Pass or Fail: Challenges for Early Intervention Services

pass or fail

In this multi-part series, I provide a dissection of the phenomenon of retention and social promotion. Also, I describe the many different methods that would improve student instruction in classrooms and eliminate the need for retention and social promotion if combined effectively.

While reading this series, periodically ask yourself this question: Why are educators, parents and the American public complicit in a practice that does demonstrable harm to children and the competitive future of the country?

What drawbacks have you observed within the early intervention process? What elements do you find to be most effective?

Although there are differences between early intervention and school-age supports for children with disabilities or special education needs, there are also obvious similarities. Supports provided by early intervention programming have less of an academic focus. Granted, there is the long-term goal of promoting academic success, but these goals are pursued indirectly. There’s awareness that prevention is a workable strategy and students need the best possible developmental balance.

For early intervention opportunities to be successful, some of the existing procedures and parameters need to be reviewed and revised. The suggestion here is that early – and often – intervention is the appropriate strategy for promoting academic success for all students. It offers a relatively cost-effective and helpful approach for promoting quality education, as well as offering necessary supports for academic success. That said, there is still a need to ensure maximum efficiency.

Childhood Early Intervention

Within the parameters of early intervention, a healthy student exhibits an appropriate level in areas of development. He or she can enjoy a healthy, active, and productive existence inside and outside of learning environments. The multidisciplinary approach for early intervention is holistic.

In addition to using a broad range of professionals to provide early intervention services, most early intervention programs offer support across a broad range of developmental domains. In their approach to disabilities, which are defined as dysfunctional interactions between an individual and his environment, early intervention again goes further than most school-age programs. Early intervention programs tend to work on those disabilities that hinder students in areas outside of education, as well as within it. Impairment of interaction with the environment, which is not limited to school, broadens the scope of interventions that can be offered.

School-Age Supports

Most school-based services operate on the understanding that there must be a quantifiable delay for a child to receive support. There are also limits as to how supports can be used. School-based programs are less proactive and preventative, tending to approach special-education resources and opportunities with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset.

While there may be occasional support in schools, the principal service provider of school-age supports is the teacher and, ideally, the regular education teacher. This is not always the case with early intervention.

Early Intervention Obstacles

The basic elements are already in place for early intervention programs to be a success, but the logistical issues associated, including the transition to school, are difficult to overcome.

According to various research, the educational environment needs specific mechanisms or processes in a concrete system, such that it is capable of bringing about or preventing some change in the system as a whole or some of its subsystems. At the same time, mechanisms can be related to human development. Examples of such development-focused interventions include maternal responsiveness, parental monitoring, cognitive development, and school and community support.

Successful Outcomes

Research was conducted in which the success of early intervention was tracked and important program elements were identified. Measurements of preschool participation (in years), of the duration of program participation (in years), and of extended program participation for four to six years were the measurements that correlated with academic success. Students were found to be more successful when they had high participation in all three areas. Parent participation in preschool was also found to be an important factor, as was school quality.

In other words, early intervention programs should emphasize these elements – opportunities for students to participate in preschool environments before enrollment in school, opportunities for parent engagement, and opportunities for the preschooler to participate in the program.

At the same time, early intervention programs are governed by financial and logistical considerations. No matter how much they might wish it, school districts and states can spend only so much on early intervention support services. Budgetary considerations must have some weight, not necessarily in determining rigid service parameters, but certainly in creating service guidelines.

The success of early intervention tends to weigh heavily on involving children as early as possible, during pre-school years. With this in mind, who should be raising awareness for early intervention?

Pass or Fail: The Early Intervention Process

In this multi-part series, I provide a dissection of the phenomenon of retention and social promotion. Also, I describe the many different methods that would improve student instruction in classrooms and eliminate the need for retention and social promotion if combined effectively.

While reading this series, periodically ask yourself this question: Why are educators, parents and the American public complicit in a practice that does demonstrable harm to children and the competitive future of the country?

If early intervention is the answer, then what exactly is the process for receiving services and how difficult is it to begin this procedure?

Assessment

Once a potential delay is identified, there will be a certain timeframe set for observations and with the use of diagnostic tools for assessment. As soon as this process is underway, parents and other caregivers are able to become involved. Feedback and input is requested and used to develop effective service-delivery models.

The findings of the diagnostic processes are presented to parents, and a formal document is prepared that details exactly what the level of need is deemed to be. A standard Individualized Education Plan (IEP) offers information on the student’s background and family makeup. It identifies specific strengths, usually with the intention of focusing on those strengths in the later development of support strategies. The same is true of an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP).

Goals and Objectives

An IEP or IFSP in the United States includes a list of specific goals and objectives pertinent to the individual needs of a child with identified developmental delays or disabilities. Goals are designed to target educational objectives. Goals tend to vary, though, because different states have different guidelines and curricula outlining expectations for students.

One of the major factors to be aware of in the current early-intervention and school-based support systems is that expectations play a huge role in outlining goals. Because goals vary from state to state, and there are sometimes different interpretations of relevant goals and standards, and consistency in service delivery is a problem. The underlying goal of early intervention, as well as of school-based supports, is to help children or older students overcome academic challenges related to developmental delays or disabilities.

Specifically Designed Instruction

Based on individualized goals –developed in line with the broader standards – Specially Designed Instruction parameters (SDIs) are developed. SDIs are strategies designed to support the educational needs of a student who qualifies for early-intervention or school-based services.

For instance, a student who struggles with staying on task, who has an inability to concentrate due to a condition such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), would perhaps have an IEP with an SDI detailing the need for tasks to be broken down into smaller chunks. Another related SDI might be the delivery of specific prompts directly to the student by the teacher, to encourage the student to remain focused. Provisions can even allot students extra time and the option to take breaks at regular intervals, to support concentration.

Early Childhood Intervention

Inevitably, the process for early intervention is very similar to this but concentrated in the home environment because this is the natural learning environment for most children up to the age of six. Continual data collection, tracking, and analysis occurs while a child receives early intervention or school-based services. At the same time, goals, objectives, and SDIs are updated. The formal IEP or IFSP remains up to date and establishes the parameters for service by the treatment team. The treatment team also includes the parents, who are involved in support of a child’s academic needs.

School-Age Intervention Transition

Ideally, when a student prepares to enter school, there should be a smooth transition from the early childhood environment to the school setting and, if necessary, a swift implementation of the goals, objectives, and SDIs according to the child’s needs.

Undoubtedly, this is one point in which there are deficits in effectiveness and efficiency. The transition phase of early intervention or intermediate units (between early intervention and school, in some states) is often bottlenecked.

Most families state or district-wide, go through the transition process at roughly the same time of year. Meetings with parents or guardians are required, which adds to the logistical issues of scheduling and implementing data-collection, as well as service-delivery efforts.

With early intervention procedures involving multiple steps and various service professionals, how can efforts be streamlined for a more efficient process?

Pass or Fail: Early Intervention Procedures

pass or fail

In this multi-part series, I provide a dissection of the phenomenon of retention and social promotion. Also, I describe the many different methods that would improve student instruction in classrooms and eliminate the need for retention and social promotion if combined effectively.

While reading this series, periodically ask yourself this question: Why are educators, parents and the American public complicit in a practice that does demonstrable harm to children and the competitive future of the country?

What seems to be the largest challenge facing early intervention programs? Of the various administrative issues that impact early intervention procedures, funding is crucial, as are the logistics of service delivery.

In the United States, federal funding and legislation support mandatory early-education programs in every state. A formal system of early intervention is clearly regulated via legislation, and has led to a substantial increase in the number of services available to children with disabilities. These services are, however, often not meted out fairly. Moreover, services can be difficult to access.

A Picture of Real-World Intervention

In a New York Times piece, Lena and Robert Serpico describe their experiences with their son, whom they had taken in, along with his brother, as a foster child. Early on it was clear that the boy had difficulties. He was restless and had problems focusing. Like so many other restless kids in elementary school, he was put on Ritalin, which seemed to help for a time. He started doing better in school, picked up the guitar, and became involved in sports. However, things changed when he turned fourteen, perhaps not coincidentally, about the time he started dating. He attempted suicide and threatened to try again.

The Serpicos took their son to various psychiatrists, and he was diagnosed with everything from depression to bipolar disorder. They tried various therapies and drugs, yet nothing helped. He began to slack off at school, and was then placed in a recommended day therapy clinic. He was kicked out for bringing a weapon to a session. Another clinic was tried, and he was again kicked out, this time for refusing to participate, saying “It’s useless all this stuff. It’s a waste of my time.”

Finally, it seemed that their only option was to put their son in long-term residential care. However, these services cost from $10,000 to $60,000 per month, far more than they could afford. They tried to have insurance pay for the care, but were refused repeatedly. Mrs. Serpico said, “I called the insurance company nonstop for two straight days, begging and pleading for help. I finally got through to a decision maker and said that if my son is released home and dies, it will be on your conscience.”

Extreme Interventions

The Serpicos’ son was finally admitted to a residential care home but on a week-by-week basis. Two months later he was back at home, unchanged. Finally, after hiring a lawyer, they managed to get their troubled child into a government-sponsored therapeutic home in Montana for a year.

Though the difficulties outlined above may seem extreme, their experience is not that unusual. Lower-income families often lack the emotional, as well as financial, resources to deal with children who do not fit into the system, and for whom only drastic intervention seems to work.

Intervention Abroad

Other countries, have not made early intervention services a universal requirement. Indeed, Canada does not have early intervention legislation at the federal level, although one of the reasons for this is that education programs are governed by the provinces rather than through federal law. The primary focus of early intervention services in Canada is on tracking children through data collection. Based on the review of information and the specific needs of different regions, Canadian early-intervention agencies then provide funding, resources, and specific services.

In an ideal scenario, all children, regardless of age or severity of development delay, would be eligible for services at as early an age as possible. Students entering school would experience an easy transition from the early interventions previously received, to the new school environment. Intervention approaches would be similar in nature and completely uninterrupted. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.

What changes would need to be made to our education and healthcare system to ensure care was provided to all children, regardless of their developmental struggles? What could be done so that early intervention therapists and elementary educators worked together to provide cohesive service plans?

Pass or Fail: Intervening Early and Often

pass or fail

In this multi-part series, I provide a dissection of the phenomenon of retention and social promotion. Also, I describe the many different methods that would improve student instruction in classrooms and eliminate the need for retention and social promotion if combined effectively.

While reading this series, periodically ask yourself this question: Why are educators, parents and the American public complicit in a practice that does demonstrable harm to children and the competitive future of the country?

Is it possible that early intervention could be used to conclude the practices of retention and social promotion entirely?

It is a widely-held belief that the ultimate step in putting an end to grade retention and social promotion is intervention. Early and frequent intervention is necessary for students who are identified as experiencing any developmental delay or special educational need.

As with other strategies, intervention requires a multilevel, multilayer focus. It must be developed with sound theoretical backing and implemented with adequate resources. Qualified teachers and special educators must be available to manage the implementation process and monitor progress. Moreover, this entire approach presupposes the availability and application of tools to identify and measure developmental delays and special needs in the first place.

Definition of Early Intervention

Generally speaking, early intervention offers children good quality, early experiences, usually with an emphasis on the educational side of human development.

The World Health Organization (WHO) places intervention in a global context, and offers a three-point description of the objectives of early intervention. First, it is seen as a means of preventing disability. The prevention of additional impairments is the second aim, while the third is to minimize the impact of any disability that has already occurred. Note that all of these purposes are preventative in nature.

Key Parameters of Early Intervention

Successful implementation of early intervention depends on two elements: awareness and access. These two elements are deeply intertwined. Awareness depends on communication between early-intervention units, educational professionals, health-care providers, and parents. Awareness entails a knowledge of the nature, goals, and mechanism of early intervention, as well as knowledge of who is a qualified recipient and how the process can be initiated. The access element of early intervention ensures that available resources and those who administer them are capable of meeting the needs of qualifying children and their families.

Awareness

Intervention works best when it occurs as soon as a learning problem is noted. Parents and family members need to receive information about developmental phases and the services available through early-intervention programs as soon as possible. While family physicians and pediatricians are the first responders for issues of this sort, other education professionals, including those who oversee or participate in preschool programs and daycares, should be aware of and able to refer parents to early-intervention services.

Access

Access also deals with having a wide enough range of resources. Early intervention is deeply multidisciplinary, typically making use of the services of child and youth workers, social workers, speech and language specialists, and pediatric psychologists. These specialists typically focus their attention on needs related to speech and language, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

By providing children access to trained individuals, developmental delays can be addressed quickly while working toward improvement in the area in which the child is experiencing difficulties. The earlier delays are pinpointed and concentrated on, the more time the child will have working to improve skills prior to beginning school.

Can you imagine a world in which all American children experiencing developmental delays were identified and began work on developmental deficiencies prior to starting school?

The Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Education

Slowly but surely, artificial intelligence (AI) has infiltrated every area of our lives, from clothes shopping to TV viewing to dating. But what is its impact on education? Will it help teachers, or make them obsolete?

In fact, AI does not detract from classroom instruction but enhances it in many ways. Here are some of the benefits of AI in our educational systems.

Personalization. It can be overwhelmingly difficult for one teacher to figure out how to meet the needs of every student in his/her classroom: remedial students, advanced students, ESL students and the disabled all need to have the same access to learning. AI systems easily adapt to each student’s individual learning needs and can target instruction based on their strengths and weaknesses, meaningless work for teachers and a more meaningful learning experience for students.

Tutoring. Yes, it’s already happening: thanks to AI, machines are taking on the role of humans in many capacities, including tutors. As with human tutors, “Intelligent Tutoring Systems” can gauge a student’s learning style and pre-existing knowledge to deliver customized support and instruction.

Grading. This is arguably one of the most tedious teaching tasks and takes time away from more meaningful and purposeful pursuits, like lesson planning and professional development. Machines are now so far advanced that they can do much more than simply grade an exam with an answer key; they can compile data about how students performed and even grade more abstract assessments such as essays. 

Feedback on course quality. AI can identify instruction gaps in the course content based on student performance on assessments. For example, if a significant percentage of students answer a question incorrectly, AI can zero in on the specific information or concepts that students are missing, so that educators can deliver targeted improvements in materials and methods.

Meaningful and immediate feedback to students. In an age when most communication occurs online or via text message, students are increasingly hesitant about taking risks in front of teachers and peers. They shrink from receiving critical feedback in such a public forum. With AI, students can feel comfortable to make the mistakes necessary for learning and receive the feedback they need for improvement.

As educators, we all have fears about instituting large systemic changes, and sometimes those fears are well grounded. However, we cannot afford to ignore the possibilities that AI offers us for dramatically improving the student learning experience.

Despite Doubts, MBAs Are More Valuable Than Ever

It isn’t difficult to find online articles casting doubts on MBAs. A typically American degree program designed to prepare the ambitious for careers in business leadership, the MBA has been a useful tool in securing high-profile jobs for more than a century. Yet, recently, the proliferation of the two-year business school degree amongst job applicants has convinced many so-called experts that employers simply aren’t wowed by MBAs any longer.

Of course, this is far from true. In fact, a recent study performed by the Graduate Management Admissions Council found that more than 86 percent of employers around the globe are eager to hire MBA grads. That rate rises above 90 percent in the United States and Far East, including China and Japan. Not only is their unemployment rate remarkably low, but MBA-holders also enjoy higher salaries than their less-educated, less-experienced peers: Nearly half of all MBAs report a base salary of nearly $125,000, and another third of MBAs earn between $100,000 and $125,000, while the national average for income hovers around $30,000.

It should be obvious that MBAs remain valuable in the job market. Though the cost of living and tuition prices have increased in recent years, education is more available than ever before. Now, workers can apply to top online MBA programs and while maintaining their full-time employment — bettering their career prospects without creating a two-year gap in their work experience. Plus, MBAs continue to be the best way for workers to prepare for higher-level positions because the programs provide students with the skills and knowledge they’ll need as business leaders, including:

Business Strategy

How does an entrepreneur begin a business? How does a business leader create growth? These questions and others regarding business strategy don’t have intuitive answers. Because every business situation is unique, prospective leaders must be equipped with the right knowledge and experience to create an effective strategy under specific circumstances. During MBA studies, students are programmed to approach scenarios strategically, considering all variables and options before solving problems; therefore, MBA grads are more effective long-term leaders in business.

Communication and Collaboration

Communication is the most important skill for any relationship, but business leaders must master written and verbal communication strategies if they expect to successfully manage their teams. Though the abilities to communicate and to collaborate are often seen as innate, the truth is only thorough practice makes a person great at expressing ideas and working with others. Fortunately, top online MBA programs teach future leaders effective communication methods, especially business jargon and writing techniques mandatory for upper-level managers.

Research and Analysis

Big data is becoming such an integral tool for modern businesses that all potential leaders must have some experience compiling and using data before they find employment. MBA students spend much of their time researching and analyzing all sorts of business data, from descriptive and diagnostic sets to predictive and prescriptive sets. By the time they graduate, most MBAs are near-experts in using data to make informed decisions, and many feel comfortable accumulating and organizing data, as well.

Networking

Though not a hard business skill, the ability of a business leader to see potential benefit in every relationship is a significant boon for employers. Hiring a worker with many business connections gives businesses greater access to high-quality resources, including funding, vendors, and even new talent. If nothing else, MBA programs are mills for tight-knit, exceedingly successful networks, and grads inevitably make links with peers, professors, and successful professionals, which they can take advantage of for future business success.

Project and Risk Management

Business is inherently risky, but experienced and educated business leaders understand how to mitigate the worst risks while achieving success. Properly organizing projects and assigning priority to certain tasks is a primary method for lowering risk. MBA students receive theoretical and practical training in risk and project management: Within their courses, they learn the correct strategies, and in balancing their course loads, they receive sufficient experience applying those strategies.

Technical Ability

While excellent business leaders have plenty of strong soft skills, to be effective in their jobs, they must also have the technical skill to use common business tools and methods. MBA programs — especially the online variety — compel students to use the devices and software they will most likely manipulate in their future careers. Being familiar with such tools dramatically reduces a leaders’ training time and makes them more effective, sooner.

 

 

 

Pass or Fail: Alternative Strategies to the Pass or Fail System

In this multi-part series, I provide a dissection of the phenomenon of retention and social promotion. Also, I describe the many different methods that would improve student instruction in classrooms and eliminate the need for retention and social promotion if combined effectively.

While reading this series, periodically ask yourself this question: Why are educators, parents and the American public complicit in a practice that does demonstrable harm to children and the competitive future of the country?

To be effective, solutions to the problem of poor individual academic achievement should include all stakeholders: students, parents, teachers, administrators and school counselors. They should be well thought out and tested for appropriateness. As an academic intervention, grade retention, which is the current educational approach, remains a double-edged sword and, as we have seen, can be a dangerous approach for addressing academic struggles. It often does more psychosocial harm than academic benefits, and social promotion can have similar effects.

We clearly need more research in the area of psychosocial fallout from grade retention and social promotion, but there are also alternative strategies available, both for managing individual educational achievement and for managing the accountability of schools for providing quality educational opportunities. The problem with the alternatives is their disparity regarding current availability and application and the lack of available resources to implement such strategies.

Any solution to the problem of poor academic achievement must also establish a strategy for implementation, including a solid time frame.

In the forthcoming chapters, we will take a closer look at some of the key strategies for improvement of academic achievement, considering how they relate to the broader goal of any successful academic system: to create students who are ready for college and high-level jobs.

Click here to read all my suggestions for alternatives to social promotion and retention.

What Are the Benefits of Learning to Code as a Child?

Coding is becoming one of the biggest trends to hit education since virtual reality. Because of this, parents and schools all over the globe are interested in teaching children to code. While teaching children to code may not turn them into a billionaire like Mark Zuckerberg, it certainly comes with a lot of benefits. Many of the advantages that I speak of are unknown to general public.

So instead of watching people jump on the coding bandwagon because we said so, we decided to write an article that discusses the benefits of learning how to code as a child. That way parents and schools can make an informed decision. Believe it or not, some of the advantages that we are about to share may shock you. Well, without further ado, here is our list of the benefits of learning to code as a child.

Enhances their computational thinking. The ability to express your thoughts in a rational and sequenced way is called computational thinking. It is a coveted higher order thinking skill, one that many students have difficulty acquiring. This type of thinking is rigid and is analogous to the step by step coding that allows computers to think. It can also be thought of as the process of conjuring up and then solving issues in a logical way. Computer coders, also called programmers use this way of thinking to solve problems and issues that may appear.

Computational thinking intersects the disciplines of logic, mathematics, and the development of algorithms.  When students learn computational thinking, they learn how to ponder a problem and then reduce it to individual action steps. Computational thinking also teaches efficiency, as students have to break down problems in the most efficient way possible. Also, they learn abstract thought, as they learn to take a problem and its solution and generalize it to other situations. This is a very powerful skill to have. It completely changes the way that you view the world and how it works. Suddenly, everything else in your life becomes a little easier.

Coding is the new literacy. To be successful in the future, people will need to be fluent in basic technologies. New workers will be expected to express themselves and create new possibilities using digital technologies. Coding will be necessary because its possibilities go far beyond creating websites and apps. Here is an example: In 2014, several software engineers found themselves stuck in Boston during a blizzard and quickly figured out that they could use their knowledge of coding to improve the cities safety. They figured out that one issue was that firefighters spent a lot of time finding and digging out fire hydrants. When a fire emergency occurs, firefighters simply do not have the time to find and dig out a fire hydrant. In response, these enterprising engineers created an app that cataloged all of the fire hydrants in Boston. They then used this information to create a website called Adopt-a-Hydrant. By visiting this site, Boston residents could volunteer to clear off hydrants in their neighborhood during snow emergencies. Now, the streets of Boston are a little safer during snow season.

Facilitates creativity. Children have creative minds that allow them to think outside of the box. The endless variations of coding and finding solutions can motivate children to maximize their creative potential. Kids who are learning to code quickly make the connection to coding and storytelling, which releases their imaginations and unlocks many possibilities. Think about it, with both coding and storytelling, each one follows a logical pattern (beginning, middle, ending, etc.). This newly found creative inspiration can assist children in being successful in public speaking, writing, etc.

Career opportunities. To compete in the global economy of now and the future, students need to possess a comprehensive skill set when it comes to technology. Not knowing how to code in the future may be comparable to not knowing how to read. Most jobs require that you have at least basic technology skills, even restaurants and clothing boutiques use some kind of computer device. People who specialize in coding make a lot of money and are frequently contacted by headhunters. The opportunities for individuals who know how to code will explode in the future.

Did we miss any of the benefits of teaching children to code?

 

 

 

A Guide to Ending the Crisis Among Young Black Males

When we talk about reaching students in our classrooms that come from disadvantaged backgrounds, we tend to put several groups under one umbrella. Minority students. Immigrant students. Kids from low socioeconomic households. While it’s true that all of these groups of students need a different approach than their white, English-speaking, middle-class peers, our education system is not yet doing enough to address specific needs within these at-risk groups. The initiatives that help one group tremendously may not have as large a positive impact on another, and vice versa.

Black boys are a student demographic that has been, and continues to be, misunderstood in P-20 classrooms. Misbehavior, learning styles, and social skills are often misconstrued as problems by educators when in fact, black boys are simply not receiving the most effective forms of discipline, lessons, and peer-interaction opportunities. As a result, many are slipping through the proverbial cracks and not learning at their potential levels. That lack of learning leads to higher school dropout levels, higher rates of poverty, and higher incarceration rates, too.

Perhaps there is no real connection between the academic failures of black boys and incarceration/poverty, or the eerily similar statistics associated with young Latino men. Are these young people simply bad apples, destined to fail academically and then live a life of crime? Proponents of genetic predisposition would argue that these young men never stood a chance at success and have simply accepted their lots in life. When I hear these sorts of excuses for why we aren’t best serving the black boys in our classrooms, I often think they are just too easy to be the right answers. They are all just too convenient, particularly if the people speaking them into existence come from backgrounds and experiences that are not indicative of black young men.

What if all of these theories, these so-called truths about these often-vilified children learning in our schools, are just the lazy way out? What if scoffing at a connection between a strong education and a life lived on the straight and narrow is an easy way to bypass the real issues in K-12 learning that actually put real barriers in place for black boys? What if the failures of black boys are really our faults, not theirs?

While there is always a level of personal responsibility on the part of the student to weigh in, I believe all of society’s failures when it comes to black boys are traceable back to education. While it is certainly not the fault of teachers or classroom settings, placing the blame on outside factors, like family setup or poverty, does not actually solve the problem. Schools, particularly public ones, are great equalizers for our children and youth. When we have disadvantaged students in our midst, why aren’t we employing every tactic we’ve got into trying to combat those outside factors that are so detrimental? When we throw up our hands and say that black boys can’t be saved, or that individual students are better off serving suspensions or expulsions than sitting in our classrooms learning, we are really saying that we don’t have any power in the lives of our students. I think most rational educators would argue that is the farthest argument from the truth.

Consider this: Black students tend to have lower amounts of teachers who are certified in their degree areas. A U.S. Department of Education report found that in public high schools with at least 50 percent Black students, only 75 percent of math teachers were certified, compared to 92 percent in predominantly white schools. In English, the numbers were 59 and 68 percent, respectively and in science, they were 57 percent and 73 percent. (Teacher Qualifications, 2010) Numbers like these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the disadvantages that take place in schools where children of color are the majority. When those children are boys, the outlook is even more dismal. These statistics are just one area of disadvantage that I plan to point out in the chapter. The aim is not to place blame on any one group or entity but rather to lead us away from the excuses that keep us from improving the public school experiences of black boys, and other at-risk groups.

As an educational community, it’s time to stop acting like generational poverty and crime are not related – that harsh discipline in schools is not related to incarceration rates. Low rates of literacy and high rates of special education referrals among black boys aren’t coincidences. There isn’t one reason that black boys are failing on such a large scale; the factors that play into the general underachievement of the black young men in our classrooms are varied, and complicated. Like all of the intricate problems in our school systems, improving the achievement of black young men in our schools won’t happen overnight.

Starting from a place of understanding, grounded in facts, is a good jumping off point. Information has a way of triggering action which is the hope for this chapter. For every obstacle that black boys face, I will discuss practical strategies that educators can use to mitigate them.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline

It’s a statistically sound fact that high school dropouts in all demographics have a higher likelihood of incarceration at some point in their lives. Sadly, over half of black young men who attend urban high schools do not earn a diploma. Of the dropouts, nearly 60 percent will go to prison at some point (Crotty, Four Things I Learned from Coaching ‘Poor Black Kids’, 2011). In fact, The Sentencing Project projects that 1 in 3 black men will likely see the inside of a prison cell at some point in their lives (Racial Disparity, n.d.). The connection here is not just superficial. Yes, it’s fair to say that high school dropouts are more likely to commit crimes because they do not have the means to make an honest living, but I also think this connection centers on a mentality. The same black boys who believe they aren’t good enough to earn the basic American right, a high school diploma, are the ones who feel they cannot make a solid contribution to society at large.

In order to delve more deeply, we need to go even further back. The decision to drop out of high school, after all, isn’t reached overnight. There are many factors that play into any student’s choice to not continue on to earn a high school diploma, some that are completely out of the control of the school and others that are certainly influenced by it.

Look in the face of any Kindergarten student and you’ll find some common themes: innocence, unquenchable curiosity, and potential. More so than the grades that follow, Kindergarten is a mixed bag of developmental, social and academic levels. Some kids arrive with a few years of childcare and preschool under their belts, while others have never even had a book read to them. The students who arrive in these Kindergarten classrooms are already products of their limited life experiences but their public school classrooms are intended to be equalizers. In a perfect world, what has happened outside the classroom should not be a factor in the learning environment and all students should have the same clean slate.

The reality, of course, is that the behavior of children is impacted by their life experiences and that behavior does impact the way a classroom functions. Kindergarten is just the first opportunity in our official public school system for teachers to effect positive change in students who need it from a behavioral standpoint – the real work starts before that though. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reports that black students make up just 18 percent of preschoolers but account for almost half of all school suspensions.  Those statistics don’t improve with age. Around 5 percent of white students are suspended or expelled at some point in a K-12 career, compared with 16 percent of black students (U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2014)

Enter the school-to-prison pipeline, or the correlation between students who are removed (suspended or expelled) from school and those who end up in prison at some point in their lives. Students who are removed from school, either temporarily or forever, also drop out of high school at much higher rates than students who are never removed from a classroom setting.

A study published by the University of Pennsylvania reports that black students make up 39 percent of students suspended in Florida, which doesn’t sound all that terrible until you consider another statistic: black students only account for 23 percent of the public school population in Florida (Harper, n.d.). The study notes that black students are suspended and expelled more due to “unfair discipline practices” and appearing as “disrespectful or threatening.”

While the numbers for the state are bad, it gets worse in Orange County in the central part of the state where Orlando is located. Making up just 27 percent of the county’s public school population, black students represents 51 percent of the students suspended.

This is just a small portion of the country, of course, but consider this: 18 percent of the nation’s public school students are black but an estimated 40 percent of all students that are expelled from U.S. schools are black (Stevenson, 2013). This makes black students over three times more likely to face suspension or expulsion than their white peers. When you add in Latino numbers, 70 percent of all in-school arrests are black or Latino students. If you want to see the correlation between these school-age statistics and lifetime numbers, consider this: 61 percent of the incarcerated population are black or Latino – despite the fact that these groups only represent 30 percent of the U.S. population when combined. Nearly 68 percent of all men in federal prison never earned a high school diploma.

Given this information, the fact that the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world is no surprise. The road to lockup starts in the public school systems — and it starts with unfair punishment.

Sixty-five percent of U.S. public schools reported at least one violent incident in 2013-2014, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in their schools each year, but that number rises to 82 percent for schools where black students make up a majority (Rates of School Crime, 2015) . Though Hispanic boys are the most likely to be involved with gang activity at school, it is certainly an issue for black boys too – with 31 percent of students nationwide reporting seeing black gang activity in their schools. Violence is just one part of the criminal side of K-12 hallways, though. There are also higher numbers of non-violent crimes, like theft, in schools where more students are black than any other race.

All of that being said, there is still plenty of violence in schools where black students are the minority, and those acts are committed by non-black students. It’s also important to note that reporting standards for school crime may vary from school to school. This isn’t to say that educators and administrators are not telling the truth in predominantly white schools, but rather to say that based on other statistics, students of color tend to face harsher punishment for even the smallest offenses.

Over and over statistics show that punishment for black boys – even first-time offenders – in schools is harsher than any other demographic.

Black boys taken from schools in handcuffs are not always violent, or even criminals. Increasingly, school-assigned law enforcement officers are leading these students from their schools hallways for minor offenses, including class disruption, tardiness and even non-violent arguments with other students. It seems that it is easier to remove these students from class through the stigma of suspension or arrest than to look for in-school solutions.

Minnesota civil rights attorney Nekima Levy-Pounds writes that “it is a continual affront to the human dignity of black boys to be treated as second class citizens within the public school system and made to feel as though they are not welcome in mainstream classroom settings.” (Levy-Pounds, 2015)

Simply put, the currently accepted way of disciplining students—mainly “zero tolerance” policies — is doing more harm than good for young black boys.

When one student is causing a classroom disruption, the traditional way to address the issue has been removal – whether the removal is for five minutes, five days or permanently. Separating the “good” students and the “bad” ones has always seemed the fair, judicious approach. On an individual level this form of discipline may seem necessary to preserve the educational experience for others. If all children came from homes that implemented a cause-and-effect approach to discipline, this might be the right answer. Unfortunately, an increasing number of students come from broken homes, or ones where parents don’t have the desire or time to discipline. Even the parents with the skillset to discipline in this fashion may not have the time or energy, especially in a home where finances are tight. For these students, removal from education is simply another form of abandonment and only furthers the lesson that they are not good enough to learn alongside their peers.

High profile instances of school violence in recent years have led to a higher presence of law enforcement officers in public schools, often politely labeled as resource officers or a similarly vague term. Of course the presence of guns and other immediate danger items in schools are cause for arrest, or at least temporary removal of the student, but the American Civil Liberties Union reports that children as young as 5 throwing tantrums have been removed in handcuffs by these officers (School-to-Prison Pipeline, n.d.). Rather than addressing the heart of the individual problems, it is easier for public schools to weed out troublesome students under the umbrella of protecting the greater good. Convenience triumphs over finding actual solutions.

The term “zero tolerance” may sound like the best way to handle all offenses in public schools, but it really does a disservice to students. Not every infraction is a black and white issue and not every misstep by a student is a result of direct defiance. Often students with legitimate learning disabilities or social impairment are labeled as “disruptions” and removed from classroom settings under the guise of preserving the learning experience for other, better-behaved students. I suppose there is an argument to be made for protecting straight-and-narrow students from the sins of others, but at what cost?

We tell students that gaining an education is an unalienable right in America but then we withhold it from their peers in the name of discipline and order. Would we withhold food from students who interrupted our math lesson? Of course we wouldn’t because nutrition is something that isn’t earned – it is a necessity for growing children. The same is true of education. Our knee-jerk reaction of removal, particularly of children of color, is not one that has the best interest of any children in mind.

Though ideology on problem students is slowly evolving, at least at present the removal process is most widely accepted. So let’s look at what happens when these individuals, these students who are suspended or expelled, do eventually slip through the accepted cracks and wind up dropping out of high school or landing in prison.

In a blog post by Sally Powalski, a 10-year employee of a juvenile long-term facility in the State of Indiana, she addresses what she sees every day: young men with no expectations of improvement and therefore no motivation.

Sally says this of the young men who come through her counselor’s office:

“They have been given the message for several years that they are not allowed in regular school programs, are not considered appropriate for sports teams, and have had their backs turned on them because everyone is just tired of their behavior… Why should they strive for more than a life of crime?” (Powalski, 2013)

Sally hits the nail on the head with her observations. Children are just as much a product of their environments as the expectations placed on them. Parents on a first-name basis with law enforcement officials certainly influence the behavior of their children, but school authorities with preconceived negative associations create an expectation of failure too. Increasingly, educators are learning how to recognize the signs of textbook learning disabilities like ADHD or dyslexia. But what about the indirect impact that factors like poverty, abuse, neglect or simply living in the wrong neighborhood have on a student’s ability to learn? Why aren’t we finding ways to identify the known risk factors for academic impairment and intervening earlier?

Educators should approach students from disadvantaged backgrounds with more understanding, and less preconceived notions. Behavior is a choice but students who have never seen the right way to act modeled for them, or who are looking for that extra bit of attention in classrooms, bad behavior is an academic disadvantage. Instead of less time in classrooms, black boys and especially those with very minor behavior issues should participate more in the learning experience.

Why care about the school-to-prison pipeline at all?

People who fall outside this fringe group of perceived misfits may wonder why the school-to-prison pipeline should matter to them. Outside of caring about the quality of life for other individuals, which is really something that is not teachable, the school-to-prison pipeline matters in more tangible ways. Each federal prisoner costs taxpayers $28,948 per year based on 2012 statistics, which is about $79 per day (Supervision Costs Significantly Less than Incarceration in Federal System, 2013). That’s a measurable cost. What isn’t measurable is the indirect impact those incarcerations have on the economy in terms of those prisoners not contributing to the work force. Sure, we may pay the salary of prison employees or the CEOs of large prison privatization corporations but we are missing out on the positive impact these prisoners could have on our economy.

This is an American problem.  It hurts everyone. If we want more high school graduates, less crime, and a more robust economy, we have to stop punishing black boys with school removals or discipline effects that don’t match the offense.

How to break the school-to-prison pipeline

If removal and zero tolerance policies don’t help black boy students long term, what is the best way to discipline students when they do misbehave?

The best answer is found long before the moment when discipline is necessary. Prevention and intervention tactics need a place in all teaching pedagogy and those tactics must adjust for demographics – and individual students. Schools need to offer robust programs for at-risk students that include mentoring from older students, after-school tutoring, and customized learning. If all of this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. Technology is making the customized learning portion much easier though and also allowing teachers to analyze student performance in a streamlined way long before problems arise. And as simple as it sounds, teachers must approach behavior problems with students in the same way they approach academic problems – with an analytical eye that looks for the best solution that will benefit everyone. Notice that I didn’t say the easiest or best for all the other students in class. I said the best solution for everyone – teacher, peers, and individual student. The benefits to keeping a child in class, or at least in school, far outweigh emotionally kicking a child out of class or recommending suspension.

Educators can certainly strive to reduce suspension and expulsion rates with better intervention and strategy. But what about the students who choose to walk away from their educations when they drop out of high school?

In his piece “A Broken Windows Approach to Education Reform,” Forbes writer James Marshall Crotty makes a direct connection between drop-out and crime rates. He argues that if educators will simply take a highly organized approach to keeping kids in school, it will make a difference in the crime statistics of the future. He says:

“Most importantly, instead of merely insisting on Common Core Standards of excellence, we must provide serious sticks for non-compliance. And not just docking teacher and administrative pay. The real change needs to happen on the student and parent level.” (Crotty, A Broken Windows Approach to Education Reform, 2013)

He cites the effectiveness of states not extending driving privileges to high school dropouts or not allowing athletic activities for students who fail a class. With higher stakes associated with academic success, students will have more to lose if they walk away from their education. And the higher the education level of a student, the lower the risk of criminal activity, statistically speaking.

Students who are at risk of dropping out of high school or turning to crime need more than a good report card.  They need alternative suggestions on living a life that rises above their current circumstances. For a young person to truly have a shot at an honest life, he or she has to believe in the value of an education and its impact on good citizenship. That belief system has to come from direct conversations about making smart choices with trusted adults and peers. If we know how much less a high school dropout makes than peers with a diploma, and peers with a college education, then we should tell all high school students that number. It’s not enough to imply that dropping out of high school is a bad idea; students should have all the facts.

For students who struggle socially or behaviorally in high school, schools should intervene with non-traditional options like online courses. This is also true for students who feel the pressure to start earning a living early. The technology is already in place for all students, regardless of discipline issues or life circumstances, to earn a high school diploma. A college degree is nice too, of course, but the true key to ending the school-to-prison pipeline for black boys is keeping them in classrooms instead of removing them, and getting them across the stage to receive their high school diplomas. It will take an organized ideology shift but it’s possible, even in the next generation of black boy students.

Black Boys Aren’t Reading

Literacy is the basic building block for the rest of an academic career and the lifetime that follows it. Research shows that kids who come from homes where reading was a priority, and they were read to by their parents, perform better academically throughout their lives. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that Kindergarten students who are read frequently to at home are more likely to count to 20, write their own names, and read (or pretend to read). Only 53 percent of children ages 3 to 5 are read to every day by a family member, though, and that number drops for families with incomes below the poverty line (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000). The importance of parental influence in reading extends beyond the youngest grades. The U.S. Department of Education reports that fourth-grade classrooms with low parental involvement have students with average reading scores that are 46 points below the national average.

Reading isn’t important just for its own sake, however. Literacy is the foundation for all other learning endeavors. The Educational Testing Services reports that students who read more in their homes perform better on math assessments (Educational Testing Service, 1999). The connection between reading in early childhood and its impact on future years is clear. Since parents, grandparents, and siblings are the default role models most of the time during that vital 0 to 5 age group, the responsibility to instill early literacy falls on families.

That’s a problem for black boys. Only 10 percent of eighth-grade black boys in the U.S. are proficient in reading. In urban areas like Chicago and Detroit, that number is even lower (Holzman, 2013). By contrast, the 2013 National Assessment of Education Progress found that 46 percent of white students are adequate readers by eighth grade, and 17 percent of black students as a whole are too (The Nation’s Report Card: A First Look: 2013 Mathematics and Reading, 2013). The achievement gap between the two races is startling, but the difference between the NAEP report on black students as a whole and the stats on black boys alone is troubling too. This is where that important dissection between at-risk groups needs to take place. It is not simply black children in general who appear to be failing in the basics, like literacy; it is the boys.

Where does that disconnect arise? Hypothesizing from the NAEP data, a brother and sister from the same household could have vastly different literacy levels, even if they come from the same environment and are read to the same amount of time (even if that amount of time is none). That difference – that gap in literacy achievement – shouldn’t fall on parents. That’s the fault of our schools. Literacy learning is tailored to girls. So how do we adapt it to better reach our boys – particularly our young men of color?

Reading is only one piece of the school puzzle, of course, but it is a foundational one. If the eighth graders in our schools cannot read, how will they ever learn other subjects and make it to a college education (or, in reality, to a high school diploma)? Reading scores tell us so much more than the confines of their statistics and I believe these numbers are one of the major keys to understanding the plight of young black men in our society as a whole.

Developing black readers

The statistics point to a startling, yet simple, truth: black boys who cannot read are already in trouble. So if we know that black boys aren’t reading the level they should, what can we do to improve that? It starts with awareness and extends to:

Customized reading plans.

A large part of improving the reading rates of black boys is to provide curriculum plans that are a little less rigid and a little more nuanced. As adults, the reading materials we pick up for the pure joy of reading are as varied as we are and it’s acceptable for individuals to prefer certain genres over others. Kids don’t have the same freedom. In fairness, before kids can determine what reading materials they will love, they must first have exposure to a wide variety. Still. When reading is uninteresting, it’s hard. That’s something that doesn’t change into adulthood. Early learning teachers, from preschool through the rest of elementary school, must have a diverse knowledge of the reading materials available for their age groups and try, try, and try again until a certain subject or genre clicks.

The idea that all Kindergartners, and older grades, should read the exact same things is not only flawed, it’s unnecessary. Today’s technology makes it simple for kids to read a variety of materials that are equal in grade level to each other, even if the topics differ. There is even educational software that creates supplemental and testing materials based on the individual pieces that children read so that teachers are not tasked with writing 20 different lesson plans based on reading preferences.

Young children love fantasy, but they also connect most with what they know. Diversity in reading materials and the ability to choose what to read based on interests will go a long way toward pulling black boys into the literacy realm early on and keeping them there. This is true from preschool through college graduation. This strict adherence to a literary canon filled with mainly white, European, male authors and viewpoints hurts all of our students, but particularly those of color. To instill a love for reading our students have to genuinely love what their eyes see. That view must expand to include much more diversity in options, both electronic and books in hand.

Intervention targeting.

The concept of learning everything first, and testing last, is starting to see its way out of our classrooms – but not fast enough. Feedback throughout the learning process, and taking action immediately when students are falling behind, is a much smarter way to keep students invested in learning. A student who misses out on a learning concept will not learn at the next level and that will continue indefinitely until remediation occurs. Teachers are on the frontlines of intervention, and parents are a close second string. Parents whose own parents were never involved in their learning pursuits may not know how to follow their kids’ progress and some may simply not care. When either scenario takes place, it falls on the teacher to step up and fill in the learning gaps.

When it comes to intervention targeting, Kindergarten teachers should take entry assessments as more than a baseline number; they should see them as a call to action. Very specific actionable steps should be at the disposal of the teacher so when certain weakness are noted, there is a plan in place that addresses them. These plans must be thorough and come with benchmarks that delve deeper than what the average and above-average performing students must achieve. Does this mean more work for teachers? Some extra upfront time and planning time, yes. Which is why entire school systems must recognize the need for better reading intervention that begins on day one of Kindergarten, whether that manifests itself in more teacher aides, better technology for reading customization, or more reading specialists on staff.

I’m not suggesting that teachers label and remediate every student individually, but rather that more concrete policies on how to bring students up to speed are put in place in school districts around the country. In public schools this is especially vital. While it’s true that some parents choose public schools, the majority of children attend out of default. It’s not a bad thing – but parents who take the time to research and send their children to non-public options often have the time and energy to follow the academic journeys of their kids. There’s a stronger chance that a child in a public school needs that extra watchful eye of a teacher in order to reach goals. That eye can’t just observe; it must take what it sees and use it as a tool for strengthen academic weaknesses.

Individual intervention is not the only thing that black boys need to read better and perform at a higher academic level. Blanket programs that research, create, and deliver literacy-driven content to black boys should exist. Public schools are wards of the state but this issue is too big to leave to the whims of partisan-driven agendas. More federal oversight into what black boys, and all at-risk groups, are reading from their earliest days in public school classrooms is needed. These programs need insight from experts in the fields of education, literacy, minority studies, and even civil rights. To really get to the heart of the problem of black boys not reading at an acceptable rate, expertise must combine with first-hand experience. Teachers who work in early education classrooms should certainly sit on the consultation teams in order to develop appropriate standards of intervention based on real-life scenarios that take place. A wider approach to answering the needs of black boys in a reading crisis will go a long way toward raising awareness and actually impacting individual children.

Black Boys and Special Education

Special education classes have changed drastically in the past 20 years. Namely, the students who take advantage of these adapted learning classrooms have changed. Contemporary public school education recognizes that there are degrees of disabilities that may impact student learning and the rise of conditions like autism has fueled the need for more special education intervention.

As a result, the mental image that even today’s youngest educators have of special education students is probably not accurate. For example, did you know that black boys are more likely than any other group to be placed in special education classes, with 80 percent of all special education students being Black or Hispanic males?  Black boys account for 20 percent of U.S. students labeled as mentally retarded, even though they represent just 9 percent of the population. On the other end of the extreme, black boys are 2.5 times less likely to be classified as “gifted and talented” even if their academic record shows that potential. (National Education Association, 2011)

If all things were weighed equally, these statistics would indicate that there is something genetically wrong with these young men that is causing a higher incidence of disabilities and smaller percentage of gifted individuals. Educators know better. While some, perhaps even a majority, of the black boys categorized as special education students belong in that grouping, some are simply misunderstood. Those behavior issues mentioned earlier in this chapter? You better believe that those play a factor in where these students are placed in school hierarchy. While unpleasant behavior is certainly a symptom of learning disabilities – like ADHD and some degrees of autism – it isn’t in and of itself a disability. A lack of understanding surrounding how black boys interact with the world, and a quick trigger when it comes to disciplinary and removal practices, is contributing to higher-than-average numbers of black boys in special education classrooms. This is not something that any educator can sit by and let continue, for it impacts the way all students are treated in the public school landscape.

How to solve the black boy-special education problem

The statistics on high numbers of black and Latino boys in special education programs is more than an interesting tidbit – it’s a call to action. What can we do to identify true learning delays and isolated behavior problems and disseminate them from disabilities?

Early intervention.

Here we are again, using the word intervention to identify an actionable step to improve academic success for black boys. There’s a reason intervention is more than just a buzz word; catching developmental delays early on shows the greatest promise for improvement. This starts before Kindergarten in the Head Start programs across the country and state-run intervention initiatives, like Florida’s Early Step program. Investments in early education have shown to return as much as $17.07 to society on every dollar spent (Lynn A. Karoly, 2005).

Doctors are at the frontlines of the early intervention referral program and know what warning signs to heed, even when parents may not. The time between a doctor’s referral and the start of services can take several months, depending on the state and resources available, and that is precious time in the development of the child. For early intervention to have its biggest impact, the time between suspicion of delays and start of services must be accelerated. Children who are diagnosed with developmental delays by the age of 3 have the best shot at catching up to their peers by the time they reach Kindergarten. After that age cutoff, the likelihood of children keeping with their classmates fades.

When black boys with obvious developmental delays do wind up in Kindergarten classes, however, it’s vital that teachers spot it. This takes specialized training that is updated and repeated throughout a teacher’s career to address the ever shifting issues facing our youngest students. Change also calls on teachers to look beyond their preconceived notions of learning disabilities to determine which students may have a shot at overcoming the hurdles and avoiding the special education label. Rather than grouping students for life, we need to start looking at some academic and behavioral issues as temporary and applying the resources we can to guide students over the hurdles.

Mainstreaming.

The idea that special education students should be removed in order to learn best is actually being flipped on its head due to recent research. A study done at The Ohio State University found that special-needs preschoolers who spent at least some time in classrooms with typical students had language scores 40 percent higher than peers who remained in special-needs only settings. The improvements extended beyond the special-needs kids, as well. The highly-skilled peers also improved their reading skills over rates from when no special-needs students were in the classroom. In short, the “weakest link” mentality did not apply. (Grabmeier, 2014)

It’s true that true special needs students need a different educational plan than their mainstream peers and that ultimately means some time outside the typical classroom. Special needs students should never be completely isolated from their peers though, and in cases where the classification is not accurate, that will become apparent as children overcome the developmental hurdles they face.

Cultural awareness.

It’s extremely vital that teachers have a knowledge set of students outside of their own life experiences and an understanding of how the way those children behave is impacted by it. Students without the benefit of preschool or parents who had the time and availability to teach them literacy basics will not perform as well when they arrive in classrooms. Next to their peers who have had such advantages, they may even seem delayed. It’s important to note, however, that the first required schooling for American children is Kindergarten. There is a push for a lot more learning a lot earlier, but from a purely legal standpoint, kids are not required to show up to learn until they are Kindergarten age (which is defined as late as 7 years old in some states). The cultural expectation is that these children should already know a lot when they arrive, both academically and socially, but for children from families who waited for that Kindergarten age, it truly is the first time they’ve seen a classroom.

Universal preschool in states like Florida, Illinois and Oklahoma can help bridge that learning and socialization gap for low-income families but once again, these programs are voluntary. It’s not fair or accurate for educators to assume that even in states when preschool education is affordable or free, parents are taking advantage of it. There are many factors that go into the level of education families pursue for their children before the school years officially start. Compared to peers, this puts children with no prior classroom experience at a disadvantage. But compared to what is actually required of the students when they show up on that first day of Kindergarten, these blank slate students are exactly where they need to be from a learning perspective.

With that in mind, early grade educators must know the difference between true special education warning signals and a kid who just needs to catch up. There are evaluation processes in place beyond the teacher but it starts in a classroom. This isn’t to say that teachers should try to champion behavior or learning issues they cannot change but merely for them to be aware that not all children have the advantages of an early learning foundation. That doesn’t mean necessarily that all of those children have special education needs.

Black Boys and the Lack of Positive Role Models

There are plenty of black men who positively impact the young men coming up in their communities. Some are high-profile while others are local businessmen, or even teachers. As a general statement, however, black boys have less people to look up to and hold accountable than their white, and even other minority, peers.

Consider these statistics: Less than half of black males graduate high school on time. In 2008, only 11 percent of black males in America had completed a bachelor’s degree – and only half of the 4.6 million who had attended college had made it to graduation (National Education Association, 2011). Seventy-two percent of black children are raised in single-parent households and the national average is only 25 percent. Those single parents are more likely to be employed than the national average, but also more likely to live in poverty (Kids Count Data Center, 2014). Then there’s that humbling stat from earlier in the chapter on incarceration: 61 percent of the U.S. prison population is black or Latino.

School is a second home to K-12 students and black boys don’t have many role models who look the way that they do. Black males make up just 2 percent of the K-12 school teacher population (Reckdahl, 2015) . Less than 20 percent of U.S. teachers are not white even though minority students combined make up a majority of K-12 students (Holland, 2014). It’s not that educators who are female and white can’t have a positive impact on the lives of their students – they certainly can and do. There’s a difference between a teacher who has a different life viewpoint than you and a true role model. Black boys need to see adults like them who are high school graduates, have college degrees, are successful in the workplace, and who aren’t incarcerated. If that adult also happens to be a teacher, even better. How do we make that happen though in a school landscape that is a far cry from it right now?

Better recruitment.

Here’s a thought: If we aren’t seeing enough diversity in our teaching pool, perhaps we need to try harder to bring them into the industry. This starts before college, though. Young black men of promise in middle and high school should see the field of education as a life path for them. Schools of education at colleges need scholarships to recruit these men and school districts need the extra funding to attract these men when they have their degrees.

The Call Me MISTER Program, first started in South Carolina, has made its way south and onto the campus of Edward Waters College. Starting in 2000 at Clemson University, the Call Me MISTER Program was designed to “increase the pool of available teachers from a broader, more diverse background particular among the State’s lowest performing elementary schools.” (Call Me Mister, n.d.)

In essence, the program is needed to address the low number of minority male teachers. According to the Department of Education, less than two percent of public teachers nationwide are black men. (Reckdahl, 2015)

This program aims to increase that number by offering scholarships to qualified applicants.

To apply for the program, applicants must have a high school diploma with a 2.5 GPA or better, letters of recommendation, an ACT score of 21 or higher, an SAT score of 1000 or better, and two essays. One to express interest in the program and the other regarding “Why I Want to Teach.”

Why is having more black men in the classroom important? Yes, it’s great for the purpose of diversity and to increase numbers that are tracked by the government. But for many students who need positive black male role models, this program certainly is one of the more important ones offered by our institutions of higher education.

Better tracking.

One teacher can make a positive impact on a student but what happens when the student moves to another class the next year? What happens to all of that shared knowledge and camaraderie? The technology exists for better data on students from one year to the next, and one class to another, with ways to target those who need extra guidance.

The message of hope for men of color is spreading, both through smaller gestures and through larger initiatives such as President Obama’s program My Brother’s Keeper.

Many of the nation’s largest school districts have joined President Obama’s initiative to improve the educational futures of African-American and Hispanic boys, beginning in preschool extending through high school graduation — dubbed the “My Brother’s Keeper” program.

The districts, which represent around 40 percent of all African-American and Hispanic boys living below the poverty line, have committed to improve access to high quality preschool, track data on male students so educators can notice signs of struggle as soon as possible, increase the number of boys of color who are enrolled in gifted, honors and Advanced Placement courses, strive to reduce the number of minority boys who are suspended and expelled, and increase graduation rates among minority males. The initiative is a five-year, $200 million plan.

In Washington, D.C., D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced a plan to invest $20 million to support programs for Washington D.C.’s men of color. This included opening an all-boys college preparatory high school in 2017 under the “Empowering Males of Color” initiative. (Chandler, 2015) The funding for the support programs will come from private and public sources. The D.C. Public Education Fund is working to raise money to support these initiatives outside the operating budget.

Henderson’s decision to invest seriously in the specific needs of minority boys has everything to do with “mathematics,” she says. Black and Latino boys make up 43 percent of the students enrolled in D.C.’s public schools. The graduation rates, reading and math scores and attendance of minority boys are all lagging in the District. By fourth grade, nearly half of the city’s black and Latino male students are reading below grade level.

In the District, 48 percent of black male students and 57 percent of Hispanic male students graduate in four years, compared with 66 percent of their classmates. Only about a third of black male students are proficient in reading and math, compared with nearly 66 percent of students who are not black or Latino males, according to DC CAS scores.

The push is a citywide effort led by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser who is working to improve equity and increase opportunities for black and Latino males. The efforts also align with President Obama’s work to help keep male minority students in school and out of prison.

Through this initiative, black young men are given a larger pool of support, particularly from other male minorities. It’s not just individual teachers or schools that are standing up for these young men. It’s entire communities. These types of programs are vital to the success of young black boys because they take a multi-person approach to improving the outcomes for these men.

More outreach from the business community.

Educators alone simply cannot turn the tide for black boys of color. It’s important that those who have been successful breaking free of poverty or incarceration turn back around and inspire the next generation to do the same.

An example of this in action happened on the first day of school 2015 when 100 men of color wearing suits greeted elementary students of color on their first day of school. (Velez, 2015)

The message these men were trying to send was that if you did work hard and get good grades in school, you’ll eventually find some semblance of the American dream in life. It’s what all kids are taught as they matriculate through grade school. It’s why we so often hear the saying that one should “dress for success.”

This image contrasts against the statistics, which state that black male “students in grades K-12 were nearly 2 1/2 times as likely to be suspended from school in 2000 as white students” and that most of the nearly 2.5 million people in prisons and jails “are people of color…and people with low levels of educational attainment.” (Thompson, n.d.)

From pictures to videos, so many kids of color see men of color as effigies of what not to become. The criminal on the news is likely a man of color and so is the high school drop-out. Seeing a roaring crowd of black men cheering on young students from kindergarten to fifth and sixth grades was not only heartwarming, it was inspiring. A suit represents so much more than just a tailored look. It’s success; it’s happiness; it’s an ability to overcome; it’s positive; it’s anti-everything we’ve been feed to believe that’s negative about black men. For each kid seeing that image, it’s eternal.

I applaud this action and know it will have a long-term impact. Now it’s time for more men of means and success to throw their own hats in the ring as mentors and role models. Black men

Conclusion

Can the crisis in educating the black boy in America be solved? Yes it can: I am living proof. However, it’s going to take more than platitudes; more than speeches by politicians; more than one or two outstanding teachers . . . it’s going to take an entire culture that decides it’s time to do something. So let’s roll up our sleeves and plunge in. We have work to do.

Given the dire history outlined above, and the current difficulties faced by the African-American population, it would be easy to assume that educating black boys is a lost cause. This is demonstrably not the case. In fact, if one looks purely at the statistics surrounding young African-American males in education, the progress is inexorably upward. Dropout rates have been steadily decreasing. The achievement gap between blacks and whites is closing: from fifty-three points in 1970 to twenty-six points in 2004 for seventeen-year-olds.

It is clear that, even given the tremendous obstacles facing the black boy in education, his spirit remains unquenched: he will continue to strive for the best, and is making headway in the face of almost inconceivable historical injustices. To borrow the words of Frederick Douglass, he has been given the inch; he will now “take the ell.” Though we are still in crisis, there is a visible path out of the morass. In the next chapters, we will examine in detail the primary obstacles that continue to stand in the way of young African-Americans in education, and will look at concrete, actionable ways to tear those down, paving the way for a future of parity and promise.

References

Call Me Mister. (n.d.). Retrieved from Edward Waters College: http://www.ewc.edu/index.php/academics/academic-programs/elementary-education/call-me-mister-program

Chandler, M. A. (2015, January 21). D.C. schools to invest $20 million in efforts to help black and Latino male students. Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-to-invest-20-million-in-efforts-to-help-black-and-latino-male-students/2015/01/21/27450ca8-a19d-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html

Crotty, J. M. (2011, 12 15). Four Things I Learned from Coaching ‘Poor Black Kids’. Retrieved 03 01, 2016, from Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2011/12/16/5-things-i-learned-from-coaching-poor-black-kids/#22cdba2d42b4

Crotty, J. M. (2013, August 30). A Broken Windows Approach to Education Reform. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2013/08/30/a-broken-windows-approach-to-education-reform/#67e6d30b4855

Educational Testing Service. (1999). America’s Smallest School: The Family.

Grabmeier, J. (2014, July 28). Children with disabilities benefit from classroom inclusion. Retrieved from The Ohio State University: https://news.osu.edu/news/2014/07/28/children-with-disabilities-benefit-from-classroom-inclusion/

Harper, E. J. (n.d.). Disproportionate impact of K-12 school suspension and expulsion on black students in Southern states. Retrieved 03 01, 2016, from Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education – Pennsylvania State University: http://www.gse.upenn.edu/equity/SouthernStates

Holland, J. J. (2014, May 5). Studies highlight teacher-student ‘diversity gap’. Retrieved from The Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/05/04/teachers-nowherenot-diverse-their-students/Wq6nM4XOyoMwlOYJLtfL3L/story.html

Holzman, M. H. (2013). Minority Students and Public Education: Black and American Indian Students and Public Education (Volume 1). Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.: Chelmsford Press.

Kids Count Data Center. (2014). Children in Single-Parent Families by Race. Baltimore, MD: Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Levy-Pounds, N. (2015, May 14). Ferguson and Minneapolis are closer than we think. Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Lynn A. Karoly, M. R. (2005). Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise. RAND Labor and Population, 200.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2000). Fast facts. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

National Education Association. (2011). Educating Black Boys.

Powalski, S. (2013, May 21). Bully Proofing: Helping Children Deal with Cruel Behavior. Retrieved from Mumbling Mommy: http://www.mumblingmommy.com/2013/05/bully-proofing-helping-children-deal.html

Racial Disparity. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 01, 2016, from The Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=122

(2015). Rates of School Crime. Washington D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics.

Reckdahl, K. (2015, December 15). Training More Black Men to Become Teachers. Retrieved from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/12/programs-teachers-african-american-men/420306/

School-to-Prison Pipeline. (n.d.). Retrieved from ACLU.org: https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-inequality-education/school-prison-pipeline

Stevenson, J. L. (2013, 05 17). State of Equality and Justice in America: The Presumption of Guilt. Retrieved 03 01, 2016, from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/state-of-equality-and-justice-in-america-the-presumption-of-guilt/2013/05/17/49a51a42-bf07-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_blog.html

Supervision Costs Significantly Less than Incarceration in Federal System. (2013, July 18). Retrieved from United States Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/news/2013/07/18/supervision-costs-significantly-less-incarceration-federal-system

Teacher Qualifications. (2010). Retrieved from National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=58

(2013). The Nation’s Report Card: A First Look: 2013 Mathematics and Reading. Washington, D.C.: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

Thompson, T. (n.d.). Fact Sheet: outcomes for Young, Black Men. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/tsr/too-important-to-fail/fact-sheet-outcomes-for-young-black-men/

U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. (2014). Civil Rights Data Collection – Data Snapshot: School Discipline. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Velez, M. (2015, August 31). 100 Black Men Wearing Suite Greeted Kids on the First Day of School for an Incredibly Vital Reason. Retrieved from APlus: http://aplus.com/a/100-men-color-greet-kids-MLK-school-first-day

 

18 Reasons the U.S. Education System is Failing

Once upon a time, enthusiasts designed a formal education system to meet the economic demands of the industrial revolution. Fast forward to today and, with the current global economic climate, it seems apparent that the now established education system is unable to meet the needs of our hyper-connected society – a society that is in a constant state of evolution. Let’s examine 18 problems that prevent the US education system from regaining its former preeminence. Check out ExamSnap for all your exam needs.  

Parents are not involved enough. Of all the things out of the control of teachers, this one is perhaps the most frustrating. Time spent in the classroom is simply not enough for teachers to instruct every student, to teach them what they need to know. There must, inevitably, be some interaction outside school hours. Of course, students at a socio-economic disadvantage often struggle in school, particularly if parents lack higher levels of education. But students from middle and upper class families aren’t off the hook, either. The demands of careers and an over-dependence on schools put higher-class kids at risk too when it comes to the lack of parental involvement in academics.

  1. Schools are closing left and right. It’s been a rough year for public schools. Many have found themselves on the chopping block. Parents, students and communities as a whole feel targeted, even if school board members are quick to cite unbiased numbers. There is no concrete way to declare a winner in these cases, either. Sometimes, a school closing is simply inevitable but communities should first look for other solutions. Instead of shutting down underutilized public schools – icons of the community – districts should consider other neighborhood uses, such as a community center or adult education classes. Closing public schools should not be a short-sighted procedure. The decision should focus on the only investment that really matters: a quality public education for all our nation’s children.
  2. Our schools are overcrowded. The smaller the class, the better the individual student experience. A study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that 14 percent of U.S. schools exceed capacity. At a time where children need more attention than ever to succeed, overcrowded classrooms are making it even tougher to learn and tougher still for teachers to be effective.
  3. Technology comes with its downsides. I am an advocate for technology in the classroom. I think that ignoring the educational opportunities that technology has afforded us puts kids at a disadvantage. being said, screen culture overall has made the jobs of teachers much more difficult. Education has become synonymous with entertainment in many ways. Parents are quick to download educational games as soon as kids have the dexterity to operate a touch screen, and with the best of intentions. The quick-hit way that children are learning academics before and during their K-12 careers makes it even more difficult for teachers to keep up in the classroom setting, particularly since each student’s knowledge base and technological savvy varies.
  4. There is a lack of diversity in gifted education. The “talented and gifted” label is one bestowed upon the brightest and most advanced students. Beginning in early elementary grades, TAG programs separate student peers for the sake of individualized learning initiatives. Though the ideology is sound, the practice of it is often a monotone, unattractive look at contemporary American public schools. District schools need to find ways to better recognize different types of learning talent and look beyond the typical “gifted” student model. The national push to make talented and gifted programs better mirror the contemporary and ever-evolving student body is a step in the right direction. Real change happens on a smaller scale though – in individual districts, schools and TAG programs. That progress must start with understanding of the makeup of a particular student body and include innovative ways to include all students in TAG learning initiatives.
  5. School spending is stagnant, even in our improving economy. As the U.S. economy continues to improve, according to news headlines, one area is still feeling the squeeze from the recession years: K-12 public school spending. A report this month from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that 34 states are contributing less funding on a per student basis than they did prior to the recession years. Since states are responsible for 44 percent of total education funding in the U.S., these dismal numbers mean a continued crack down on school budgets despite an improving economy. If we cannot find the funding for our public schools, how can we expect things like the achievement gap to close or high school graduation rates to rise? It was understandable that budgets had to be slashed when the bottom dropped out of the economy. Now we are in a more stable place, though, it is time to get back to funding what matters most: the education of our K-12 students.
  6. We are still using the teacher training methods of yesterday. With respect to the students of the past, modern classrooms are full of sophisticated youngsters that show up with a detailed view of the world formed from more than home life experiences. Instant access to information from instant a child can press a touchscreen on a Smartphone and widespread socialization from as young as six weeks old in the form of childcare atmospheres – kids arrive at Kindergarten with less naivety than previous generations. Teachers don’t, in other words, get a clean slate. Instead, they get young minds cluttered with random information and ideas, all of which need fostering or remediating.
  7. There is a lack of teacher education innovation. It stands to reason that if students are changing, teachers must change too. More specifically, it is time to modify teacher education to reflect the demands of the modern K – 12 classrooms. There are policy and practice changes taking place all over the world – many driven by teachers – that address the cultural shifts in the classroom. Public education in America needs teachers who are better trained to meet the needs of specific student populations, understand the necessary role of distance learning, and are willing to speak up to facilitate classroom change. Without these teachers, effective reform to meet global demand is not possible.
  8. Some students are lost to the school-to-prison pipeline. Sadly, over half of black young men who attend urban high schools do not earn a diploma. Of these dropouts, too, nearly 60 percent will go to prison at some point. Perhaps there is no real connection between these two statistics, or the eerily similar ones associated with young Latino men. Are these young people bad apples, destined to fail academically and then to live a life of crime? If some of the theories of genetic predisposition are true, perhaps these young men never stood a chance at success and have simply accepted their lots in life. But what if those answers, all of them, are just cop-outs? What if scoffing at a connection between a strong education and a life lived on the straight and narrow is an easy way to bypass the real issues in K-12 learning? Students who are at risk of dropping out of high school or turning to crime need more than a good report card. They need alternative suggestions on living a life that rises above their current circumstances. For a young person to truly have a shot at an honest life, he or she has to believe in the value of an education and its impact on good citizenship. That belief system has to come from direct conversations about making smart choices with trusted adults and peers.
  9. There is a nationwide college-gender gap, and surprisingly, we are not focusing on it. If you have been following education hot button issues for any length of time, you’ve likely read about the nationwide push to better encourage girls in areas like science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The thought is that by showing young women that these topics are just as appropriate for them as their male peers, more women will find lasting careers in these traditionally male-dominated fields. I’m all for more women in the STEM workplace but with all this focus in one area, are educators neglecting an even larger gender gap issue? I wonder how much of this trend is based on practicality and how much is based on a lingering social convention that women need to “prove” themselves when it comes to the workforce. Do women simply need a degree to land a job in any field? If so, the opposite is certainly not true for men – at least not yet. Will the young men in our classrooms today have a worse quality of life if they do not attend college – or will it be about the same?
  10. We still do not know how to handle high school dropouts. It seems that every time the issue of high school dropouts is discussed, it all centers on money. U.S. Census Statistics tell us that 38 percent of high school dropouts fall below the poverty line, compared with 18 percent of total households in every demographic. Dropouts are also 40 percent more likely to rent their residences and spend $450 less per month on housing costs than the overall population. Only around 60 percent of dropouts own vehicles and they spend over $300 less on entertainment annually than average Americans. It’s clear that a high school diploma is in fact the ticket to higher earnings, at least on a collective level. The negative financial ramifications of dropping out of high school cannot be denied, but the way they are over-emphasized seems like a worn-out tactic to me. Instead of focusing on students as earners, we really need to value them as learners so that we can encourage them to finish their high school education.
  11. We have not achieved education equity. Equity in education has long been an ideal. It’s an ideal celebrated in a variety of contexts, too. Even the Founding Fathers celebrated education as an ideal – something to which every citizen ought to be entitled. Unfortunately, though, the practice of equity in education has been less than effective. Equity, in the end, is a difficult ideal to maintain and many strategies attempting to maintain it have fallen far short in the implementation. To achieve equity, school systems need to have an approach for analyzing findings about recommended shifts in learning approaches and objectives. These approaches should also help teachers and administrators understand not what they have to avoid but what it is that they can do to achieve optimal equity moving forward.
  12. Technology brings a whole new dimension to cheating. Academic dishonesty is nothing new. As long as there have been homework assignments and tests, there have been cheaters. The way that cheating looks has changed over time, though. Technology has made it easier than ever. Perhaps the most interesting caveat of modern-day cheating in U.S. classrooms is that students often do not think they have done anything wrong. Schools must develop anti-cheating policies that include technology and those policies must be updated consistently. Teachers must stay vigilant, too, when it comes to what their students are doing in classrooms and how technology could be playing a negative role in the learning process. Parents must also talk to their kids about the appropriate ways to find academic answers and alert them to unethical behaviors that may seem innocent in their own eyes.
  13. We still struggle with making teacher tenure benefit both students and teachers. One of the most contested points of teacher contracts is the issue of tenure. Hardline education reformers argue that tenure protects underperforming teachers, which ends up punishing the students. Teachers unions challenge (among other reasons) that with the ever-changing landscape of K-12 education, including evaluation systems, tenure is necessary to protect the jobs of excellent teachers who could otherwise be ousted unfairly. It can often be a sticking point – and one that can lead to costly time out of classrooms, as recently seen in large school systems like New York City and Chicago. Now, I’m not suggesting that teachers just “give up” but I would support adjusting the expectations for tenure. It seems an appropriate step in the right direction for teachers in all types of schools. That energy then can be redirected towards realistic and helpful stipulations in teachers’ contracts that benefit the entire industry.
  14. More of our schools need to consider year-round schooling. Does it work? The traditional school year, with roughly three months of vacation days every summer, was first implemented when America was an agricultural society. The time off was not implemented to accommodate contemporary concerns, like children needing “down time” to decompress and “be kids.” The system was born out of economic necessity. In fact, the first schools that went against the summers-off version of the academic calendar were in urban areas that did not revolve around the agricultural calendar, like Chicago and New York, as early as the mid-1800s. It was much later, however, that the idea as a whole gained momentum. Overall, year-round schooling seems to show a slight advantage academically to students enrolled, but the numbers of students are not high enough to really get a good read on it at this point. What does seem clear, however, is that at-risk students do far better without a long summer break, and other students are not harmed by the year-round schedule.
  15. We are still wrestling the achievement gap. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education released student performance data in its National Assessment for Educational Progress report. The data is compiled every two years and it assesses reading and math achievements for fourth and eighth graders. This particular report also outlines differences between students based on racial and socioeconomic demographics. The data points to the places in the U.S. that still struggle with inequality in student opportunity and performance, otherwise known as the achievement gap. The achievement gap will likely always exist in some capacity, in much the same way that the U.S. high school dropout rate will likely never make it down to zero. This doesn’t mean it is a lost cause, of course. Every student who succeeds, from any demographic, is another victory in K-12 education and it benefits society as a whole. Better recognition by every educator, parent and citizen of the true problem that exists is a start; actionable programs are the next step.
  16. We need to consider how school security measures affect students. In theory, parents and educators would do anything to keep students safe, whether those students are pre-Kindergartners or wrapping up a college career. Nothing is too outlandish or over-the-top when it comes to protecting our kids and young adults. Metal detectors, security cameras, more police presence in school hallways, gated campuses – they all work toward the end goal of sheltering students and their educators, protecting some of the most vulnerable of our citizens. Emotions aside, though, how much does school security really increase actual safety? Do school security efforts actually hinder the learning experience? It sounds good to taut the virtues of tighter policies on school campuses but is it all just empty rhetoric? Given the fact that state spending per student is lower than at the start of the recession, how much should schools shell out on security costs? Perhaps the best investment we can make to safeguard our students and educators is in personal vigilance. Perhaps less reliance on so-called safety measures would lead to higher alertness.
  17. We need to make assistive technology more available for students with disabilities. A key to improving the educational experience for students with disabilities is better accommodations in schools and continued improvements in assistive technology. Assistive technology in K-12 classrooms, by definition, is designed to “improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.” While the word “technology” automatically conjures up images of cutting-edge electronics, some assistive technology is possible with just simple accommodations. Whether high-tech or simple in design, assistive technology has the ability to transform the learning experiences for the children who benefit. Assistive technology is important for providing a sound education for K-12 students with disabilities but benefits the greater good of the country, too. Nearly one-fourth of a specific student population is not being properly served and with so many technological advances, that is a number I believe can drop. Assistive technology in simple and complex platforms has the ability to lift the entire educational experience and provide a better life foundation for K-12 students with disabilities.

Some of these reasons are well-known and long-standing issues. However, others—such as the emergence of a screen culture—are new and even somewhat unexpected challenges. However, the nature of each issue does not matter. All of them are standing in the way of our becoming globally competitive.

Can you think of any reasons the U.S. educational systems are failing?

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.