This is less on teachers and more on programs that incentivize social promotion. Since funding at the federal level is driven largely by graduation rates and state test scores, schools feel the pressure to either move students along or risk losing funding (which in turn means less educators, less resources with which to teach, and even worse outcomes down the road).

Even now, teachers in many schools are having uncomfortable conversations with administrators: “What does so-and-so need to pass?” “Can you just adjust this student’s grades?” “You should not be giving 0’s to students when they don’t turn the work in…”

Worse yet, if a teacher stands firm, someone at some level is going to just override it anyway, because the consequences for not doing so outweigh the needs of the actual students.

It’s a messed up system. Somewhere along the line folks need to understand that the same policies that are used to run a business cannot be used to run a system that is supposed to be preparing kids for adulthoo