It’s kind of surprising but it sometimes pops up that there are native born Americans who have arrived at the age of majority in the US and are largely illiterate or at best barely literate. In the past I’ve occasionally seen this scenario in stories about some college athletes that wash out of the large football mills or basketball powerhouses, and have virtually no useful reading or mathematical skills.
What’s happened to these folks with the new testing regimens being adopted across the US where you have to pass a skills test to graduate? Are near illiterate college athletes still able to get in college, or are those days over.
A test is only an accurate measure of ability if the person whose ability you want to measure is the one actually TAKING it.
There are enough walkaround guys and hangers-on and leeches looking to make a buck off a kid’s potential, and there are plenty of kids who either don’t know better or feel such entitlement that they will let it happen.
There are enough coaches and boosters and administrators who think athletics first and academics second that they will overlook it.
So while the goalposts may have been moved, the leeches have learned where to kick again.
The impression I’ve been left with from multiple media outlets is that some school districts teach only the material that is on the test in order to maintain a high pass %, which also insures they continue to be funded.
I know this doesn’t specifically answer your student athlete question, but if it’s true for the general student body you can only imagine what is being done for the athletically gifted.
In the last few years, I’ve had several athletes who aren’t really academically prepared for college, but in general I’ve noticed a few things:
The worst students these days are never athletes.
Coaches are heavily invested in their academic performance and will give them the skills needed to do well (e.g. make them go to office hours and keep in touch with me) and will, if necessary, stand over them while they do their homework.
Athletes are also being trained in interpersonal skills: they look me in the eye, shake my hand, they are unfailingly courteous and respectful even when disagreeing.
This is specifically referring to SDSU and UCLA, which schools invest heavily in their athletes, but to a lesser degree it’s true of other places I’ve taught. When I first started teaching, it was different, but now, athletes are some of the best students. Ex-military are also usually excellent. I was a bright, lazy, procrastinating slacker as a student, and I have certainly changed my attitudes about all three of those groups!
I agree with this. Things have changed in the last 15 years or so. I have a HS senior who has been on an elite travelling soccer team for the last six years, and her coaches and the college coaches that talked to her always, always stressed academics before everything else. I know this happens with the AAU basketball teams as well. Only the top 0.01% of elite athletes can get away with shirking school, but only a small percentage of them do so. I don’t really feel that this is due to testing, but just a cultural shift.