The problems with today's education system are more systemic than most people realize. The fundamental reason that almost all education reforms end in failure is because the basic premise of education reform ignores certain common sense issues grounded in reality. It takes 13 years (K-12) to education most people to a 12^th grade academic level overall. If it did not take 13 years, then there would not be 13 years of education offered. Most education reform approaches go on the premise that with enough money and training, a school system can take a child in the 10^th grade with a 5^th grade reading level and somehow get him to traverse reading levels 6 through 12 in a 3 year time span. It cannot be done.

The other flaw in most education reform approaches is the belief that given enough money, a system can be reformed in a relatively short period of time by improving the overall quality of the school with new buildings, better teacher pay, and new books. The problem with this holistic approach to education reform is that we must understand that if we want a world class 12^th grade class, we have to promote world class 11^th graders into that curriculum. To have a world class 11^th grade class, we have to promote world class 10^th graders into that world class 11^th grade program. If we carry this thinking to its logical conclusion, reform must start in kindergarten and will take 13 years on average to create a world class and completely reformed educational system.

There are other systemic problems that lead to the degeneration of our educational system. Peer based education is one of the primary approaches that have negatively affected education. Along with peer based education comes the bundling of educational material by peer groups as well. 10^th grade math is bundled with 10^th grade English without consideration of actual student performance. This bundling and peer based promotion puts an undue burden on educators to promote children in step with their peers. The result is unqualified students being placed in classes beyond their academic performance levels. Combined with the external dependence on book publisher cycles, these systemic issues deteriorate the very fabric of our public educational system. The Advocate Mastery Approach addresses these systemic shortcomings.

I. Mastering Knowledge

The current grading approach in today's school focuses on familiarity with material and not academic mastery of the material being taught. The letter grading system ranks what a student understands on a sliding scale. What the system fails to recognize is that over time, the letter grading system creates its own set of problems. A math student who advanced to the next math level with a C grade is being promoted to a higher learning level lacking 25% to 30% of the background knowledge needed to understand the higher level of math. I use math as an example because most people believe they are not good at math, when in fact, the issue is most likely they are suffering from cumulative math learning deficiencies that began in junior high. By the time they enter 12^th grade math, the knowledge deficit over 6 years is substantial. Educators must teach to a wide range of differing skill levels complicating the teaching experience.

If the goal of education is to help students master a body of material to be considered educated, then clearly the letter grading system is failing in doing so. A mastery approach creates a better academic experience and outcome for both educator and student. The mastery approach identifies the core material that a student must learn to be considered educated at a given level, and then teaches the student to master that body of material. The student does not advance to the next level of learning until the current level of learning is mastered by achieving test scores in the 95% range.

Another part of the mastery approach eliminates progress grading. Progress grading is the practice of averaging a student's final grade based on tests and quizzes given during the academic cycle. Most students perform poorly on the final exam and are promoted based on this approach. The problem is the students who perform poorly on final exams clearly demonstrate that they have not mastered the material. That means that previous grades on quizzes and tests are of questionable value.

Progress tests and quizzes should only be used to assess a student progress. They are teaching tools to inform the educator on where more emphasis should be directed in the teaching process. As tools of true student retention, they are of little value. I say student retention, because the tests and quizzes do inform the teacher about what the student understands in the short term, but little reflects what the student will retain in the longer term. Implementing a mastery approach to learning forces other changes in educational approaches as well. One of the first that must be abolished is peer based education. If students are promoted by their demonstration of knowledge, then there is no longer a need to take age into consideration when evaluating a student's performance on academic subject matter.

II. Eliminating Peer Based Education

Peer based education is one of the primary approaches that have negatively affected education. Peer based education is the practice of teaching and promoting students according to age group. 1^st grade students are promoted to the 2^nd grade together, and so on. There is serious social stigma associate with not being promoted with one's peers, and it is this stigma that makes parents lobby schools and educators to promote their children, even when academic performance determines they are unqualified. Being left behind can dramatically affect the self-esteem of a young person and educators understand this. Because educators feel a great burden to promote students in lockstep, they create loopholes in the system to allow student to avoid parental pressure and peer stigma.

The bundling of educational content by peer groups also causes further negative pressures on educators. We have 10^th grade math bundled with 10^th grade English and 10^th grade history, etc. When a student is at jeopardy in one class because of poor academic performance, pressure is applied to the educator by parents and students to move that child ahead with a deficient education in one or more peer bundled courses to keep that child advancing with their peers.

The academic effects of peer based education create classrooms where students who are academically qualified to be in a class must share classroom resources with students who are not, or just barely qualified to occupy a seat. Educators must then "right size" their teaching to address this reality, and so the more qualified students are forced to receive a deficient education because scarce class resources are being diverted from the qualified students to the less qualified students. Additionally, many of the unqualified students fall further behind because they lack the prerequisite skills to effectively learn the new material. Over time, peer based education undermines the overall quality of education for all. Peer based education is one of the primary reasons our education system finds itself under - serving or failing our young people in a new world where so many other distractions compete for their hearts and minds.

The Advocate Mastery Approach calls for academic subjects to be de-bundled and for students to be promoted to the next academic level by subject. A school system would have 12 levels of math identified. When a student has passed the mastery qualification for a given math level, that student is advanced to the next math level. In this approach, teaching becomes more simplified because every student in a given class has demonstrated they are qualified for the given level of academic learning. Educators no longer have to "right size" their teaching, and more time is available to teach to the correct academic level.

Obviously, there are some classes that must be peer based because they are based on a child's physical development. Subjects like health and physical education would still need a peer based curriculum. Overall, however, peer based education has out lived its effectiveness in the modern age.

III. Teacher Qualification

Addressing teacher qualification in a mastery driven education approach is controversial at best. I ask the common sense question. Why does it take a bachelors or masters degree to teach 2^nd grade math? The high school graduate parent is fully capable of helping the child learn the material. To home school a child, only a high school diploma is required. That being said, why require a college degree before teaching the material? Would not demonstrated mastery of the material being taught, combined with education in classroom management make for a better teaching experience for the educator and student?

Overly burdensome educational requirements for educators are a sincere, but misguided effort to improve the educational outcomes of students at the k-12 level. The Advocate Mastery Approach can be inexpensively implemented with better results than traditional methods anywhere in the world, because the emphasis of educator qualification and performance is based on their mastery of the material taught and their training to effectively pass that knowledge on. The military and business use this approach with great effectiveness.

I suspect that most of the lofty education requirements for k-12 educators are more about increasing educator pay by raising the educational bar. Pay is directly proportional to how easily you can be replaced. It takes 10 years to make a new doctor, and so they are highly paid. The longer it takes to make a educator, the more pay is required to attract that educator. While I am in favor of good pay for educators, I am not in favor of pay increases that are not directly related to education outcomes.

In developed nations, a high school diploma, teaching certificate in classroom management and tested mastery of the material at least two levels above the level an educator intends to teach for a given subject matter should be more than sufficient.

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