By David Nagel, THE Journal
There’s an effort underway to replace traditional student advancement (based on “seat time”) with advancement based strictly on demonstrated mastery of a subject. It’s not a particularly new notion, but it’s one that’s gained traction in recent years as technology has begun to make feasible the requirements such a system would impose–frequent and rigorous assessment well beyond fill-in-the-bubble tests, differentiated instruction, the continuous movement of massive amounts of assessment data, access to the breadth of instruction that communications technologies have only recently made viable, and much more. Under such a system, failure is literally “not an option,” according to Susan Patrick, president and CEO of iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. Students move up to the next level when they’ve demonstrated proficiency, allowing advanced students to proceed at an accelerated pace and providing extra attention to the ones who need more help before pushing them out the door.
http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/08/10/beyond-seat-time-advancing-proficiency-based-learning.aspx
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