ABSTRACT
Flexibility tradeoffs apply to the design of all systems, including those in education. Students graduating from a very specialized curriculum will perform better in the area of specialization than students graduating from a very broad curriculum, but the liberal arts students will outperform the vocational students in a wider range of environments. In most learning contexts, the choice is not either-or, but a decision about where on the performance-flexibility continuum students should be. Conversely, schools that commit to a pure educational philosophy and resist college prep improve their students’ general knowledge and adaptivity, but their increased flexibility comes at a cost of being less competitive in college admissions. There is an inherent tradeoff in the design of all systems between flexibility and performance: Accommodating flexibility entails satisfying a larger set of design requirements, which invariably means compromises in the design.
