Let’s Fix Schools for Our Children

        The solution to our educational crisis is Competency-Based Learning and Promotion (CBLP), which is simply explained as students moving on to the next level of learning when they have mastered the current level in a particular subject.

Tragic casualties of our current system are students who become bored and check out of school as well as students who fall behind and see no way to ever catch up!

Karina (not real name) came to the Gates Foundation Model Small Secondary School in Las Vegas, Nevada where I was teaching high school English. This school, the Peterson Center, ran a credit retrieval program.  Karina came from a fairly stable home life, but needed to make up several credits in order to graduate from high school, and she was perilously close to dropping out. Soon it became clear that Karina was very smart and easily capable of not only passing her classes, but she earned “A” grades on her assignments and tests.

Impressed with her writing skills and vocabulary, one day I asked Karina if she had been in the Gifted and Talented Program when she was in elementary school. She looked at me in surprise and said, “How did you know?” I explained that her abilities were obvious and asked how it happened that she got so far behind on her required credits. “My classes were so boring. I checked out mentally and I ditched school a lot,” said Karina. “My parents talked me into trying this school. I like it here.” Karina liked the system at the Peterson Center because she could make up her needed credits as fast as she wished. She earned all of her needed credits and graduated on time within two years, another successful example of CBLP. 

Any child who plays video games and works to level up will instantly understand how CBLP works. Children will spend hours gathering tools and practicing the skills they need to master a game level and move up.

Some students need more time and guidance in certain subjects. Our current system pushes students along to the next grade level whether or not they learned what they needed to learn. With CBLP, teachers will have more time to work in small groups or individually with the students who need help while other students are working on their own. Students will be working at different levels, and they won’t be as aware of students needing more time to practice or of those who move ahead. Students’ embarrassment and frustration because they are not at the same level as other students will be greatly diminished.

The classroom teacher can give direct attention to the students who need help, and act as a guide for those students who are moving at a faster pace through the textbook or by using online programs that assess mastery and understanding.

When a student has demonstrated mastery of all required standards, the teacher then helps the student move to the next level of standards without waiting for everyone else.

Let’s get this ball rolling!