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If you want everyone to pass, lower the standards. The end result will be that certificates from schools without high standards will be worth less in the eyes o

by ctrlp 5y ago

If you want everyone to pass, lower the standards. The end result will be that certificates from schools without high standards will be worth less in the eyes of employers (while still costing the same to the student). As they progress through such a system, some students will be placed in advance of their abilities and fail out at a higher rate than they might otherwise when they reach an institution with non-negotiable standards, like the hard sciences, demoralizing those who might otherwise have found their place of achievement, self-respect, and independence. Or, even those institutions will cave to such pressures and simply "mark 'em up, ship 'em on", as you have described. Caveat emptor.

beej71 5y ago
Why not improve at teaching the material instead of lowering the standards?
- ctrlp 5y ago
  Why, indeed. Maybe our standards for teachers are too lenient. In any case, it is possible that there is no quality of teaching that will change a student's natural aptitude. It's a disservice to huge swaths of the population to funnel them, ill-prepared, into colleges. Maybe a network of high-quality trade schools would be a better fit for some.
- jayd16 5y ago
  The obvious answer is you lower the standards that year because somewhere the system broke down. (It being much more likely that there is an issue with the system than some kind of statistical anomaly with the students) Then you evaluate and attempt to improve techniques as is done every year.
- concordDance 5y ago
  How? Hundreds of billions of dollars and a million man years have been spent on that problem to get to the current state.
- rocqua 5y ago
  Two factors. First, there are clearly a large number of people out there who have no business trying to pass algebra 101. Even if they theoretically could with sufficient effort and tutoring, it is not worth their time, nor is it going to lead to that much that is beneficial. Second, teaching is already hard. Teaching math also requires an understanding of math that is rare. Hence finding people who are good math teachers is hard. Finding people who are good math teachers and willing to do it for a math teachers salary is even harder. If it were trivial to improve our teachers we would off course do it. But it is not at all trivial. I think this matters less in a liberal arts college, but especially if you are going to ask students to build on their algebra 101 with other courses. If passing algebra 101 took a lot of effort, chances are that the other courses are going to take the same amount of effort, if not more.

by ctrlp 5y ago

beej71 5y ago

Why not improve at teaching the material instead of lowering the standards?

ctrlp 5y ago
Why, indeed. Maybe our standards for teachers are too lenient. In any case, it is possible that there is no quality of teaching that will change a student's natural aptitude. It's a disservice to huge swaths of the population to funnel them, ill-prepared, into colleges. Maybe a network of high-quality trade schools would be a better fit for some.
jayd16 5y ago
The obvious answer is you lower the standards that year because somewhere the system broke down. (It being much more likely that there is an issue with the system than some kind of statistical anomaly with the students) Then you evaluate and attempt to improve techniques as is done every year.
concordDance 5y ago
How? Hundreds of billions of dollars and a million man years have been spent on that problem to get to the current state.
rocqua 5y ago
Two factors. First, there are clearly a large number of people out there who have no business trying to pass algebra 101. Even if they theoretically could with sufficient effort and tutoring, it is not worth their time, nor is it going to lead to that much that is beneficial. Second, teaching is already hard. Teaching math also requires an understanding of math that is rare. Hence finding people who are good math teachers is hard. Finding people who are good math teachers and willing to do it for a math teachers salary is even harder. If it were trivial to improve our teachers we would off course do it. But it is not at all trivial. I think this matters less in a liberal arts college, but especially if you are going to ask students to build on their algebra 101 with other courses. If passing algebra 101 took a lot of effort, chances are that the other courses are going to take the same amount of effort, if not more.