Abolish 'Birthday-Based' Learning
Your date of birth determines many things throughout your life -- from the age of eligibility for a driver's license to the age of eligibility for Medicare.
One thing it doesn't determine in your childhood years is how well you've mastered your schoolwork. Yet our educational system acts as though it does.
Despite differences in development, ability, and demographics, the educational expectations in place for the vast majority of American children are defined by their birthdays. It determines when they start kindergarten -- and therefore, for the vast majority, what grade they're in every year afterward. In turn, the grade they're in determines what they study and what is expected of them.
But as every teacher knows, not all students have the same strengths and abilities, nor do they face the same challenges.
In pockets across the country, however, some schools are doing things differently. Instead of binding a child's education to fixed grade-level expectations, they are reconceiving educational achievement, not by age, but by what skills and concepts students need to learn at the individual level. This individualized and targeted approach to teaching is called mastery- or competency-based education.
Some students are faster learners than others. Yet lesson plans are often standardized around the average performer. That means even when the system is working, there are students bored because they're ahead and others frustrated to be falling behind. Meanwhile, kids in the middle range, performing at "grade level," are doing well enough to avoid teachers challenging them to do better.
The system doesn't measure up even on its own mean-based premises. Nearly a year can separate a "young" second grader from an "old" one -- a potentially huge developmental difference in children aged seven to eight.
Then along comes something like the pandemic -- and student achievement comes crashing down at Zoom speed.
A recent study from the New York Times found that, post-pandemic, elementary and middle-school students have recovered only about one-third of what they lost in math. Many are doing even worse in reading.
Roughly 49% of students began the 2022-23 school year behind in one or more subjects -- a worse outcome than the year before.
Mastery-based education can fill those gaps, by placing students regardless of age into groups that specifically target their level of comprehension -- ensuring they hit the right benchmarks and maximize their learning potential.
While it is just picking up steam, mastery-based education is not a new concept. The idea originated in the 1960s. As of 2023, each state has at least a pilot program testing mastery-based education, and 17 have "advanced" policies or "an active state role" in building a competency-centered curriculum.
One of these programs is at the school I head -- Mysa, a micro school with locations in D.C. and Vermont. I see firsthand how mastery-based education helps students achieve and learn more than what a traditional curriculum might expect of them.
For example, we assign all students the same book to read. But their assignments vary depending on their level of mastery. While some are focused on demonstrating comprehension, those further along might get more analytical essay questions.
Some say mastery education is best suited to small independent schools like Mysa. Not so! Lindsay Unified, a rural school district in California, has been using mastery-based education since the mid-2000s -- and has seen positive results. Since the program was implemented, they've achieved higher graduation rates, academic achievement, and rates of students going on to attend college.
Washington state has taken steps to implement mastery-based learning in school districts statewide. And while the program is still young, it's getting rave reviews. Students and teachers alike say they find themselves more engaged and excited about their work.
A pre-pandemic report studying one school district in Colorado found that a mastery-based approach allowed more than four in 10 students to achieve grade-level expectations for reading and math in three school quarters or less. That enabled them to move on to a higher level. An age-based curriculum would have unnecessarily stretched out their pace to take up the whole school year.
We still don't know the full extent of learning loss caused by COVID, school closures, and remote instruction. But mastery-based instruction is the best way to target what students need to learn and get students, no matter when their birthday is, back on track.
