Underlying Assumptions

Having worked in the same school for 18 years, first as a teacher and now as a principal, provides  an interesting perspective on student achievement but I did not fully understand what I was seeing or should be learning until I read the article "College Readiness for All" by Damien Lopez in Speaking Out.  Often over the years alumni will stop by the school to see if their teachers are still here. We are also fortunate to have alumni who come back and work at the school or who do volunteer work from time to time. Okay, nothing unusual here except that who they were as students and who they have become often are very different. Their growth, wisdom and direction sometimes challenge the assumptions we made when they were students. We have had many pleasant surprises but what is troubling me is that I was surprised! I was chagrinned that I still held some underlying assumptions about these students.

One part of the article challenges our assumptions and our ability to believe in our students futures. In some ways it is so basic, we believe all children can succeed but as you read you realize that in many subtle ways the assumptions still are there  and direct our teaching and our expectations. Recently I was involved in a conversation about project based learning and technology integration where one person suggested that these kinds of activities were more feasible with the "College prep" students. Is that true? Many schools still use some kind of track system to sort students which in the end may often lead to lower expectations for a whole group of students. I get that students have different needs and different ways of learning but that should not translate into a different quality of education.

Here is some of what the article addresses. I hope you will read it and then add your thoughts about stopping our assumptions and about the concept of College readiness.

‘’Children who live in generational poverty are seen as perfect candidates for low skilled work in the future. Non-English speaking children especially are assumed to have very little chance of filling professions that might some day provide financial and social stability for their families. Minority students are often burdened by the perception that their best will never be good enough, and therefore they must accept a lesser place in society .What is worse is that these assumptions are branded on children as they enter kindergarten. It is these unspoken and all-too-common assumptions that must be challenged, and why we must take bold risks to do things differently.’’

I think that the assumptions we make are often more subtle than those he suggests and while socio-economic factors may influence them I think that often it is behavior, and initial academic performance that lead to labeling. The effect however is real! The assumption behind the articles title is not that every student will go to college but rather that every student  "deserves the opportunity to be educated in a way that prepares him or her for college."

Comments

[TeachMoore]

I agree with your closing thought here,"...while socio-economic factors may influence them I think that often it is behavior, and initial academic performance that lead to labeling." How students behave in class (particularly minority boys) and/or how students perform on diagnostic tests or initial assignments may become the sole basis for tracking students into areas of lower expectations. Once in those tracks, it is almost impossible to be re-evaluated and moved back to a higher one.

Sometimes, the "tracking" is not done physically but mentally by teachers or administrators, who pass those judgements on to the next levels.
Thank you for reminding us how wrong those initial impressions can be and why we should be giving every student our professional best.