I have had the opportunity to work with students for the past 7 years. Mainly as a mentor and a staff member at a group home at night, primarily serving “at-risk” youth. I now teach that same population.
Schools are always looking for the next strategy, or tool that will help students learn the skills that they need in order to be successful.
I have been to schools where all of the students had an IPad, but they turned out to be little more than distractions during instruction time. I have heard catchy chants, colorful charts, the use of incentives, and just a barrage of new things that were supposed to improve student achievement.
I know the issue is extremely complex, and I do not claim cover everything here, but after sitting in classrooms with mentees, and making home visits, I am more convinced that the main factors that affect student achievement are outside of the classroom.
I am not saying that new tools and strategies are not a good way to meet educational goals, but there are factors that lessen their impact.
I observed some of the following the last several years:
- Students came from single parent households.
- Students came to school hungry
- Student had one or more parents in incarceration
- Student was a victim of violence
- Student was homeless
During my credentialing program, I was presented with different ways to accommodate student learning. Nevertheless, how do you accommodate students that have not eaten, slept in their car’s last night, or have not seen their mother in three years. These are things I routinely helped students process solely as mentor, but many teachers were unable to. That is not an easy task as teacher because there is so much additional pressure to meet test standards and avoid being labeled as “bad” teachers.
Maybe I have not been to enough schools, or teaching long enough, but I just have not seen sufficient effort within the educational system to accommodate students facing these types of issues. I can think of ways to boost comprehension for a student with a langue barrier, learning disability, or a cultural difference.
How do you get the students with a parent doing 11 years in prison to buy in to the importance of even attending to school? I really want to see an emphasis on accommodating these circumstances in the teaching profession.
Rant / rambling over
Theetbradley 