My educational model

I have long pondered the failings of the current public education system.  So many children and young people either do not complete the current  prescribed educational program, thinking themselves a failure throughout their lifetimes.  Even more youngsters are pushed through the assembly line without fully grasping the concepts necessary to move forward.  Standardized tests, which the schools themselves hold up as the best method of measuring student success, show that 50% or less of students sdemonstrate profiency in English and mathematics.  Last I checked, 50% is a failing grade, and yet this failure to educate is touted as a great success.  In addition, this failing school district is my own district, the one I must report to under NY homeschool law.  I daresay that a 50% proficiency rate in my homeschool would not go over well at all.

In the perfect world, if the current education system was to be completely scrapped, and someone of great importance asked me to design and develop a new structure, I would offer the following ideas:

School would not be required until the age of 8, but would be available at the age of 4.  This would allow parents to decide when their children are ready for school, and the school could help with screening tools if the parents requested. 

There would be no grades.  There would be mastery levels, 7 for each subject.  A child would be expected to reach mastery level 7 in all subjects, but it need not be at the same time.  All levels of a certain subject would be held at a certain time, and each child would go to their particular level.  When they mastered that level, they would go on to the next, whether that took 6 months or 3 years.  There would be no passing children through the levels without mastery, resulting in a much firmer grasp of the foundational concepts of education. 

Those students who completed all mastery levels in all subjects would then have a conference with their teachers, advisors, and parents.  At this conference, the team would make a plan for the next several years.  A very good student, or one motivated to continue on in book studies, would advance to a upper level school, where again the mastery levels would come into play.  A student who struggled or who really didn't want to be in school would be matched up with a vocational program or an apprenticeship to learn a valuable skill.  Both the advanced studies schools and vocational programs would be funded by businesses and corporations, who would greatly benefit from this new educational model and the students who have been truly prepared for life and the workforce.

If a student who did not like school as a teen decided as an adult that they would like to move on to higher education, they could attend a junior college.  The elementary mastery levels and college levels could be funded the way they are now, and I venture this would still be a great deal less expensive than the current system of herding all manner and make of children through one, unbending system.  The cost to society of functionally illiterate (who now can graduate or make it through high school without much trouble) and skill-less workerforce would be reduced greatly.  Crime should go down, as children are not labeled as worth less than their brighter classmates.  Children who are taught that they have a purpose in this world and that we are not all the same are those who will succeed in life, whether that life is being a surgeon or a plumber.  The world needs both.

*For those who choose to homeschool*  Here in NY, we report to the school district we live in.  Some districts are unfriendly to homeschoolers, and some will leave you completely alone.  Instead of having so much variation, homeschoolers would report to one central office for the state (or maybe several for the state, but all run identically).  The people in this office would be supportive of those who homeschool and would also serve as a database for services available for homeschoolers.

In my perfect world...but it is unlikely to happen.  And so I wait for the current model to crash and burn, and see what society will come up with next.