Examination of the Implementation of Mastery Learning in Remedial Reading Activities: Program for Students With Low Reading Ability in Chicago in the 1970s

Abstract

The present paper reports a theoretical analysis of the implementation of Mastery Learning in elementary school reading instruction in Chicago in the latter half of the 1970s, focusing especially on remediation of reading or remedial activities relating to reading for pupils with learning diffıculties and educational needs. The implementation of Mastery Learning in the Chicago Public Schools had 2 main features: implementation of the method in teaching reading and citywide implementation, despite Chicago's having a very large population. A Mastery Learning concept and system that had been proposed by Bloom was implemented by the Chicago Board of Education, which had teaching materials constructed that teachers could use in remedial reading activities, so that usual activities and enrichment activities could be conducted in the same classroom. The Chicago Mastery Reading Project included the conceptual emergence of special treatment for pupils with educational needs and learning delays. However, the program was criticized because of the increased number of students who had to participate in the supplemental study in order to graduate and enter high school, and high school students' low achievement in reading. The project seems to have had some limitations, in that Mastery Learning did not function fully in the Chicago school system, the students who had participated in the project had a low level of achievement, and the teachers were given no flexibility in the use of the Mastery Learning teaching materials.