"Waiting to Fail" Instead of Teaching

[Sheila]

This is written for reading (language), but applies to math also in my opinion.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Waiting to Fail" Has Been Discredited For Decades [/FONT]
http://www.wrightslaw.com/nltr/09/nl.0224.htm

 

[Superpsy]

This is a great newsletter I wish more educators would get it. I'm planning on making copies and doing some distributing.

 

[JJJ]

I agree that retaining because a child hasn't learned to read won't help the child learn to read.

But there are very good reasons to retain children. Both of my middle two children repeated 1st grade - at my insistence, over the objections of our school district. It was 100% the right decision for both of them. My daughter is a regular ed student now and my son only needs resource support. They needed the extra year to recover from their foster care experience - years in which no one read to them, etc.

There is no one size fits all answer.

 

[C.J.]

With my child, at junior high and high school, school was a place to meet her friends, not gain an education. Despite an IEP, modifications, and home bound schooling for one semester, she stopped doing most work. Lied about having no homework or said she completed it in class, no need to study for test night before, she could do it in study skills class, forgot book at school, book is in someone's car, bookbag, locker...

She was held back her junior year. Quit alternative high school in the middle of her second junior year. When she went back to alternative high school in January, 2009, she went three days and quit again. She's now looking into getting a GED. With her, school was not a priority, and now it is entirely her responsibility.

 

[Ropefree]

Through my decade plus through the no can do relationship with schools who say they can not implement the services known to support the learning needs of my child (high IQ with a classic issue with writing, organization, focus) once the medications and behavior issues that teachers disliked in the classroom were not their problem the condition I call "Teaching to Fail" was called "his problem".
What needs to occur is for childrens education needs to be supplied. PERIOD. When a child can attend regular ed classes, or not, in every school day a child with a learning issue needs to have the adjunct services,too, with a bona fid speciallist who DOES KNOW and CAN DO as needed with them. Not "just" in a large class where the teacher "doesn't know".
These kids especially in school, are aware that they are not "getting it" and as they are children they will "do childish things": they want to be done, so they say they have done it. All kids want to have the sence that they are able and deserving of praise. When they are told they "should be" able to track and do as told, but they have not REALLY learned the habits and the means to do so, the adults are letting them down.
The teachers will say "we can not do it for them". Yet it is teaching to learn and succeed that does, ulitmately "do it for them". The style and the childed based need meeting is the key.

 

[BusynMember]

My daughter had a reading disability and was not learning to read by grade 3, even with Title I. She didn't understand how to put sounds together, although she knew the sounds. If the school had said "retention" their ears would be ringing because retention would not have solved her learning disabilitiy. She was put into a small Learning Disability (LD) class with a marvelous teacher and an aide for both reading and math (since math requires a lot of reading). Her other classes were mainstreamed and modified. Within the year she could read at a first grade level. Within two years she read just a year behind. Now she is still not a big book lover, but she is only 1-2 years behind, which is miraculous considering the severity of her learning disability. She is mainstreamed now with an extra study hall for kids who require extra help with their studies and homework. Whenever I feel they are falling down on the job, I call and they respond (because the school has messed with hub and I and they didn't like the results...lol). Also, they truly LIKE my daughter and she is an eager learner.
I do not think retention is the answer unless you are talking about maturity issues. I did hold back both of my gifted sons from kindergarten because they were boys, had very very late birthdays, and were immature, and it didn't hurt them. But it had nothing to do with their abilities to learn. If a child has an Learning Disability (LD) problem, THAT needs to be addressed.
Years ago, I went to school as a high IQ Learning Disability (LD) student, but nobody knew what that was at the time. I got so frustrated that I stopped trying in high school. I wanted to drop out, but my parents got tutors to make sure I passed. Nothing is perfect, but we have come a long way from those days.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Sheila,

thanks for posting this - it was a good read. I get the email newsletter from ldonline and now I've signed up for this one!

Sharon