Subject: K12 student academic progress

Posted by Tim Joy on 1/8/2010
In Reply To:K12 student academic progress Posted by Richard Turnock on 1/8/2010

Message:

Comments from Richard and Bill remind us how critical the boundary of our studied system is. To be sure, we (the public) generally focus only on what transpires within the school: i.e., some schools succeed, some schools fail. Indeed, considering the system of a high school, that classroom instruction system is absolutely based on the skills gap:

[image 1]

Instructors have students before them that, in varying degrees, do not meet state benchmarks (certainly, there would be a few that exceed them). And so, as they look to the approved curriculum, they deliver instruction designed to improve a student’s skill set. [As I look at this simple map, “delivering” a “School’s Curriculum” should NOT empty that stock. So, that’s wrong.]

How might we add another component here that corresponds to after-school help?

[image 2]

Depending on the rate of improvement, remediation would or would not kick in. As for work ethic, we are talking about productivity, but of two people (at least): student productivity and teacher productivity. Those are rarely the same.

The larger question raised here, though, is really about the boundary of our system. Until we consider key elements outside of school (multi-stress families who live in poverty, level of parent education, et al), then we omit a significant factor in student success. Those elements of poverty are the ones that redound to “student motivation” and “work ethic.”

How that element of the education system is included, I am not sure.

Tim