Not the best solution for under-achieving students
I’m interested in your thoughts about the proposed summer and winter school programs to “catch up” under-achieving students.
A few issues spring to mind . . .
- Is placing a greater workload on under-achievers the solution?
- How will these students cope without a full break? Won’t these same students be exhausted from back to back terms with shorter breaks?
- Does this suggest that we cannot provide a rich, quality education during a standard school year? Teachers are often targets for accusations of poor outcomes. Will summer and winter programs confirm this thinking?
Perhaps initiatives that focus on a more rigorous approach to supporting the ongoing professional development of all teachers and providing better resourcing, both material and human, would be a preferred option. Undoubtedly there is a high cost to providing quality, ongoing support of this nature. But aren’t teachers building the future? Isn’t quality professional development and ongoing coaching a longer term investment?
It’s positive to see one state education body taking this approach. But how much ongoing support are schools and individual teachers able to receive from literacy managers? Do teachers and support staff see instruction modeled with students? Do literacy managers support schools to plan for hard to teach students in specific incidences? Does a lack of ongoing support make it difficult for some to transition professional learnings into the classroom context?
From next term, some Queensland schools will be assigned a literacy coach. How in depth will the training for coaches be? Will coaches model quality instruction, support data driven planning across the school, show how learning is differentiated for all students across all year levels and assist teachers to explicitly teach literacy across all KLAs? Let’s hope so.
For improved outcomes . . .
- Teachers must be viewed as our most important resource in delivering quality learning;
- Teachers must receive ongoing, quality professional learning with follow up coaching and mentoring immediately afterwards;
- Professional learning should be of such quality that teachers expect improved outcomes;
- Time must be allocated for teachers to liaise with other professionals about individual students;
- The effectiveness of prevention/intervention must be examined. Are the most qualified personnel planning for and delivering instruction to the hardest to teach students? Or are less qualified, less expensive, personnel assigned to students most at risk and needing the highest level of expertise?
- Physical resources must be available to deliver the best quality instruction.
Rather than pushing our under-achieving students harder, isn’t it better to acknowledge and value our most valuable commodity, our teachers, and invest in them? The benefits are great, not the least of which is a better education for all.
Whole heartedly agree! Professional development (good quality PD)is sadly lacking and usually consists of an email flicked on to read and find info on obscure and wordy websites which we then have to read, understand and apply, all done in our ‘spare’ time.
These under-achieving students need to chill out from school for the holidays, not attend more school with teachers who know nothing about them and being made to feel more incompetent than they do already.
I agree Angela – will children be engaged with their learning at summer/winter school or will they be thinking about what their family and friends are doing?
Holidays are an important time for some families to do activites together. Children need this time to play and recharge just as teachers do.
I believe we should have less homework and a bigger focus on reading and discussion of books read, as well as, more game playing eg board games, puzzles, cards etc. Many children spend so much time on technology that the art of conversation is decreasing.
I also agree with all of your suggestions for teachers, especially the follow up coaching/mentoring after PDs. As they say ‘if you don’t use it you lose it’ – this has happened many times for me after a PD.
It’s one of those ideas that’s great in theory, but is seriously lacking in reality. The truth is, the majority of students who are underachieving are doing so because of outside factors which cannot be fixed by summer school – unstable home lives, learning difficulties, low self esteem and low attendance rates. How exactly is summer school going to assist any of those students? For the amount of money it is going to cost them they would be far better off providing extra assistance to these students in school – more teacher aide hours and better resources.
I do so agree with you! And it seems to be a global problem that teachers have lost their good reputation and status in society.
Nevertheless I think that under-achievers need a programme that finds out about their strenghths first and then develops learning strategies for each individual under-achiever separately. I know this sounds utopical but I strongly believe it works as putting much more pressure on them in things they regard as useless would just result in them finding strategies to evade.
Have been working with students for 30 years now and am still optimistic that you can help the odd one improve.
I still can’t believe that the simple option of greatly reduced class sizes (15 children in a class) is always over looked with the excuse of too expensive- what is the cost going to be to our future when these students finish school unable to read and write at an acceptable level. With smaller classes, teachers are able to customise the learning experiences to their students abilities and support them appropriately
How children long for the holidays- as do we! I think a very important point is the one in which you discussed the designation of personnel to assist these children who take longer to achieve in our classrooms. It should be a teacher with significant literacy skills. I believe all schools should have on staff a literacy support teacher/s able to work with these children on a daily basis,working in partnership with the classroom teacher. These children don’t need summer schooling- they need supportive schooling! Many schools do this very well.
I wholeheartedly agree with your comments. The concept of holiday catch-up raises many questions about locations and staffing, not to mention support from and for parents. What about the one underachiever in a family who ‘must’ attend catch-up classes, therefore impacting on the family’s holiday plans? Why not invest the funds into supporting programs during term-time?
You are absolutely right. Everything you suggest is common sense to me.
I believe that there are alternative models to acheiving better outcomes for students. Dedicated, focussed, collaborative planning time for teachers (as part of our hours of duty) should be at the centre of any model for improving literacy outcomes of students. Another suggestion I would make would be to just slow everything down a bit….give us time to get our heads around and to practise effective teaching strategies that address the significant issues and stop fiddling with policy and curriculum….focus on the teacher!!!. Unfortunately we live in an economic rationalist world where students are seen to be individual units of capital….NAPLAN data is what EQ needs to manipulate in order to get money. If we don’t do it, then we risk losing ‘squillions’ of dollars to the state.
Thanks for your inspiring article….you have brightened my day and given me faith that there are people out there who believe in teachers and champion our needs!
Colleagues,
I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. It appears that this is another temporary ‘band-aid’ strategy akin to previous attempts at ‘treating’ the symptom like Evenstart and the Upper Primary Literacy Grant. Often too little, much too late. I question how 5 half-days of Summer School, based on assessment data 18 months old is going to assist older primery students with on-going learning – (and often behaviour) challenges. Doesn’t substantive research support prevention via quality Professional Learning and accountability, and then, if necessary, EARLY intervention? By intervention, I refer to that provided by skilled professionals, not para-professionals, and geared towards the identified (changing) needs of the individual. I believe there are better options that will be more effective in the the short and long-term.
I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments so far. Summer School is another bandaide attempt and may not achieve the results that are expected. Children who are low achievers will probably develop a stronger dislike for school through a summer school program than they already have.
School dislike is already a battle for many teachers to engage their students in meaningful learning. Are we encouraging this problem? Are we undermining the hard work many teachers do to encourage students to enjoy and engage in learning in creative and authentic ways? I just wonder what is next…?
High schools receive significantly more funding per student than primary schools. One in four students are reading and writing below year 8 level when they reach highschool. It is time the government invested more money in primary schools, where fundamental literacy and numeracy skills are developed. It is too late for far too many of these students in early high school to ever catch up. If class sizes were capped at 15 in primary school, many of these deficits wouldn’t exist for some students!
I agree Angela, again they are just trying to fix the crisis instead of preventing the problem in the first place. Last year I was fortunate through circumstance to have a class of 18 children and two school officers at literacy group time each day. This group of children were the most engaged learners I have had in a long time and their literacy levels were much higher than in previous years due to more one on one time catering to each individual’s needs. Class sizes need to be capped and a higher level of support provided in the early/junior years to promote positive attitudes and achievements for each and every child in our school communities.
How could we even consider what would seem like punishment to these children. What a setback for a child’s self esteem, the little some of these children might already have! There are so many better and positive alternatives, the resources just need to be provided where needed.
Thanks Angela for providing a discussion forum that should be provided by Ed Qld and the Ministers for Education, both Federal and State. This is such an important topic yet the decision makers only want to address it with the cheapest possible band aid. Our ‘tail’ of under achievers is the nearly the largest of the OECD countries because we fail to acknowledge the research which supports smaller class sizes, early intervention, family support strategies and good teacher training. I agree with Paula that too much teacher ‘PD’ time is wasted on new policies, procedures,curriculum development and ‘jargon ism’.Teachers are required to ‘differentiate’ their teaching to cater for all students, BUT,the NAPLAN testing makes no allowances for ESL students (a significant percentage), for those with learning difficulties/disabilities, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students, those in Foster Care etc etc. Keep it simple.Provide quality support for the 200 days a year students already spend at school.
Whatever happened to Reading Recovery?
Still the best literacy intervention program in the world.
It was thrown out because it was ‘too expensive?’
It’s not looking that expensive now, when you weigh up the cost of the summer schools, literacy pd, coaches etc!!!
let’s just hope that our literacy coaches are former Reading Recovery teachers!!
How many students will be wanting to put their hands up for this and attend willingly – not to mention that teachers also need the break to refresh and reorganise for the next year? I agree that the fund – if given to schools would be much better utilised and in a more creative fashion than that which seems to be suggested by the powers that be. Networking with other teachers, I have heard many wonderful ideas and suggestions that just need a little more funding and in most cases not that much more money. I would love to just be given the money and then I am sure we would be able to address this lag in learning with many of our students.
When will common sense prevail. Many children find it difficult to function in overcrowded classrooms where much of the teacher’s time is taken up dealing with behaviour issues. Smaller class sizes and more classroom support would go a long way with dealing with under-achievers. It would seem that we ask the question – “What is the best way to solve the problem?” And then the opposite is usually done!
I agree with jennell’s statement:
It would seem that we ask the question – “What is the best way to solve the problem?” And then the opposite is usually done!
I see the summer school as a very poor way of addressing the problems associated with low achievement in L&N for these reasons:
-held during students holidays-low level of commitment and negative attitude to being there
-combined L&N classes-ineffective since non specific
-up to 12 students in one class-no real individual attention able to be given and liklihood of student behaviour problems
-3 hours per day is too long for tuition sessions-young students (years 3,5 etc)can’t concentrated on intense learning for this long.
-lack of teacher interest since get paid for only 3 hours per day even if have to travel long distance. This is unfair to teachers.
lots more onjections but the above are a good start!
Angela, I agree with Jules Young’s comments, and looking at this problem from outside the school system, through my work in industry as a Cert IV Assessor & Trainer (where I often see the end result of this problem), having raised three literate children and reading to foster children in my spare time, my personal observation is that children, and adults, who aren’t reasonably literate, have often arrived at this destination via a combination of experiences. Some are intellectually or culturally disadvantaged while others haven’t cultivated a love of language or the written word in childhood because their early experience of entertainment is DVD’s, TV or Nintendo which takes the place of personal interaction and storytelling. Surely teachers and the school curricula cannot forever be expected to make up the shortfall for inadequate parenting & disability problems. Students whose families channel them towards careers, whether it be tertiary education, apprenticeships or mainstream office based positions, usually ensure the child has the literacy levels required for such pursuits. The “underachievers” who fall through the cracks need a program designed to help them understand how reading & writing can add another dimension to their lives. If a child is interested in something, then their particiation is usually more spirited. I have used cooking & shopping edpeditions etc. for girls and sport avticities for boys to introduce the need to be able to read to fully enjoy their interests. Cards & games are also a great tool. They are also learning numeracy skills while they are having fun. I know a lot of children go to PCYC Programs during school holidays and maybe the Education Dept., instead of encroaching anymore on teacher’s vacation time and setting up yet another program which may, or may not, work, could investigate including activities, on certain days, which combine fun and literacy and make it available for children who need assistance in a way that they would not feel they were being “kept in” over the holidays. Money that would have been spent on setting up an entirely new school holiday program, could be channelled into an already existing one at possibly less cost.
‘Summer/winter’ catch up school is a ludicrous idea. What can struggling children learn in a week that they could not learn during the previous terms? It seems to me as though someone heard about the U.S. summer school idea and thought it would be good for our kids too. But – summer school in the USA is mainly for children who want to get ahead (not catch up). American children also have a 3 month summer holiday – not the 5-6 weeks we have here. The schooling system in Australia is not the same as the USA and therefore summer schooling doesn’t suit our students. Students do need a break from constant academic pressure. They need to recharge their batteries and come back ready to learn, rather than feel as though they have been punished.
The money would be better spent providing teachers with regular PD along with follow up visits with mentors/coaches. Reading Recovery offered fantastic, regular PD sessions, which met individual needs of teachers and students. Visits from tutors were invaluable and teachers were able to put theory into practice.
Ongoing training and development of teachers as a resource is a better idea than the bandaid approach of summer school.
Governments need to consult with teachers from a variety of schools and follow their advice when it comes to educating students.
I have yet to find one single teacher who thinks this is going to be an effective way to support students who are struggling with literacy and/or numeracy.
Early intervention is most effective, as research indicates – and Reading Recovery seems to currently be the most effective support that can be given in this area. This combined with smaller class sizes in primary – even if just in the early years of primary school – would be extremely powerful and could, I suspect, certainly reduce the problem and, long term, save immense amounts of money used all through schooling system, and afterwards, trying to support what becomes a greater and greater problem. This would mean that for an intermediate period, you might have to support older students as well as increase early years support; but eventually, it should dramatically reduce the need for on-going support – so that only children that were truly learning disabled would need support throughout their schooling career (and they will need support throughout their schooling career no matter what intervention and how good the teaching in class).
However, until some honesty replaces spin in beaurocratic and governmental decision-making, these damaging decisions will continue I suspect, and it is no easy thing to maintain personal integrity within a corrupt context, or to truly change a corrupt context from within. The only way to change such decisions might be for enough teachers to refuse to carry them out – and to be willing to cop the comments that will be directed at us.
I too agree with all that has been said. As a past Reading Recovery Teacher finishing her training in the final year, I too was outraged to find out it had been axed as we all saw the benefits that 1-1 time could have for these students.
Maybe there is an argument for intervention for students who are just under the average in the class and not always the worst scores, often known to be the LD or very low IQ scores or they may have a Sp & L deficit; very difficult to move whereas the other grou-p often can easily jump over the hurdle that they had been having and progress more quickly.
Last but not least, as a parent of Yr 6 child invited to participate in Summer School, all those same ideas crossed my mind but I did not want him to miss out if that was all that was going to be available. I now fully agree that I may have made a wrong decision and realise it could be detrimental to his overall attitude to school and to his own self-esteem. Thanks for the chance to hear from others; ED Qld should have done this long before Summer Schools were even mentioned.
Once more the government goes off half cocked trying to show that they are really “concerned”about the children in our schools. How further from the truth could we be. If they were truly concerned they would put into schools all the things every one here has suggested. I am a Prep teacher with over 30 years experience working in the early years. Never have we had so little support for delivering quality education which is the only way those children who struggle to achieve will reach their full potential.
Until Parents take responsibility for their children’s learning and value education then it won’t matter what sort of initiatives the government bring in or what sort of programmes teachers implement nothing will be resolved.