Carla Fried’s discussion of online life expectancy calculators reminded me of how people in schools might use an online personalized life chances calculator. It would convert educators’ generalizations, such as “21st Century Learning,” into measurable impacts on individual student’s lives.
A student could use the life chances calculator to estimate the value a lesson and its learning criterion has for increasing or decreasing her or his life chances. That is, how do the 50 minutes of class time to meet X number of learning criteria change his or her advantages, opportunities, and profits outside of school?
I think sufficient empirical data exist to create a proof-of-concept database and then a working model. Hmm, this is a good idea for someone in academia, but more likely a project that an entrepreneur would tackle, yes? I think I see how aLEAP could be an early step toward that calculator. It could be a fun project, perhaps requiring a behavioral researcher and a software designer.
Does anyone know a model refined enought to offer such a forecast, besides well known standardized intelligence and various achievement tests? They were developed for the same purpose, although their uses in schools have not always followed that intent.