Goodbye Grade Levels

Unless you attended a small rural school, you were likely instructed only at your grade level.  In 2nd grade maybe you learned beginning grammar.  8th grade you spent a considerable amount of time on “Maine Studies”.  Biology came in 10th grade, 9th if you were in the Advanced Placement class.  Curriculum experiences will vary, but the tradition of learning only what is required at one’s grade level is fairly universal in public education.  Unless you are failing miserably, you get shoved along to the next level.  If the material was not challenging, maybe you became bored and uninterested.  Perhaps there were some concepts you didn’t quite grasp.  Yet you were sent along to the next grade and expected to complete work that built on what you already didn’t understand.  There are programs that help students within the current system, but Kansas City has a radically different idea.  See if you recognize it.

Kansas City, MO. schools are making a large scale shift from grade levels to a subject mastery system.  This fall, 17,000 students will switch to the new system in low-performing schools.  Kansas City Superintendent John Covington said America’s current education system is outdated and based on past industrial and agrarian needs.  This past model, argues Covington, based success on “seat time” not actual educational achievement.

In KC’s system, students will decide, with teacher guidance, what curriculum they should focus on.  School work will be completed on an individual or small group level, with an eye on a student’s skill level.  Looking ahead to high school, some students could begin college coursework early, while others could take extra time as needed.  This method could help alleviate boredom and keep struggling students from throwing in the towel.

Some may have concerns that students will still be labeled as high-achieving or low-achieving (successes or failures) in this model.  Superintendent Covington does not agree.  “This system precludes us from labeling children failures,” Covington said. “It’s not that you’ve failed, it’s just that at this point you haven’t mastered the competencies yet and when you do, you will move to the next level.”

All of this may be familiar to Mainers.  11,248 students in six districts are transitioning to a standards-based model as part of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition (RISC) approach.  The Maine Department of Education gives a side-by-side comparison of standards-based education and standards-referenced (traditional) education.  Here’s what they include as important points of standard-based education(pdf warning).

System based on defined number of learning levels

Students advance through the system based on achievement of each level

Standards are used to guide curriculum and student progress is measured and used to determine advancement

Students advance through system at their own pace

Learning is the constant;time is the variable

SAD 15 – Gray and New Gloucester – has implemented a standards-based approach.  In February of this year, students and teachers reported they were excited about the then new program.  ”It facilitates student engagement,” said high school English teacher David Coleman. ”So far, it’s working great.”  Students have said they preferred having their education in their own hands rather than “being lectured all the time.”

Richmond high school English students are exploring their subject through building boats.  Through learning how to build their boats students practiced skills in research, communication, and writing.  Some students blogged about their exploits, some produced documentaries, and others wrote more traditional papers.  All of this work allowed the students to become engaged in their studies and find their own ways to master the work.

To some “21st Century Skills” is just another reform buzzword.  They hear that and think it means messing around on Facebook all day.  Technology is part of the 21st Century Skills movement, but it is so much more than that.  It is about abandoning an antiquated way of instructing students.  It is about moving on to giving students the skills it takes to survive in this brave new world.  The world does not function in a vacuum.  Unless your just pulling a lever in a factory – does anyone do that anymore? – or plopping fries in a paper holder, critical thinking and problem solving skills are a must.  Ditch the assembly line schooling.  The time for a standards-based education system has come.