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The EdTech Revolution Has Failed

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346 points obscurette | 7 comments | 12 Nov 24 14:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.583s | source | bottom
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donatj ◴[12 Nov 24 15:41 UTC] No.42116365[source]▶
I work in EdTech, I have for a very long time now, and the problem I have seen is no one in education is willing to ACTUALLY let kids learn at their own level.

The promise of EdTech was that kids could learn where they are. A kid who's behind can actually continue to learn rather than being left behind. A kid who's ahead can be nurtured.

We had this. It worked well, in my opinion at least, and the number of complaints and straight up threats because kids would learn things "they shouldn't be" was just… insanely frustrating.

Now in order to keep schools paying for our services, every kid is banded into a range based on their grade. They are scored/graded based on their grade level rather than their growth. It's such a crying shame.

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WillAdams ◴[12 Nov 24 17:06 UTC] No.42117313[source]▶
The best school which I ever attended rigorously divided academic and social classes --- academic classes (reading/English/math/science) were attended at one's ability level, while social classes (homeroom, phys. ed., social studies) were attended at one's grade level.

There was a 4 year cap up through the 8th grade (so I was a 4th grader attending 8th grade English, math and science classes), and after that, the cap was lifted and students could begin taking college courses in 8th grade --- some of the teachers were accredited as faculty at a nearby college, and if need be, arrangements were made for students to travel to the college, or professors from there to travel to the school.

It was not uncommon for students to graduate from high school and simultaneously be awarded a 4 year college degree.

Apparently, the Mississippi State Supreme Court declared the system illegal because it conferred an unseemly advantage on the students who were able to take advantage of it, with no equivalent compensation for students who were not.

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1. walterbell ◴[12 Nov 24 18:08 UTC] No.42118001[source]▶
Amazing! Any articles on that school?
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2. WillAdams ◴[12 Nov 24 18:44 UTC] No.42118353[source]▶
Not that I've been able to find --- it would have been the school local to Columbus AFB in the late 1960s to mid 70s.

The State Supreme Court stuff is my hazy recollection of letters my parents received from other folks who were still living there when the school system was changed.

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3. walterbell ◴[12 Nov 24 18:56 UTC] No.42118452[source]▶
Looks like other cases were ongoing even in 2002, https://www.cleveland19.com/story/1045614/ohio-supreme-court...
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4. WillAdams ◴[13 Nov 24 00:33 UTC] No.42121620{3}[source]▶
That's quite a different thing though --- this was not a matter of funding (save that there wasn't money set aside to send students who didn't get a college degree with their high school to college after graduation) but of how the school was structured and how students were taught.
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5. walterbell ◴[13 Nov 24 02:03 UTC] No.42122178{4}[source]▶
That 1960s court ruling would be worth reading, to see how it was rationalized, and for discovery of related legal cases. LexisNexis or an LLM might be able to find it.
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6. WillAdams ◴[13 Nov 24 02:16 UTC] No.42122254{5}[source]▶
The court case should have been late 70s, early 80s --- as it was explained to me, it was ruled as unfair that some children got a college education, while others who graduated from the same school had to pay for college
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7. walterbell ◴[13 Nov 24 13:07 UTC] No.42125733{6}[source]▶
ChatGPT didn't find any cases, but offered this:

  There were debates about whether military children attending base schools were receiving benefits not available to children in the local civilian school systems. This issue could have come up in various ways, such as in cases where military dependents might have access to college-level classes or subsidized education while local students did not.