California: Straight-A high school student not ready for college

[FiddyBeowulf]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/california-straight-a-high-school-student-not-ready-for-college/article/2534767

Hard work, a good attitude, and a desire to learn won’t help a student succeed academically if the local high school regards minimal performance as excellent, as one California student discovered upon arriving at the University of California-Berkeley.

The Los Angeles Times wrote about one young man’s freshman year at Berkeley:

    He had barely passed an introductory science course. In College Writing 1A, his essays — pockmarked with misplaced words and odd phrases — were so weak that he would have to take the class again.

    He had never felt this kind of failure, nor felt this insecure. The second term was just days away and he had a 1.7 GPA. If he didn’t improve his grades by school year’s end, he would flunk out.

...Of course he couldn’t believe it — he had a 4.06 grade point average in high school. “At Jefferson, a long essay took a page and perfect grades came after an hour of study a night,” the Times notes.

This makes me wonder about the quality of the "C" students their school system turns out. Can they even read the words on their HS diploma or do they just use pictures instead of words?

[Zathras]

I'm glad I got my education in California back in the 60's and 70's when the state was at the top of the list when it came to education. I weep for today's kids stuck in the government schools that are getting a substandard education these days.

[JohnnyReb]

If they taught you how to count money and make change in the third grade, you are way ahead of most recent college graduates. See earlier threads about a certain "convenient store" clerk.