Argumentative Essay: Age-Based Schools Vs. Online Schools

Ability Based Schools vs. Age Based Schools For the past years, traditional public schools work by placing your child in an age based grade level. Now, many school districts have been trying ability based grade levels, and they are much more effective than traditional schools. Not only they help a student's education a lot more, but the discipline and other factors have shown better results in ability based schools than regular schools. The way ability based schools work is much different than conventional schools. According to CNN, the students take a test on each subject, then get placed on a grade level for each subject. “Ultimately, there will be 10 multiage levels, rather than 12 grades, and students might be in different levels depending on the subject” (Press 1). This primarily means that students may finish school in a shorter period of time, rather than going to school for about 12 years. CNN also states that when the student feels ready to move to the next level, they can take the test with a passing grade of 75%. Unlike traditional schools, students may take the test at
any time. An article from USAtoday mentions that once the student masters all 10 levels for each grade, they can move on to college work if they like. The system of ability based grades provided many advantages to the education of all students. For example, a CNN article states that discipline problems went down by a 76% due to the fact that students are exactly at where they are meant to be learning. This primarily means that a student is not learning material that they have already mastered, or stuff that is too hard, they are at their exact level. An article from teachhub says, “Allowing students to learn at their own pace will help them get the most out of school. They can progress more quickly and with a better understanding of the material” (Hawke 1). Not only does this system has pros, but some cons with it. Even though there are only a few cons to this idea, one may really impact and student, and may be important.
The biggest con has to do with socialization, according to TeachHub, due to having different aged kids in classrooms, there may be socialization problems. Though it has been stated that older aged kids that are extremely behind are going to be put in a special class instead of a lower one, there still may be many age differences making some kids self esteem go down. For example, “ Kids that are eighteen and stuck in classrooms with fourteen year olds because of their abilities may feel not worthy and stupid “ (Hawke 1). It is mentioned in the TeachHub article, that there may be many age gaps so different aged kids may not work very well together due to maturity levels, etc. So, like I stated before, these cons can really affect the students, and could even affect their
learning. In most cases, ability based schools are better than age based schools, but in other factors its not. For example, the ability based system shows better discipline than traditional schools, “Discipline problems, Gould said, have decreased 76% in the past two years -- a sign, she said, that the system is working”(Feyerick and Garrett 1). Another thing is that Education is a lot more effective with the ability based system since again, the student is learning exactly at where they're supposed to be, and at their own pace. What traditional schools best ability based ones is that socialization skills are a lot better in age based grades, since students are in a very close age range, in which ability based may not.