| Maryland Opposes Child-first Education
The Maryland Public School system places a higher priority on imposing a fixed curriculum on children than in helping them learn, according to one educator in the state. Lee Havis, director of Trust Tutoring, says the state has a curriculum-first approach that works against children learning naturally at their own individual levels of ability. Sadly, this approach would most harm the learning of low-achieving students, which is often the point of compensatory federal legislation, such as the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) Act of 2001. The intention of the NCLB Act is in part to give parents in failing public schools a choice for alternative education through non-government tutoring. The Act even requires states to protect this educational choice by applying only ‘objective criteria’ and promoting ‘maximum participation by providers’ of these tutoring services. However in Maryland, government officials seem to dismiss these requirements by selectively disqualifying programs that deviate too much from their own curriculum-first philosophy. One child-first educational program, Trust Tutoring, has been consistently disqualified for NCLB participation in Maryland, even though it has demonstrated extensive evidence of successful learning and academic progress in children enrolled in the program since 1992. Its latest application was rated at the level of either ‘clear and complete’ or ‘superior’ in meeting all stated criteria. Nevertheless, state officials still rejected the program for reasons that apparently reflect their firm policy and philosophy against any genuine child-first alternative. Havis says “the Maryland curriculum-first approach gives grade-level curriculum and instruction to all students in that grade, whether they can understand and benefit from it or not. Unfortunately, this frustrates and discourages children in their natural efforts and instincts to learn. It particularly harms the learning of low-achieving students who most need additional help to improve. For example, it forces teachers to give a third-grade curriculum to a third-grade child who can’t even do first grade level reading. By contrast, Trust Tutoring uses a child-first approach that first assesses children for their individual skill abilities, and then conducts instruction at that level of ability. The common sense and value of this child-first teaching seems to elude government educators in Maryland.” If Havis is correct, the Maryland curriculum-first philosophy is a main contributing cause of failed education in Maryland for low-achieving students. Ironically, government officials in this state seem to be applying the NCLB Act to further fund and propagate their own harmful policy and approach of failing education, which the federal legislation was specifically designed to remedy and overcome. For further information, contact: Lee HavisTrust Tutoring 9525 Georgia Ave #200 Silver Spring, MD 20910 301-589-0733
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