{"id":1143,"date":"2019-12-03T08:06:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T15:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2019-12-02T22:15:24","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T05:15:24","slug":"mastering-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1143","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It has been heartening for me to see a local uproar\ninvolving our school district that didn\u2019t have to do with a levy, teacher pay\nor athletics. Our little dust up has to do with \u201cMastery Based Learning\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not a professional educator, though some of my patients\nare sometimes disappointed that educating them about their body or their\ndisease can be my main focus. \u201cCan\u2019t you just give me something for this Doc?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I heard about Mastery Based Learning was back\nafter the LUNA Laws got repealed in 2012. After their defeat, Governor Otter\nengaged a task force of education folks to give him some recommendations for\nIdaho education. Recommendation Number One (of twenty) was to institute Mastery\nBased Learning in Idaho. A fellow State Senator, a retired educator, who had\nserved on the task force, muttered under her breath to me, \u201cI don\u2019t know about\nthis Mastery Based stuff\u201d as she shook her head. I asked about her\nreservations. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of work for teachers. And we aren\u2019t going\nto pay them any more for it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are wondering about just what exactly this shift in\nlearning is, there are plenty of resources. I would encourage you to read some,\nbut not on Facebook. You wouldn\u2019t be considered mastering the subject with that\nresearch. I suggest Idaho Education News; they have a few great reporting\npieces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me see if I can summarize. Students advance based on\ntheir demonstrated mastery of specific learning goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the current system, a student takes a year of Algebra\n1, then moves on to a second year of Algebra 2. Under Mastery Based Learning,\nif a student demonstrated mastery of Algebra 1 in December, they could start\nAlgebra 2, maybe completing it by June. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the corollary is also true. If a student doesn\u2019t\nmaster the concepts of Algebra 1 by June, they may be spending some extra time\nin the summer, or coming fall accomplishing that. Or, if they had mastered\ntheir English goals early, they could take some time from there to invest in\ntheir Algebra deficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like I said, I\u2019m not an expert in education matters. As it\nturns out, from my limited research, there\u2019s not complete agreement on the\nvalue of Mastery Based Learning. Maybe except in the Idaho legislature. Both\nthe Senate and the House passed unanimously and Governor Otter signed House\nBill 110 in 2015, codifying Recommendation Number One of Otter\u2019s Education Task\nForce. The change in student evaluation was rolled out in 19 incubator\ndistricts a few years ago. My local district was one of those incubators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my retired educator colleague foretold the rub. When the\nlegislature saw a $1.4M price tag for expanding Mastery Based Learning to all\ndistricts in 2018, they killed it. But then they voted to approve expansion to\nall districts in 2019, as long as there was no cost to the state. Can you see\nwhere there might be some pain here? It is standard operating procedure for the\nIdaho Legislature to demand a change in policy but refuse to pay for such\neffort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can imagine some teachers resisting this change. It is\nwork to do things different than before. Especially if one is comfortable that\nwhat one has been doing has brought success. Add to that, it\u2019s more work with\nthe same pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some parents and students argue that the Mastery Based\nsystem makes students unengaged in learning if all they have to do is\ndemonstrate mastery on a simple test. Such a concern for student laziness, or\ncomplacency is merited, but I would argue we see enough of that now under our\ncurrent grade-inflated system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, I\u2019m happy our community is engaged about education\nand talking about it. We all have so much to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been heartening for me to see a local uproar involving our school district that didn\u2019t have to do with a levy, teacher pay or athletics. Our little dust up has to do with \u201cMastery Based Learning\u201d. I\u2019m not … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}