Study: ‘Broke-Woke-Stroke’ Bring Down the Value of Higher Education

This is not surprising. Woke college students get their views validated constantly.

Campus Reform reports:

‘Woke’ colleges ‘stroke’ student egos, study arguesA new study reveals a crisis in higher education attributed to expensive tuition, “woke” culture, and universities that lower academic rigor, whether over sympathy for indebted students or social justice.“‘Undeserved’ Grades or ‘Underserved’ Students?,” published in Higher Education Politics & Economicspresents a professors’-eye view of grade inflation.Professors Mark Horowitz, Anthony L. Haynor, and Kenneth Kickham shared survey results from over 200 professors at public universities to suggest that, unless universities address the tension between calls for equity and merit, they cannot restore faith in higher education as an institution that educates well-rounded citizens.Horowitz and Haynor are sociology professors at Seton Hall University, and Kickham is a political science professor at the University of Central Oklahoma.They begin their argument by exploring the three factors that erode the value of higher education, making “diploma mill” a search term that “appears over half a million times.”The “broke-woke-stroke” triad, according to the authors, describes the “corporatization” of higher education; a campus climate hostile to ideas outside the orthodoxy on race or gender-related issues; and faculty who give students high grades in response to their sensitivity, different academic abilities, or loan debt.Data on grade inflation show that the percentage of “A” grades increases by five to six percent every decade. The authors blame “the college-for-all creed.”“If this view is correct,” they write, “the material factor (‘broke’) is likely the main driver of grade inflation, as cash-strapped universities tap an ever-larger market of students expected to go to college, whatever their preparation or intellectual readiness.”Survey respondents also perceive grade inflation. 48 percent of respondents “agree that grade inflation is a serious problem,” 33 percent “admit to reducing the rigor of their courses over the years,” and 47 percent “agree that academic standards have declined.”When respondents diverge, however, there are major differences in political orientation. There is a “stairway pattern” in survey responses, including a question in which “radicals” or “liberals” were more likely than “moderates” to “agree that virtually all students admitted with serious academic deficits can excel in a challenging curricular environment with sufficient academic and university support.”

Tags: College Insurrection, Social Justice

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