Are We Remediating Out of Control?

We are seeing a trend across the U.S. to focus on meeting students where they are, especially in math. Schools are leveraging screening tests to determine what type of learning experience each of their students should have. Take the test, determine the appropriate grade level content, have the student start working -- that is the routine.

There are, however, problems with this approach.

1. Take a student who is in 7th grade. If he takes the placement test and it says that he should receive 2nd grade content, what happens? This student has moved through five grades since the days of learning 2nd grade content. If he is placed back in 2nd grade content, he will never achieve the 7th grade standards he’s supposed to be learning this year. Instead, he’s going to begin an endless march to get back to the grade level that he failed on his first attempt. Under this process, students like this are doomed to always remain below grade level.
    
2. When the student took the placement test, he might not have fully understood the grade level concepts he was being tested on. Was it that he didn’t understand any of the grade level concepts, or was it a sub-skill that kept him from getting to the right answer? For example, there are ten sub-skills a student needs to understand to successfully answer a two step equation. What if he is only missing mastery of one of those sub-skills? Should we force him to drop a full grade level because of that gap? Why not remediate that sub-skill and move the student forward?
    

There is something disturbing about blindly accepting these test results -- usually a 60 minute test given at the beginning of the school year -- that only gives one datapoint on a student’s knowledge. Rather, let’s work on teaching students the content that they need to know at grade level and filling in the sub-skill gaps as they appear. Teachers are well suited to work with our students every day, and they know when to apply appropriate remediation. Otherwise, students will spiral down to lower and lower levels and will never be able to achieve learning at the levels set by the standards.