Why High School “Rigor” Is Often Just a Facade
The most effective solution to this problem is to inject more content into the elementary curriculum—history, science, the arts—and to educate teachers at all grade levels about the importance of storing information in long-term memory. Fortunately, more and more schools are adopting knowledge-building curricula beginning in kindergarten.
High school transcripts look more impressive than ever, but they often don’t reflect actual learning. One big reason that is generally overlooked: the elementary and middle school curriculum fails to equip kids with the knowledge they need to do high school level work.
A recently released federal study analyzed high school transcripts from a representative sample of high school graduates in the class of 2019. As compared to their peers ten years before, this group took tougher courses, earned more credits overall, and had higher GPAs—all of which sounds like real progress.
But when researchers linked grades in math and science courses to scores on standardized tests in those subjects given as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, they found something disturbing. Science scores were flat and math scores actually declined, even for students taking more rigorous courses.
Researchers chose to focus on math and science because it’s easier to distinguish between basic and advanced courses in those areas, according to Linda Hamilton, a statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). And because the content of those fields is relatively standardized, it can also be easier to measure actual achievement. But, as has been documented in other studies, the disconnect between grades and learning isn’t confined to math and science.
The obvious explanation is grade inflation—and mislabeled courses. “Algebra 1 is not Algebra 1 just because it’s labeled Algebra 1,” a federal official said when announcing the results of the high school transcript study. It’s easier to make a situation look good than to engineer actual improvement.
Concerns about equity may also be a factor. Some school districts, seeing a lack of minority representation in honors classes, have tried to solve the problem by declaring all classes “honors” or labeling nearly all students “gifted.” Teachers may feel that students who lack access to Wi Fi or tutors shouldn’t be penalized by getting lower grades.
In fact, some observers don’t see the discrepancy between grades and test scores as a problem. They argue that grades reflect factors tests can’t measure, like behavior and perseverance. Or they say grade inflation is actually a good thing, because it boosts students’ self-confidence.
But while “soft skills” like perseverance are important, they’re not a substitute for learning; students need both. And it’s great to boost students’ confidence, but only if you’re also giving them a solid basis for that confidence. Otherwise, they’re likely to discover at some point—in college, or on the job—that they lack the knowledge or skills that are expected, and their confidence will crumble.
This Potemkin village of “rigor” isn’t necessarily the fault of teachers or students. Fundamentally, it’s the result of a defective system. And it’s affecting students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
The specific causes of students’ difficulties doing high school-level work vary with the subject. In math, students may not have an understanding of math concepts, or they may not have achieved automaticity with basics like multiplication tables—or both. With reading, they may never have learned to sound out words fluently, or they may lack the knowledge and vocabulary assumed by the texts in the curriculum—or both.
-
Don’t Conform: Going Along to Get Along Will Only Make Matters Worse
Conformity and a “go along to get along” mentality are one of the many reasons we find ourselves in this uneven and dysfunctional season of American life. Of course, it’s propelled by fallen man and sin, but if nobody steps up or speaks out, the abnormal begins to be seen as normal.
It’s an old adage: The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Writing in his diary in 1845, the French writer and politician Victor Hugo chronicled some advice he gave to Abel Francois Villemain, a teacher and fellow French public servant.
“You have enemies?” he asked him, somewhat rhetorically. “Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything which shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.”
Winston Churchill famously echoed Hugo’s sentiment, once saying, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
It seems both the Old British Bulldog and the beloved author of Les Misérables ran up against, if for different reasons, the tension many Christians feel in today’s culture.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we strive to maintain a pleasant posture that lives up to the Apostle Paul’s admonition to believers in Rome to “if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
You have to have something of a sadistic or masochistic streak in you to want enemies, but their inevitability seems to be a foregone conclusion for Christians who remain committed to maintaining and living God’s ways in an increasingly secular world.
Charlie Kirk, who heads up Turning Point USA, recently weighed in on his frustration with Christians who stand down when it comes to cultural discussions out of fear of turning off others or appearing intolerant to the world.
“We as Christians are not called to be tolerant,” he said. “We shouldn’t be tolerant of sin. We shouldn’t be tolerant of rebellion from God.”
Read More
Related Posts: -
3 Reasons Why It’s Actually Good News That Hell is Real
Hell is real. That’s not a popular belief, but the validity of hell’s reality is not dependent on its acceptance. This realm set aside for those who, having not been forgiven of their cosmic rebellion against God and therefore will be eternally separated from Him, is real because the Bible says it is in various places (Matt. 10:28; Matt. 25:41; Jude 1:7; Rev. 21:8).
Hell is real whether or not we want to admit it is. But frightening as it is, the reality of hell is actually good news. Here are three reasons why:
1. Because it means Jesus is trustworthy.
Though the Bible talks about hell lots of times and in lots of contexts, many of them come from Jesus Himself. In fact, perhaps the most vivid description comes one of Jesus’ parables about a man who lived on the lowest rung of the ladder in life and another who lived in luxury. But when both died, their positions were reversed with one existing in eternity in heaven and the other languishing in hell.
If hell were not real, then Jesus was badly mistaken. And if Jesus were badly mistaken about something as important as this, how can He be trusted when He tells us anything else?
That’s the first reason the reality of hell is good news – it’s because it once again reminds us of the trustworthiness of Jesus Christ.
Read More -
Sex and Christ Crucified
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. You are not a free independent agent who is above God’s law, and God cares profoundly about what you do with your body. As a way to plant this in your soul, start your day with this summary, remember it, speak about it, and list a few ways that it could change your day: “This is the good life. It can only be found in Jesus. It is not found in splitting my allegiances between Jesus and an unconsecrated relationship (to use tabernacle language).
In our culture, sexual relationships are where Scripture seems most contrary to the majority opinion, and the majority opinion affects us more than we realize.
Cohabitation is an example. In my own lifetime, it has gone from shameful, to frowned upon, to “better than the alternatives,” to accepted, to a necessary phase of every relationship that is to be celebrated. Marriage, after all, did not seem to help many of our parents stay together.
As a way to revisit the subject, consider the apostle Paul’s thick and fresh pastoral arguments in chapter six of his first letter to the Corinthians. His purpose is important. He wants to show the connection between Scripture’s words about sexuality and “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). I have included the passage below, but since it presents some lesser-used reasoning, I will also paraphrase it, which I have found to be a useful practice with difficult passages. Paul, I hope, would approve.
Here is the original.
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:12–20)
Here is a paraphrase.
Notice how we can find a belief, somewhere in our souls, that we are independent agents, free to make our own decisions. This belief can be aroused when we hear that we “are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14). But be careful.
Read More
Related Posts:
