In a system-centred school, the evaluation schemes, such as tests, marks and grades, are mainly “norm-reverenced”. This means they are based on the abilities and achievements of “average” or “normal” pupils at each grade level. Teachers must teach for these “normal” pupils whether they want to or not, and many good teachers would rather not. Very good pupils become bored and pupils with a mental handicap are bound to fail. In other words, pupils must adapt to fit the system; if they do not, or cannot, they suffer the consequences.
As we discovered, for a school system to follow our first principle and adapt structure and curriculum to the pupil, it must change its whole way of operating and become “criterion-referenced”. In a criterion-referenced school, the evaluation scheme is based on the abilities of individual pupils. Brilliant pupils are expected to do more than the “average” pupil and are evaluated according to whether their work matches their abilities. The majority of pupils work at roughly the same level and are evaluated accordingly. The pupil with a mental handicap is given work at his or her level and is evaluated according to whether or not he or she does the work well. In this way the pupil with a mental handicap can succeed as well as any other pupil because he or she is required to do only what he or she actually can do. This system allows for all pupils who require an adapted curriculum to receive it, not just the pupils with a mental handicap, removing some of the stigma assodated with an adapted curriculum.
During our efforts, Rosi and I also discovered that we weren’t alone; many progressive thinkers and educators shared our ideas. Teachers, administrators, school board trustees and researchers are coming to understand that future national prosperity and social justice depend on maximizing the potential of each pupil. This means ensuring that each pupil gets the best education he or she is capable of acquiring, which is achieved by making our school systems more pupil-centred and less system-centred.
