It allows students to work at their own speed, by themselves or in small groups, often using texts that teachers adapt to students' specific needs. These systems can be tough to organize, difficult to manage and hard to mesh with standardized tests tied to grade-specific curricula. They require supportive parents, dynamic principals and dedicated, organized teachers. I spoke with him this week just before he returned to Egypt to work on a U.S. foreign aid project for the Academy for Educational Development. Miller was most struck by teachers reporting that they suffered while installing these programs, but adding that they would not go back to traditional classrooms if given a choice.
Adaptability is vital.
Instead of plugging all of the kids into one structure, you judge what the needs of the kids are and structure around that. Those patterns have not changed, she said in a conversation this week. Deflating our expectations of satisfactory performance is the damaging side of inflating letter grades and granting social promotion. Letter grades can be counterfeit coins. There is nothing bogus about skills that are truly mastered.