Student Readiness

I am convinced that if my students actually remembered, learned, and could apply everything I teach them, they’d all become geniuses.  Yet they don’t.  Some do manage to learn much more than others, though, and I’m convinced the main reason for this gap is student readiness.

Student readiness can take many forms: perhaps what I am teaching is too difficult, and the child simply isn’t prepared to learn it.  Perhaps it doesn’t fit into a child’s existing schema or prior knowledge.  Perhaps a child isn’t ready because basic needs are being unmet: a child is worried about something happening at home, feels unsafe at school due to bullying, or is just plain tired.

I see a lot of people dealing with individual components of this readiness issue.  For example, we differentiate to get content at the right difficulty for as many learners as possible.  We work to prevent bullying and try to meet students’ basic needs when they arise.  But I think we would benefit from defining all of these issues collectively as readiness.

There is a lot of power in language.  NCLB calls its barrage of standardized tests and takeover threats “accountability,” and by using that term, they’ve managed to define much of the conversation surrounding teaching and learning.  Let’s use the term “readiness” as a counterpoint to best describe what schools (along with families and society at large) need to work on to ensure student success.