Page 4 - C:\Users\drste\OneDrive\Documents\Flip PDF\Orbis Learner Community\

Traditional American Education Model

From the early 1900s when a much greater percentage
of American children were entering a formal system of

school, until now, the model of school has remained
eerily constant. A model based on age-based cohorts,
a schoolyear of approximately one-hundred and eighty
days, a curriculum built on the Carnegie Unit of credit
(120 hours of classroom instruction), and with
teachers responsible for teaching students a given
subject matter. This is a format where time is the
constant (180 days) and learning is the variable
(represented by grades).

This was a model in which the teacher was considered a subject area expert. An expert who would
structure assignments designed to help the student gain as much knowledge as possible in the span of
the school year. An approach where an active lecturer (teacher) attempted to enlighten a passive
learner (student) through the dissemination of

information on the subject.

This model progressed through the subject matter at a
pre-determined pace to cover an arbitrary amount of
the subject material. This pace often left faster learners
bored and those who learned differently or at a slower
pace, frustrated. A model that necessitated a curriculum
and schedule that targets the class mean of the
students’ learning pace and style. A model that accepts the fact that some students would fail and
therefore an appropriate way of assessing the students’ progress was using a normal distribution curve
as the representation of class grades.

This model disputed the notion that any class could have all students
perform at an ‘A’ level. It celebrated the ranking of students from
first to last in the arbitrary grades assigned through their academic
years, often with elaborate award ceremonies that highlighted those

who did not master the subject matter, by celebrating the few that
did. Teachers who assigned “too many” high grades were often
accused of grade inflation, and all too commonly teachers who
assigned a higher level of low grades were considered rigorous or
challenging, a label many wore as a badge of honor.

4

Orbis Learner Community™, a program of R Square Educational Services, LLC