Counterfeit high school diplomas

By Walt Gardner

The news that Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of President Park Geun-hye's confidant Choi Soon-sil, was allowed to graduate from Cheongdam High School despite her failure to fulfill the requirements is a national disgrace. But if it is any consolation, the practice is not limited to South Korea. It is a pattern repeated far too often in school districts across the United States, where the number of diplomas issued has risen to an historic high of 82 percent.

Ordinarily, that attainment would be cause for jubilation. But it has been achieved through the use of shortcuts and gimmicks that border on outright fraud. By continuing like this, schools are cheapening the value of a high school diploma for students who have actually earned them. The most common tactic to boost graduation rates in the U.S. is the use of online credit recovery courses. Students, who are failing, attend special classes after school for fewer than 60 hours and earn credit without taking a mastery exam.

When the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest, discovered that only about 54 percent of its seniors were on track to graduate, officials allowed students to make up missed work, using that strategy. This resulted in an immediate jump to 74 percent.

One indication of the scandal is the finding by the Education Trust, a nonpartisan foundation, that more than one in five recent high school graduates could not meet the minimum entry test standards for enlistment in the Army. Nevertheless, districts in the U.S. have been reluctant to disband credit recovery courses. At last count, only 18 states and the District of Columbia had moved to tighten graduation standards. The substitute programs that Chung Yoo-ra took for 36 days to make up for the work of the 141 days she was absent sound as bogus as the credit recovery classes offered in the U.S.

It's hard to believe that any student is capable of overcoming many absences and still demonstrate mastery of the work. Yet a persistent lack of accountability remains in place in both countries.

If Chung Yoo-ra is like students in the U.S. who have been allowed to graduate despite failing to do the work required, she knows that she does not deserve her diploma. With so much talk these days about building self-esteem in young people, giving them something they have not earned is totally counterproductive.

Deep down, students know the truth about their real abilities. The lesson she has learned is that if it were not for her high connections, she would never have been permitted to graduate.

True self-esteem can come only from hard work and sustained effort. These qualities are now referred to by many as “grit.” But by whatever name, they constitute the secret to success not only in school but beyond.

Walt Gardner writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week in the U.S. Write to walt.gard@verizon.net.