Mediocrity Is Now Mandatory – WSJ

Has an era of American mediocrity begun? In January the College Board announced it would eliminate the essay portion of the SAT, as well as all of the separate SAT subject tests. Their stated purpose was reducing and simplifying demands on students. Such a burden.

One high school near me just dropped freshman advanced-standing (honors) English to combat the effects of academic tracking because it ultimately separates students of different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. It turns out that middle schools from lower-income areas aren t adequately preparing their students for high school. So rather than fix that problem, they dumbed down high school.

Then again, when the University of California system did away with racial preferences in 1996, it moved to holistic admissions. What does holistic mean? Anything you want. The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities defines it as assessing an applicant s unique experiences alongside traditional measures of academic readiness. Grades are only a suggestion and SAT scores are biased, supposedly. And here you thought smart students got into good colleges. Yes, mediocrity has crept into our self-proclaimed elite colleges. Job recruiters understand this.

via www.wsj.com

This article is generally correct as far as I can tell, but its dis of Reed College is off base. While Reed has long been lefty, as far as I can tell they pride themselves on working their students nearly to death. They have never given grades but expect their evidently highly motivated professors to give lengthy comments on their students copious written assignments. That’s better than getting a letter grade from a TA at State U.