Education Should Be Personalized Instead of Mismeasured

Having spent our professional careers either studying or applying trends in education, we
look for unifying themes and big ideas. At the top of our list is overwhelming evidence that
education works best when it is personalized. This means fitted to the needs, interests,
talents, and aspirations of each student.
Special educators rely on individual educational plans, but somehow the idea gets diluted
when mixed into the educational mainstream. State and federal policymakers, holders of
purse strings, and others who have little direct contact with students, seem to ignore certain
realities.
or one, we will never personalize education as long as we confuse achievement with
proficiency scores on state or national assessments, and use undifferentiated instructional
methods.
or another, we will fail as long as we mistake readiness for postsecondary education with
readiness for life, and use uniform learning standards as a substitute for nuanced,
comprehensive !udgment.
inally, student motivation is kindled by caring relationships with teachers, personally
relevant curriculum, and confidence that material can be mastered. The will to learn cannot
be externally imposed.
"lear standards are needed, but they are essentially guides to assure accountability, document
results, and, by no coincidence, to generate profit for marketers of testing and teaching
materials. "ommon "ore standards raise the bar, but not everyone is ready to !ump over it at
the same time, or in the same way. #ot everyone is shaped by the same mold. $e laud
students% diversity but default to evaluation designs that assume uniformity. &nstead we
need to sharpen our focus on educational programs, support systems, technologies, and
assessment strategies that are richly varied and tailored to the uni'ue vision and plans for
what each student can become.
This is no easy task for at least two reasons. irst, it is hard and complex work to meet the
challenges of treating students as uni'uely e'uipped individuals. Second, we still are trapped
in a century(old paradigm of schools as sites of efficiency and standardized productivity.
)ureaucrats reinforce the trap by trying to convince us that test results show us falling
hopelessly behind in a worldwide economic competition. &t is exceptional to find schools
where students% individuality is celebrated and strengthened by providing a full range of
personally formative learning experiences.
*ur communities will see improved results from schools when educators are encouraged, and
professionally prepared, to treat each child as a potentially uni'ue success story. Students
ultimately have to choose their own routes toward success or failure once they leave school.
$hile they are still with us, why can%t we complement rather than mismeasure and override
their emerging destinies+
(,(
#ote- .effrey and Hillary )owen are former superintendents at /ioneer and $est 0alley
"entral School 1istricts, respectively.

.effrey and Hillary )owen
/.*. )ox 23
1elevan, #.4. 5676,
/hone- 853(292(:59:
;mail- !effreybowen8<gmail and hbowen<yahoo.com