Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin students — and millions more across the United States — are left under-challenged by an American educational system that overemphasizes age-based curriculum.
That’s according to new research co-authored by Scott Peters, associate professor of educational foundations at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Peters and his colleagues say that America’s children are currently placed into grade levels based primarily on age and then taught to meet certain grade-based benchmarks. Getting students to test “at grade level” has long been a focus of U.S. educational policy, but less attention has been devoted to students who have already achieved this proficiency.
The authors looked at both nationwide and state-specific testing data. In Wisconsin, results from the 2014-15 Badger Exam were used. It turns out that a significant number of students are surpassing expectations, calling into question the efficacy of grade-based curriculum delivery.
“If schools base what they teach on ‘grade-level’ standards, then our work shows that truly massive numbers of Wisconsin kids — 30% to almost 50% of each grade level — are going under-challenged,” Peters said.
That means that approximately 278,000 to 330,000 public-school Wisconsin students in kindergarten through 12th grade are performing more than a full grade above where they are placed in school.
“Put simply, teaching kids what they already know, and doing so year after year, is not going to result in the kind of learning gains we should expect,” Peters said. “However, it is likely to result in generations of unmotivated, disengaged, and disaffected kids who — perhaps rightly — see no benefit to school.”
According to the study, the U.S. likely wastes tens of billions of dollars each year in efforts to teach students content they already know.
The authors argue that based on their findings, schools should be taking much more frequent advantage of academic acceleration, where students are placed in grades higher than their age-level peers. Whether whole-grade level or single subject, acceleration is especially beneficial for students who go into professional careers or those that require more substantial academic preparation.
The policy brief, published by the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Education Policy, is titled “How Can So Many Students Be Invisible? Large Percentages of American Students Perform Above Grade Level.” It is co-authored by Peters, Matthew C. Makel of Duke University, Michael S. Matthews of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Karen Rambo-Hernandez of West Virginia University and Jonathan A. Plucker of Johns Hopkins University.
For more information, contact Scott Peters at peterss@uww.edu or 262-472-5407.
Read the full paper at: http://education.jhu.edu/edpolicy/commentary/PerformAboveGradeLevel
