A recent U. Chicago study shows parents pick and pick and choose whichever information confirms their mental image of their own student’s talent and their own school’s high academic standards. All that matters is getting the A grade. Once you’ve slapped on that Honor Roll bumper sticker, who cares if test scores show their child can’t multiply single digits or put fractions in order? Those basic skills can wait for freshman year of college!
But, seriously: what’s really behind this denial of reality?
As the kids would say, it’s not that deep. We don’t like bad news. It’s a scientific fact. We gravitate towards what feels good, and avoid what feels worse.
So we ignore the credit card statement when we know we’ve been splurging. We don’t check the nutrition label when we know we’re going to finish the sleeve of Oreos anyway.
It’s entirely natural… and entirely self-defeating.
Problems will catch up to anyone, and in cases of extreme procrastination, they’ll also collect interest. One debt we’ll have to pay: More than half the kids in our state are not learning the math they need to succeed in school and life.
We can understand why few wish to be the messengers of this sad fact. What we can’t accept is failing to address the needs of our kids. What we see instead is that lawmakers are removing graduation requirements. Superintendents are pressuring administrators to implement a grading floor. Teachers don’t want to be seen as a problem by their principals, who’d rather keep parents happy and oblivious than informed and upset.
We’re not going to improve student performance by shrugging at test results. While graduation rates and grades soar, the objective measures of academic ability stagnate. And the students - it’s always the students - pay the price for our collective lack of courage at the adult level.
Presenting a misleading picture of performance to NJ students and families is, frankly, nuts. Let’s call it what it is, so that we can turn it into something better.
