As teachers we are entrusted with the duty of educating EVERY child that enters our classrooms. A query I ran last week identified that we have thousands of our students in middle and high school failing their classes, yes I did say thousands. What does that mean for each of us? What does that mean for our teachers? What does that mean for our parents/guardians? Most importantly, what does that mean for our students?
What does a grade truly reflect? A poignant statement by a student the other day sums it up quite well in my opinion. The student said, "Grades are really stressful for students. When a student receives a poor grade on a test, it makes them feel like they are dumb. It would be so much better if teachers used the results of tests to show what they need to teach a student and then teach them that. If you don't know how to do something, isn't that when someone is supposed to teach you how to do it? Instead our teachers tell us we are failures if we don't know how to do something." If I were still in the classroom I would definitely want to employ this approach and mindset in my classroom. That is truly a growth mindset! A grade can make such an impact either positive or negative on a child's psyche and future.
It is our moral obligation to ensure EVERY student receives a quality education and we cannot give up on any student. There are multiple layers to the reasons why a student may have received an F, but as leaders we must lead the charge right now to uncover why and to work to rectify this epidemic that we cannot be complacent or okay with.
I have run reports, looked at individual students in Aeries, and asked myself hundreds of questions about how we could allow this to happen. Here is my response today that I want to scream from the rafters, we CAN'T allow this. Each principal and each teacher needs to look into what is going on and develop plans of action to work together to rectify the problem. Our children deserve to be respected so much that we do all that is possible to assist them in growing and learning.
I know each of you cares deeply about your students and you want them all to be successful. So, let's link arms and come together to solve this problem. Kids Deserve It!
