Top Tweets for #gradeInflation

If you've followed me for any time at all, you probably know that I'm not a fan of standardized testing. Too often, it does a disservice to intelligent students who don't "test well." It puts too much emphasis on a narrow set of qualities and throws less easily measured accomplishments into the shade. In my opinion, classical educators should be working to promote more holistic and thoughtful ways of gauging academic achievements, rather than proposing new standardized testing option. However, I'm really struck by this Washington Post opinion piece by a STEM prof at UC Berkeley, and I'm anxious to know your thoughts. ** In an effort to broaden access to STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — for more first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students, UC has been running an experiment: expanding admission without reliably measuring preparation...In spring 2020, the University of California’s Board of Regents suspended the use of SAT and ACT scores in admissions amid concerns that standardized tests were inequitable.... Having abandoned standardized testing requirements, UC now relies heavily on high school grades and essays. But grades have been inflated for years, and artificial intelligence has made essays a poor measure of unaided writing and reasoning. An admissions process without a universal quantitative measure is less reliable, less transparent and more vulnerable to human bias. The consequences are visible in college classrooms. UC San Diego reported that entering students with math skills below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold in five years and roughly 1 in 12 had preparation below middle school benchmarks. At UC Berkeley, 20 to 30 percent of first-semester calculus students have displayed severe preparation deficits for three consecutive years. Students who struggle with fractions are being asked, in the same semester, to learn far more complex concepts like limits, derivatives and Riemann integrals. Mathematics is like building a tower: Each level depends on the soundness of the one below. A student who has not mastered basic algebra is missing the load-bearing structure on which calculus depends. Placing unprepared students into the same classroom as prepared ones puts brakes on the entire class. Our UC Berkeley calculus classes now have to pause to explain basic properties of addition and multiplication — for example, that (a+b) c = ac + bc. According to California’s Common Core standards, this material is taught in third grade. The students most hurt are those the policy was supposed to help — first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students. Hiding preparation gaps does not remove them; it shifts them to the classroom, where they become harder to overcome. While weaker students drown in material they were never prepared to learn, stronger students tune out. ** It's an intelligent and searing indictment of the cost of doing away with those standardized tests. I might need to rethink. https://t.co/rxRaOSO7wf