In recent years, the high school diploma has become less and less valuable, and that is because graduating high school is no longer something that students need to work as hard towards. In this article, I will discuss what makes a high school diploma valuable and the policies that undermine that value. Schools are making it easier for students to pass, and in doing so they strip the worth of completing high school and receiving a diploma.
A high school diploma means something because students need to work to obtain it. Getting that diploma is supposed to be an achievement which signifies that a student has learned a certain amount of academic material and met the standards required to graduate. These standards are meant to ensure that students who leave the school system have a base amount of knowledge and skills that will enable them to succeed in the world. With this logic, the choice to fail a student makes complete sense. If a student is not meeting the requirements needed to be worthy of a diploma, they should be kept in the system as long as it is necessary to ensure they gain the knowledge and skills capable of succeeding in the world. This ensures that the school system is properly serving students. However, it seems that society has the opposite approach; it has prioritized passing students, no matter what.
In 2016, neaToday posted an article about a no-zero grading policy. They claim that “a small but growing number of school districts have implemented new grading systems that ban grades of less than 50% – the so-called ‘no-zero’ policy.” The reasoning behind this is that if a student completes an assignment, they should receive at least a 50% grade. This pretty much elevates a 0% to a 50%, meaning that students only need to do well on a few assignments to pass a class, enabling them to put the bare minimum effort into everything else. This system gives students credit, even when those credits have not been earned. If students can put little effort into their work and turn assignments in late, they are not incentivized to learn skills such as time management and effort.
Another article discusses how “schools in Washington state saw a pandemic-era spike in students’ grades that did not line up with how students did on year-end tests, particularly in math, a new analysis finds.” This shows that there is grade inflation, indicating that schools prioritize passing their students over ensuring that they have learned the intended academic material instructed within school districts. This begs the question: What is the point of having standards to graduate and goals for all students to achieve before they get a diploma if they are all going to get one? Schools are telling their students they are doing well through good grades when in actuality they are not.
Overall, the standard for earning a diploma seems to be dropping. Grades were inflated during the pandemic, the standard to pass sharply lowering and overall schools seem to prioritize pushing kids through the system when they should be doing the opposite. If schools set standards to graduate, they should strictly adhere to them to ensure that students going through their system are truly getting a proper education and are prepared for the real world. This philosophy can help society to best serve the next generation and prepare them for what is to come. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the priority. Schools must reverse this trend so that a high school diploma reclaims its value as a genuine accomplishment.