Couldn't It Be You?

The 

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The first academic quarter came to an end last week. That means grades, report cards, and quarterly progress monitoring tests. It can be a stressful time for students, but I assure you it is equally if not more of a harrowing time for teachers. Last minute make-up work from students, pleas for leniency or late work allowances, teachers can be completely bogged down. And at a time when teachers are largely blamed when students fail to achieve, it's a time some teachers are reminded they, just like their students, aren't making the grade.

I work very hard as an instructional leader not to create that atmosphere at my school. Yes, we look at data. We are required to report it in many formats to several stakeholders, as we are funded by multiple entities who require we do so. This year however, we have been given an interesting tool for consideration. It remains to be seen if it's legit, but the district/Renaissance Place/whomever, has provided us with a predictor chart correlating a student's percentile rank on the STAR Assessment with the achievement band they are likely to score in on the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) or the EOC (End of Course exam) given at the end of the year. I am cautious not to be sold on these magic 8 ball tools, as we have never had this chart before and I am not sure how they created it. That being said, it is nice to have something to help the kids connect their progress monitoring assessments to how they are preforming towards their overall goal.

I have to stop here for a side bar. The fact I'm even talking about assessment data in this way, especially on my blog, is cringeworthy. I believe in so much more than the numbers, and I know numbers can be manipulated, both positively and negatively. But if you stay with me here, you'll see the qualitative me you know and love is about to surface. Please be patient.

Tomorrow night I have to report my first quarter data to the (SAC) School Advisory Committee. I could explain what that is and who it is made up of, but I won't. Suffice it to say, it's a group of adults, some voluntary some required, who are invested one way or another, in the success of the school. I have been reviewing attendance records and program requirements, the SIP (School Improvement Plan) goals, and of course, student assessment data. Over the past couple of days, each student was required to take both the STAR Reading and the STAR Math Assessments, to monitor their progress toward mastery of the state standards.

As I worked throughout the day on my reports, I also checked in and out of school business, including emails. There was an email from one of my reading teachers. Take a look at "Student C's" STAR results, I'm curious what you think, she said. I was pulling up all the reports, so I scrolled through to the student in question. I wasn't quite sure why the teacher asked me to look. I searched for a discrepancy, and made sure she spent adequate time on the test (the report spits out the amount of time the student spent testing). I just wasn't sure what had red flagged her about it, so I walked over to her classroom during her planning time.

Did you notice how much she improved? She had a perplexed look on her face. She is a second year teacher, a career changer. She's extremely committed to be an excellent teacher, and we are so lucky to have her. I looked at her and gave her back all the reasons she wanted to hear.

Well, I said. And before I could even say it, she finished my sentence.

I know, she could have tanked the baseline assessment. This is not uncommon of students in our program. Many of them are disenchanted with school, and many of them are dealing with emotional stressors and trauma, making academics a bigger chore than it is for most people. It is not unusual for our students to take several weeks or even months to be healthy enough to focus on school, more so than just going through the motions. So the first tests they take aren't always true indicators of their current abilities. Some self-sabotage and don't even try. Others are nervous being at a new school.

That's always possible, I said. It's also possible she wasn't attending or wasn't engaged in school prior to coming. Just attending to academics daily after a lapse, can result in big improvements. She smiled and I smiled back.

Then I gave her an answer perhaps she wasn't expecting. And of course, there's always the chance she's learning. Like maybe you are a great teacher, and you are having an excellent teaching and learning interaction. Maybe it actually has something to do with you. And she modestly shrugged it off and we exchanged a smile as I left the room to return to my office.

When I returned to my desk, I sent myself an email about our interaction. I knew I was going to write about this tonight. The email said, Couldn't it be you? I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Is the system so broken, are teachers so beat down they don't even know how great of a job they're doing? We're pretty quick to let others make us feel shitty for our students' low performance. We try to push it down and away so we don't forget about the student who wasn't attending school at all and now has an 80% attendance rate, or the student who spent most of her time sleeping or putting her head down in class until she came to us. We can't forget about the student who professed she hates reading and now she hangs at your desk when you bring in a new load of books for the classroom library, because she wants first dibs. We won't discount the student who insisted she sucks at math and would shut down before she even tried, and now she keeps a math journal, asks to do problems at the board, and stays after for extra help.

Maybe, teaching is more than just teaching reading strategies or content. Maybe it's not just curriculum standards they need to learn. Maybe, just maybe, there's more to the teaching and learning relationship than the content and skills. I would bet if it was measurable, we would find that a caring teacher, a desire to be in attendance and engaged, and all the other intangibles, are just as much contributors to increased achievement than subject material. Maybe increased self-esteem and confidence, maybe love from a teacher are all part of the equation.

Instead of explaining away her students' successes, I sure wish this teacher was able to acknowledge her hand in it. She is a devoted teacher who is always looking to grow and improve her practice. She loves what she does and her students can see it. She gives 100% of herself to her teaching. She is a teacher of so much more than reading. I wholeheartedly believe she had a hand in the success of this student. I'm going to remind her again tomorrow, it is her. Together, a student and teacher can accomplish great things. These two did.