13.5.1: Mediocrity

 13.5.1: Mediocrity 

Mediocrity refers to being inferior or second rate, characteristics that are inexcusable when it comes to the U.S. educational system. The Rising Tide of Mediocrity Since I know you love taking tests, let’s see how you do on these three questions: How many goals are on a basketball court? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 How many halves are in a college basketball game? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 How many points does a three-point field goal account for in a basketball game? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 I know this sounds like a joke, but it isn’t. Sociologist Robert Benford (2007) got his hands on a copy of a twenty-question final examination given to basketball players who took a credit course on coaching principles at the University of Georgia. It is often difficult to refer to athletes, sports, and academics in the same breath, but this is about as mediocre as mediocrity can get. Let’s move to a broader view of the mediocrity that plagues our educational system like pollution plagues gasoline engines: Arizona officials gave their high school sophomores a math test covering the math that sophomores should know. One of ten passed. Arkansas officials get their students out of high school by dropping the passing score in math to 24 out of 100 (Urbina 2010). In Washington, D.C., most of the students who graduate from high school operate at about the fifth grade level. How do they graduate? When they fail a course, they take something called “Credit Recovery,” which does not require a test (Rossiter 2012). In Florida, only 27 percent of the state’s fourth graders passed the reading test. That didn’t sound good, so the state lowered the grade required to pass, and suddenly 80 percent passed (Kristof 2012). Much better. 430 Now here’s the icing on the cake. In states where students are failing so miserably, 95 percent of the teachers are graded as “highly effective” or “effective” (Bernstein 2014). “Effective at what?” you might ask. It must be at impeding their students’ learning. Certainly these teachers are not effective in teaching. Some graduates of prestigious law schools were having difficulty getting jobs. This reflected badly on these proud law schools—Georgetown, Golden Gate University, Loyola Law School, Tulane University, and New York University. They found a quick solution. To make their graduates look better, they raised everyone’s grades (Rampell 2010). Much better-looking transcripts—all in a flash. The letter grade C used to indicate average. Because more students are average than superior, high school teachers used to give about twice as many C’s as A’s. Now they give twenty times more A’s than C’s. Students didn’t get smarter—grading just became much, much easier. Grade inflation is so pervasive that 55 percent of all college freshmen have an overall high school grade point average of A. But grading is tightening up. Two years ago, 59 percent entered college with A averages (Statistical Abstract 2017:Table 298; 2019:Table 300). Any way you look at it, many of today’s A’s are the C’s of years past. Easy grades and declining standards have been accompanied by social promotion, passing students from one grade to the next despite their failure to learn the basic materials. One result is functional illiteracy, high school graduates who have never mastered things they should have learned in grade school. Some even have difficulty with reading and writing. Some high school graduates can’t fill out job applications; others can’t even figure out whether they get the right change at the grocery store. Hearing from the Author: Mediocrity Listen to the Audio Listen to the Audio