Mississippi education officials have mostly gotten a free pass over the state’s trumped up graduation rate. Every year they tout improved numbers, and conveniently leave out the details about how they got to that point. Namely, they’ve done it by lowering the standards that it takes to get a diploma.
But we’re stubborn just like the education bureaucrats; as long as they keep touting the bogus statistics, we’ll keep pointing out the truth. Eventually someone will listen.
The state Department of Education did it again last week when it announced the graduation rate had reached an “all-time high” of 83 percent. That’s compared to 74.5 percent in 2014.
However, neither the news release nor an accompanying 92-page report care to mention this: Before 2014, students were required to pass four subject-area tests before graduating. Now they’re not.
They’ve been able to either make a 17 in that area on the ACT or earn a C or higher in a dual college enrollment class. Moving forward, they’ll be able to use the subject-area tests as 25 percent of their course grade. Find a sympathetic teacher who doesn’t want a student to become a dropout — or her own school to face scrutiny for a lower graduation rate — and, voila, we have another underprepared diploma-holder.
In 2017, a full 19 percent of all the graduates in Mississippi did not pass one or more of those tests in biology, algebra I, U.S. history and English II. That means a significant chunk of today’s graduates wouldn’t have been graduates in 2014. And those tests are not difficult and have low thresholds for what it takes to make a passing grade.
The state did not report the 2018 numbers about how many students did not pass one or more of the tests. We only have the 2017 data because this newspaper insisted upon getting them through a public records request.
At the very least, the state should readily make available that information every year, so the taxpayers, who foot the bill for public education, can see for themselves whether the graduation rate really means anything or not.
And better yet, the legislature should restore the old requirements and make students pass the tests to prove they know enough to graduate high school.
When education bureaucrats lower standards to prop up statistics and themselves, they are doing so at the sacrifice of students and their future employers.
It’s time to start demanding more from our education system, not less.
— Charlie Smith
