My thoughts on Mastery

I have read a number of articles on the mastery approach to schooling. From the looks of things, mastery is insufficient in addressing the problems associated with letter grades. It also appears to be an improvement. Of course, I can't be absolutely certain of how mastery works since I have never seen it in person.


From what I can tell, mastery addresses one of the major flaws of letter grades while maintaining a couple others. The problem being addressed by mastery is the overly rigid requirement that all students are expected to learn the exact same thing in the exact same way at the exact same time. While there are still serious shortcomings in meeting individual needs, any variability should be praised.

The idea behind mastery appears to be providing some much needed flexibility in how students reach a school's set expectations. While I like the concept of flexibility, I don't like the end point. Different students should be pursuing the different educations that are right for them. Setting a common end point for all students regardless of personal needs does little more than guarantee that personal needs will not be met. It also requires low standards to ensure attainability by a diverse student body.

I have read about more than the core concept behind mastery. I have read a little about execution as well. What I have read points to the expectation that a student should prove mastery of one lesson before moving on to the next. This essentially means that mastery embraces the flawed concept of linear learning. What I mean by linear learning is that students are expected to learn everything within a subject in a specific order. For example, you can learn either how to use decimals or how to multiply numbers without learning the other concept first. In the schools, all students are expected to learn in the same order. This can diminish the natural desire to learn by discouraging students from taking charge over their educations.

If I had to choose between mastery and the more traditional letter grading, I wouldn't hesitate to side with mastery. This isn't because I believe in mastery. It's because we need to move off of letter grades. Ideally, I would like to move away from any kind of formal evaluation because such evaluations make school more about the evaluations than any real learning. At that age, learning should be valued far more than any kind of grades.