State education leaders have a new policy they say will ensure student success. But it involves doing some basic things many schools and teachers already do – focusing on individual students’ needs. And it is meant to de-emphasize required standardized testing.
The state’s 2018 Teacher of the Year, Jonathan Juravich, helped develop the new policy that focuses less on teaching information that could be on state standardized tests and more on meeting the needs of individual students.
“For our students to be academically successful, the individual, diverse needs of our students must be met first," Juravich says.
State school superintendent Paolo DeMaria says this policy is what good teachers and schools are already doing. Students will still have to take tests but DeMaria says this policy will better prepare them for standardized tests and final exams, and will help them use their strengths and overcome their weaknesses to develop important life skills.