Opportunity for All...

A colleague and I sat after school tonight going over the data for two classes of students.  I had created a spreadsheet that included all NWEA testing data for the last four years for each child.  I had shared the document so teachers had been given an opportunity to add anecdotal notes about the individual strengths, weakness and observations about each child.  I had color coded students that had performed above the 50th percentile in increments of 10% points, a different color for each band.  Attendance issues were noted in a separate column.  Our job was seemingly simple; identify students who should be accelerated to the next course.

We are continuing the implementation of Proficiency Based Education in our school.  Our middle school is completely proficiency based.  We are now moving to our intermediate team and they are facing the challenge head on and with the excellent support of our curriculum coordinator.  Our intermediate team is looking at their students in a completely different way then they have in the past.  They aren't thinking about 3rd graders, 4th graders and 5th graders.  Instead, they are thinking about where students are academically in each area of the curriculum.  They are carefully evaluating where students are in each course rather than how old they are.  It isn't as easy as it sounds.  Every decision is agonizing.  What if you haven't seen a child's potential and place them too low.  What if they aren't ready for the challenge and are placed too high?  These students are more than people who come and go out of our classrooms.  This is what brought us to this point; looking at accelerating students to the middle level math program.

So we sat with our spreadsheet tonight and talked about kids.  We reviewed the data for every single child, talking about how that child could best be challenged and whether or not acceleration into my program would be appropriate for them.  Every child, regardless of their current or past scores were considered carefully and completely.  We talked about kids who performed well on standardized tests but are failing in the classroom.  We wondered what we could do better in the classroom to inspire them to show us their potential every day instead of just once or twice a year.  They went to the top of the list.  That is a first for us.  It is easy to move those extremely bright, cooperative, well supported students.  You know they will be successful.  Advancing a child without a parent advocate but with a behavior problem, that is more of a risk.  That didn't stop us from seeing that child's potential and putting them forward as a candidate.

We spent a lot of time talking about kids with anxiety and whether or not this would be the right thing for them.  Is an acceleration right for a child that will stress about getting correct answers or should we keep them where they are comfortable?  Ultimately we decided to provide the opportunity and talk with the parents to decide what would be best.  Denying a child the opportunity due to any condition doesn't seem to fit what we are trying to do.

When we were done we had a list of candidates who were identified based on their demonstrated ability, not attendance, behaviors, disabilities or conditions.   Every child was given the same consideration.  What's more, the children who are not accelerated will be placed in courses that are at the appropriate challenge level.  I'm pretty excited about the idea that every child will be given the right opportunity in each of their courses.