Why Individualized Learning?

The ChASM Project is committed to an individualized curriculum. You may wonder what this is and why it matters. Simply, curriculum is what students learn. An individualized curriculum means that each student will learn different things at different times. We will meet every boy's individual learning needs. This matters for a few reasons:

• Every student learning the same information at the same time no longer works.

• An individualized curriculum accelerates everyone's learning.

• An individualized curriculum allows students to keep the social benefits of being in classes with their peers without sacrificing anyone's academic progress.

Depending on your age, you probably learned in a one-size-fits-all classroom. However, you probably learned with a group of students who spoke the same language, had similar educational backgrounds, and generally knew the same information. This was a time when most students performed at grade level, but that is exceptionally rare in most modern classrooms. Schools are more diverse than ever, and while diversity is a strength in many ways, it also comes at a cost. 

To illustrate this, imagine a classroom of 25 students. In the first year, 5 of these students are above grade level, 18 meet grade-level expectations, and the other 2 are below grade level. Decades ago, the two underperforming students would be retained, and the other 23 students get to learn at grade level for years 2-5. By the end, 88% of this group meets or exceeds grade-level expectations.

In reality, the vast majority of students are assigned to classes based on their age instead of their achievement. Imagine keeping those same 25 students together for all five years. This requires the teachers to spend so much time remediating that they never get through everything they were supposed to teach. Despite their best efforts, only 36% of the group meets grade-level expectations when they are kept together.

Of course, these examples just include students who did not achieve grade-level expectations. It does not account for behavioral issues, chronically absent and transient students, those who cannot speak the dominant language, and other real-world challenges teachers face each day.

These charts represent millions of individual students who are so far behind they have no hope of recovering in the one-size-fits-all classroom. Sadly, this is one of the greatest limitations of the traditional school model.

Traditional educators are aware of this issue and try to combat it using "differentiated instruction," which is like multitasking in a classroom. Imagine trying to teach 30 different lessons all at once! There are generally too many tasks for too few people in too short of a time, and so the cycle continues.

The good news is that most underperforming students often know a lot. They are just missing a few key pieces of information that make everything else understandable. Of course, not everyone is missing the same pieces, but that's why individualized learning is so important.

There is no substitute for taking time to understand what a student needs, teaching that concept individually, making sure he understands, and helping him accelerate through everything that comes next. This is why an individualized curriculum is such a vital part of the ChASM Project's plan to provide a robust education for each of our young men.

An individualized curriculum turns academic failure into success, and helps bridge the chasm between where boys are and where men should be. This type of education is not possible without your help; please consider sponsoring a student for the upcoming school year.