A New Paradigm for Excellence in American Education

Stallard and Cocker examine why America's schools continue failing to meet the needs of children and society. It explains why the present system cannot be reformed and why a new vision of how children and youth prepare for adulthood must replace it. The process begins with making School Choice a national option. Doing so will create a market for educational services beyond what traditional schools can provide. Their thesis holds that conventional schools are organized around teaching, not learning and that current schools' design and resources were developed to facilitate teaching, not learning. The new paradigm is all about learning and how to support each learner through the process of becoming educated. The authors explain why Education is not a profession and why there is no Science of Education. They cite research in other fields that could improve learning and explain why that knowledge has yet to be applied. They show how government bureaucracies have impeded the adoption of more effective practices and new insights from psychology and neuroscience and why their role needs to change. The authors call for the end of schooling as we know it and offer a better alternative. Their Web of Learning can organize the vital elements needed for academic success and is more suited to the new kind of child coming to school today. They describe an approach to developing curriculum and learning resources to individualize each person's path through school in ways that match their abilities. Instead of cascading failures in school, the program provides for success by eliminating learning debts and compensating for experiential deficits. The final chapters offer a detailed technical specification for the system, including the steps necessary to create it.