A Proposal to Help Our Test Score Problem
A White Paper proposing a Khan World School (like) curriculum in Decatur Public Schools
Mike Mathieson
November 22, 2022
In this paper I’ll attempt to concisely answer the who, what, when, where, and why of bringing a Khan-like experience to Decatur. Because this concept falls within the “broader community vision” category, I hope the School Board will discuss and research the merits of this proposal.
Why
I’ve made the argument that one of the reasons, and possibly the primary reason, our Decatur test scores are low relative to other Illinois districts is because it’s easy for families that care about their child’s education to leave the district. We have to do everything we can to stop the outflow of these particular families, and perhaps the best way to do it is to offer an opportunity that can’t be found anywhere close.
While I understand the major objective is to raise everyone’s test scores, it will be an important first step to bring up our average by adding, and retaining, more kids that score in the top quartile. When it comes to education, a rising tide can lift all boats. Success breeds success.
What
If you’re not familiar with the Khan World School (KWS), put simply – it’s on-line learning with a few excellent added benefits. Our idea is to take the on-line concept and make it better: give high school kids the opportunity to take classes online from world class instructors; plus have the ability to utilize an in-person instructor to help with planning, goal setting, and learning; and additionally have important face to face conversations between student peer groups.
In KWS, students advance at their own pace. One of the primary objectives of KWS is to promote mastery of a topic rather than simply “doing enough to get by”. In nearly every school in the country, a student that scores 70% in a class will advance to the next level right along with another student that scored a 95%. Doesn’t it make more sense if the lower student has the option to spend another month or two learning the academic concepts they are struggling with before advancing?
Anyone worried about having curriculum available for multiple levels of student abilities can rest-assured this is not an issue. Multiple resources exist for on-line learning and mastery. The Common Core curriculum has lessons as well as the traditional Khan Academy has curriculum developed to match with Common Core standards.
In the first year, we propose starting with 20 freshmen, accepting the top students that apply. Each year, 20 (or more if possible!) freshman will be accepted into the program. By year four, provided no dropouts, we would like to have at least 80 students in the program.
Eventually, with success, we can expand the program to not only top students but allow anyone that is self-motivated and eager to learn to join our KWS.
Key KWS design elements include (borrowed from the Khan World School website):
A competency-based instructional model leveraging the best internet lectures and learning options, including Khan Academy.
Seminars around engaging, relevant essential questions. Check out some great topics here.
Peer-to-peer tutoring.
We should also look for a partner to allow university courses. (This won’t be necessary for a few years.)
Student-driven master projects outside of school.
When
Now! (or as soon as possible!) - we need to stop the top students from leaving our district. The district enrollment has decreased from 8,742 students in 2020 to 8,147 in 2022 – that’s a 7% drop in two years! At this rate we’ll be closing at least one school every two or three years.
Now! – if there was ever a time to get support outside of Decatur and from the Decatur educational community for an experimental strategy to help children succeed, this is the time. Negative publicity can facilitate fund raising and community support if handled properly.
Now! – this is also the time to go to one high school. As I’ve mentioned, we’re quickly moving to a district with less than 2,000 high school students. The logistics of our KWS concept will be tricky. For example, if you take 20 top students out of the main classroom curriculum, by the time they are seniors, are there enough other students to still have a Calculus class, or physics, etc. Having only one high school will certainly help with this problem, but careful planning will be required. Additionally, we believe this issue could be turned into an advantage and instead help alleviate the teacher shortage problems, as upper-level classes with very few students may no longer require classroom teachers – those students will be in the KWS curriculum.
Where
In the one remaining high school.
One large room for each grade and several break-out conference rooms is really all that is needed. The room requirements aren’t that difficult.
Who
OK. Here’s the interesting one… DPS administration must be on board with this. We need “all in” from everyone for success.
It would be awesome if we could get some philanthropic support for this too. What DPS has done with the Ag Academy is unbelievable. The new Ag facility is going to be spectacular and the requirements for our version of a KWS should be small relative to this. But the potential impact for hundreds of future students could be equally amazing.
The folks from Khan World School have said they are anxious to help someone else get started with an in-person based curriculum. I believe them. This is the first contact we should attempt to make.