I remember meeting a classmate my first week of college who boasted about being the top graduate in her high school class. I was intimidated. At my suburban high school, the top student had to beat out almost 500 other ambitious, intelligent teenagers.

After a bit of prodding, though, my new friend admitted she graduated with only 18 other students. Gotta love these small Missouri towns.

Of course, a student graduating with a handful of other students could be smarter than students at larger high schools, but it’s hard to compare. When students are only measured against one another, it’s hard to assess what they know, and don’t.

What is Standards-Based Education?

It’s this challenge, in part, that’s fueling the revitalized interest in standards-based education.

Standards-based education bases instruction and assessment on explicitly defined standards. Rather than aiming to get through a certain number of chapters in a math book, or ensuring students sit through a year’s worth of class, the goal of a standards-based system is a high level of student understanding.

In other words, no more sliding through American History with a C-. Students need to master the material before moving on.

Adams 50 school district in Colorado sees this as a way to empower students and take control of their own learning.

“They need to have ownership of their learning. Unless they take ownership and decide they want to achieve a certain goal they’re not going to get there. They’re the learners; I’m just the teacher,” explains Laurel Rogstad, a teacher at Flynn Elementary.

Students at the Wheel

Some schools help their students keep track of their progress using learning matrices. A matrix includes learning targets with clearly defined knowledge or skills. A learning target in American Government may include something like: Describes and explains three functions of the Federal Reserve.

Teachers evaluate students’ progress, but they can also evaluate themselves. By comparing their performance to a definitive set of objectives, a student can see exactly how to improve and set specific goals to get there.

One benefit: students typically seen as less intelligent can improve their performance and learning through effort. The system ensures that students who need more help get the resources they need to excel.

Dr. Copper Stoll, Chief Academic Officer of School District 50 believes students will appreciate the flexibility of the system.

“It should inspire hope in children. Children should look forward to taking an assessment…and then use the results of that assessment to write their goal-setting process….to know what they need to work on next.”

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Links:

http://www.sbsadams50.org/content/

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=57283&page=3

http://www.am.dodea.edu/ddessasc/aboutddess/standards/standardsbased.html