This from Instapundit (the rest is behind the Wall Street Journal paywall) (emphasis mine):
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Number of College Students Taking Remedial Courses Explodes. “The number of college students taking at least one remedial course rose to 2.7 million in the 2011-2012 academic year from 1.04 million in 1999-2000, federal data show. During the same span, the amount of federal grants spent by undergraduates enrolled in at least one remedial course rose 380%, after inflation, Education Department figures show. There was also a drastic rise in remedial students taking on student debt. . . . Now, the high dropout rate among remedial-education students—along with a sharp rise in student debt—is fueling debate about whether the government should be more stringent in awarding student aid. Critics—ranging from some think-tank academics and conservatives to a trustee of a community-college system in Texas—say aid should be targeted toward students who are better-prepared.” These are students who shouldn’t be in college. Colleges are letting them in because they want their money.
The above is about student debt – my emphasis is on asking the question “What about the student education? WHY are so many students leaving mostly government high schools SO unprepared for college level work?” It can’t be that Gruber word: stupidity, right?
There’s nothing in the air or water that says “make’em stupider” that I know of. While there can be variations between individuals within a class, or one class compared to others, this shows a whole range of students over 10 or so years. What is that common denominator that COULD be associated with such a decline in student capability over that time? Remedial means “unable to perform at an expected level without assistance”; sometimes it is a re-teaching of subject matter to obtain a mastery of that material but it seems like it is more the case that the material was never taught in the first place. So where to lay the blame and make no mistake, blame / accountability for lack of quantifiable results must start to be laid down or this is never going change.
Sidenote: this seems to be a recent “feature” of our educational system – never heard of such a need in the past.
No, not necessarily should the entire blame be on the teachers (it would take a time span longer than that to complete a turnover of the teaching staff; but this doesn’t help much) or the curriculum (which in my town seems to be every 4 or so years for the next teaching fad to appear). It can’t be just the facilities during that time period either – most physical plants last at least 50 years and many longer than that. It generally isn’t the finances either (unless one is in a “one factory town” and the factory goes broke or leaves) – the money part generally stays relatively stable.
It is however, the longevity of the current factory style / union dominated educational system here in the US and its lack of demand of rigor and excellence. Political correctness, variance away from what has worked in the past in a willy-nilly fashion, substandard teaching in educational college, lower quality of teachers, watering down of the curriculum, ever lowering expectations – pick one, pick a few, pick’em all. Pick some that aren’t there. But one thing is clear.
It ain’t working. At all. Time to pare it down to the real basics: reading, writing, ‘rithmetic. Concentrate on the classics that were years ago used. Memorization of LOTS of stuff in the early grades – it seems that all I hear is the “critical thinking” mantra as the “because” without ever hearing the “need the knowledgebase FOR that critical thinking FIRST”. Teachers should be left alone to TEACH and not be their students’ friends or guides (or some other buzzwords that translates as “let the kids simply teach themselves”).
And put the parents in charge again instead of only being third class entities in this whole thing. Remember, for a long period of time this country was home-schooled – and during that time before the German model was installed (along with the accompanying “Progressive” political theory – ya think there’s a correlation????), the US grew more rapidly than it has lately.
There’s a bunch of other stuff to go on about but the one thing is to bring back rigor as it was before when our kids were at the top of the heap. Changes should ONLY be done AFTER rigorous testing with control groups before widespread or systemic changes are done.
(and yes, I speak with disdain about Common Core which seems to be as much about politics as Shariah Law is to Islam).
