Achievement Archives - Granite Grok

KLAR: Harvard Revamps Grading Integrity, Students Howl

November 21, 2025 John Klar

Harvard University has suffered numerous blows to its prestige in recent years, but generally these have been earned. A recent report by Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Education determined that Harvard has inflated grades for students so much that more than 60 percent of grades awarded to undergraduates are A’s. If everybody gets an A, merit … Read more

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Homeschooling Survey: They Use Many Different Methods to Learn to Read

May 2, 2024 Jody Underwood

Homeschooled students typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests, according to The National Home Education Research Institute.

Is Success in Education Really about Money? Is It about Race? Or is it about Effort?

December 22, 2021 Skip

So what to conclude about these two graphs? Is education success really about money? Is it about race?

Why Can’t Johnny Get a Job?

February 15, 2021 Skip

The story from the employers or human resource officers over the past 10 years hasn’t changed. For every ten applicants for an entry-level job, over half cannot pass a simple literacy test.

Granite Crock: ‘Don’t confuse us with the facts!’

February 10, 2021February 10, 2021 Ian Underwood

Long ago, a Congressman from my home state gained notoriety when he said, while defending Richard Nixon, ‘Don’t confuse me with the facts.’ I was reminded of this upon reading an article that Steve forwarded to me from the Granite Crock site, which was written to ‘debunk’ something I’d written.

School Funding: Lower Taxes, Same Student Achievement

February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 Ian Underwood

If you had the Triangle of Light (from Tomb Raider), you could just go back in time to 1998, the year of the Claremont II decision. You don’t have that, but you have something almost as good — a filing cabinet.

Approved for Achievement?

November 4, 2020 Ian Underwood

A school district that doesn’t offer instruction in a particular grade can tuition a student in that grade to a public school outside the district, or to a private school. In order for that to happen, the school has to be ‘approved’ by the Department of Education.