Playing Catch Up

So, our superintendent of schools has said that we should catch up all failing students. Okay. An excellent idea. I think I will. We have small classes, and of the students we have, I have picked a pupil to be my "project" for the rest of the year. This student reads and writes on a 3rd grade level, and his math is about the same. I don't remember the exact math level, but I think it might be a little higher than the English. The important part here is that student has made it to the 6th grade with so few skills.

After some time toward the beginning of this year, we decided it would be in his best interest to be in the special education room where they work at a slower pace. His work in the regular ed. classes wasn't cutting it. He was there for about ten weeks, and then put back in the "regular" classroom. He was supposed to move to a different county, so our room was to be a transition from our program to the regular school. He ended up staying. Things have been sort of hectic since then, with preparation for the writing assessment and snow days and behavior issues. I can say all these things, but in my heart I know I should have done what I am about to do as soon as he came back into my classroom.

I know what grade level he is on, and I know that I cannot pull him up to a 6th grade level by the end of the year. That's all there is to it, demands from central office or not. But if we can get just one whole grade level higher, that would be something. That would be progress. So, tomorrow, we are going to start on 4th grade vocabulary. Maybe do a game of memory with the words and definitions. Heck, that's something the rest of the class could do with cards and no one would even know he had a different deck. But isn't it true that we all have a different deck?

What I hate most about this situation is that I know he isn't the only one. He's the only one in our program who is so far behind, but as far as the county goes, I know there are many more. I don't know why they continue to be passed when they obviously don't have the knowledge they should, but they are. I feel very grateful that I can pick one student to really focus on trying to catch up, but a teacher at a regular school would have so many more. How could a teacher at a regular school POSSIBLY be expected to catch up all failing students? In a class of juniors, there may be a couple on the 9th grade level in terms of writing and a few on the 10th grade level. Throw in one who is really far behind and on the 7th grade level for good measure. Then what?

I'll be honest here. I don't see what the problem with grouping students by ability is. Put students who are far behind together so that at least you can focus on where they actually are and go from there more easily. Put the average ones together and proceed. Put the above average ones together and challenge them (that apparently is okay, hence honors classes and A.P. classes). Why do away with the idea of basic classes? I taught some basic classes at the high school level and yes, maybe students were sometimes "embarrassed" to be labeled as "basic" but we made progress, damn it. Red birds, blue birds, at some point they will have to fly alone, and if we can't give them the tools they need because the theories in education are crippling us then no one wins.

That's it. I'm getting off my soapbox now. Thank you for being my audience.