Rob Barnett teaches mathematics in a D.C. public high school.
He is faced every year with a dilemma. Does he pass or fail the student who is not ready, who has not mastered the course?
He notes that D.C.’s graduation rate has soared, yet its NAEP scores are virtually unchanged since 2005. Its PARCC scores are even worse.
NCLB and Race to the Top pressured teachers like him to get the graduation rate, at any cost. If you can’t succeed, give the appearance of success.
He has an idea for a very different way to design schooling: Mastery learning.
Why should a student have to retake and pass an entire year when there are parts of the course he understood and parts he did not?
What do you think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think that it all depends on how mastery learning is implemented and what it looks like. In many cases that I have seen, mastery learning looks more like a previous post on credit recovery to boost graduation rates – kids staring at computer screens instead of looking at textbooks, doing rote work. (BTW, I would argue that it wasn’t NCLB or RTT that pressured folks to increase graduation rates – this has been an issue for many years in many places – rather the over-analaysis and in some cases the abuse of “data driven” proof has led to the appearance of success.
Competency based education was tried in the 1970s to no avail…and right now it is on the comeback as the way to educate children (individualized learning plans, online coursework, etc). In many of these cases, the courses do not encourage higher order thinking but rather rote memorization.
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Quite correct jlsteach!
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I’d need to know specifically what he means by “Mastery Learning”. Is he talking about the traditional progressive method of using projects to demonstrate mastery (for example, designing, carrying out and writing up an original science experiment)? Doesn’t sound like it. Sounds like he’s talking about, there’s a set “amount” of “stuff” to be learned in any given class and kids could go back and re-“learn” just the “chunks” of “stuff” they didn’t learn. That could just as easily be done by computer. In other words, CBE.
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I think he’s on the right track, but I would like to see some solid principles or criteria for what the word “mastery” defines….
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Divide the math class into sequential modules. If a student does not master a module, provide afternoon tutoring. If a student has not mastered one or more modules, re teach those modules on line, in summer school or both. Every student should have the support and individual attention to master the curriculum. Of course, student effort had to be strong also.
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Robert – what would the “online modules” look like – if it is much of the same as ones done in class – how will this help students better understand. Also, how do we avoid “mastery” becoming a check box that one completed a modules, but the next chapter, or the next year, students have forgotten it already. I do agree with you on the student effort part – it cannot be just on the teacher.
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Mastery of a math module is similar to mastery of a second language and means one can use the second language to communicate or to solve problems in real life situations. Think about how much fun learning can be using a new language to communicate or math to solve questions that require math applications.
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Math teachers have to think their way through a meaningful module such as how many ways can we write the number four and when and how could we use each way?
When students can solve this question, they get full credit. They can solve it in pairs or small groups of four and then sit for a discussion with the teacher. With 4 follow up questions, an effective teacher can verify each student mastered this segment of partition numbers.
Modules have fun interactions that end a lesson and give evidence of deep understanding. Mastery is like dancing either good or not.
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Robert – sure writing four four different ways, etc is one type of problem that gets students to think. But guess what – such problems are often NOT found in modules as they are written today. I’ve seen work on laptops where it literally was plug and chug…creatives modules are the rare exception and not the rule
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The reason we hire professional teachers is the same reason we hire a lawyer or a medical doctor-to use their knowledge and experience to make good judgements about texts and alternative even self created materials.
I agree many textbooks assume rote learning and drills in rubrics. Some digital items have great interactive visuals that show how formulas operate. Teacher collaboration and creativity for instruction occur in the most successful public schools because principals lead the way and support learning for staff n students n parents n themselves.
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Robert: I could not agree more. We continue to teach courses as if it is all or none. By testing students to see what they know and providing instruction on what they do not know, we can boost learning and increase engagement.
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Wrong on the testing statement. See below. The only true and just evaluation system would include the student in evaluating his/her own work.
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“means one can use the second language to communicate or to solve problems in real life situations.”
Have you taught a second language, Robert?
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Incidentally, I had to snigger that he’s talking about blue pills and high school kids. No high school kids need a blue pill, that’s for sure. Maybe he could have used green? 😉
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I retired from a “Gold Ribbon School” in California a couple of years ago. It received lots of prizes and recognition, and the principal herself got the highest award in the state. At the end of every year, the assistant principals and the counselors would prowl the school, browbeating teachers into passing seniors who were failing. Some of these were students who had missed weeks of school, and had very low grades–not borderline D. (This was in spite of the laughable online unit recovery courses offered by the district.) There are all sorts of ways to maintain a high graduation rate.
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Great example of the fraud and imposture that abounds in the world of education. We need to start being honest.
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“Does he pass or fail the student who is not ready, who has not mastered the course?”
I’d like to think that I never passed or failed a student. I’d like to think that one of these centuries we will get beyond that dichotomous thinking and provide the students with learning experiences that, if followed, completed by the student they will learn at least something.
As a teacher, I can’t ever get inside a student’s head to understand what he/she knows and understands. I cannot “measure” that knowledge. I can roughly assess, evaluate or judge the student’s understanding but without the student’s input that evaluation is lacking in many regards.
Why is a totally arbitrary cut off point of some supposed number of points earned. Why even have points earned? Yeah, Yeah, I know supposedly to motivate a student. Man have they been trained to accept that nonsense. They have internalized the grading meme to their own learning detriment. Except that those grades are what society arbitrarily imposed on them.
The grade game, just another of the many falsehoods and lies we foist upon the students.
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YES. If there were some means of creating emphasis beyond all caps, I’d use it. Grading, point or letter scores, schedules, targets — these have nothing to do with learning or assessment, and they ruin almost everything.
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It works for Math, not the Liberal Arts.
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The word MASTERY is really an oxymoron. The more the Yahoo!’S try to reform, the worst education gets. Can we not listen to the politicians, unthinking think tanks, foundations, and the rest of the pundits?
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Check this out. As bad as WashDC schools are, students from neighboring Prince George’s County MD, are sneaking in an attending DC schools! see
http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/10/dc-government-chooses-maryland-kids-over-tax-paying-residents-for-school-slots/
You can go to any DC school at 330pm, and see the cars with their MD license plates, picking up the Maryland children.
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“As bad as WashDC schools are….”
What do you mean by “bad”? Have you ever set foot in one? Do you know any students or teachers in any DC school? Are you aware that DC has one of the highest poverty rates in the country? Are you aware that test scores, graduation rates and all other “measures” (sic) of school performance are almost exactly correlated with poverty? The fact that out-of-district families are trying to get their kids into DC public schools suggests rather strongly that the schools themselves are pretty darn good. The poor “metrics” (sic) are a reflection of the population they are trying to serve.
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I have been in several WashDC public schools. I was doing a telecommunications project for Sprint. I live in WashDC metro. I worked for the Census Bureau, so I am well-aware of the poverty rates in our nation’s capital. WashDC schools rank at the bottom of nearly every category. (graduation rates, math/english proficiency, etc). Most telling is the participation rate. Only 79% of the children in WashDC who are entitled to a free education in the DC schools, even bother to show up. This is the lowest participation rate in the nation.
Even so,some parents from Prince George’s county Maryland, sneak over the line and enroll their children in DC schools, illegally.
I do not know any DC teachers or parents or student personally. I have worked with some adults who are graduates of DC public schools. I had a supervisor in the Air Force, who was a DC grad, and he was a fine man.
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No. Instead let’s just focus in quality instruction from day one. One test passed doesn’t mean master or understanding at levels beyond surface.
We’re so hooked on data and test taking that we’ve lost all quality instruction.
That’s the sad part. Stop creating standards and meeting to discuss data and focus on quality instruction.
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Thank you!
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This happens because EVERY student is required to take and pass Algebra. One can’t take Algebra and do well unless one has mastered the basic math skills learned in the earlier grades (and quite frankly, not everyone should take high maths). Teachers teach skill sets per Common Bore curriculum and then the kids get to high school and are expected to think when they haven’t mastered the basics. That’s not really fair to the kid or the higher math teacher. Even the higher math teachers aren’t really teaching true algebra concepts….they are teaching skill sets and none of it has much meaning. Fighting this with my own children now and I’m having to “fill in the blanks” and explain the “why”.
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Lisa – I don’t see why having every student take Algebra I is a bad thing. I do agree with you that in some (or many) cases students are missing key skills from previous grades. This isn’t the fault of Common Core – rather teachers need to be trained on how to scaffold these skills into the algebra i class
As for the idea not everyone has to take higher math – this sentiment has been shared before (including by Dr Ravitch who noted she did fine in life and hadn’t used algebra since HS). But then I ask how does one choose who takes those higher level classes – will that just lead to tracking? And if so what happens if someone wants to pursue science or math but hasn’t taken the right classes because someone in HS thought they didn’t need to take it?
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The good thing about a great education ( an education that is well rounded and allows one to think) is that if a student who hasn’t pursued science/math and gets to college and wants to give it a try, they have the opportunity to do so. Why do children need to decide what they want to do in life so young? What good does that do for them? There are wonderful community colleges available for people of all ages to take classes or to catch up or to go in a different direction. Not every kid wants to or needs to take Algebra by the end of HS but EVERY kid should be proficient in basic math skills that will help them throughout their entire life. If the foundation is not built correctly then everything at the top will eventually crumble and that is the problem that every education reform has ignored for the past 20-30 years.
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Lisa you act as if kids can easily can get “caught up”…that’s not the case. I’ve worked with colleges where a math major is required to be a high school math teacher (one can debate on if this is a good thing or not but that’s another discussion). If someone is just stating with calculus it would take maybe four or five years to complete a math degree. Even stating out in community colleges students will have two or three more years
At the school I taught at in the DC area all students were required to take precalculus. Nearly all passed (as noted in the originial post I too had kids doing make up work at the end). The fact is many of these students were grateful they were exposed to the higher level math
Also I noted you didn’t answer/respond to how does one avoid tracking?? In the past it was the poor/minority kids that ended up in vo tech and weren’t even given the opportunity for these classes…I am sure you do not want to go back to that right?
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Jlsteach: if you ever tried to teach 9th grade students who could not do basic math in an Algebra I class, you would not take issue with the suggestion that all 9th graders should not have to take Algebra. My experience suggests that those who do not understand how to find common denominators with numbers cannot proceed in the regular Algebra class. Moreover, Common Core and its many copycats require that Algebra I students be proficient in dealing with quadratics, including completing the square and using characteristics of symmetry to sketch parabolas. Most 9th grade students are not ready for this. It is inappropriate except for about 10% of the student body.
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Roy I have been in that situation. I’ve even taught kids who were simply passed (given b’s)
in Algebra I and geometry and showed up in 10th grade in my Alg II class. Here I thought I was getting the very top kids only to
Quickly learn they weren’t taught any of the basics.
You know what I did. I adapted. I scaffolded. When teaching aspects like factoring I reviewed (no not spend a month on a topic but reviewed) basic math skills, including in some cases multiplying negative and positItives.
I’m not saying it’s easy. But I think you way underestimate the number of kids who could do Alg i in grade 9.
Look I agree that districts that have mandated or pushed for Alg i earlier so that all kids take calculus is crazy – and in some cases ends up making things worse. And the person who posted about being a special educator, certainly this is an exception – but it still think those students should have the chance to. E exposed to such levels of math
Roy, honestly your perspective to me is a rather deficit perspective only focused on what kids can’t do as opposed to what kids can do
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” And the person who posted about being a special educator, certainly this is an exception – but it still think those students should have the chance to.”
Absolutely, I just find the mandate to make everyone take Algebra I on an arbitrary schedule counterproductive. My local high school, which is admittedly generously resourced and big (4000+?), used to offer several options to freshman: pre-algebra, two year Algebra I, and Algebra I. Then there were the kids who were advanced and took either geometry or the second year of algebra. A big part of my job was convincing my students that they were capable of learning a lot more than they thought possible.
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Roy, I’m not sure why 9th grade is the go to year for Algebra I. As a special ed teacher, I had quite a few students in middle school who needed one or two years more to get to where Algebra I made sense. I would wager that there are very few students who couldn’t pass a year of algebra and a year of geometry at the very least before they graduated. I wish someone had made me take the 4th year of math back in the day. It didn’t stop me from taking statistics in college and grad school, but it would probably have made it easier. High school should be about providing a solid grounding with the chance to explore a bit. If most kids were honest with themselves, they know that they still need direction, and as much as we might like to forget it, education is to help prepare us to be able to productively participate in society. As much as I hate to say it, on its surface, absenteeism is the biggest reason for student failure. The reasons behind missing school might be compelling, but if we can get kids to school regularly, they have a much better chance of picking up the knowledge and know-how to make something of their lives.
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I’ve honestly never liked the concept of grades. A student should be recognized by their level of learning, not their age, and if a first-grader does third-grade math but only reads at a first-grade level, what is the point of an arbitrary grade label?
I know we can’t go back to one-room schools (well, maybe except where the student population would allow it—something else to consider), but way back in the neolithic when I went to high school we were assigned classes based on our ultimate goal—college, work, general. Would it be that difficult to change that so the classes are by level of mastery?
The image of the ten-year-old genius being scorned and bullied when she’s allowed into high school classes has become an accepted trope, but is that because of the age difference, or because that one student is an outlier? What if there were half a dozen others of her age who could handle that same class?
The opposite side of that coin, of course, is the older student who shares classroom space with younger kids, but is it possible removing the stigma of having “flunked” would help them fell less “punished”?
I don’t know if it would work, but I think it definitely needs to be looked at in depth. Ironic that this is exactly what a real charter school would be set up to do, isn’t it?
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We had one room school house in a community public school for grades 3-5 for students who already knew the grade level reading n math. They were potentially gifted learners and we let them fly with a teacher who was trained to work with multiple grades in one classroom. Most public schools have teachers n school leaders very capable of serving the needs of students without a charter business model enriching the operators n owners.
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Of course mastery is important. I have seen that concept twisted into “Student X knows how to read, so does it matter if s/he read (fill in the blank)?” Yes, it matters. A certain body of knowledge, not just skills, is part of a good education.
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The pressure to “pass” kids so that they will graduate is immense. My district demands principals account for EVERY student who has failed, and the pressure comes down to the teachers. We are bullied if the administration feels we have “failed” too many students. They threaten our jobs and even licenses.
I don’t think that comparing NAEP scores and graduation rates is right, because we know that standardized test scores don’t show anything. But I will also admit to being pressured to pass kids who haven’t really learned the material, just so the graduation rates will be higher.
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I read this article a while back and I honed in on one specific statement that makes all the “corporate ed reformers” salivate…
“…I’ve become convinced that mastery learning is the right model for my students and, with the full support of my school’s caring and devoted administrators, have spent the past three years trying to bring mastery-based practices into my classroom. I no longer lecture. Instead, I record all of my lessons and put my videos online. Students move through these lessons at their own pace, and they must show they understand one topic before advancing to the next. I think of myself not so much as a teacher but as a facilitator of inquiry…”
Seems to me like DCPS would love this because they can increase the number of students per teacher and keep the computer companies in business while lowering costs.
If class size were drastically reduced so that a teacher could give personal attention to each student in his/her charge (and without students “learning via computer”) then this learning method might work.
But alas, in this time period with “bottom line” always at the forefront… no I don’t think I can agree with this teacher’s model.
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I disagree with so-called “mastery learning” as an option. The focus of K-12 public schools should be to educate children who grow up to love reading and become avid readers and lifelong learners with strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
But to achieve this would require a high quality national early childhood education system that is not opaque, is not a for-profit system, etc.
The term “mastery learning” assumes that children all have computer-like memories with instant recall of everything they were taught but for most of us, human memory doesn’t work that way. But even computer hard drives fall victim to crashes and viruses.
For instance, a child can learn something a teacher taught during the day and at night while sleeping that memory ends up deleted from short term memory as the day’s memories are sifted and a process few if any understand, decides what stays and what goes.
To never forget what one learns will result in rote learning where children are drilled relentlessly on endless lists and formulas in a doomed effort to force those memories to survive during the sleep cycle’s sorting process and even then there is no guarantee.
Most of the memories we don’t forget are linked to what happens at home in the evening before bed. Even a sex and/or violent filled TV program can undue all the learning that took place that day, and the average child in the U.S. watches several hours of vapid TV daily. Diet also plays a role in how efficient the memory functions. Studies have found that a poor diet high in sugar messes up the learning and memory process.
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All elementary schools n middle schools should prepare every student to complete Algebra 1 in grade 9. To accomplish this goal, highly competent elementary teachers with strong backgrounds in mathematics should teach math in grades 3-6.
7-9 grade math teachers could build on their expertise. Requires a total evaluation of teacher math skills and math dispositions at every elementary school.
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This is an old story… it is at the crux of the ploy & the plot to destroy pubic education.
Here is LAUSD.
It has been OUT THERE FOR A DECADE…AT PERDAILY .COM.
Lenny Isenberg exposed the corruption in LAUSD long ago.
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/between-dishonest-social-promotion-of.html
For his trouble, the took him away in handcuffs;
http://www.perdaily.com/2010/02/yesterday-i-was-removed-from-class-in-handcuffs.html
He set up Perdaily.com THE CHRONICLE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 2ND LARGEST SCHOOL SYSTEM IN AMERICA. — to tell the story!
It is a familiar one THAT CANNOT be found THE MEDIA’ FAKE NEWS… get rid of the voice of the teacher and you can tell an ignorant public WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE… it looks like charter schools and ipads and… Kendra!
IN 2013 he gave us this: http://www.perdaily.com/2013/01/now-is-the-winter-of.html
He nailed all the parties who let it happen AND THE PROCESS:
FORMER CTC ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL LAYS OUT UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN UNION AND PUBLIC EDUCATION PRIVATIZERS http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2015/01/were-you-terminated-or-forced-to-retire-from-lausd-based-on-fabricated-charges.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2015/07/lausd-blacklisting-teachers–how-they-do-it.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-and-utla-collude-to-end-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-teachers-part-2.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
He suggested way to stop the charter schools: http://www.perdaily.com/2015/10/charting-a-course-away-from-charters.html
and he showed how it is enable: http://www.perdaily.com/2015/09/racism-cant-function-without-minority-5th-column.html
He sued http://www.perdaily.com/2013/11/lausd-gives-me-a-chance-to-be-a-hero-for-student-teachers-and-families.html
AND HERE IS HIS RECENT PIECE AT CITY WAYTCH
What Happens When the Majority Doesn’t Get to Choose?
LEONARD ISENBERG 22 MAY 2017 http://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/los-angeles/13261-what-happens-when-the-majority-doesn-t-get-to-choose
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This conversation needs to be about what’s best for kids, not adults.
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This concept is one reason why some homeschool. To allow children to complete mastery, whether it takes a week or several months. When I taught world history years ago, before CC, I also had the same problem . . . Having to pass students who had not done nearly enough work to pass, yet were assigned low Ds in order to move onto the next grade.
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Rob Barnett describes a radically different way of teaching and to organize our public schools. We now have the technical ability to do it. What is required is for someone somewhere to implement this breakthrough and demonstrate that it works.
My sense is that it will be far easier to demonstrate the whole concept outside of school rather than within a public school bureaucracy. In other words, create a new organization that initially functions after-school, weekends, and with a joyful summer camp.
Once we demonstrate that we are empowering students, that each student comes through truly successful, that we are growing great people, we will be on our way! This has the makings of a 21st century American education system.
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“Passing” through the education system is tied to economic security. Does that make sense? Is it fair?
No. That changes everything about this conversation.
Better questions must be asked.
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I’m not sure if anyone will see this comment but I am the Rob Barnett quoted — I very much appreciate all of the comments above. This is a hard (and very important!) conversation.
If anyone is interested, I’ve launched a nonprofit that helps teachers adapt blended, self-paced, mastery-based learning in their own classrooms: https://modernclassrooms.org/
This style of instruction seems more compelling to me now than ever.
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