Class rank weighs down true learning

As they consider reforms in policy and practice, educators face one basic question about their purpose. How they answer it will largely determine how they go about their work, especially in standards-based education environments. It also will establish the direction of their career and how they judge their success. The one basic question: Is my purpose to select talent, or is my purpose to develop talent? The answer must be one or the other because there is no in-between.

If you decide your purpose is to select talent, then you must work to maximize the differences among students, and, on any measure of student learning, you must try to achieve the greatest possible variation in student scores. If lots of students score at the same level on a measure of their learning, discriminating among them becomes very difficult. In order to select the most talented students you must teach and assess learning in ways that allow you to distinguish those students with greater talent from those with less. You must spread out the scores.

Unfortunately for students, the best way to maximize differences in their learning is poor teaching. Nothing does it better. If you want to accentuate the differences among students, then teach them as poorly as possible. A few students will be able to direct their own learning and achieve at a high level, regardless of what the teacher does. But the vast majority of students need guidance and direction in their learning. To learn well, they need to engage in structured learning opportunities and receive support from their teachers. Without such opportunities and support, they’re likely to learn very little. Differences in student learning will be maximized, and this variation will be evident in any measure of learning.