Lindsay’s innovations worth duplication

I hope Fresno and Clovis unified school disticts take note of Lindsay High School’s success with performance-based learning.

Lindsay abolished traditional grades and grade levels and replaced them with a system that tracks each student’s ability in each subject area, and then allows them to progress at their own pace through each subject.

Not surprisingly, after making this change, many of the problems of typical high schools, which have their roots in boredom and lack of individual attention, significantly lightened. Traditional grading goes against what we know, and have known for a long time. The intrinsic motivation to learn is much stronger and enduring than external rewards, especially in adolescents, whose brains haven’t fully developed to make decisions based on long-term rewards like colleges and careers.

Lindsay is doing right by its kids, and any school that holds onto traditional grading deprives most of their students of the pure joy of learning that should be the central aim and purpose of all schools. And they pay for it with kids who act out. The kids are innocent; the adults in charge of the schools however.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 7:13 AM with the headline "Lindsay’s innovations worth duplication."