Is 60% Enough?

Elaine J. Martin

I’ve been assigned a very difficult task this year to teach at-risk freshmen: at-risk to fail, at-risk to drop out, at-risk to not come to school, at-risk to not move onto Sophomore year. In the group of 44 students, the majority of them are diligently working to advance to Sophomore year and to be in mainstreamed classes. However, the team of teachers, four of us plus a special education teacher, still struggle though with those handful of students who flounder in any attempts to get them caught up to the same level as their peers. Their apathy towards education can be viral, where one problem can systemically affect the entire group of students. Yet, having had the opportunity to get to know these students, we all realize that even though some of the problems stem from the child, most of these children have had miserable lives. So, I certainly can’t blame them when they’re struggling to concentrate because they were just kicked out of their house, or because dad just left with his mistress, or because they are facing a pregnancy scare, or even because they have to go home to babysit younger siblings all night. Their situations can be heartbreaking at times, yet there has to be a way that we can provide them with equitable education despite some inequitable circumstances.

Katie is a bright young lady who, when she applies herself, does very well. Her reading and writing skills are at grade level, but her behaviors are immature. She constantly questions teachers, administrators, and peers. She leaves class when things do not go her way, but rarely without causing a huge scene. She slams doors as she leaves and loudly swears as she wanders down the hall. But she lacks the skills to be able to engage appropriately in class because they are not reinforced at home. That could be because Katie doesn’t live at home. She was kicked out three weeks ago, perhaps for going to her guidance counselor because her stepfather was physically abusing her. This wasn’t the first time Katie was kicked out either, but this was the third time. Right now, she’s living at her boyfriend’s house. This was of course after she was invited to live at a friend’s house, then asked to leave, then moved into another friend’s house just to be asked to leave again. Her boyfriend’s mother doesn’t want her there either; she just asked Katie to talk to the guidance department about foster care placements. Katie has nobody really looking out for her after school hours. She is basically left to fend for herself in a world that is uncertain for her. There have been days she has arrived at school unsure of where she was going to sleep that night. Therefore, I can’t blame her when she can’t concentrate in class and when she can’t accept when things aren’t going her way. So, how do you teach a child who doesn’t have even her basic needs of food and shelter met? How do you assess her when work isn’t being completed? Katie certainly struggles. Her home life is non-existent and that transfers into a rocky school life with constant run-ins with authority figures and peers. She is, simply, a distraction in class, so managing her behaviors often take precedence over academics.

Katie isn’t alone, however, in her behaviors in class and her struggles outside of school. Adam’s family has just been split apart. He comes from a tough home-life where his father is an alcoholic and his mother does the best that she can essentially being a single parent to two adolescent boys. Adam’s relationship with his father is next to nonexistent and any negative interaction sends Adam spinning off into oblivion. However, his father just recently moved out, but that has left his mother with a second job, more bills to pay on her own, and very little time for her children. Adam was coming to school with duct tape on his shoes and no winter coat; his family can’t even afford heat, so how can they provide for winter clothing? When our program somehow found the funds to purchase Adam a winter coat and a new pair of shoes, Adam wasn’t the least bit hesitant to accept the clothing from a “donor” who just happened to know his shoe and coat size. Adam also struggles with ADHD, but rarely remembers to take his medication. Most recently, it has been his responsibility to get his younger brother up and ready for school. Today, they missed the bus and his mother was unable to go back home and take them to school. Adam walked over two miles to get to school, so it is understandable that a simple pill slips his mind in the morning. When he is unmedicated, he is unfocused, difficult to redirect, and constantly seeking attention from his peers in the middle of class. I hate to kick these kids out of class and send them downstairs to only land themselves in in-house or to get suspended; what good is school doing for them then? Often times, it is easier to stop the lesson for a few moments to speak with students individually, but then, inevitably, the class is difficult to redirect.

Alyssa is yet another story of hardship. She has, from what I can gather, a recently stable home-life with her mom who remarried a few years ago and has had a child since. Alyssa’s father, on the other hand, just got out of jail, and she has moved in with him. Alyssa is rebelling against her mother’s rules and consequences and is excited about the prospect of spending time with her dad. Her most recent paper outlined the reasons why she loves her father’s house so much: freedom to do as she pleases. Alyssa’s new found freedom and issues with authority have manifest into defiance at school and in her social life. Drama seems to circle Alyssa just as sure as the Earth orbits the sun; she has had a pregnancy scare, a sexually transmitted disease scare, numerous problems with her boyfriend and friends, and issues with illegal substances, to name a few. Although she is definitely capable of completing the work with a high quality, she doesn’t because she gets distracted by the things going on around her, and if she isn’t involved, she’ll quickly find a way to be. Her constant need to engage with others distracts the class, and, like Katie, if things are not going in her favor, she is quick to explode and leave the class. Again, this upsets the entire classroom and then it is like we are starting from scratch in order to get the class refocused.

To add to the troubles we face, most of the students in this program feel as though they are segregated from their peers; in their eyes a scarlet letter “A” may as well be placed on them. We are constantly questioned as to why they have been placed into a program and are being treated like children. Of course, the reality is that we conduct our other freshmen classes in strikingly similar matters, especially in regards to classroom management. What is so different, and what students are starting to figure out, is the material in which we are able to cover is moving at a much slower pace. Even so, we were prepared to handle some questions, but to still discuss the issues nearly halfway through the school year only adds to the issues, and really speaks volumes as to how the students are feeling, despite our best attempts to minimize the differences between their program and mainstreamed classes.

The focus of the program is supposed to be academic; according to the mandates the principal has set, this is a program in which struggling students will get the same material, but presented in a slightly different way. And for the majority of the students, this model of education is working, albeit much more slowly than we, the core team of teachers, had anticipated because of all the other skills we find we need to teach, but many students are benefiting from these classes. Their success rates may not have been as high had they been placed into mainstream classes. Recently, however, our principal announced to the core teachers of this program that as long as the students get 60% of the curriculum, then we have successfully done our jobs.

So where does that leave us?

Hopefully, the students will have some basic skills that will help them be successful for the remainder of high school, but they’ll most certainly lack the content knowledge that most of their peers will have. In the realm of English class, this isn’t so bad. Yes, it would be nice for all students to have the same foundation in order for teachers to build on their knowledge subsequent years, but these students can still be successful provided they have some basic skills. As for the other content areas, I cannot say with any amount of certainty that 60% of the curriculum will be enough for them to be successful the next three years of high school. Obviously, administration acknowledges that these students require a different type of education, an education that is equitable for these students, but how to go about that is still undecided, as this is a new program and a new effort to better guide these students to success in school.

How do you accurately assess students, and pass them onto the next grade, when they are only receiving 60% of the curriculum?

I’m in a school district that supports passing students at the middle level despite their lack of commitment to school and lack of completion of work. This is obviously a sensitive subject since there have been studies indicating that if students are held back, then they are more apt to drop out. I ask: are we simply providing an equitable education for these students? And if so, then we have to be doing them a disservice compared to their mainstreamed classmates because they will score in a lesser percentile than most of their peers on standardized tests because they did not receive the full curriculum. Unfortunately, some days I feel at a loss because either way, we are setting some of these kids up to fail, especially within the competitive nation we live in now where we have to meet educational expectations otherwise our school funding may be cut.

So, who are we benefiting?

This is where the team of teachers come to a standstill. Are we doing these students a disservice? Should we put the academics aside to focus on the life skills that these students need? I find myself stopping to think of Katie, Adam, and Alyssa; in order for these students to be successful in high school, they not only need the academics, but they also need the life skills. It seems nearly impossible to decide which requires more of a focus, for one does have to go on the back burner sometimes; is it best to focus on academics for those 35 students who are in this program to get the extra academic support, or do you sacrifice their learning to focus on the other ten students who cannot focus in class and therefore get everyone else off track? It is certainly not easy to decide which is more important, however, at times, one does seem more immediate than the other.

How do you expect students to learn when they are facing such extreme difficulties? And how do you assess students when they aren’t learning?

These students aren’t learning because their basic needs, often, aren’t being met: Katie has no place to sleep, Adam has no heat, and Alyssa can’t seem to get out of her own way sometimes. Yet, we are expected to focus on academics. What is really happening is that our curriculum is going by the wayside because there are more immediate social and emotional issues that need to be addressed. However, I am not trained, nor are the other teachers on my team, as social workers or guidance counselors. Still, we all feel the need to act in that role because resources are limited and these students need the attention.

For all these reasons, the content-based curriculum is moving at a much slower pace in all four core classes. For those other students who really need the academic support, this is a huge deterrent to the program because they could benefit and really thrive next year if they could just focus on academics this year. The majority of the students need smaller classes, more individualized support, organizational skills, more time to complete assignments, and the list goes on and on. Although on paper the program is providing these students with all of these necessities, in reality it is much harder to accommodate all of these students’ needs. The majority of the students are generally well behaved and genuinely seem to want to do well in school, they just need more individualized attention and engaging curriculum. This is extremely difficult to provide when behavioral issues are rampant and are not being addressed, especially by administration.

My colleagues and I have had some serious and in-depth discussions about academics versus social and emotional curriculum. I find myself leaning towards teaching the social and emotional aspects rather than the academic aspects because I constantly find myself wondering how Katie, Adam and Alyssa can function in a normal classroom setting when they have basic needs that need to be met. It is also a reality that all of the other students who do not present as behavioral issues will benefit from us teaching those skills to be able to help some students cope with social pressures and emotional problems. This is similar to the academic supports most teachers put into place; if it benefits one, it will probably benefit most. All of the students in this program have not been successful in mainstream classrooms in the past, and that is why they have been placed into this pilot program. They need those life skills in order to function in academia.

If I’m leaning towards the social and emotional aspects of teaching, then I feel there has to be a better environment for these students to learn in. If a classroom setting hasn’t worked for them in the past, then the chances of it working for them in the future are rather slim. But resources are limited, budgets have been cut, and outside funding is at a minimum. We’re left with our hands tied behind our backs and we have to make due with the classrooms, supports and supplies that we have.

What do you do with these students who are too distracted by life, for reasons both in and out of their control, to learn, and more specifically, to learn enough to test well on a standardized test?

After all, that is what teachers are being told to teach to, despite any skating around of the topic. As educators, we must acknowledge the inevitable, at least for this point in time, that students need to do well on standardized tests in order to get a good job, or go to a good school, post high school. And we must also acknowledge that the amount of curriculum that is deemed appropriate for the students in this program to receive is not enough to keep them out of certain tracks, for this is tracking, despite what administrators may say, and, sadly, this is something that the faculty within the school have been working hard to fight against for the past few decades.

So I ask: has the school just set these students up to fail, or at least to not get out of this track that they have been placed in?

It feels like a vicious cycle with no way of getting off; learning cannot happen unless these students’ basic needs are being met and their basic needs cannot be met without learning. How can we justify these students’ experiences in a new program with nearly half of the content curriculum being replaced by social and emotional turmoil? There has to be a better way to educate these children. But we are short on funding and short on time. We’re all being stretched in a vast multitude of directions from commitments in our personal lives to second jobs and after-school activities to supplement our meager wages. Our commitments beyond our careers leave us with little time to do much outside of school in terms of planning and enacting a curriculum that is truly engaging. Similarly, our planning periods seem to be slowly shrinking due to budget cuts, meetings, helping students. Limited resources only make matters worse. If the school district acknowledged the need to have a program that is truly equitable for these students, then the dilemma between academics and social and emotional issues would not plague these students and their abilities to compete with their mainstreamed peers.

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