credit-bearing-classes/579081https:/edsource.org/2017/csu-to-overhaul-remedial-education-replace-no-credit-with-credit-bearing-classes/579081" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);" class="">new move</span></a> by CalState to<b class=""> do away with “remediation” upon entry to its institutions and instead to confer degree credit for what used to be the kinds of high-school-level content and skills that one had to master before gaining access to “credit-bearing” college courses.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The new term for these bridge classes for entering college students is “corequisite” and California <a href="http://educationnext.org/in-the-news-colleges-remake-remedial-education-by-going-back-to-high-school/" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);" class="">isn’t the only place that’s using them</span></a>. One study at CUNY—dealing with community colleges, not four-year institutions—says greater success was achieved when ill-prepared students were placed in “regular” college classes but given “extra support” than when they were shunted into “remediation.” Perhaps so. Perhaps placement tests aren’t the best way to determine who is actually prepared to succeed in “college level” work. <b class="">But that’s not the same as saying—as CalState seems to be saying—that anyone emerging from high school, regardless of what they did or didn’t learn there, deserves entry into “regular” college classes.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">That essentially erases the boundary between high school and college</b>, and not in the good way being undertaken by sundry “early college” and “Advanced Placement” courses, the purpose of which is to bring college-level work into high schools. <b class="">Now we’re seeing high-school-level work being brought into college, there to count for credit toward bachelor’s degrees.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">This will surely cause an upward tick in college completions and degrees conferred <b class="">(much as credit recovery has done for high school diplomas) but it will also devalue those degrees</b> and cause any employer seeking evidence of true proficiency to look for other indicators. In the end, it will put pressure on many more people to earn post-graduate degrees and other kinds of credentials, thus adding to the length of time spent preparing for the “real world” and adding to the costs—whether born by students, families, or taxpayers—of that preparation.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">All this is, of course, a consequence of misguided notions of equity and opportunity. But what it really does is perpetuate the illusion of success in the absence of true achievement and weaken all versions of academic standards at the very moment most states have been taking steps to strengthen them.</b></span></p><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div>==========<div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
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