Testing and Decision-Making Procedures for Selected Individualized Instructional Programs

The idea of developing instructional programs in our schools to meet individual student needs is not a new theme in American education (Washburne, 1922; Wilhelms, 1962), but it has been only in the last decade that such programs have been implemented on any large-scale basis in the schools. The basic argument in favor of individualizing instruction comes from a multitude of research and evaluation studies that suggest that students differ in interests, motivation, learning rate, goals, and capacity for learning, among other things; and, therefore, group-based instruction on a common curriculum is inappropriate to meet their educational needs. The necessity for change in our schools is evident when one notes, for example, that schools provide successful learning experiences for only about one-third of our students (Block, 1971). On the basis of Project TALENT data, Flanagan, Davis, Dailey, Shaycoft, Orr, Goldberg, and Neyman (1964) and Flanagan (1973) reported that our standard instructional programs are inadequate to handle the large individual differences in any age or grade group. In addition, these authors note that schools generally fail to help the student to cultivate a sense of responsibility for his educational, personal, and social development or to make realistic educational decisions and choices about his future.