Risk-Reward of MAPP

The Mastery Advancement Pilot Project (MAPP) is going to be introduced Monday morning at 8:00 AM in the House Education Committee. Allowing students to challenge classes and earn a scholarship is a new concept. People ask, “Will it work? In preparing for the presentation, I have asked myself what is the risk-reward trade off of MAPP?

1. What is the cost? The likelihood is very low that MAPP will require extra funds. I don’t see how having fewer students in school can cost more money. The likelihood that MAPP will reduce the tax burden is very high. The fiscal note indicates as much as $545,000. If MAPP works as anticipated and is implemented statewide savings could easily reach $100 million. LOGICAL DECISION – Give MAPP a try

2. Can students learn too fast? One concern that I hear is that students will learn so fast that they will graduate from high school at age 13 or that the students will not be mature enough. Is this really a problem? Are people admitting that our current system is slowing students down that much? If that is the case, we need to implement MAPP and then deal with the issue of maturity. LOGICAL DECISION – Give MAPP at try

3. What happens if a child passes a competency exam that is poorly constructed and the child is not ready for the next level of instruction? This is legitimate concern. The problem would be in the competency exam and would need to be fixed. What about the child? The bill reads that a student request to a challenge exam “be made pursuant to collaboration between the student, the student’s teachers, the school administration, and the student’s parents or guardians.” If a child fails a competency exam, they will need to do what is best for the child and give the appropriate instruction. This is what schools are already trying to do. Nothing is changing except we are providing more options. Finally, the current state funding formula has no requirement that the student learn anything. There is no requirement for learning to take place to get funding. The only thing the state requires is that the student is alive. At least MAPP has a testing requirement. LOGICAL DECISION – Give MAPP a try

4. What happens if the parents overrule the opinion of the teacher and administrator? What is the worst thing that could happen? The student would not pass the competency exam and the opinion of the teacher would be ratified. LOGICAL DECISION -- Give MAPP a try

After a risk-reward trade off analysis, it seems that there is very little real risk; however, tremendous upside potential such as: Improved education at less cost, more engaged students with better parental support, less teacher stress, more prepared students and, possibly, the Idaho system can become the best education system in the world.