Unprecedented. This word has been used so often during 2020 that I fear it has lost its meaning. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “In these unprecedented times…” during the last year, well, I’d have a bunch of dollars. Of course, there are no precedents for our circumstances and our decisions, especially regarding the education of our children. We do not yet know the effects of this pandemic on our youth. For teachers and school administrators, uncertainty leads to worrying. We worry about our students. This year, I have been in numerous meetings with worried teachers during remote instruction. “Our kids are struggling. They are not engaging. They will be so far behind. How can they go to the next grade? Where will we start with them?”
We are afraid that our students have “lost time”. We are afraid that they will not “catch up”. We are afraid that they will be behind the starting line of the races we set for them every year. We know the stakes: high school courses, standardized tests, college admittance, career readiness. We are constantly measuring our current students against our assessment yardsticks and we are mortally afraid that they are falling short of the measure. As we face these fears, it’s time to raise a new question. Theresa Thayer Snyder (2020), superintendent of Voorheesville district in upstate New York asks, “In our determination to ‘catch them up’, I fear we will lose who they are and what they have learned … What on earth are we trying to catch them up on?”
Friends, in these unprecedented times, perhaps it is finally time to lay down the yardsticks (at least for awhile). Now, let me be clear. I am a special education teacher, currently working as the Pupil Services Coordinator in my district (or assistant director of special education). I love data and assessment. I see spreadsheets and graphs of student achievement in my head. I can recite the Common Core standards from memory. Common formative assessments make me happy. Of course I want to know the exact present levels and current skills of our students. So, the call to lay down our measuring stick didn’t come easily to me.
As I listened to my caring colleagues who are so worried about their students and how they will be left behind, I have to wonder, “behind what?” What is the magic goal that our students are missing? What is the mark of normal that they are failing to hit? None of us are at the goal line and there is no normal. Our students have spent the last year traversing new territory. They are learning in new modes and new environments. They are navigating home life and school life all wrapped up together. They are dealing with distractions from parents, siblings, and pets. They are organizing their materials and managing their own agendas. We cannot use last year’s measures to assess their progress.
Rather than comparing them to an arbitrary yardstick of grade-level achievement, perhaps we should be listening to and learning with our students. Even for a data-loving assessment-minded administrator, it is time to take a pause. We do not have adequate tools to measure the learning that occurred during 2020. We cannot chart the course on our curriculum maps just yet. My favorite English teacher used to say, “No matter where you go, there you are.” Our students only behind compared to our measures. In reality, they are exactly where they ARE. We are traveling a new road and our maps may not be so useful. Rather, let’s take the time to learn what our students have learned this year.
We can use our carefully crafted curriculum maps and assessments of student learning to guide the conversation, but we need not be slaves to the measures. Remember the big ideas and essential questions that we want our students to struggle with through their learning. They have come face to face with the nature of humanity. They have learned how circumstances shape character. They have had to consider life from various perspectives. They have learned so many lessons. Remember the point of education: to empower students to be successful learners in life. Let’s ask them about their strengths, their needs, their stories, and their fears. Let’s find out where their unique journey has led them and what they have learned in the process.
When schools are finally re-opened and ready for business as usual, I can almost guarantee that it won’t be usual. Rather than beginning with worry and fear for all we have lost, let’s take a moment to assess what we have accomplished. Perhaps our first words when we finally are face to face with our students should be, “I’m so glad to see you. Tell me what you’ve learned about life."
References
Teresa Thayer Snyder: What Shall We Do About the Children After the Pandemic. (2020, December 08). Retrieved January 27, 2021, from https://dianeravitch.net/2020/12/12/teresa-thayer-snyder-what-shall-we-do-about-the-children-after-the-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR35lihIJoDkW6XohjKofBs5qWuSbWJ9pxA3Nxk4m_ArY8mbATVoPNShoGM
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