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We have implemented this methodology at Lambda School (YC S17 - https://lambdaschool.com https://lambdaschool.com) with staggering results. We only get paid if

We have implemented this methodology at Lambda School (YC S17 - https://lambdaschool.com https://lambdaschool.com) with staggering results. We only get paid if our students are hired making more than $50k/yr as a software engineer or data scientist, so we’re more motivated than most to try things like this, even if they’re expensive. First, mastery-based progression. At the end of every week we have a “sprint challenge,” where a student builds a project using everything that was learned that week. If they didn’t grasp the material, instead of pushing them forward, they stay back and repeat that week until they have mastered it. Of course, this is very expensive to do, and therefore will never be done in most classroom environments (you erode economies of scale), but we find that it’s worth it. The results from that alone have been astounding. We don’t have a scientifically-designed study that shows a standard deviation increase (too many other variables are simultaneously changing), but the difference in student competence and ability at graduation was jaw-dropping. The next aspect is probably an order of magnitude more expensive to implement - individual tutoring. We obviously can’t pair every student with a tutor all day (our instructors are experienced engineers and therefore very expensive), but we keep every student in a group of 8 students with 1 TA (a student who is at least 4 months ahead, performed well, and stays on for a short contract). Importantly those students are happy to be paid to review the material, and cost about 1/5 of what an experienced instructor does. In such a small setting a TA can be there to individually work with a student (though for a little less than an hour a day). Again, I don’t have any good way to scientifically prove this, but the level of ability our students have now at the end of our 30-week curriculum (which can become longer due to mastery-based progression) is incredible. If you’re an engineering or hiring manager and want to try it out shoot an email to hiringpartners@lambdaschool.com and ask to interview a student who had never programmed before the 30 weeks to see what they can do. I thoroughly believe Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem is the most important study done in education... ever.

robbiep 8y ago
How can you have great results but not be able to prove it? I see this perception coming up again and again, and it has, in my experience, always been due to 2 factors: the time has not been taken to determine a study design; or the improvement doesn't exist. I'm not saying your method doesn't work, but surely if it is your business you could take the time and money to prove it (i'm in a similar situation with mine, although in the health space no-one trusts you unless you can publish, which raises a whole other set of problems - ie shitty studies)
- austenallred 8y ago
  We have had a huge swing in results, we can show that, but we’re simultaneously improving and testing a lot of things across the entire company (we’re 18 months old and are iterating in everything quickly), so it’s not like we have a well-designed study that isolates this as the only cause. We could do it now I suppose, but you begin to run into ethical questions that don’t mesh with our vision: “let’s give n students a subpar experience to prove a point” would be a tough sell.
  - robbiep 8y ago
    have you thought of doing a crossover study and reducing fees for a portion of a cohort? If your method has results, then you should be able to catch them up, and then you can go to market with real numbers (alternatively, it might hint towards class sizes or other changes you can make to maximise efficiency)
    - austenallred 8y ago
      I’m sure you could find a way to prove it’s better; I’d rather just do a great job for everyone and let the results speak for themselves
      - robbiep 8y ago
        Not to harp on about this too much, but that is exactly the problem: results that speak for themselves but don’t have any rigour are sham results and leave you open to accusations that you are simply using marketing flash or selective statistics. Now, a real study can open you to this as wel, but it is harder when you have some ostensibly objective results. There is no such thing as achieving results unless you can prove it, it doesn’t make sense
        austenallred 8y ago
        > there is no such thing as achieving results unless you can prove it That’s not true. Things happen regardless of whether or not they happen within the guidelines of a scientifically designed/valid study. Students are getting better. Was that correlation or causation? I’m not going to force students to have a mediocre experience to prove it.

robbiep 8y ago

How can you have great results but not be able to prove it? I see this perception coming up again and again, and it has, in my experience, always been due to 2 factors: the time has not been taken to determine a study design; or the improvement doesn't exist. I'm not saying your method doesn't work, but surely if it is your business you could take the time and money to prove it (i'm in a similar situation with mine, although in the health space no-one trusts you unless you can publish, which raises a whole other set of problems - ie shitty studies)

austenallred 8y ago
We have had a huge swing in results, we can show that, but we’re simultaneously improving and testing a lot of things across the entire company (we’re 18 months old and are iterating in everything quickly), so it’s not like we have a well-designed study that isolates this as the only cause. We could do it now I suppose, but you begin to run into ethical questions that don’t mesh with our vision: “let’s give n students a subpar experience to prove a point” would be a tough sell.
- robbiep 8y ago
  have you thought of doing a crossover study and reducing fees for a portion of a cohort? If your method has results, then you should be able to catch them up, and then you can go to market with real numbers (alternatively, it might hint towards class sizes or other changes you can make to maximise efficiency)
  - austenallred 8y ago
    I’m sure you could find a way to prove it’s better; I’d rather just do a great job for everyone and let the results speak for themselves
    - robbiep 8y ago
      Not to harp on about this too much, but that is exactly the problem: results that speak for themselves but don’t have any rigour are sham results and leave you open to accusations that you are simply using marketing flash or selective statistics. Now, a real study can open you to this as wel, but it is harder when you have some ostensibly objective results. There is no such thing as achieving results unless you can prove it, it doesn’t make sense
      - austenallred 8y ago
        > there is no such thing as achieving results unless you can prove it That’s not true. Things happen regardless of whether or not they happen within the guidelines of a scientifically designed/valid study. Students are getting better. Was that correlation or causation? I’m not going to force students to have a mediocre experience to prove it.