Determining the WHY

It's one thing to observe a phenomenon. It's another to understand not just what happened, but why it happened.

This really struck me last month. I was listening to the news, and there was a story about a fatal train crash in New Jersey. The question that everyone asked, of course, was: why did the train crash? 

On the surface, it is easy to answer - the train was going too fast. But that answer isn't good enough. It's not enough to know that the train was speeding, we want to know WHY it was going too fast. Was it a mechanical failure? The fault of the conductor? Malfunctioning signals? Grease on the tracks?

In other words, we want to understand the cause of the excess speed, so that we can make sure this tragedy does not happen again.

https://goo.gl/UZUfFH

The Why in School...

We are learning to take the same approach to our classes. In some cases - applied-level math courses, for instance - we see only a small percentage of students achieving provincial standard. Why is that?

On the surface, just like the train, it's an easy question. In some cases, students just aren't doing the work. They're not working efficiently in class, and they're working even less outside of class (if at all) to learn and master the material. They are not doing all that is required of them, so they are not earning provincial standard, or in some cases, not even earning the credit.

But again, like the train, that's not a good enough - not a deep enough - analysis to say "The students aren't succeeding because they are not doing the work." We have to start, REALLY start, asking ourselves WHY that work is not getting done. And there are many reasons why students might not be picking up their pencils and putting in the work...

Ontario's Renewed Math Strategy

The goal of Ontario's Renewed Math Strategy is to have teachers start asking this very important why, and implementing ways to help our most at-risk students, including those with learning disabilities.

By definition, a student with a learning disability has an average to above average intelligence. They just have ways - that have been identified - in which it is MUCH harder for them to learn. For whatever reason, though these students have average to above average potential, students with learning disabilities are disproportionately taking applied-level courses over academic-level courses. And they are achieving success at lower rates in those courses than students without learning disabilities. 

So again, we ask ourselves, WHY?

That's not to say that we haven't asked ourselves this question before. But now we are being encouraged to really dig deeply for the answers, particularly when it comes to students with exceptionalities. This includes not just past achievement (results on report cards, standardized test results), but really looking at a student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP), Psycho-educational Assessment, and Speech & Language Assessment. We are looking to pinpoint very specific strengths and needs, for very specific students.

We recognize when we have identified students in our classes, but do we know - do we truly know - how to best accommodate for them so that they can reach their potential? For the first time we are really leveraging the expertise of our in-school Special Education Resource Teachers, and by pairing them with secondary subject specialists, bringing unified, purposeful interventions aimed at allowing those students to perform at their best.

And let's not forget, that what's good for a student with a learning disability, is good for even more students in the class. These purposeful interventions can have a huge, positive, trickle down effect.

That's what part of my new role is all about - digging down to determine the why for at-risk students with learning disabilities all across the school board, and working with teachers to best use that knowledge to help students achieve success in math. And perhaps we can prevent a few crashes along the way.