They raise the standards so high and yet do not recognize all the outcomes of doing this. In 1998, the commutative grade point average of high school students was 1.40 on a 4.00 scale. New York State realized something needed to be done about this, however, they raise the standards. Their reason for doing this is because they said students are not getting the education they need to go to college and prepare for the real world. Maybe this is a good idea but, something more needs to be done. As of the year 2000, the cumulative grade point average only went up by 0.20 of a point. This is not a difference at all. Talking to students from the New York State education system with different grade point averages all agree that the standards should be lowered. "Or at least be flexible, like they have been. It should be up to the student to decide whether they want to get a regent's diploma or not. Especially when only two states really think that this is of importance anyway. It is ridiculous!' says one high school student. Also note, this is a high honor student who ranks 36th in her graduating class.
Well what about South Carolina? In 1998, their cumulative grade point average was only 1.00. Of course, this is horrible. Well by the year 2000, it went up to 3.00. How was this possible? "I believe that the school districts did something to make themselves look better. That is just going to hurt our children in the long run," says a representative of the New York education system (no name stated). South Carolina figured that if students could not have "good" grades with the standards "low" then why raise them. However, the standards for graduating high school were not meeting the standards of education for everyday life. Therefore, what did the Board of Education of the State decide to do, they decided to raise the standards, but in perspective to each student special needs?.
There are many alternatives to what the "standard" should be.