Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - New structure for public schools in the US

Hektore · 02-16-2007, 07:53 PM

Some friends of mine and I were talking tonight about the structure of public schools. We felt pretty uniformly that the public schools we attended did not allow us excel as much as we could have because they were too preoccupied with teaching to the middle or lower third of the class so that every one could keep up. I know many other people feel that this is one of the major problems with public schools in the US and that this keeps our students behind other nations in terms of academic performance during high school years.

In our discussion about ways to solve the problem I came up with an idea that some of my friends thought was a pretty good idea. Radical restructuring of the school system such that the individual students control the pace of their learning. What we had envisioned is a school were the students work by themselves on the material they need to learn and the teachers would be there only as a resource. Rather than having a teacher lecture every day on topics, they would be there to answer questions and clarify and perhaps lecture at the students request. Then, instead of setting the bar at the level of the middle or bottom half of the class, the proficiency is set higher and you must achieve it to move on.

What varies in this system rather than performance is time. At the end of every marking period you would take a subject proficiency exam. When you score satisfactorily you can move on. At the end of their coursework there would be a final exam ensuring they had retained the knowledge sufficiently, if you pass that at the sufficient level then you can graduate. If you don't pass it you can be remediated in the subject you did poorly and retry.

This way, rather than have the students who are able to learn quickly stagnate and feel unchallenged, the truly gifted students can truly excel. Some may be able to finish their high school diploma's in a year or two and be ready to move on to higher education. I know this system will led itself to discipline and supervision problems, but these could be fixed by having some schools structured this way and other schools structured in the traditional way. If you are not mature enough to behave in a school where you police yourself you stay in the traditional system. There is a similar system now where youth who are trouble makers can be removed from the general public schools and be made to attend special schools.

I realize this will not work at all levels, but we were primarily concerned with the high school level (grades 9-12). Personally, I think it's a great idea (of course I would, it is my idea). This allows the students who want to, to truly challenge themselves, it may allow some high schools to teach more advanced subjects (due to the rate at which students can advance to them). I think would stop the vast majority of public schools who are willing to lower the standard to make sure that nobody is left too far behind. Most importantly, it would force students to be better students, which is what we are really after in the end anyway. I would love to have some feedback from the TFP on how they feel about the idea.

02-16-2007, 07:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
Hektore Junkie Location: Greater Harrisburg Area	New structure for public schools in the US Some friends of mine and I were talking tonight about the structure of public schools. We felt pretty uniformly that the public schools we attended did not allow us excel as much as we could have because they were too preoccupied with teaching to the middle or lower third of the class so that every one could keep up. I know many other people feel that this is one of the major problems with public schools in the US and that this keeps our students behind other nations in terms of academic performance during high school years. In our discussion about ways to solve the problem I came up with an idea that some of my friends thought was a pretty good idea. Radical restructuring of the school system such that the individual students control the pace of their learning. What we had envisioned is a school were the students work by themselves on the material they need to learn and the teachers would be there only as a resource. Rather than having a teacher lecture every day on topics, they would be there to answer questions and clarify and perhaps lecture at the students request. Then, instead of setting the bar at the level of the middle or bottom half of the class, the proficiency is set higher and you must achieve it to move on. What varies in this system rather than performance is time. At the end of every marking period you would take a subject proficiency exam. When you score satisfactorily you can move on. At the end of their coursework there would be a final exam ensuring they had retained the knowledge sufficiently, if you pass that at the sufficient level then you can graduate. If you don't pass it you can be remediated in the subject you did poorly and retry. This way, rather than have the students who are able to learn quickly stagnate and feel unchallenged, the truly gifted students can truly excel. Some may be able to finish their high school diploma's in a year or two and be ready to move on to higher education. I know this system will led itself to discipline and supervision problems, but these could be fixed by having some schools structured this way and other schools structured in the traditional way. If you are not mature enough to behave in a school where you police yourself you stay in the traditional system. There is a similar system now where youth who are trouble makers can be removed from the general public schools and be made to attend special schools. I realize this will not work at all levels, but we were primarily concerned with the high school level (grades 9-12). Personally, I think it's a great idea (of course I would, it is my idea). This allows the students who want to, to truly challenge themselves, it may allow some high schools to teach more advanced subjects (due to the rate at which students can advance to them). I think would stop the vast majority of public schools who are willing to lower the standard to make sure that nobody is left too far behind. Most importantly, it would force students to be better students, which is what we are really after in the end anyway. I would love to have some feedback from the TFP on how they feel about the idea. __________________ The advantage law is the best law in rugby, because it lets you ignore all the others for the good of the game.