The authors, Shannon Renkly and Katherine Bertolini, argue that schools need to change their model from a deficit model to an asset model. They argue that this would have a profound effect on the quality of education throughout the US at all levels.
In today’s schools, an emphasis is put on knowledge and what students can learn, primarily through the repetition of information. This article makes the case that instead of focusing on what students can’t do, we should instead focus on what they can. Schools today focus on preventing students from creating problems, and don’t encourage students to be the best version of themselves that they can be. In the article it describes this as the deficit model. The model is one in which schools focus on the “deficits” of students and not their strengths. An example of this is the student who excels in areas such as art and music, but is weak in math or science. Through the deficit model, the emphasis would be put on that students struggle in math or science and not their abilities in music or art. This creates an environment in which that student is more likely to be a “problem child” due to them not enjoying those subjects. Using the asset model, a school might focus on that student's abilities in art and music and create a plan around that, rather than forcing that student to be good at math. The asset model allows students and teachers to create a plan revolving around a student's strengths, or assets. The model does not take away a student's weaknesses to provide them all strengths, it simply focuses on those strengths more. Instead of a teacher telling a student’s parents that he or she needs to improve in math, they may tell them how their child is excelling in other subjects first. In my experience in school, I agree that this model would most likely benefit students more than the deficit model commonly used in schools today. I think this is something schools should take and use within the schools and communities. In my own education, especially elementary education, my teachers did well with this model, as they catered to all kinds of students and allowed students to be themselves in class. As I moved up into secondary education, they did not allow students to show their capability outside of the main classes, and it was difficult to find classes to take I was interested in. There was such an emphasis on doing well on state and national testing and doing well in core classes that the other classes outside of that were seen as unimportant, which is where I believe this asset model would really help.
Link to good article explaining the asset model and how educators can implement it: https://acue.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/MSWTA_Toolkit_Assets.pdf
