Independent Study
Recently I’ve found myself several times enthusiastically praising my current vocation, even though I’m leaving it.
“I teach high school mathematics–over the Internet!” has been my quick explanation. “It’s a great teaching job. No discipline problems. No lunch duty!”
“Oh, you’re with a virtual school?” people ask.
“No,” I say, “a virtual school is basically a regular classroom with TV cameras. Independent study is better.”
Virtual schools follow a semester schedule and classes meet at fixed times and places. Apart from the students and teacher being separated geographically, classes proceed quite like traditional classes. By contrast, a student can start almost any of our independent study courses any week of the year. A student is free to put in, say, a week of hard work followed by a week of doing something else, so long as the student finishes within nine months.
Our courses comply with state grade level expectations and other state and federal standards. Being accredited means that schools accept our credits just like they accept the credits a student gained in another town. Because we supplement their services, many schools supply computer access or at least quiet places for students to work on independent study.
The independent study student is not locked to a given time and place. The independent study teacher is not locked to a given time and place! Therefore we can offer a semester course for much less than most other schools, about $200 including books and materials which can be sold back. Alaska, Pennsylvania, some other states and individual schools do sometimes foot the bills for independent study. More often the parents pay out of pocket. A public school or virtual school course may not cost the student or parent directly, but some taxpayer has to pay the $500 – $900 it costs per student per course per semester in such settings.
Many independent study students are in public or private schools and just want to take a course that their school does not offer or does not offer at the right time. Some of our students are hospitalized, some are professional gymnasts, some are TV actors, some are overseas with their parents, some are homeschooled. Students can get a high school diploma from us. I’ve met many of my independent study students face to face for the first time at our graduation ceremony. The flexibility of doing independent study definitely has served talented kids who want to move ahead fast. It also serves kids who may need a slower or variable pace.
Besides flexibility, a second feature of independent study is increased self-evaluation. In the math courses students grade their own homework / practice assignments, and email or call me if they have questions. Every chapter or so they take an unsupervised online quiz, get automated feedback. They can ask me for clarification of quiz results. Each course has a supervised midterm and final.
The kids who succeed in independent study have three attributes: They have the needed pre-requisite skills and knowledge for a course. They value the chance to practice and take self-correction seriously. They learn to pace themselves. Those traits bring success in any kind of study, but kids often slouch through traditional schools without such habits. Bottom line independent study, the cost of flexible pacing is self-discipline.
Independent study’s flexibility ought to directly address huge problems that frustrate traditional schools. How does a teacher handle different learning rates and needs in one classroom? How does a teacher handle completely inadequate starting skills, such as high school freshmen with a 4th grade reading level or who cannot add fractions?
Hooked on Social Promotion and Wishful Thinking
Some schools pass students who have not adequately mastered clearly skills needed to succeed in the next level. This practice leads to increasingly frustrated students and teachers. One might slouch through with this in some subjects, but not math.
School systems are not the sole source of social promotion. Given advice and opportunity to master pre-requisites, many students and especially parents plow right into Algebra 1 even though the student is demonstrably unready!
- The placement tests say, don’t go to Algebra 1.
- They failed Algebra 1 the first time because they couldn’t add fractions. They still can’t add fractions. Perhaps they are more mature or more desperate now than when they failed. That doesn’t matter. If they can’t add fractions they can’t keep up with Algebra 1.
- If they failed when they had a teacher to check their work, nag them, and encourage them, how are they going to do better on their own?
When I first calculated how many students were withdrawing from or failing independent study math courses, I was outraged. As a constructive response, I improved informal, short placement tests and other up-front advice for some math courses. I identified free online resources that supplied needed instruction and drill. Did they use such opportunities? Not yet.
But I am not discouraged. There exist abundant, unambiguous examples of successfully preparing students to be independent, disciplined learners. This rant is already too long, so I’ll present these success stories in my next post.
