If the article's premise of "poor grades are caused by faulty grading metrics and bad attitudes on the part of staff", we should see statistical evidence of that, and on a quick skim of google that doesn't appear to be the case, on average US test scores have been rising for decades. There are certainly districts and demographics where that is not the case, but there's no reason (or at least, no cited reason) why this sort of different learning thing should be clustered back on race or location.
Regarding the proposed ideologies that need to be eliminated, I have some issues with all of them.
The first is the ideology of should know. There's this false belief that if a 2nd grader walked into my classroom, there are certain things she should know. Rather, it's our job as teachers to discern what students do know and then move them forward.
That's not a false ideology, that's how the system is supposed to work. To graduate from one grade to the next, you must show proficiency to a certain degree in certain subjects. If you don't, you don't graduate, or you do but sorted into some sort of remedial program. Does it always work like that? No. Does it work like that in the overwhelming majority of cases? Yes. More importantly, is it practical to do otherwise? Also no.
Teachers cannot create an individualized lesson and learning plan for all of the students they have. Let's say you have, oh, 30 or so students per class, which is a fairly small number. That's still at least 120 people if they have 4 classes per day, which is also a fairly light workload. That's too many people to do this for. It's probably too much to expect them to do this for the lowest performing ten or fifteen percent of the class.
The second thing I would eliminate is the ideology of transactional gratitude. In most academic spaces, there is a silent pact that teachers make with students: I will agree to teach you well if you demonstrate to me that you are thankful for it. And if you do not demonstrate to me that you are thankful for it, I will withhold quality teaching from you. A teacher will be in the lounge and say something like, "You know, I've done everything to make sure that McKibben kid understands how to add. But all she does is yell. She's not thankful. So I'm not doing it no more." Or, "Can you believe I stayed after school for two hours to help Sarah with her essay and she still didn't turn it in? That kid can forget about it from me." We expect students to show up with gratitude because we do our jobs.
People are not going to put in 100% effort on something if that effort is not appreciated, not just in academic fields, in every field. That's just human nature. Small children are capable of basic courtesy and respect towards others, and it is entirely reasonable to expect that of them. Everyone on earth expects gratitude for doing thier jobs and will not respond well to ungratefulness.
The cited examples undermine this point even more. If I stayed after school for two hours trying to help a student, who then demonstrated that the extra effort on my part was wasted, there's no way I'd do that again.
The third is the ideology of deservedness. Even though grading is about proficiency, it often gets conflated with behavior. You can have a student who is proficient at calculus, but if the teacher doesn't like the fact that they are consistently late to class, that kid gets marked down. Again, there's an unspoken pact teachers have with their children: I will agree to teach you well if you demonstrate to me that you deserve it.
Again, this applies to every job and every person on earth. If you can do you all of job requirements, but are late, difficult to work with, or otherwise troublesome, you will be lucky if you're still employed. Merely getting dinged on a performance review (or classroom grade) is incredibility generous.
