Once K-12 students graduate from high school they face a stark reality. Although students have spent the last 13 years in school, unless they’re headed to college, few students are prepared to navigate the realities of the adult world. In today’s episode Alec and Brian discuss those realities and how the K-12 school system has failed to prepare students with the tools they need to succeed in life after high school.

So far Alec and Brian have discussed where the K-12 school system is falling short. Now it’s time to share what they would do to rebuild the school system from the ground up. This episode is focused on Digital Age Learning Systems or The DALS Model. The DALS Model focuses on each student as an individual, catering the learning experience to each students personal and professional goals with an emphasis on teaching students to become life long learners.

Why is our approach to education in the United States one size fits all? In our current system little is done to create a personalized education plan for students. Although only 15% of our citizens go on to earn a college degree our education system’s entire focus surrounds college prep for 100% of students. In our model we have created a system that is personalized, individualized and customized to meet the academic and  professional goals of our students.

Preparing students for the world beyond K-12 education requires more than just covering Math, English, Science, and Social Studies. In episode 3 Alec and Brian discuss Digital Age Skillsets which are designed to teach students the skills they will need to navigate the real world. Understanding credit, securing a home loan, maintaining a house and a vehicle, and more. When students can understand how these lessons will apply to their real lives, engagement is no longer in question.

Where did letter grades come from and why do we continue to use them? Currently our students are evaluated based on this scale, but is that an effective way to measure the success of our students? In this episode we explore the origin of letter grades and outline a more practical approach to grading that translates to the real, professional world.

In the first episode of the Open Conversations on Learning Matters Podcast Brian Hack and Alec Ostrom set the stage on the current state of the US educational system and where it is  falling short. The two biggest offenders? Standardized Testing and Common Core. Brian and Alec dig in to the infrastructure of the education system to provide context of how our system has become obsessed with "test scores" and "teaching to the standard" rather than developing a curriculum that is designed to prepare students for the real world.