What’s The Difference?

In my eighteen years in education I’ve served in three school districts and on five different campuses. The communities that are served by these campuses is pretty diverse. There are some observations that I have made during my time that bother me to my core. Some of these issues are perpetuating the disparities that already exist in educational settings.

As an educator, the physical location of your school makes a difference. If you are in a more affluent suburb, you have a vastly different experience than if you were in a setting where the housing and surrounding community is not the best. You may say that these things have nothing to do with the students that you serve or other staff in the building. I encourage you to pay close attention.

There have been studies that show student performance can vary up to 30% based on socioeconomic status. This same information is also backed by school districts and the money spent on recruiting high quality candidates. Often teachers in high performing districts have more experience than teachers that are in lower performing districts.

Let’s start with Tier 1 instruction. No matter the background of a student, we know that quality Tier 1 instruction is needed to help students grow. Too often in underperforming environments, students are not introduced properly to grade level content. We hear the argument that the students are not ready or they don’t have the background knowledge to be successful with grade level content.

My thoughts on this is that if a stirs not introduced to grade level content, then how do we ever expect them to learn? This is not an issue in most districts. Why is there an assumption that some students can’t learn?

Parent communication is another sore spot. Why are teachers afraid to communicate with the parents of students who are underperforming? Every parent has a right to know what’s going on with their student at school. If a student is struggling, teachers should want to partner with parents for the benefit of the student.

The school district that a student is enrolled in should not make or break their educational experience. We as educators have to do our best to make sure students receive the very best education. There are some factors that are out of our control, but that does not excuse anyone from giving their best effort to educate our children.

Of course there are exceptions to every situation. Not every teacher in high achieving schools is a solid teacher and not every teacher in an underperforming school needs help with their skill set. What absolutely needs to happen is for educators to see their students for who they are and help them to become the people they can be.