Our Model School
This is perhaps the most impactful page on our website because it addresses the core existence of the Foundation.
But before we get into the specifics of what makes our school different from any other, let's examine the foibles of current education thought.
Education researchers and policymakers believe that class size and behavior are negligible in determining how well students learn.
This is likely because things like class size and behavior are simple to fix, so education gurus cannot claim expert status over them.
Teachers in the trenches know better. They understand that low student engagement is at the heart of poor academic performance. Make academic performance count for the students, and we'll see that engagement improve. And when students care about their education, they will perform better on tests.
Concentrating on only one aspect of the equation (teaching) does not address the issue of low achievement. We cannot treat students as if their level of success is not a product of their choices.
The school I propose will not be just
another private school.
It will be a model for what public school can and should be when we address the limitations of current practice honestly and without bias.
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It will accept all students, regardless of need, and place them in settings that address their specific needs. There will be no fees charged for enrollment, other than the negligible fees any public school in this country already charge its student families.
It will put the needs of students ahead of the desires of the adults who work with them.
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This means that union insistence on 'fair' working conditions that interfere with student placement will not have any consideration in our school. In fact, there will be no teachers' unions negotiating anything to do with policy. But the teachers who sign on won't likely mind that, since they will earn an immediate salary equivalent to what master's degree holders already earn, and their salary increases will be based on observable performance, not paperwork that takes away from instruction time. In fact, advanced degrees will have no bearing on whether teachers are hired or how much they are initially offered in pay. If you doubt the efficacy of this stance, read chapter 13, pages 146-151(in the hard copy) CHAOS in our schools, or any of my Articles on X.
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Students will be held accountable for their own success, based on annual achievement tests like the Classic Learning Test and in-house assessments that will be used to assign grades for report cards. Class placements will be made based on student achievement and engagement. Union stipulation has made this idea a non-starter for decades, even though most teachers privately agree that it would make a lot of sense.
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The bottom line in education is that the traditional way of managing schools does not work for achievement.
In fact, our schools are not even designed for achievement;
they are designed for facade and appeasement of those who control the purse strings.
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This is why a model school that dispenses with all these limitations is necessary. Once the public sees the evidence for how achievement really can happen across abilities and child limitations, and without the massive paperwork and compliance-based bureaucracy now in place nationwide, they will get on board with amending their state mandates to match what does work.​​​​​​​
The Model School
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Arrange students in classrooms of 15 to 20 learners
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Assign three adults per classroom: 1 teacher and 2 teaching assistants.*
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Place children in classes according to aptitude, motivation, achievement, and behavior. Allow for fluid placement: if a child achieves more rapidly than estimated, change his class.
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Arrange other class groupings for non-core classes like art, music, and P.E. This mixes students with their social peer group.
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Send students to lunch and recess in mixed age groups among 3rd through 6th (or 8th, if it's a K-8 school). This allows for mentoring among students and helps them develop empathy. Eat home-cooked food dining table-style (round tables). Intersperse the cafeteria aides throughout to encourage appropriate behaviors and conversations.
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Assign playground-specific aides to supervise and GUIDE recess time. Aides are expected to mingle with students, including referreeing their games.
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Eliminate academic documentation, unless required for an IEP.
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Install cameras in classrooms to monitor how teachers are working with children and how children are behaving. Removal for improper behavior choices should be swift and concise. Imagine how much better your child’s classroom could be if an adult came to the classroom to remove a misbehaving student based on the surveillance from a CCT! The teachers didn’t even have to stop their activities — someone just came because the cameras were monitored. [You can read more about the idea of monitoring teachers on pages 202 and 203 (hard copy) of CHAOS in our schools. This will take the place of paperwork-heavy evaluation systems.]
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Make standardized testing count for the kids. At this point, the students don’t care, while the teachers obsess continually over them. If students know their class placement, and even their grades, will be influenced by their test performance, they're likely to value the outcome the way we wish (or pretend) they did now.
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Abolish complex and arbitrary teacher evaluation schemes that require a lot of time, paperwork, money, and people-power to administer. These schemes are a waste of money and human resource, and only encourage corruption, among teachers and administrators. See this X Article for more.
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* Teaching Assistant: at least two years of college; no teaching credential required.
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You can read more about this plan in chapter 18 of CHAOS in our schools.
I know what you're thinking:
Where will we get the funding to devote 3 adults to a group of 20 students?
Redistribution of resources, that's where.
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When we eliminate the (usually high-paying) non-teaching positions necessary to administer the elaborate teacher evaluation schemes detailed in my book, we'll find most of that money.
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When we add in the funds recovered from eliminating wasteful programs that do nothing for learning, we find even more money.
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When we reform our school disciplinary systems to put the onus for good behavior back on the kids (using modern technology to help us minimize the "he said/she said" conundrum we now find ourselves in), we regain even more funds.
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Schools should be in the business of educating children. That's it.
But where we find ourselves, currently,
is mired in a mess created by faulty legislation,
exploited by the teachers' unions.
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For more realities of education, gleaned from my 34 years in the classroom, peruse my ARTICLES on X.
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More on the subject:
Teaching, as it is designed now, is a difficult
(and actually, nearly impossible) job.
But why should YOU care how hard it is?
Perhaps this will help.
These are some of the in-class activities teachers are evaluated on:
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design instruction individually according to each child’s displayed ability and interest in the subject;
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engage collaboratively with learners, individually and in groups;
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hold regular conferences with learners to determine metacognitive engagement in their learning, as well as to foster that engagement.
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create individual tests that are based on a kid’s abilities, intellectually and emotionally; analyze assessments so we can improve them;
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analyze data from tests so we can improve what we do tomorrow;
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document every kid, at least weekly;
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give instruction individually, to small groups, and to the entire class, based on the subject matter and each child's preferred mode for learning;
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correct misbehavior positively, without interrupting instruction and learning;
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turn the classroom into a gaming situation so kids will increase their ‘engagement’ in learning (there are online programs for this, all of which take time to implement and manage).