Courage to make a Change

For the past 10 years I have been teaching 1st and 2nd grade. There has been a huge focus in school on grades 3-5. The intervention and most heavily weighted remediation all occurs in the upper grades. It makes perfect sense at first thought because the upper grades are the testing grades. If you have kids that are struggling in 3-5 you need to give them intense intervention to bridge their gaps. You want to ensure success for those kiddos not just for the scores of our school but to ensure the child's confidence and academic knowledge to lead them to the next grade.

What is the problem with this method? 

If a student struggles in kinder, the gap widens in 1st grade, and by 2nd grade you have basic foundational skills that have not need attained. Teachers often assume (for the purpose of teaching the grade level TEKS) that certain skills have been mastered in K-1. Reading instruction intensifies and the educational gaps widen considerably in 2nd and 3rd grade. Then comes testing time... all of a sudden that student is receiving heavy intervention in hopes to pass the STAAR test. 

Doesn't that sound a little bit miscued? Should the heavy intervention not happen as soon as the gap is identified in kinder and 1st grade? Placing your heavy intervention in the lower grades will aid in filling cracks in the educational foundation before they are widened to a point where the student is in a daily struggle. 

I believe the intervention needs to happen early before a student starts thinking, "I can't." Catch them young before they know that it is harder for them that others. Give them confidence and skills they need to work through problems. Bridge gaps. Plant the seed to a growth mindset.

Interventions in k-2 aren't working? Maybe we need to look at further testing or other factors for that student.

So, why is this not happening in every school? How hard could it be to switch intervention from 3-5 to k-2? The answer is VERY DIFFICULT. The first couple of years after this switch occurs you will most definitely see a drop in scores and until the current 2nd graders have reached 5th grade you will have kids in testing grades with existing foundational gaps not bridged in k-2 and not receiving the heavy intervention once given in 3-5. Can you imaging the questions from parents, the district, teachers, and the community during the transitional years of this switch? 

Making a change of this nature as a principal would take a TON of courage. Man-O-Steele... Mr. Ryan Steele seems to be just the person with the right amount of courage to implement this change. 

Now, patience as change is in progress....

I am very excited!