Part Two - 'The End of Average'

Average grade point, median scores on standardized tests, SAT and ACT scores, Common Core, a common textbook. You name it and the field of education, at almost all levels (at least K-12) is very homogenized. By and large education teaches to the so called 'average student.'

Whether one wishes to believe this idea or notion is completely acceptable. All I would ask anyone who has anything to do with the field of teaching is to take a close look at how the school day is organized, how classes are organized, how decisions are made impacting education in ones building and the impact of many of the points I made in the opening paragraph today.

Let's not kid ourselves, we are constantly measuring each student by a certain measure; be it SAT/ACT scores, IQ, grade point average or some other sort of measurement. And much of this is undertaken with the perceived notion that if a student's score on a certain measurement is very high then that student will have a better chance at success.

The work of Todd Rose, in 'The End of Average,' found that this is not the case. There is no one score (as I mentioned in the previous paragraph) that will absolutely and positively correlate to success or achievement. This will surely not be accepted by many in the field of education but we had better look at what makes each individual tick rather than merely thinking one score or metric will reveal the character of an individual.

Dick