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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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In Our View: Reject Mediocrity

Proposal to lower expectations for state\u2019s students shows misplaced focus

The Columbian
Published:

All too often these days, the discussion about public education loses focus. Whether debating standardized testing or Common Core requirements or teacher evaluations, the goal should remain constant: High expectations for students.

The global economy is becoming increasingly competitive, with the education systems in many countries outpacing that of the United States. And the domestic job market is becoming increasingly demanding, with a growing percentage of professions requiring critical thinking skills and high-tech proficiency. Because of that modern reality, we would expect education leaders in Washington to increase their expectations for students, not diminish them. Yet Randy Dorn, the state’s elected Superintendent of Public Education, has expressed an interest in removing requirements that call for high school students to pass high-stakes exams in order to graduate.

To be sure, Washington students are caught in the middle of a transition. In 1993, the Legislature passed a law requiring would-be graduates to demonstrate proficiency in core subjects before earning a diploma. No longer could a student graduate simply by coasting through school while receiving barely passable grades; at the end of it all, they had to demonstrate they had learned something, and that has been the law of the state for some 20 years.

Beginning with the high school Class of 2019, the Legislature has mandated that students pass Common Core tests in language arts and math in order to receive a diploma. Common Core is designed to demonstrate whether a student is prepared for college — a higher standard than basic high school proficiency. “The double-testing is a problem,” Dorn said. “Having two standards is a problem.” Because of that, he is proposing that tests be dropped as a graduation requirement, a change that would require support from the Legislature.

While it is easy to empathize with Dorn — and with students and teachers — when he says standardized testing presents an unnecessary burden, easing the requirements placed upon students is not the answer. According to the Program for International Student Assessment, the United States ranks outside the top 20 among nations worldwide in terms of student proficiency in reading, math and science. Other studies have yielded similar results — a shameful, unacceptable indictment of the American educational system.

While reasonable arguments can be had over the effectiveness of No Child Left Behind or the Common Core standards, the solution clearly does not lie in a reduction of demands placed upon students. Those students will face high-stakes tests throughout their lives, be it in college or at a job interview or in a challenging part of their chosen profession, and it is the school system’s obligation to prepare them for such tests. Accepting mediocrity guarantees mediocrity, and Dorn’s proposal is an example of the educational system lowering its standards for misguided reasons.

In many ways, the issue mirrors the debate over the Common Core requirements. While there are legitimate reasons to question how Common Core was developed or how it is being implemented, the program’s primary functions are to provide more rigorous learning standards and to demand more from students. Those are admirable goals, and they should be echoed in other facets of public education.

Any plan that lowers expectations for students is a matter of the system losing its focus.

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