January 10, 2024 • 20 mins
Ever felt like the educational support system is a maze without an exit? I'm Jessica Curtis, and in this episode, I confront the tangle head-on, dissecting the complexities of MTSS and RTI in schools. Join me as I make the case for these frameworks to be more than mere pathways to special education, advocating for a synergistic relationship where shared insights and strategies lead to student success. With a focus on the parallels between MTSS and special education, I call attention to the importance of data-driven decisions, periodic reviews, and targeted goals, all crucial for meaningful progress. It's a mission to ensure that the commitment schools make to support student learning is not just a promise, but a practice.
This conversation is an urgent one, with implications that reach far beyond individual classrooms. As the new year unfolds, it's time to rethink our approach to educational support, aiming for consistency and resource-sharing that can uplift both MTSS and special education. By exploring interventions like the Orton-Gillingham approach, which may serve to elevate all students, we can begin to address the deep-seated issues that leave too many students lagging in basic skills. I'm calling for a year of innovation to combat teacher burnout and reverse the exodus from this critical profession, crafting an educational experience that's as fulfilling for educators as it is for students. Tune in for a candid discussion about shaping an educational future where every learner is equipped for success.
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
https://teachingstrugglinglearners.com
5 Steps to Getting Started with Progress Monitoring
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So over the years in this podcast, I have done a lot
of talking about MTSS and RTIbecause I feel like, and always
have felt like, mtss reallycould be a huge tool for
improvement for schools, forstudents in general.
(00:23):
I truly do believe that MTSScould be a fantastic way for
schools to really hone in onwhat they're doing right, what
they're doing wrong and findways to help their kids learn
and grow.
Now, just because you know, Ifeel that MTSS is an opportunity
(00:48):
, I will say we're not doingMTSS right.
There isn't a single schoolthat I could point to and say
man, they are doing it right,they've got the RTI down, they
know what interventions they'reusing, the teachers are on board
(01:09):
and the teachers, mostimportantly, are supported the
way they should be supported.
We're not doing MTSS right.
Again, I cannot point to asingle school that I could think
of that is doing MTSS.
A single district, a singlestate that is actually
performing the process correctly.
Could it be done correctly?
(01:30):
Absolutely, are we doing it?
No, that being said, mtss for alot of schools and this is not
the correct thought process butfor MTSS, for a lot of schools
the goal of MTSS, the RTIprocess, all of that is, to find
students eligible for specialeducation.
(01:53):
That's the thing that, meetingafter meeting, I have sat in and
teachers have said well, youknow, I don't think this kid
needs to be an MTSS, because Idon't think that kid needs
special education.
That's the wrong goal.
But along those lines, I thinkthat we do need to start
thinking a little bit more abouthow MTSS and the special
(02:17):
education system are similar,because they are, they are very
closely related sisters maybe.
The fact is that, aside fromthe initial process of how we
find the students, both systemswere built to work very, very
similarly, even if they don'tcurrently work that way in
(02:39):
practice.
So today, that's what we'regoing to talk about.
We're going to talk about MTSS,but, more importantly, we're
going to really start focusingfor the next few weeks on
special education and how thatentire process is going and how
we can make it a whole loteasier on ourselves, our
(03:00):
students, and start makingprogress.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis of Teaching Struggling
Learners.
I'm a boy mom and a veteranteacher.
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast, where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So MTSS and special education are very, very similar
.
If you don't believe me, I'llgive you a little bit of a
rundown.
Both systems are reliant ondata.
We use data to determinewhether a child should be in or
out of each system and we tracktheir progress throughout the
(04:01):
system whether it's MTSS orspecial education to see or we
are supposed to track the datato see if the interventions and
what we're doing is working.
We do periodic reviews to seedoes the student still need
these services, these supports,or not, and then we also
(04:23):
similarly have meetings wherewe're supposed to be discussing
this data and determining nextsteps for each of these
different students, whetherthey're in the MTSS or the
special education process.
So it really does.
It makes sense, when you thinkabout using data to inform
(04:45):
instruction, how important it isto start seeing the
similarities between MTSS andspecial education.
We see, like I said in theintro, we see a lot of times
that MTSS, the goal of MTSS, isto get kids into special
education.
But that really shouldn't bethe goal and we really do need
(05:09):
to start seeing them as sistersystems and we can learn from
each other.
Our special education teacherscould really benefit from being
able to have access to some ofthe interventions, some of the
data, some of the informationthat is populated through the
(05:30):
MTSS process and, similarly, theMTSS process, the
interventionist and all thatwould greatly benefit from input
from the special educationteachers, because they see a
different side, they havedifferent viewpoints, they have
different experiences.
That could very much help theMTSS side of the house.
(05:53):
But again, when it comes downto are they similar or not, the
reality is this is what both ofthem are doing we screen the
kids to identify weaknesses, weprovide interventions to figure
out, to help the students makeprogress, and then we do a
little bit of testing to see didit work?
(06:15):
They are both officialprocesses, they both have a goal
, they both have to move forward.
And now I will say one of themcomes with more legal stress
weight, obviously, but MTSSplans, even though we think of
(06:36):
them as just a school plan.
But the fact is it is really anagreement between the school
and parents of what is going tobe provided when we make a MTSS
RTI plan and say that a child isgoing to be receiving, five
days a week, 30 minutes ofintense instruction on reading
(06:58):
for phonics, and this is thegoal that we are setting for the
child and we are going toprogress, monitor it, even
though maybe the parents aren'tsigning off on an IEP for that,
it is still an agreement thatthe school is saying, hey, this
is what we are doing.
Mom, dad, guardian, whoever,parent, grandparent, whoever you
(07:19):
are, this is what we are sayingwe are going to do.
And if we say we are going todo something as a school system,
we have to back it up byactually doing it.
Now, the weird dichotomy betweenMTSS and special education is
that special education promisesservices which, honestly, are
(07:43):
questionably provided.
I mean, let's be honest.
And then we give them quarterlyprogress reports that show how
the kids are doing the reason Isay these services are
questionably provided.
Well, first of all, I have satin many, many, many initial IEP
meetings and the vast majorityof those initial IEP meetings,
(08:07):
whether the parents are realizedit or not, the child was losing
access to supports, they weregaining accommodations, which
was always how that was kind ofsmoothed over if a parent
questioned it.
But the reality is, most of thetime when kids go from MTSS,
(08:29):
you know, tier three is shouldbe, you know, five days a week,
30 minutes a lot of our kids aregoing, then, from five days a
week of 30 minutes of intenseinstruction to three times a
week for 30 minutes.
Guys, that's a reduction inservices, even though special
education is a higher tier ofsupport.
(08:49):
We're giving accommodations butwe're reducing the actual face
time of supports that these kidsare getting.
And then, of course, we, youknow the special education
teacher.
How often are they pulled outbecause they have an IEP meeting
?
So, yeah, we say on this legaldocument that the child is going
(09:12):
to get 30 minutes, three, youknow, three times a week.
But how often is that actuallyhappening?
Because of all of the ways thatthe special education teacher
is pulled, please don't come atme and say you don't care about
special education teachers.
No, I love me some specialeducation teachers.
They are amazing, they are,dare I say it, the backbone of
(09:33):
education at this point, becausethey are the ones that are
keeping that special educationdepartment running or crawling.
They're not running, they'recrawling.
Right now.
They're dragging the departmentforward and keeping it moving,
keeping it alive, but thereality is we're not providing
(09:56):
the services that we say we'regoing to do.
And then we get progress reportsquarterly, but those progress
reports are, you know, sometimesthey have data, sometimes they
don't.
You know it's questionable ForMTSS side.
Let's be honest, mtss, we tendto be more consistent in the
(10:21):
services provided.
Now again, different schools dodifferent things, but the
consistency end of itinterventionists tend not to be
pulled into IEP meetings, intoall these other things.
They're able to, by and large,able to provide more consistent
(10:42):
services, but the progressmonitoring data that they may
collect and a lot of, a lot.
It's not their fault, but a lotof times interventions aren't
taught how to collect the data.
They're taught how to providethe intervention program, but
they're not necessarily taughthow to actually collect the data
(11:06):
to say, hey, this is how thatstudent performed and how
they're performing, how they'redoing you know over time.
But that data is very rarelyactually provided to the parents
for them to review.
(11:26):
So with special education, getyour quarterly progress report.
The parent can look over it andgo, oh, there's the data right
there.
And but for MTSS, sometimes wehave quarterly meetings,
sometimes we don't, sometimes weinvite the parents, sometimes
we don't, but rarely is theactual data provided to the
parent to review.
(11:47):
So if we could kind of get thepositives of both of these
processes together, we wouldhave a really, really good
supportive system.
I mean honestly, if we couldget the consistency of
interventions across the boardfor these kids no-transcript,
all of them, whether they're inthe MTSS or the special
(12:09):
education process, all of themneed the help.
We are raising our hands, thoseteachers, and saying, yes,
these kids need the help.
So if we could actually give itto them, that would be
fantastic.
But then also if we couldcollect the data and show it to
the parents and show it to eachother and go, hey, this is
working.
(12:30):
This isn't this intervention.
It's not working for, you know,all these kids, we got to try
something else.
This intervention is working,fantastic, let's keep this one
going.
If we could get those twoprocesses, the positives of both
of them, together, oh, mygoodness, the supportive system
(12:50):
that we could actually beproviding for the kids.
Now I will say a lot ofinterventions could be shared
across both and improved on ifwe could open up our minds to
investing in the range ofopportunities across all of the
(13:12):
needs that we see.
What I'm saying is, I have seenschools that have said that,
for example, this one FONXprogram is only for MTSS and
this other FONX program,orton-gillingham, whatever it is
, is only for the students withspecial education, because we
(13:33):
are obsessed with this idea thatwe have to have something
different for both of thosegroups of kids.
But the fact is, maybe some ofthose kids that are in special
education right now that havespecial ed services, maybe just
maybe some of them, if they hadreceived the Orton-Gillingham or
(13:55):
whatever it is and I sayOrton-Gillingham, whatever, I'm
not promoting them in any way,shape or form but let's say,
some of those kids in MTSS, ifthey had gotten that support
when they were in MTSS a coupleyears ago, maybe they could have
caught on a little bit earlierand been on grade level and not
needed the special educationservices at all.
(14:17):
Maybe some of those kids thekids that are doing that did
okay and were making progress,not fast enough to not need
special education, but they weremaking gains with this other
program.
But all of a sudden you'reswitching to this other thing
(14:38):
and you're wondering why they'renot doing well.
Maybe they should have kept on.
Keep on with the program thatwas working for them.
I've seen it time and time againwhere all of a sudden we're
switching things up on kids orthings that could have worked
really well for our students inMTSS, to the point that they may
(15:02):
not need special education, butbecause that was a special
education program or that was anMTSS program, they were denied
that access.
Yeah, those are strong wordswhen I say they were denied that
access.
It's true, they were deniedaccess to a program that could
have made a big difference forthem, even to the point of some
(15:23):
students not needing specialeducation.
That's a big deal.
If we could open up our mindsto sharing resources a little
bit more and realizing that, hey, not just resources, but
knowledge, sharing ideas,sharing ways of teaching
(15:45):
different things, we could againhave a really, really strong,
supportive service for ourstudents.
Now, why am I talking about allthis today?
Well, because it's the firstpodcast of the year and because
I'm crazy and because I thinkthat we have to start rethinking
(16:08):
education.
Education is guys.
The numbers are out.
You can see it all overInstagram and TikTok, where
teachers, middle and high schoolteachers, are coming out of the
woodwork and saying my highschoolers, what was the one?
The high schoolers or middleschoolers that can't spell the
(16:31):
word because middle schoolersand high schoolers who can't
read?
I have friends in differentareas of the country that are
messaging me and saying Jessica,I have, I have science students
in high school who cannot read.
And I'm not talking about thetextbook, because we've stopped
(16:52):
giving the textbook.
I'm talking about worksheetsthat are differentiated so that
the reading level is much lowerthan what would be expected in
that textbook.
The kids are not able to readsight words.
The kids are, they'reilliterate when they're getting
to high school.
(17:13):
That's a mean term.
Saying someone is illiterate,that's mean, that's harsh, but
that's the reality for a lot ofstudents going into middle and
high school.
And we got it.
We got to make some changes.
And no, I don't blame teachers.
(17:33):
You can quote me on that.
I do not blame teachers.
The entire system, theeducation system, is broken.
And can we fix it?
Absolutely we can.
I have no doubt in my mind thatit can be fixed.
But we have to start saying itlike it is and like those
(18:02):
teachers are calling it out whenthey see it, saying that, hey,
high schoolers that can't spellthe word, because, guys, we got
a problem here.
Algebra teachers saying, hey,guys, my students can't add.
If they can't add, they can'tdo the Pythagorean theorem.
That's the reality.
(18:25):
So I want this year to be onewhere we start thinking outside
the box.
I'll do, I'll think, I'll sharemy ideas.
I'll share, you know, mythoughts of outside the box and
let's see if we can come up withsome ways to make this a little
(18:47):
bit more doable.
Because the fact is, teachersare run down, they're overworked
, we know they're underpaid.
I'm not even gonna say thatthey're run down.
They're overworked, they areburnt out, they're leaving.
You guys, teachers are leaving.
You know it.
You know, in every buildingteachers are leaving at a
(19:09):
massively quick rate and nobodyblames them.
Nobody blames them.
We know why.
We see it.
So we've got to make thiseasier.
We have to make teaching easier, we've got to start making
things simple.
So that's going to be my goalthis year is finding ways and
(19:29):
sharing ways to make this moredoable, more sustainable, so
that A we can keep the amazingteachers that are in the
classrooms there and, you know,not burned out and not ripping
their hair out, but also so thatwe can make sure that the
(19:51):
students are more successfulyear on year.
So, anyway, happy new year.
I hope that you have had afantastic break, I hope that you
are ready to hit the groundrunning and I hope that you get
to really enjoy what's coming up.
Everybody, we know that this is.
(20:15):
This is a tough time of year,that we're heading into.
February Coming up is a toughtime of year.
That's alright.
We're going to find ways tosimplify, we are going to find
ways to make it doable, to do itsustainable, and, who knows, we
might even find some fun alongthe way.
Until next time, may yourcoffee be strong, your students
(20:38):
calm and your workloadmanageable.
Bye.
So over the years in this podcast, I have done a lot
of talking about MTSS and RTIbecause I feel like, and always
have felt like, mtss reallycould be a huge tool for
improvement for schools, forstudents in general.
(00:23):
I truly do believe that MTSScould be a fantastic way for
schools to really hone in onwhat they're doing right, what
they're doing wrong and findways to help their kids learn
and grow.
Now, just because you know, Ifeel that MTSS is an opportunity
(00:48):
, I will say we're not doingMTSS right.
There isn't a single schoolthat I could point to and say
man, they are doing it right,they've got the RTI down, they
know what interventions they'reusing, the teachers are on board
(01:09):
and the teachers, mostimportantly, are supported the
way they should be supported.
We're not doing MTSS right.
Again, I cannot point to asingle school that I could think
of that is doing MTSS.
A single district, a singlestate that is actually
performing the process correctly.
Could it be done correctly?
(01:30):
Absolutely, are we doing it?
No, that being said, mtss for alot of schools and this is not
the correct thought process butfor MTSS, for a lot of schools
the goal of MTSS, the RTIprocess, all of that is, to find
students eligible for specialeducation.
(01:53):
That's the thing that, meetingafter meeting, I have sat in and
teachers have said well, youknow, I don't think this kid
needs to be an MTSS, because Idon't think that kid needs
special education.
That's the wrong goal.
But along those lines, I thinkthat we do need to start
thinking a little bit more abouthow MTSS and the special
(02:17):
education system are similar,because they are, they are very
closely related sisters maybe.
The fact is that, aside fromthe initial process of how we
find the students, both systemswere built to work very, very
similarly, even if they don'tcurrently work that way in
(02:39):
practice.
So today, that's what we'regoing to talk about.
We're going to talk about MTSS,but, more importantly, we're
going to really start focusingfor the next few weeks on
special education and how thatentire process is going and how
we can make it a whole loteasier on ourselves, our
(03:00):
students, and start makingprogress.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis of Teaching Struggling
Learners.
I'm a boy mom and a veteranteacher.
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast, where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So MTSS and special education are very, very similar
.
If you don't believe me, I'llgive you a little bit of a
rundown.
Both systems are reliant ondata.
We use data to determinewhether a child should be in or
out of each system and we tracktheir progress throughout the
(04:01):
system whether it's MTSS orspecial education to see or we
are supposed to track the datato see if the interventions and
what we're doing is working.
We do periodic reviews to seedoes the student still need
these services, these supports,or not, and then we also
(04:23):
similarly have meetings wherewe're supposed to be discussing
this data and determining nextsteps for each of these
different students, whetherthey're in the MTSS or the
special education process.
So it really does.
It makes sense, when you thinkabout using data to inform
(04:45):
instruction, how important it isto start seeing the
similarities between MTSS andspecial education.
We see, like I said in theintro, we see a lot of times
that MTSS, the goal of MTSS, isto get kids into special
education.
But that really shouldn't bethe goal and we really do need
(05:09):
to start seeing them as sistersystems and we can learn from
each other.
Our special education teacherscould really benefit from being
able to have access to some ofthe interventions, some of the
data, some of the informationthat is populated through the
(05:30):
MTSS process and, similarly, theMTSS process, the
interventionist and all thatwould greatly benefit from input
from the special educationteachers, because they see a
different side, they havedifferent viewpoints, they have
different experiences.
That could very much help theMTSS side of the house.
(05:53):
But again, when it comes downto are they similar or not, the
reality is this is what both ofthem are doing we screen the
kids to identify weaknesses, weprovide interventions to figure
out, to help the students makeprogress, and then we do a
little bit of testing to see didit work?
(06:15):
They are both officialprocesses, they both have a goal
, they both have to move forward.
And now I will say one of themcomes with more legal stress
weight, obviously, but MTSSplans, even though we think of
(06:36):
them as just a school plan.
But the fact is it is really anagreement between the school
and parents of what is going tobe provided when we make a MTSS
RTI plan and say that a child isgoing to be receiving, five
days a week, 30 minutes ofintense instruction on reading
(06:58):
for phonics, and this is thegoal that we are setting for the
child and we are going toprogress, monitor it, even
though maybe the parents aren'tsigning off on an IEP for that,
it is still an agreement thatthe school is saying, hey, this
is what we are doing.
Mom, dad, guardian, whoever,parent, grandparent, whoever you
(07:19):
are, this is what we are sayingwe are going to do.
And if we say we are going todo something as a school system,
we have to back it up byactually doing it.
Now, the weird dichotomy betweenMTSS and special education is
that special education promisesservices which, honestly, are
(07:43):
questionably provided.
I mean, let's be honest.
And then we give them quarterlyprogress reports that show how
the kids are doing the reason Isay these services are
questionably provided.
Well, first of all, I have satin many, many, many initial IEP
meetings and the vast majorityof those initial IEP meetings,
(08:07):
whether the parents are realizedit or not, the child was losing
access to supports, they weregaining accommodations, which
was always how that was kind ofsmoothed over if a parent
questioned it.
But the reality is, most of thetime when kids go from MTSS,
(08:29):
you know, tier three is shouldbe, you know, five days a week,
30 minutes a lot of our kids aregoing, then, from five days a
week of 30 minutes of intenseinstruction to three times a
week for 30 minutes.
Guys, that's a reduction inservices, even though special
education is a higher tier ofsupport.
(08:49):
We're giving accommodations butwe're reducing the actual face
time of supports that these kidsare getting.
And then, of course, we, youknow the special education
teacher.
How often are they pulled outbecause they have an IEP meeting
?
So, yeah, we say on this legaldocument that the child is going
(09:12):
to get 30 minutes, three, youknow, three times a week.
But how often is that actuallyhappening?
Because of all of the ways thatthe special education teacher
is pulled, please don't come atme and say you don't care about
special education teachers.
No, I love me some specialeducation teachers.
They are amazing, they are,dare I say it, the backbone of
(09:33):
education at this point, becausethey are the ones that are
keeping that special educationdepartment running or crawling.
They're not running, they'recrawling.
Right now.
They're dragging the departmentforward and keeping it moving,
keeping it alive, but thereality is we're not providing
(09:56):
the services that we say we'regoing to do.
And then we get progress reportsquarterly, but those progress
reports are, you know, sometimesthey have data, sometimes they
don't.
You know it's questionable ForMTSS side.
Let's be honest, mtss, we tendto be more consistent in the
(10:21):
services provided.
Now again, different schools dodifferent things, but the
consistency end of itinterventionists tend not to be
pulled into IEP meetings, intoall these other things.
They're able to, by and large,able to provide more consistent
(10:42):
services, but the progressmonitoring data that they may
collect and a lot of, a lot.
It's not their fault, but a lotof times interventions aren't
taught how to collect the data.
They're taught how to providethe intervention program, but
they're not necessarily taughthow to actually collect the data
(11:06):
to say, hey, this is how thatstudent performed and how
they're performing, how they'redoing you know over time.
But that data is very rarelyactually provided to the parents
for them to review.
(11:26):
So with special education, getyour quarterly progress report.
The parent can look over it andgo, oh, there's the data right
there.
And but for MTSS, sometimes wehave quarterly meetings,
sometimes we don't, sometimes weinvite the parents, sometimes
we don't, but rarely is theactual data provided to the
parent to review.
(11:47):
So if we could kind of get thepositives of both of these
processes together, we wouldhave a really, really good
supportive system.
I mean honestly, if we couldget the consistency of
interventions across the boardfor these kids no-transcript,
all of them, whether they're inthe MTSS or the special
(12:09):
education process, all of themneed the help.
We are raising our hands, thoseteachers, and saying, yes,
these kids need the help.
So if we could actually give itto them, that would be
fantastic.
But then also if we couldcollect the data and show it to
the parents and show it to eachother and go, hey, this is
working.
(12:30):
This isn't this intervention.
It's not working for, you know,all these kids, we got to try
something else.
This intervention is working,fantastic, let's keep this one
going.
If we could get those twoprocesses, the positives of both
of them, together, oh, mygoodness, the supportive system
(12:50):
that we could actually beproviding for the kids.
Now I will say a lot ofinterventions could be shared
across both and improved on ifwe could open up our minds to
investing in the range ofopportunities across all of the
(13:12):
needs that we see.
What I'm saying is, I have seenschools that have said that,
for example, this one FONXprogram is only for MTSS and
this other FONX program,orton-gillingham, whatever it is
, is only for the students withspecial education, because we
(13:33):
are obsessed with this idea thatwe have to have something
different for both of thosegroups of kids.
But the fact is, maybe some ofthose kids that are in special
education right now that havespecial ed services, maybe just
maybe some of them, if they hadreceived the Orton-Gillingham or
(13:55):
whatever it is and I sayOrton-Gillingham, whatever, I'm
not promoting them in any way,shape or form but let's say,
some of those kids in MTSS, ifthey had gotten that support
when they were in MTSS a coupleyears ago, maybe they could have
caught on a little bit earlierand been on grade level and not
needed the special educationservices at all.
(14:17):
Maybe some of those kids thekids that are doing that did
okay and were making progress,not fast enough to not need
special education, but they weremaking gains with this other
program.
But all of a sudden you'reswitching to this other thing
(14:38):
and you're wondering why they'renot doing well.
Maybe they should have kept on.
Keep on with the program thatwas working for them.
I've seen it time and time againwhere all of a sudden we're
switching things up on kids orthings that could have worked
really well for our students inMTSS, to the point that they may
(15:02):
not need special education, butbecause that was a special
education program or that was anMTSS program, they were denied
that access.
Yeah, those are strong wordswhen I say they were denied that
access.
It's true, they were deniedaccess to a program that could
have made a big difference forthem, even to the point of some
(15:23):
students not needing specialeducation.
That's a big deal.
If we could open up our mindsto sharing resources a little
bit more and realizing that, hey, not just resources, but
knowledge, sharing ideas,sharing ways of teaching
(15:45):
different things, we could againhave a really, really strong,
supportive service for ourstudents.
Now, why am I talking about allthis today?
Well, because it's the firstpodcast of the year and because
I'm crazy and because I thinkthat we have to start rethinking
(16:08):
education.
Education is guys.
The numbers are out.
You can see it all overInstagram and TikTok, where
teachers, middle and high schoolteachers, are coming out of the
woodwork and saying my highschoolers, what was the one?
The high schoolers or middleschoolers that can't spell the
(16:31):
word because middle schoolersand high schoolers who can't
read?
I have friends in differentareas of the country that are
messaging me and saying Jessica,I have, I have science students
in high school who cannot read.
And I'm not talking about thetextbook, because we've stopped
(16:52):
giving the textbook.
I'm talking about worksheetsthat are differentiated so that
the reading level is much lowerthan what would be expected in
that textbook.
The kids are not able to readsight words.
The kids are, they'reilliterate when they're getting
to high school.
(17:13):
That's a mean term.
Saying someone is illiterate,that's mean, that's harsh, but
that's the reality for a lot ofstudents going into middle and
high school.
And we got it.
We got to make some changes.
And no, I don't blame teachers.
(17:33):
You can quote me on that.
I do not blame teachers.
The entire system, theeducation system, is broken.
And can we fix it?
Absolutely we can.
I have no doubt in my mind thatit can be fixed.
But we have to start saying itlike it is and like those
(18:02):
teachers are calling it out whenthey see it, saying that, hey,
high schoolers that can't spellthe word, because, guys, we got
a problem here.
Algebra teachers saying, hey,guys, my students can't add.
If they can't add, they can'tdo the Pythagorean theorem.
That's the reality.
(18:25):
So I want this year to be onewhere we start thinking outside
the box.
I'll do, I'll think, I'll sharemy ideas.
I'll share, you know, mythoughts of outside the box and
let's see if we can come up withsome ways to make this a little
(18:47):
bit more doable.
Because the fact is, teachersare run down, they're overworked
, we know they're underpaid.
I'm not even gonna say thatthey're run down.
They're overworked, they areburnt out, they're leaving.
You guys, teachers are leaving.
You know it.
You know, in every buildingteachers are leaving at a
(19:09):
massively quick rate and nobodyblames them.
Nobody blames them.
We know why.
We see it.
So we've got to make thiseasier.
We have to make teaching easier, we've got to start making
things simple.
So that's going to be my goalthis year is finding ways and
(19:29):
sharing ways to make this moredoable, more sustainable, so
that A we can keep the amazingteachers that are in the
classrooms there and, you know,not burned out and not ripping
their hair out, but also so thatwe can make sure that the
(19:51):
students are more successfulyear on year.
So, anyway, happy new year.
I hope that you have had afantastic break, I hope that you
are ready to hit the groundrunning and I hope that you get
to really enjoy what's coming up.
Everybody, we know that this is.
(20:15):
This is a tough time of year,that we're heading into.
February Coming up is a toughtime of year.
That's alright.
We're going to find ways tosimplify, we are going to find
ways to make it doable, to do itsustainable, and, who knows, we
might even find some fun alongthe way.
Until next time, may yourcoffee be strong, your students
(20:38):
calm and your workloadmanageable.
Bye.
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