Highmarks Compass is a highly innovative scheduling and curricular product which will run and schedule schools based on what students are actually ready to learn. Our initial product will be for grades 6-12 (middle, junior and senior high schools), but we also have planned products for elementary schools, universities, home schooling and job training environments. Our product is designed to be affordable anywhere in the world, whether in first or third world countries.
The Challenge:
Educators acknowledge that the greatest problem in educational institutions of all types is the greatly stratified knowledge levels of students in their classes, and the resultant stress this places on the teacher to simultaneously instruct students of different levels. Schools allow students to “get by” with a B or C grade, and offer curricula in large chunks (over a semester or year), so that students who are weak in one area will still pass overall. These weaknesses accumulate into knowledge gaps that haunt students and teachers later, preventing truly effective learning and sometimes crippling the student’s ability to learn in that subject.
Highmarks Compass product will provide the following benefits and features:
- Students master core curricula, generally at a B+ or A level. Core material considered to be essential to students’ mastery of a subject will be given greater priority with higher levels of mastery required.
- Make growth in learning standard in a way that is economical for both public and private institutions and is documented through standardized tests.
- Make everyday mentoring and training part and parcel of every teacher’s job.
- Every student will always be in a class they are ready to learn in, enabling teachers to teach more effectively. Students who miss school will always be in classes they are ready to learn in, reducing dropout rates.
- Compass will leverage teacher retraining across an educational institution or even a whole school district by scheduling teachers as observers or observees of master teachers in the units they need help in.
- Learning disabled students will be scheduled with teachers who are trained to teach them, and with the best level of integration with regular students for everyone’s success.
- Talented and motivated students will no longer be held back but will zoom through the curriculum at a faster pace, allowing them to either graduate early, or spend more time in sports, the arts, or electives.