Telling kids they can go to college, even if they earn mediocre or poor grades, undercuts the work ethic they’ll need to succeed, writes Nick Ehrmann in The Atlantic. He describes bright underachievers who slide through high school with C’s and D’s, go to college and fail.
Underachievement Makes Short-Term Sense
Why work hard enough to earn an A when a D will suffice for college admission? As enrollment in higher education reaches record-levels-69.7 percent of all high-school graduates in 2016, a hidden danger awaits thousands at the starting line: Being “eligible” for college admission doesn’t mean that students are academically prepared.
Here is the sad backstory:
Travis skipped homework assignments in high school. He knew the teacher would give him make-up work at the end of the term, so he could earn a C, or at least a D. He thought his grades didn’t matter.
During his freshman and sophomore years of high school, on overnight campus trips sponsored by Hyde’s college-placement office, Travis learned firsthand that “a couple hundred” colleges and universities across the United States likely would offer him admission. “. . . That message was seeping into my brain. If I got straight Cs, admission should be a breeze.”
There was no point in working harder to earn B’s or A’s, he told his former teacher. He could reach his goals with C’s.
Hyde teachers are “trying to help” students by letting them make up work, a geometry teacher said.
“In rich counties,” she told me, “like in Fairfax [Virginia] and all that … they’re very strict. But here, no, you give them as many opportunities, especially because you have a lot of, you know, predominantly African American children, that are supposedly having, you know, low economic issues, and so you give them opportunities.”
In elementary school, Travis had scored in the 53rd percentile in reading, the 41st in math, writes Ehrmann. By the seventh grade, he was scoring at the 27th and 10th percentiles. By the end of 11th grade, “his scores on the SAT fell in the bottom fifth percentile nationally.”In college, Travis was placed in remedial reading. He began skipping classes, ending the semester with two Cs, two Ds, and an F.He dropped out. He now works at Costco packaging food for deli customers.
HT: Joanne Jacobs