Looking at jobs now and into the future, the thinking skills involved are harder and more demanding. We need to reconnect education to work so pupils are better prepared. Schools need to increasingly focus on skills that enhance thinking so that as adults, students are employable.
SAT scores should not be the only predictor aside from grades for the students, abilities. They are multiple choice tests of math and literacy which institutions of higher learning still maintain are good predictors of the students, abilities in college. Coupled with that are the thousands of students who are admitted to colleges and graduate with degrees which are useless for many fields of work. Employers focus on the degrees rather than the abilities of the candidate.
Schools need to redirect their efforts to teach students thinking skills. At Palm Beach Academy, the Socratic method of asking questions as a means to an end is the utilized for classroom learning. Unlike traditional schools, at the Academy questions are encouraged and subjects which are presented by teachers are often done so through a question. This leads to a student body whose cognitive abilities are greater and results in optimized success.
