New Jersey is trying to boost requirements for proficiency for its third and fourth graders. Expectation breeds development, and the Garden State is upping the standards for passing on annual tests in an effort to equip its students with the motivation to excel. Would you like your son or daughter to be held to a low standard so that they may surf the ripples of scholastics without ever being challenged? The New Jersey Department of Education hopes not because they are raising the tide in an effort to propel a turn for the better.

The old standards for passing language arts and math tests were between 40 and 45 percent. This is a pitifully low standard for sufficiency and was tolerated for a pitifully long time. However, this standard that allows students to fail well has been turned on its head. NJ.com states “Under the new standards adopted by the state Board of Education, public school students who took the exams in May needed to get 50 percent of the answers correct to show proficiency on the language arts and math tests.”

We are still letting students stomach an indigestible idea, even with this raise in passing standards. What is 50%? It is absolutely average. What is average? It’s when you’re as close to the bottom as you are to the top. Is that what we’re permitting our students to consent to? Progress was made in that we are moving in a northern direction of scholastic tolerance, but much more mountaineering is needed before we’re able to set our students on a path of high expectation and high output. “It means we have a higher expectation,” said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy. “We believe very strongly this is the best path for us to follow in order to ensure students who get to high school are ready for the more rigorous work we are now asking of them.”

Although all scores have not been calculated, a random sampling shows that 24% fewer third-graders and 19% fewer fourth-graders reached the proficient level in language arts. In math, almost 18% fewer third-graders, and 8% fewer fourth-graders reached the proficiency level. This should not be distressing, but rather much the opposite. Struggle breeds growth, and if there are students who are having a hard time passing a test on their first go, it simply means they are due for a second go. To lubricate the curriculum in such a way as to make test-taking literally a participation sport does not manure the ground for fertile minds and robust growth. Rather it deters determination and allows for complacency and self-satisfaction to settle in.

Although the standards need to spike up over the 50% mark, progress is still being made. Students that need more help will be more readily identified and easier to assign remedial training. Concerned parents may understandably distress over their child’s poorer performance when the new standards fully kick in. “There will be many, many school districts where it may appear as if suddenly larger numbers of students aren’t doing quite as well. That’s because the bar has been raised. Not many people understand that” said Mike Yaple, a spokesperson for the New Jersey School Boards Association. However, hopefully soon enough, 50% will be the focus of new criticism and intolerance, with a new pavement of progress developed for students to drive to. As Daniel Defoe said in Robinson Crusoe, “Today we seek what tomorrow we shun.” Let’s hope our dislike of yesterday’s standards is constant and growing. Be a part of the change and become a teacher today.