Gaps in the continuity of education for each student

It troubles me deeply that some students proceed through the syllabuses of a curriculum designed in year levels whereby they move on to the next years prescribed syllabus work even though they may not have mastered the prerequisites for that new learning.  Where this occurs there is not true continuity in the learning and gaps begin to accumulate.  The students so affected become disillusioned and sense that they are behind their age peers.  They can in many cases suffer slurs in the playground about being slow.  I am not referring to students who may need special education because of serious conditions like cerebral palsy or Downs syndrome or hearing loss.  I am referring to this who are in the normal stream of school placement and may or may not have some hard to define learning difficulty.

In my experience in any age cohort there are three groups that emerge in the early years of schooling. The first is the group who can sail through the work prescribed for the year level in less than the academic year schedule and are looking for extension.  I call them the Panthers.  Then there is a group who generally take the whole academic year to master the prescribed learning for that year level.  I call them the Jaguars.  Finally there is the group who cannot master the prescribed learning for that year level within the academic year.  I call them the Leopards.

As the students move on to the next year of schooling and the next year level in the prescribed learning as per the curriculum the receiving teachers need information as follows:

• For the Panthers they need to know details of the extension work done.
• For the Jaguars all they need to know is that these students mastered the prescribed learning for the preceding year and are ready for the new year.
• For the Leopards they need to know what was mastered and what is left to achieve.

All this is based on a principle of not watering the standards down.  In my experience teachers have trouble with this because they worry that as the years go by the chances of the Leopards becoming Jaguars decreases.  I've experienced the effects of putting high school Leopards on watered down courses and this creates difficulties for high school graduation in terms of the perceptions of the wider world outside the school, especially with regard to employment.

For primary/elementary schools this mastery principle cannot in my view be applied to all syllabuses as it would be too much of a challenge for the generalist class teachers.  I counsel restricting the principle to literacy and numeracy syllabuses.  For the remainder of the syllabuses carry the Panthers, Jaguars and Leopards along together covering the appropriate year level prescribed work but not demanding mastery.  Let the students experience the learning and by judicious elicited feedback from students build a sense of whether they are catching a foundation for the specialists secondary school teachers to work on.

Professional educators and parents reading this blog will soon come to the view that the mastery principle could mean Leopards working on year level work for a year level below their normal age year level.  So be it.  This is much better than students developing confidence-sapping gaps in their literacy and numeracy learning.

My position requires an innovative Principle who can sell this to the parents and any external authorities who demand testing and reporting in terms of the traditional A, B, C, D and E ratings.  This will be a tough gig in my own country Australia where all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 must annually do compulsory testing in literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN TESTS) as well as another schedule of compulsory testing for science.  These results are published on the Myschool website so parents can assess their school's effectiveness.  These NAPLAN tests result in coaching in schools in preparation for the tests and the evidence grows that they cause a lot of stress for teacher and students.

I've elaborated on the mastery principle in other writing that I am currently undertaking :  a small practical book on school effectiveness.  Maybe one day I will bring it to publication.  I write all this stuff  because I loved being a career educator and especially a school Principal.  It keeps me in touch and hopefully my brain in good condition as the years build up.

May the Force be with you!

GD