Coughing: Ask a Doctor; Leveling: Ask a Teacher

There has been a trend in public education over the past couple of years to find solutions to bridge the ever-increasing gap between those schools that are passing the federally mandated No Child Left Behind initiative and those schools who aren’t passing.  As districts and communities scramble to figure out something that will stem off the increasing floodwaters of failure before the hard deadline of 100% proficiency comes in 2014, many well-intentioned but ultimately unrealistic initiatives are being implemented.

Here is one:

The concept of eliminating the “achievement” level, creating an amalgamated “academic” level of achievement and academic level students, is a sound concept.  In theory, if you put a student who works at a level 3 in with a group of students who work at level 2, the level 2 students will invariably “lift up” the level 3 students.  Here is how the levels traditionally tend to break out:

Level 3- achievement- these are the students who tend to need more attention, and for the most part are less self-directed and less mature

Level 2- academic- these are the students who are more self-directed, more mature, and potentially college prep

Level 1- accelerated- these are self-directed, college bound students

As all of the teachers and students know, however, most of the students who are considered achievement level are not at that level for academic reasons, but rather, for reasons of maturity.

Consequently, what ends up happening is that you have the more immature level 3 students mixed in with the more mature level 2 students.  This immaturity draws the teacher’s attention with classroom management issues, and the resulting loss of time is time stolen away from the true academic level students who have the intellectual capacity and the maturity to potentially be college prep students.

The latest trend is that the above has been recognized and is being acted on by the students.  In attempt of the true academic level students to get away from the true achievement level students, the academic level students are requesting a bump up in level to the accelerated level.  While most can handle this in terms of grades, again it is a maturity issue (each level has its own maturity level, which is generally the real defining criteria).

And so there is a migration from the accelerated level to the honors level in their attempt to get away from the academic level students infiltrating the accelerated level.  Unfortunately for the accelerated level students, there is a large gulf in both maturity and academic prowess between the accelerated and the honors levels.

The leveling of the students should be left up to the teachers and the students, not the counselors, the parents, or the administrators.  It should not be a political or a cost-cutting tool.  The teachers are the ones who know the students in the classroom, both from an academic and from a maturity perspective; it’s their job to know.  No one else has the expertise—the personal expertise—without conflicting interest, to be able to direct the student to the appropriate level.

We ask a doctor when we have medical issues, and a lawyer when we have legal issues.  Why then do we ask a politician when we have education issues?  Ask a teacher.  You’ve got a pretty good shot at getting the right answers.  After all, teachers taught doctors, lawyers, and politicians everything they know…


© Ray Cattie