If You Fail to Meet Expectations, Lower Them
That appears to be the philosophy of many states when it comes to meeting education testing standards:
More states lowered their standards for academic proficiency in recent years than raised them, and nearly all used exams that fell short of federal testing benchmarks, according to a new study.
The research, issued by the U.S. Department of Education, called into question the rigor of tests that states select to comply with student-improvement mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind law. It also cast doubt on claims of educational progress made by many states.
Education Department analysts found that 15 states lowered their proficiency standard on at least one fourth- or eighth-grade test of reading or math between 2005 and 2007. Eight states raised the bar.
This makes perfect sense. Why would we try to better educate students, therefore helping them meet expectations, when we can just lower our standards? It’s the new American Way: If at first you fail, lower expectations far enough to ensure success.
Some states, like Maine, attempted to justify lowering standards because the ones in place were unrealistically high. That’s right kids, don’t shoot for the Moon; shoot for the end of your driveway!
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You know Josh, there are several ways to approach this. One is that high expectations are terribly unfair because not everyone can meet them. It might make someone feel bad, you know? Another is that they’re too busy teaching kids how to put a condom on a banana, or how its really great to be gay, or how to say “mmm, mmm, mmm,” after Obama.