Should summer projects be student or teacher-designed?

Generic_City has some of the smartest and extremely qualified staff in the nation. The teachers in this county have degrees from some of the most prestigious universities in America. Teachers are always prepared to teach the curriculum to the best of their abilities. Partially due to their efforts we have some of the highest

SAT

and exam scores in the nation. It would only make sense for teachers to design a project that they think would be beneficial to all new incoming students based on their experience through prior years. Summer projects should be teacher-designed because teachers can base them around the their curriculum and needs of the upcoming class.

With teacher-designed summer projects teachers can give work they believe is most appropriate and beneficial for their curriculum during the school year. During the school year, the teacher is the individual who creates the worksheets and teaches the new course work, so who's better to prepare from than the source itself. Students taking that class should be prepared by having an overview of the new course work from the teacher. Teachers are familiar to the little basics most students forget coming into their class from previous years therefore, they incorporate the extra practice into the summer assignments and/or projects.

Teachers have a better insight on the students coming into their class the next year. Every class is different, a group of students may have a weakness in a certain unit that maybe the previous class didn't. Teachers can look at the previous year average grades of the new incoming class and tweak and adjust the projects based on the needs of the majority of incoming students. Teachers are able to talk to other teachers to get an insight on the students coming in during the fall and therefore, able to create a project or assignment that is most beneficial to all students.

Granted, there are times student-designed assignments are beneficial because sometimes teachers may not fully realize or understand the students need more preparation for a specific skill to thrive in their class. Alumni students can help by giving a better insight on the subjects that should be brushed up on. Although, this can be very beneficial to some students who learn a similar way, others may not have an issue with that specific topic or skill. It may be a strength for them and they would just be wasting their time on one specific skill when they could be working on a weakness of theirs. To avoid bias in summer assignments it is best to leave the assignments for teachers to create since they give more of an overview of the topics and generally don't go in depth on one specific skill but still prepare students enough to where they know what they'll be learning in their class.

Summer assignments should be teacher assigned to eliminate bias from students and receive work that is beneficial to all students. Teachers have connections with other staff members to make sure the incoming class is prepared and have all the basics down to thrive in their class during the new school year.