The past century has seen enormous developments in virtually all areas of life, from medicine to transportation to living standards and even to social and cultural attitudes. Yet our education system has not followed suit. One of the greatest illustrations of this is in the continued emphasis on age as the primary determinant of educational placement. Rather than ability determining what students are taught and which classrooms they are placed in, it is their birthday.
This emphasis on age over ability harms not only struggling students but advanced students, as well. Estimates suggest that at least 15 percent of American students are entering late-elementary classes performing at least one year ahead of standard academic expectations. At the same time, about a third of eighth-graders are performing below the minimum basic standards for their grade level. Grouping students by age thus creates a dual problem of making classrooms too challenging for some students and not challenging enough for others.
But where did the assumption that education must be structured by age come from? It may surprise some readers that this is neither an inevitable policy arrangement, nor was it always in place.
Early in American history, there was no standardized education system, and so the systems which existed were highly diverse and varied across regions. In rural one-room schoolhouses, for example, students were not organized by age or grade but primarily by ability. Over the course of the 19th century, however, schooling became increasingly standardized and age-based.
Yet the fact that this became the dominant model does not mean it’s necessarily the best way to organize education today.
The core problem is how educational progress has become overly bureaucratic and bogged down in administrative proceduralism. A better approach would focus on improving student outcomes, which requires, first and foremost, greater individualization to meet students’ differing needs. This must include the special needs of not only students who are performing below their grade level, but also of the special needs of students who are performing well above it.
Technological developments have continually expanded over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, many of which have been incorporated into the classroom and had noticeable effects on schooling. But these reforms have not affected the fundamental structure of education. Computers, the internet, and now artificial intelligence all have enormous potential to be used to transform the educational system, provided that educators seize the opportunity and institute structural changes that capitalize on their benefits.
In the context of education for advanced students, these technologies allow for much greater screening and personalization. For example, teachers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to plan lessons, provide feedback on materials, and create differentiation in their instruction. With proper, well-implemented reforms—such as grouping classes by ability rather than by age or allowing students to progress at their own pace—artificial intelligence could work wonders for advanced students. Consider, for example, its potential to predict which students might be best suited to accelerate by analyzing outputs like test scores and classroom assignments. This could rapidly identify those performing above their grade level, allowing teachers to effectively meet their needs through acceleration, grouping, and other evidence-backed interventions.
Even decades-old technologies like the internet could be utilized in novel ways with the right institutional changes. The internet has allowed accessible, personalized education to be brought to students regardless of whether they are in the classroom. This presents opportunities for greater use of out-of-classroom instruction, whether it be homeschooling or other arrangements, which might be better suited for the needs of many children, including those who are advanced.
What unites all of these possibilities is a shift away from age-based schooling and homogenization, and towards meeting students where they are, including advanced students.
But technological development is not sufficient. We also need administrative changes. School districts should be required by law to institute procedures for whole-grade acceleration, as well as to institute proactive measures to identify advanced students. Texas in particular is well underway in this regard with its current policies, and integration of artificial intelligence technology in screening could streamline and improve the state’s existing processes significantly. Further, policy reforms must account for the greater capacity of technology to personalize education in the classroom and help to empower students to go at their own pace with learning.
It is time to de-homogenize the classroom and kickstart educational progress through technological progress. Just as it has never been easier to give personalized education inside the home, it has never been easier to give personalized education inside the classroom. Information technologies help streamline the process of testing and identifying students who are advanced, opening up opportunities to find children who would benefit from practices such as ability-based grouping and grade-skipping.
With progress being made in so many areas, it is time to bring progress to where children spend so much of their formative years: the education system.
