The Cart Before the Student

So, okay - it's been over a year and a half quite a while since my last post. My sincerest apologies. I have been presenting at conferences and also designing a new course called "21st Century Literacy."  Well, not exactly designing it: more like REdesigning it. It will involve not just text literacy in the 21st century, but also new media literacy, visual literacy, and other elements (think infographics, Web 2.0 tools, online collaboration, etc.). More on that in a future post.

Today I am administering a Gates-MacGinitie Online Reading post-test. Why, you might ask, am I giving a summative measure designed to assess my students' reading growth during their freshman year in JANUARY?  Two words: class registration.

At our high school, and many others similar in size, I would guess, class registration for the next year's course schedules is performed in January and February. There are several good reasons for doing this: (1) Schools can examine enrollments and allocate teachers effectively; and (2) The Guidance Office has months rather than days or weeks to get the students registered into their new classes.

As the freshman reading teacher, I am expected to provide recommendations for my struggling readers' class placements for the following year. Many of my students will be "released" from Tier 2 reading RTI intervention class having been able to demonstrate comprehension at or above grade level. Some students, however, will be recommended to stay in the program. Yes, it's good for them. Yes, they need it, yada yada yada. However, as a reading teacher, it feels extremely wrong for me to give my seal of approval (or disapproval) for students' year-long progress in JANUARY.

 I make my recommendation based on where kids sit at this point in the year. Those on the bubble could go either way and I have to rely on my professional expertise to make a decision.  The good thing is, should kids make abundant progress between now and May (or for whatever reason revert), their class schedules can be adjusted on an individual basis later on.

Here is my problem: I have quite a few kids who have made a lot of progress, but aren't at or above grade level yet. It's not a fun conversation to tell a kid who has been working hard and who has been making big improvements that it's not enough. Especially when there are kids who were "closer" to begin with who make the cut with very little effort.

I realize there's no way around it. This must be what doctors feel like when they have a patient who has been following all of the "rules," working hard to be healthy and get better, but just not making progress health-wise to be "cleared" for whatever it is they want to be free to do.

Most of the time, it's fine. Because I communicate with the kids early and often about their progress and their performance, they often have a good idea whether or not they'll need to stay in the program when the time comes. However, it has always irked me that this conversation has to take place in January, not May.

Thoughts?