SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

In a comment to Saxon Math, Anyone?, Chuck asks what we think of the Ontario Premier’s announcement that Ontario high school graduation rates have risen to 81%. 

Well, our first reaction is that it’s a bit weird for him to be bragging about this, since his original pledge had been to raise high school completion rates to 85% by 2011.

Our second reaction is fairly well summed up by the comments to the newspaper announcement, namely that more students are passing because standards have been lowered - as opposed to more students attaining the former standard. Over the past several years, the Ontario Ministry of Education has had a number of initiatives along these lines - from a dumbed down curriculum, to credit recovery programs, to automatic bumps for marks as low as 39%, to a requirement that teachers formally defend every failing mark, to prohibitions against deducting marks for late or incomplete assignments, to co-op placements that count as high school credits, and on and on. 

As Lowering Higher Education, the new book by two UWO professors (soon to be reviewed), so aptly puts it: “A system can certainly ensure that virtually all students complete high school by ignoring non-compliance with basic academic standards and behavioural requirements, but what kind of education are these students receiving?”