Jim Waters has boiled down the nonsense behind Kentucky’s massive awards of high school diplomas into a simple to understand discussion for his weekly column.

It’s really sad that people across the country, even including Melinda Gates, are crowing about Kentucky’s claimed 88 percent high school graduation rate as though the diplomas were really meaningful. The truth is even the Kentucky Department of Education’s own data show far too many diploma awards in this state are nothing more that social promotion exercises.

This is just more evidence of the sorts of things Dewey Hensley, the former academic director in Jefferson County Public Schools, charged was wrong with education in his resignation letter. Wrote Hensley:

“Often ‘credit’ weighed much more than “credibility” in our work.”

Quote from: Letter from Dewey Hensley to David Jones, Jefferson County Board of Education chairman, and JCPS Superintendent Donna Hargens, October 10, 2015Sadly, when it comes to Kentucky’s massive awards of clearly non-credible diplomas, all we can say is “Amen.”