Thomas Edison is quoted as saying: “The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation.”

However, graveyards are full of great people who were educated in this primitive manner and today we celebrate their mindful elasticity.  Apparently, in today’s technologically advanced world, students are no longer able to learn as the rest of the folks on their family tree did in the past.  So, a new way of educating students in the 21st century is required.

A recent EducationWeek article puts the push for change at about the same time George Bush was being sworn in as President.  In the early 2000s, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Ohio adopted policies that brought “competency based learning” into the classroom.  This “historic” education system change abandoned the “traditional model” of grades and credits in favor of a system that rewards students based on “demonstrated mastery” of a subject, “a model that emphasizes students’ achievement rather than the set 13-yeard academic schedule.”

With Wyoming’s adoption in April of a pilot mastery education program, all 50 states now have some form of a competency based education system in place.  Hartford Public Schools seeks to create such a system in their classrooms as they pay $100k to the non-profit, Modern Classrooms Project, Inc.

The Modern Classrooms folks are being paid to come into Hartford classrooms and teach teachers how employ a mastery-based education system, with a focus on “leveraging technology.”  According to HPS, teachers are taking to this system like a Biden to a bribe.  Since last summer, 53 HPS teachers have been through the program and “every Hartford educator completing the program has responded that they would recommend the program to a colleague.”  Which, states the Superintendent, “is why we are continuing this partnership.” 

Suddenly the Superintendent is basing the continuation of a contract on teacher assessments of the program?  She is aware that the majority of HPS teachers feel she should be removed as Superintendent, right?

Speaking for Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez, HPS STEM Director Joanna Ali told the Board of Education the story of HPS science teacher Thomas Longyear.  Mr. Longyear, an HPS teacher since 2016, was feeling “burnt out” following the 2022 school year.  However, after volunteering for the Modern Classrooms Project, Mr. Longyear is feeling “invigorated” about teaching students that what comes up, must come down.  Ms. Ali told the BOE that this program has been a “game changer” for other teachers like Mr. Longyear who have had very “long years” of teaching lately.

The Modern Classrooms Project instructs teachers on how to incorporate “blended instruction” in their classroom, how to incorporate a program that allows students to “re-do” assignments as a form of self-paced learning, how to inspire students to “push” themselves, how to use Google Classroom more effectively, and how to make digital lessons available to students.  To this, several teachers have told me, “I’ve been doing these things for years.”  Say it ain’t so, teachers being ahead of the curve?!  If a group of these teachers got together and shared with others what they have “been doing for years,” the district could have its own in-house Modern Classrooms Project.  A group known and trusted by other teachers and students at HPS.

The current contract will allow 100 other teachers to go through the Modern Classrooms Project during the 2023-24 school year.  As a means of program assessment, the BOE should look at the retention rate of those teachers who have gone through the program when June of 2024 rolls up on the calendar.  Consider it a historic move to “competency based assessment,” rather than the more primitive use of, “we’ve been working with these folks for years.”