🐴 The 3.4 GPA Student Who Couldn't Read

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IN THIS EDITION:

🍎 Why the "good enough" approach to education inevitably creates learning gaps
🍎 The Tennessee student with a 3.4 GPA who couldn't read his own diploma
🍎 Top mastery-based learning tools that ensure your child builds complete foundations

💡 THOUGHT

75%: PASS OR FAIL?

We don't build houses with 75% complete foundations.

We don't fly planes with 75% complete safety checks.

We don't perform surgery with 75% complete procedures.

Yet in education, we advance students with 75% understanding, every day, in every school. Then we wonder why learning seems so difficult for so many.

In a traditional academic model, as Sal Khan explains, we group students by age and shepherd them at the same pace. A student gets a 75% on a test—missing a quarter of the material—and the class simply moves on to the next subject.

"Imagine if we built homes that way," the Khan Academy founder muses.

"You have two weeks. Do what you can. Inspector shows up, it's 75% complete. Great! That's a C+. Start the second floor, then the third floor. And all of a sudden, that whole structure collapses."

The alternative? Mastery learning—where time is variable but competency is fixed. Students work until they truly master the material, building solid foundations before advancing.

📊 TREND

THE GREAT GRADE CHARADE

A Tennessee student identified as "William A." graduated with a 3.4 GPA—solidly in B+ territory. Just one problem: he couldn't read the words on his diploma. He couldn't even spell his own name.

Now he's suing the Clarksville Montgomery County School System for denying him the "free appropriate education" guaranteed under federal law while awarding him grades suggesting competence he never achieved.

We wish this was merely an isolated case of one student falling through cracks. But it’s not, and it exposes the façade of our entire grading system—where compliance, assignments completed, and attendance often count more than actual learning.

According to court documents, William (who has dyslexia) frequently used AI software to complete assignments.

"To write a paper," the ruling states, "William would dictate his topic using speech-to-text software, paste it into ChatGPT, which would generate a paper, then run that through Grammarly."

His teachers accepted these papers while apparently never addressing his inability to read.

To be honest, we have to give William props for the sheer ingenuity. Like Barbara Corcoran—the real estate mogul who credits her dyslexia with fueling her ambition to prove she wasn't stupid—this young man's resourcefulness may well lead him to success despite the system's failures. But that doesn't excuse what happened.

The court determined that the school's "accommodations" didn't help William learn—they simply "did the work for him."

How many other students are receiving passing grades—even excellent grades—without mastering fundamental skills? And who bears responsibility when a student graduates without the ability to function in society?

The judge's ruling was clear: Despite William's 3.4 GPA, the school failed to provide an education "tailored to the student's needs." In other words, grades without learning are meaningless credentials.

🔨 TOOL

MASTERY-BASED LEARNING TOOLS

Looking for resources that ensure your child truly masters content before moving forward? These top mastery-based learning tools prioritize understanding over arbitrary pacing:

• Khan Academy – The pioneer in mastery-based online learning offers free courses across subjects with adaptive practice that ensures concepts are understood before advancement.

• IXL Learning – Provides standards-aligned practice with a "SmartScore" system that requires consistent correct answers to achieve mastery in a skill.

• ALEKS – An AI-driven math and science system that creates personalized knowledge maps and only advances students when they consistently demonstrate understanding.

• ST Math – Visual math program requiring 100% correctness to unlock new content, ensuring deep conceptual understanding before moving on.

• Lexia (Core5/PowerUp) – Adaptive reading programs that automatically adjust to a student's level and reinforce mastery before progression.For a comprehensive guide to mastery-based learning resources, tools, and curricula, stay tuned for our upcoming blog post that will dive deeper into these options and more.

📚 (WORD) OF THE DAY

Credentialism

noun | kruh-den-shuh-liz-um

The excessive reliance on academic qualifications as proof of ability, even when those credentials may not represent actual knowledge or skills.

That’s all for today! See you tomorrow.

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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