> We keep lowering the bars on tests to give a trophy to every kid If you read the example you'll see it has nothing to do with giving trophy passing grades to

> We keep lowering the bars on tests to give a trophy to every kid If you read the example you'll see it has nothing to do with giving trophy passing grades to the kids. Instead it has everything to do with money. There is a bunch of federal and state funding that is keyed off of passing rates, number of kids who graduate, etc. Then for teachers anything other than kids passing means they have to deal with parents complaining, their superintendents applying more pressure, etc. For parents who can't afford to pay for their kid to go to tertiary education of some form, their kid is dependent on "passing" these tests. Finally for the regents: they get negative public pressure if large amounts of kids fail, in addition multi choice tests are _vastly_ easier and more importantly cheaper to grade, so the types of question are limited to those that can have multi choice answers. So note that in no part of the above does "trophy for every kid" come up, nor is even relevant. Kids feelings aren't considered nor relevant. It is just easier, cheaper, and results in them receiving more money, if the graduation numbers are increased due to passing grades being lower.