One Size Does Not Fit All

 

All children are different and they learn differently. Now, how obvious can a statement be? Anyone who has been around children or has their own children knows this from experience.

I was talking with a business contact a few days ago and he was remarking how his daughter was really strong in math but was very poor in language arts throughout her schooling. His son, on the other hand, was atrocious in math and was the editor of the school newspaper. Opposites.

Same mother and father, grew up in the same environment, had the same sensory stimuli and exposure to early childhood education, but are totally different in their academic ability. The interesting fact of the matter is that this is the norm, not the exception. Children, even siblings, are born with different mental capabilities, different personalities and are usually different physically. It is a natural occurrence.

For educators, and parents who educate their own children, these differences pose a significant challenge. In education, one size does not fit all. That is a curious fact that flies in the face of how our public (and most private) schools teach our children. It’s pretty much an “industrial process,” and assumes, for instance, that all third graders who show up in class are at the same level and will go through the same textbook and learning materials so they can prepare for the same process in the fourth grade. It just doesn’t work that way, and may be a big reason why so many schools and school systems are failing our children.

The answer of course is to develop a program of instruction that is focused on the strengths and weaknesses of each child, individually. Not easily done, especially on a larger scale, but it must be done to give each child the best opportunity to succeed academically. There are new methods and new tools available that can help educators and parents develop and deliver skill-level appropriate materials for students.

It all begins with the concept of identifying a child’s current skill levels. It is even better if the skills evaluation can break the results out on the sub-skill level…for example, determine the child’s ability to identify sight words (one of the critical sub-skills) as well as the ability to decode words through the use of phonics. Both of these reading sub-skills are critical sub-skills within the overall reading skill. Why is this deeper level skills breakdown important? Well, just as there are differences in a student’s strength in reading versus math skills, there are also differences in a student’s strength within the reading sub-skills.

It’s not uncommon to find children with different skill levels across the spectrum of reading sub-skills. Once sub-skill levels are clearly and precisely identified, then appropriate level instruction can be applied successfully. It sounds simple from a conceptual level but can be more daunting if you don’t use the proper tools. An in-depth academic skills assessment is the key to success.

Web-based assessments are a very good solution for this purpose. An even better tool is a computer adaptive assessment that presents easier or harder questions based on right or wrong student responses to precisely determine the student’s skill level. The other advantage offered by computer-based tests is that the results are immediately compiled and available to the educator or parent. All the better to allow learning to begin based on teaching at the appropriate level.