We had far greater success with a private charter school that we set up in California than any public school would ever have.. It was staggering how much we achieved, and how much the students learned, when we completely changed how we teach..
We had 12 year olds doing senior level math, and 17 year olds getting all the help they needed with things like English or Spanish.. And we did it with a simple change to teaching.. We did away with the grade levels.. There were no more 6th graders and 10th graders and 12th graders.. We had classes that were skill based and the student went to the class equal to their skill..
If a student excelled at math, he switched to the next harder class until he was challenged.. If a student struggled with reading he stayed in the class that was his skill level.. Everyone was challenged as hard as they could be, but were not forced to take arbitrary classes based on how old they were and nothing else.. If the student wanted to 'test out' of a class and move on, we gave them the test.. I literally had a 12 year old boy studying college level calculas and he loved every second of it.. And we had dislexic students that couldn't read when they came to us but with work, hard work, on their parts they learned to read well enough to function in the real world successfully..
We also brought back trades classes.. Not every student is cut out to go to college.. We taught carpentry, (and the math that goes with that), automotive mechanics (and the computer skills that go with that), the dreaded Home Economics topics such as baking and cooking and balancing a checkbook.. Whatever it took to give those kids the skills they needed to be successful at whatever they chose to do..
And we did it with very little money, far less than any public school.. But then we also didn't have a union to deal with  |
