Bored and/or Frustrated Kids

With personalized CBLP, students move on to the next group of standards when they understand and demonstrate mastery in their current set of standards.  No waiting in boredom for everyone else to catch up.  No requirement to tread water while turning in busywork. Bored students are prone to act out, disturb others in the classroom, refuse to do busywork, mentally check out of school, drop out, and get suspended or expelled. Yet, students who learn at a faster pace in one or more subjects are held to our current system’s schedule – one grade level each year in every subject.

Frustrated students do not want to be embarrassed in front of their peers by admitting that they don’t know how to do what the teacher is asking. Just like their bored counterparts, students who are behind the others will act out, disturb others in the classroom, refuse to do busywork, or just mentally check out of school to avoid admitting that they aren’t getting it. Statistically, students who fall behind are more likely to get in trouble, get suspended, get expelled, and eventually give up and drop out of school.  Yet students are routinely promoted to the next grade every year, whether or not they learned what they needed to learn.

Competency-Based Learning and Promotion can Fix this Problem!