What Defines a Good Education?

According to U.S. Today, Vashon Island High School (VHS) has earned a reputation for excellence, ranking as the 12th best high school in Washington State based on test performance, graduation rates, and college preparation. However, this success begs the question: what truly drives these numbers?

Teaching and education has progressed over the years, and classroom education looks extremely different today compared to 50 years ago. There are many different ways to teach a concept: lectures, group problems, hands on experience, etc., but everyone learns differently. Lectures used to be the primary form of classroom instruction and are still widely used in higher education settings. Teachers would stand in the front of a classroom, sometimes with hundreds of students closely paying attention, solve a problem, and expect you to understand not only how it works, but also why it works. While some may form an understanding from this teaching style, they don’t always understand it well enough to help their peers. This is not how most students learn, so what exactly does a good education look like?

A “good education” looks different for everyone, but I’d argue a good education moves past equality to achieve true equity. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of a “good education” is a poster that hangs in the hallway of my overcrowded and under-staffed elementary school: the three students with different heights standing on different sized blocks. While equality gives everyone the exact same resources, typically the bare minimum, a good education meets students and staff where they currently stand with the content and adjusts the curriculum so that everyone demonstrates mastery.

At VHS, many teachers teach with a “hands-on” approach to make their lessons more engaging. The social studies and history departments excel in facilitating socratic seminars and role-playing historical events, rather than simply reading from a textbook. These methods reflect what studies have shown: that students learn best when they are provided with interactive problems and receive support and feedback from peers and teachers (Freeman et al). At VHS, this looks like collaborative group projects, open-note problem-solving sessions, and peer-review workshops where students actively engage with the material. In his TED Talk on educational engagement, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn highlights how “If you really want to deliver education to everyone, not only do you need to make it accessible, but also you have to make it so that people want to actually learn.” Just like how teachers base new content off previous concepts, students need to apply the knowledge they learn to their own lives. Why is this important? When would I use this in the real world?

I am not a resident of Vashon Island, but I have attended schools within the Vashon Island School District for almost the past four years. When I made the difficult decision to apply to Vashon Island High School (VHS), a huge factor that swayed me to attend included how VHS is known for its hands-on and project-based learning. As someone who has trouble sitting still, this style of teaching allows me to learn best and demonstrate my proficiency with the content. Sure, our test scores are above average and our teachers understand the materials, but I’d argue that it’s not necessarily about if teachers understand the content. Primarily, it’s about how well they can share that content with the next generation. As a student who has built connections with almost every staff member at VHS, essentially all of the VHS departments and staff are empowering the future generations and properly setting them up for success.

Individualized Educational Plans (IEP) and 504 plans have been around for years and are designed to help students with learning differences have equal access to educational opportunities and reach their academic success. Mark Schneider, a reporter for AEI, shares how more students are being provided with IEP/504 plans. “In 2000, about 13 percent of students had IEPs. In 2022, that proportion increased to 15 percent” (Data from the United States Department of Education).

While this may seem significant, the student population nationwide is increasing, but the funds to provide students with para-educators and alternative education equipment remains the same. When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, the federal government promised to cover 40% of the extra costs for special education. However, they have historically never met this goal, currently funding less than 50% of it (NDSS).

Schools collectively need to move away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach in order to ensure students thrive throughout their higher education career. For instance, I got to take part in a lab in Biology, where we studied mealworms and the transfer of energy. Sure, we could have analyzed previous data or gained some form of knowledge through reading someone else’s study, but this hands-on process cemented the scientific concepts in my mind far more effectively than a slideshow. While our humanities departments champion the interactive approach, some of VHS’s more traditional, lecture-heavy courses still rely on outdated memorization, leaving students disengaged and struggling to connect important concepts to the real world. By universally adopting dynamic, student-centered learning structures, VHS can truly ensure every student is adequately prepared for their future.