Last year, Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) challenged Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman to stop flunking kids, which costs up to $100 million per year, and instead consider more individualized instruction plans using a nongraded classroom approach.
At Mr. Huberman's request, PURE prepared extensive background materials on nongraded classrooms. That's the last we heard from him on the subject.
Fortunately, today there are several superintendent-educators who have seen the wisdom of nongraded classrooms and are implementing this program in such places as Kansas City, Maine and Alaska.
"The current system of public education in this country is not working" said Superintendent John Covington. "It's an outdated, industrial, agrarian kind of model that lends itself to still allowing students to progress through school based on the amount of time they sit in a chair rather than whether or not they have truly mastered the competencies and skills." (USA Today 7/5/10)
As PURE also pointed out, the nongraded classroom can take power away from high-stakes testing, which essentially punishes children for not learning at the same pace as others of the same age. In a nongraded classroom, the child moves ahead when he/she has mastered a skill or set of skills, and no one is 'held back" for not doing so on an artificial age-based timetable. Yet it's not "social promotion" since the student only moves when ready.
And in these tough economic times, doesn't it make a lot more sense to stop doing something that is expensive and doesn't work -- flunking students -- and start doing something that actually helps them?
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