Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is lucky he got out of school before Common Core and high-stakes testing. He would never have finished high school.
As politico.com reports, Graham was a C student. He scored 800 out of 1600 points on the SAT. That’s about 400 on reading and 400 on math, abysmal scores.
Yet he was accepted by the University of South Carolina, the first in his family to go to college, and made a success of his life, despite his awful test scores and average grades. He was NOT college-and-career-ready.
There is a lesson here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Just another in a long line of Upper Echelon Ladder Up Pullers (UELUPs), both Dumbocrap and Ripofflichen.
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“There is a lesson here”.
Is it this?:
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“He was NOT college-and-career-ready.”
…and still isn’t
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It explains a lot.
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It’s easy for incompetents and mediocrities to be successful, as long as they loyally serve the interests of the Overclass, and Graham is a case in point.
That’s why, in our neck of the woods, it’s so hard to know where the incompetence ends and the malice begins, since those who advance under so-called education reform range from naive, to opportunistic, to straight-out sociopathic. Still, whatever rancid flavor they come in, so-called reformers are ultimately serving Gates, Broad, the Walton family, etc.
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…and the people who voted for him ?????
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Michael…we have to be careful in labeling all mediocre students who rise to authority figures. Two Kennedy brothers were C students, and one was an A. They all worked for the common good however. Even with a father who was a supporter of the Third Reich and an anti Semite. The apple does not always fall near the tree. And then there are the Bush brothers…..
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There are great stories out there. But I’m glad my surgeon went to UNC and another to Brown. There are real successes by students who did get good grades and stayed focused: let’s not forget or put down those.
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Agree with you on this Peter…my son was a scholar starting in public school kindergarten, graduated HS after 11th grade, and then earned 3 degrees from Yale, simultaneously, in Chemistry and in Economics, then he went off to U. of Chicago for a JD/MBA….and as much as I would like to take credit for it, in reality it was the combination of coming from an educated middle class family who never had to live in poverty, and sheer LUCK that he was not born with any learning challenges such as dyslexia.
And yes, I too would choose the surgeon with the best academic creds, but I would search for his M and M stats as well. BTW, my GP doc was NOT top of his class at Penn State, but he sits and listens carefully, looks things up on his computer, and invites his patients to come to his office with no appointment when they are sick. Life is made up of so many choices.
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The lesson is that when you team up with McCain you can grab lots of media time despite your mediocrity.
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One of my all time favorite politicians teamed with McCain to write an excellent bill. McCain/Feingold was a golden in its attempt to halt the flow of campaign spending.
And now, thank goodness, Russ Feingold, who is definitely not mediocre, is again running for his old Senate seat. Please send him a few bucks for his campaign against another divisive Right Winger who votes Republican party line, with the Graham (and Christie).
Russ Feingold for US Senate.
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word disappeared…meant Graham allies.
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However, it goes to prove that you can be successful even with average grades and below average SAT scores.
Being college and career ready is a personal thing, often not reflected by grades. And going to college does not ensure success in life.
Plus why do you have to be an A student to be career ready? There are lots of technical jobs out there which require physical dexterity and/or mechanical ability.
I can write you an A paper or ace any test, but don’t ask me to change a lightbulb or hang a painting, let alone repair my furnace or fix a leaky faucet.
I want the high school students to be high school students, not college sophomores. Time for that later.
Ellen #GetRidOfCC
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There are many paths to success. High scores on the SAT are not the total picture. If we continue to weed out people on the basis of scores, we are losing tons of talented people. We also discriminate against women, the poor, ELLs and the disabled in the process. There are different types of intelligence, and all should be encouraged. We should not use scores as gatekeepers. We should work to open doors for people, not close them.
Today it would be unlikely this poor boy from South Carolina would be able to get a foothold in politics, unless he sells his soul to the devil like Obama. Most of the candidates come from wealth because money buys elections. That is why millionaires and billionaires are dominating elections while promoting policies that hurt the middle and poor class.
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I can tell you were a great teacher.
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Thanks. I was an ESL teacher, and I served the poor language minority students that didn’t fit the mold. ELLS are great kids that just need support and a fair shot. My motto is, “Meet them where they are, and take them where they need to go.”
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Retired Teacher – you are so wise. I agree with you wholeheartedly. Now, what do we do about it?
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Many of us in SC would not hold up Graham as a success. We get he’s not well educated.
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Peter,
Graham is not flipping burgers or mowing lawns. CC would have made him a dropout. There are educated sleaze balls as well as uneducated ones. Ted Cruz is proof that a Princeton degree does not guarantee kindness, compassion, or empathy.
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They don’t seem to get the point. Thank you for clarifying! It’s about opportunities for all and not creating a system that will continue to separate the haves and the have nots.
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Diane, my state might be better served were he mowing lawns. Except for the lawn owners.
I know what you’re saying that maybe degrees don’t matter as much as we think, and that’s true.
But maybe these two knuckleheads, Cruz and Graham, really support the idea that you can be less than mediocre regardless of education. Lindsay is ours, we we get to say that.
Remember, we gave you Strom.
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Many of the hedge funders went to Ivy League schools and were top students achievers. Their prime educations, and a high IQ, plus privilege, did not give them a conscience and a regard for their fellow humans. See Tilson for his arrogance and disdain of others, an exemplar of these ‘successes’ in industry.
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If Romney and the Bush’s did not have powerful parents, they would be cube rats and trying to figure out how to finance new tires while paying for college. As the rich and trust fund babies get more isolated, they lose touch with their own human limitations and begin to believe themselves superior beings entitled to rule over others. The Party of Stupid has multiple meanings.
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I don’t agree with the negativity here in the comments. We are missing the point: Today’s arbitrary definition of “college and career ready” PREVENTS college for many students who would thrive in…College and Career.
I know someone much like Graham… Hated high school (watching my son in high school – there’s a serious problem when a kid is ready to dig deeper but the coursework remains middle-schoolish…more about doing the paperwork than learning stimulating ideas).
This person is now an extraordinarily successful lawyer, has appeared on Sixty Minutes, is known internationally, and is exceptionally smart. Their mediocre high school grades were followed by nearly straight As in college. Yet they tell me they don’t think they’d be able to go to college in today’s environment.
Kids develop in unusual ways. Putting arbitrary barriers in their way is damaging to society… I’d hate to have lost the powerful contribution from my friend.
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Doug, I don’t mean this negatively, because I’ve also seen turned off kids go on to success. We’ve created high schools that do that, and we’ve created barriers.
So what the solution? We could fix some things in K-12. But I don’t see open enrollment in college as feasible.
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Peter,
I think we should let colleges set their own entrance requirements.
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Absolutely agree, Diane. Well, at least academically.
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Peter, I would disagree with you. Years ago the University of Montana had to accept me because I graduated from high school. They allowed me in and that was all I needed, a chance. I had to maintain a 2.0 average or they would send me packing. They were willing to take all comers because they knew they could replace me. There was little or no risk to them, it was up to me to do the work to stay in the University. I knew that and got a fine education from them.
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Agree on open enrollment. On the other hand, we have set arbitrary barriers that may have little to do with college success. That’s frankly stupid. For example, most colleges require 2 years of foreign language for admission. I fully agree with the idea of foreign language. Yet I have a son who is quite bright and very dyslexic. When a page of English is visual torture, how will a page of Spanish not be far, far, far worse.
Now, should the fact that he does badly in foreign language prevent his going to college? He is incredibly bright – particularly with political issues and things in society. So it certainly shouldn’t prevent him. But “2 years language” is required to get a good ranking in the USNews (which doesn’t actually exist) college rankings (which sadly exist). So colleges add the requirement – regardless of whether it “matters” in finding students who will succeed in college.
Don’t know the answer. But the current system is really screwed up.
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Agree. What doesn’t seem to get addressed is that we also admit many who shouldn’t get in at all. We collect their money, and tie them up in debt. They often drop out.
Shouldn’t we be looking for things that actually lead to success instead of throwing up barriers?
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Debt may be the key word. I don’t think it’s as overt as in the profit colleges. But there is a big debt industry out there – and it depends on having a lot of people get into colleges they can’t afford.
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“Get into” being the operative words. Getting out of college or getting something out of college is sort of irrelevant.
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Don’t know that it’s irrelevant. But certainly “getting something out of college” depends on the individual and their willingness to dig deeply and to seek to learn. The “trade school” approach that seems to be what is asked of colleges today doesn’t often lead to what I got out of my education (which was a lot) or what I’d like college to help my son learn. But he seems likely to dig for the courses and learning that matter for him.
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Doug…there are excellent colleges for alternative students like your son, such as Reed College and others. I hope he applies to those likely to take him for his personal giftedness, and not focus only on the Ivy League or public universities like the huge campuses U of California, which have so many A+ students from which to choose. They are less likely to be as sanguine in the interview process than the smaller and other-directed liberal arts colleges which attract unique students.
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What is bothersome is the anti-intellectualism rising in the country. Negative comments are nothing compared to the systematic demonization of teachers and the belief that education and reason can be replaced with faith and sound bytes. If we define “success” as well connected and fortunate, then we lose the meaning of achievement and devalue individuals.
I have no problem with your anecdotal story and can offer the same telling. But I can offer many more stories of parents openly disparaging teachers or proudly professing their ignorance and hatred of subjects, sometimes in front of their students. Even when a religious leader embraces science as Pope Francis did, we still see large numbers of political leaders ironically clinging to belief over rational thought.
There is something wrong when a person can work hard to pay for and attend school 22+ years yet earn minimum wage while another can be disruptive in class or take the easy route and earn 10 times the income. I do not suggest denying opportunity, rather we need to recognize hard work and value learning.
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The anti-intellectualism has been with us a long time. Read Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.
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Agreed. The growing power of the anti-intellectuals is disturbing. Before, at least reason had importance, even in conservative circles. Now we have Bill O’Reilly and Ted Cruz leading conservative thought. The irony is that technology and advances such as the internet have given a stage to ignorance to previously was considered fringe.
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Absolutely no disagreement about teachers. My main issue was the negativity I was ready motivated by who Lindsay Graham represents rather than the fundamental truth that “college and career ready” isn’t an obvious thing easily determined…well…by any arbitrary scoring.
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Yes, Mathvale…and Walker is a college dropout. Or maybe tossed out. Frightening to think of him as Prez…agree it would be back to the Dark Ages.
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I agree. One of the lessons here is that people do not stop learning and developing the moment they leave high school. In one of his essays, Alfred North Whitehead quotes Archbishop Temple, who, when told of an unpromising student who had gone on to be very successful, said: “It is not what they are at eighteen, it is what they become afterwards that matters.”
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We need, as a country, to keep that opportunity for success based on effort and learning. Instead, we have PhDs working at Walmart while mediocre performers lead the country and our states. Another example is Walker who merely fronts for billionaires yet is running Wisconsin into the ground. That state is such a disaster even his blindly supportive media cronies are complaining. Walker takes an adversarial view of education and wants to be president. My fear is such a leader represents a philosophy returning us to the dark ages.
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More egregious, Mathvale, are the PhDs handed out by Walmart-like cyber institutions, and even venues that are earthbound. Too many worthless credentials abound, and this adds to the vast dumbing down of education, the legal system, the therapist group, public employees, social workers, etc. and these minimalist ‘graduates’ generally do little to add to a successful workplace.
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He has those “character traits” that are more important than academic performance. No, I’m not talking about “grit”. I’m talking about sociopathy.
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The owner of this blog: “There is a lesson here.”
Michelle Rhee: “I reject that mind-set.”
NJ Commissioner of Education: “Whatever we’re doing, we need to double down.”
Comment#1: a bit of common sense on Planet Reality backed up by facts and logic.
Comment#2 & Comment#3: cries for help from the denizens of Rheephormlandia.
I’ll go with #1…
😎
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“He was NOT college-and-career-ready.” He still isn’t!
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C average and 800 on SATS qualified him for more than half the colleges in the US at the time. I was up for NROTC when applying to college, and I remember there were 32 universities that offered it, and I had a booklet with their admissions requirements. One was Auburn, whose requirements were 800 SAT and applying two weeks before registration. The standards being imposed by David Coleman and company would if strictly applied eliminate significant numbers of students from getting ANY kind of higher education, including community colleges. One can be ready for community college even while working while not being ready for the Wellesley you attended, the Harvard my wife attended, or the Haverford I attended.
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and as I remember, the fact that I might have been ready for Haverford (debatable, since it did take me 10 years to get through) did not mean I was ready for any kind of meaningful career. That was one point of a liberal arts education, to broaden oneself.
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There is a lesson here but WILL LINDSEY GRAHAM then be an advocate for the ridiculousness testing and data obsession spreading like gangrene around the public schools of this nation BY DEPT OF ED FORCE?
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Everyone has to have the opportunity to learn and grow without being categorized and limited due to a standardized test score.
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Quite correct Jennifer, quite correct!
As Wilson points out in his seminal work, definitely the most important educational writing in the last 50 years, “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 :
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
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In LA last week, the LAUSD BoE and the administration agreed to a new range of acceptable grades for graduation. It now goes from
A – G, with D being accepted for senior grad testing. Many of us feel this is a sad situation and one more social promotion that leads to false hopes for a productive future for the D students. They will not be able to get into the Cal State University system which takes C students, nor even two year CC for vocational training.
How will they earn a living?
They will however have a diploma…. and an employer will expect them to be qualified for job descriptions that include math and language arts skills like writing proposals etc.
They will be easy prey for the For Profit college crooks who will loan them tuition money (keeping them in debt forever) and promise them great jobs in doctor’s offices and as mechanics…all of which require good reading, writing, and math skills. For shame, yet again, LAUSD!
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Maybe the TFA can tutor him for two years.
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Too bad he and the rest of the GOP are irony-impaired, among other defects.
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True story:
I got Fs and Ds my entire time in high school before I dropped out. Later, I got a GED, went through a community college with a perfect GPA, and then graduated highest in my class from a small, top-tier liberal arts college.
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For a fuller picture, combine this with the early grades of our Nobel laureates.
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Forty years ago, 400 was the average score on each SAT test, so historically I wouldn’t call his scores ‘abysmal.’ His impact on our country, however, is abysmal.
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Ellen–yes, SO glad Feingold is back in politics &, yes, people. please donate to his senate campaign! So sorry for all of us that Walker beat him. (Bush may be a front-runner, but Walker is the darling of the Midwest, so we’ll see how that turns out.)
As per 2016, donate to Bernie–brilliant on “Real Time w/Bill Maher!”
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