Schools should strive for mastery

The disappointing test scores for Wichita’s schools last year point to a need for some new thinking in addition to the new superintendent to replace John Allison, who is headed to Olathe.

I’ve urged before that USD 259 should seek formal status as an “innovation district” under Kansas law, which would allow the city to authorize new charter schools. But even if that doesn’t happen – and I’m not holding my breath – an important opportunity for innovation awaits.

The place to start is for every parent, student and educational policymaker to watch a remarkable TED talk, viewed more than a million times on YouTube, given in 2015 by Sal Khan, the polymath founder of the non-profit Khan Academy, the most successful and innovative of all educational websites.

The message of the talk is conveyed by its title, “Let’s teach for mastery, not test scores.” Khan argues that all students should master each component of a subject with 100 percent proficiency – not 70, 80 or even 90 percent – before going on to the next subject. On the website, where viewing is free, these components, or building blocks, are taught largely by Khan himself in videos of about 10-12 minutes.

Any school built on this principle will have students who vary in their abilities, by subject. Thus, some will move faster and others slower to master each component. The function of teachers in this model is not to lecture but to coach.

Learning by mastery is akin to building a residence or commercial building: If the foundation is not exactly right, the building itself will eventually crumble. Likewise, if students have imperfect mastery over, say, division or multiplication, how can they be expected to know algebra? And if they don’t know algebra, how can they do advanced algebra and calculus?

The same thought applies to every other subject taught in school.

For students from disadvantaged backgrounds who may lack parental encouragement, failure to master the building blocks can quickly lead to discouragement. No wonder that many turn to gangs or engage in other destructive behavior to earn their self-esteem.

With the availability of the free and widely viewed Khan videos as the key components of instruction, Wichita and other school districts can avoid succumbing to the marketing pitches of the for-profit companies that have tried to offer customized learning. The Wichita school board should work with the new superintendent to establish a task force of principals, teachers and parents to figure out how to test the mastery approach using the Khan videos.

Ask the Khan organization for advice. Figure out how to raise the modest sums required for notebook computers. And then adopt the mastery idea in one or a few randomly selected, willing schools or for randomly selected students within those schools. Compare these students’ performance over perhaps two years to those who do not get this “treatment.” Enlist education researchers at local universities in the evaluation.

My guess is that the experiment will prove so successful that Wichitans will demand a great expansion of the program, establishing Wichita as a model for the nation, while giving all Wichita students the tool they need to be successful in the 21st century.

This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 5:01 AM with the headline "Schools should strive for mastery."