Russ Walsh is a literacy expert. In this post, he delves into the meaning of high expectations. Of course, he says, teachers should have high e pectations but they should not be out of reach. The four-minute mile was once a standard, but it was never achievable for most runners, only for the very very best.
No Child Left Behind set an unreasonable standard, that ALL children would be proficient readers by 2014. It didn’t happen, and it left behind many demoralized students and teachers.
Russ offers a few key principles for setting meaningful expectations. Here is one:
“Follow the Goldilocks principle. Work to find the amount of challenge that is “just right” for that individual student. This means working with the child in what Vygotsky called the “zone of proximal development”, that area slightly above where the student can function independently, but well below where the student becomes frustrated.”
Politicians confuse setting goals with achieving them. Teachers should not.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Too many politicians and billionaire oligarchs have no idea. Fake President Trump is a perfect example. The Kremlin’s Agent Orange thinks if he wants something done, it should be done or someone should be fired and/or suffer even if what Trumps wants is impossible to achieve.
This is why the liar-in-chief has had so many bankruptcies and business failures and is so deep in debt to foreign banks. He is incapable of learning and fools himself that he is the greatest at everything he does.
Bill Gates, The Koch brothers, the Waltons, and the other oligarchs are all cut from the same psychopath cloth of ignorance.
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I completely agree with the idea of building efficacy and self-efficacy by opening lines of communication and showing authentic confidence in students. But let me tell you, I never thought the “high expectations” of NCLB ever had anything to do with building efficacy in students. The pie in the sky goal of 100% “proficiency” coupled with punitive measures showed me that “high expectations” really had everything to do with privatization. Once all schools and districts fail to meet the impossible goal, No Child Left in a well funded public school is more like it. That’s right, we teachers cannot afford to fall for the political doublespeak.
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It is unreasonable to expect ALL children to read above grade level so why do the assessments contain reading passages two or more grade levels above the current grade of the child taking the test then penalize them as failing when they don’t perform up to these arbitrary standards?
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Tests are designed to differentiate from best to worst.
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True – but then these assessments should be graded on the Bell Curve and not be used to penalize students and their teachers for not achieving unrealistic goals via ridiculous cut scores.
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Nor should the people who are pushing so hard torationalize the importance of the “the zone of proximal development” forget that loving the content, or being curious about it, can strengthen immediate and long-term interest in reading for pleaure and for information. There is also some reciprocity between reading and writing.
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It also requires ways of assessing competence by methods. Very different than those psychotics are accustomed to or any Aptos h that rests on ranking
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In order to find the “sweet spot,” also known as the instructional level, students must be tested and appropriately placed in groups. We want students to stretch, but not be overwhelmed like the four minute mile referenced in the article. This is what reading teachers refer to as the frustration level. This is an example of useful testing that will guide instruction. We also need to urge students to read at home on their own for fun as this will give students practice and success in reading. Krashen has shown that self selected recreational reading has a positive impact on reading development.
Students of poverty need access to books through the schools and public libraries as they rarely have access to books at home. If billionaires truly wanted to help poor students, they would forget about charters and vouchers. They would spend money on public school libraries where poor students attend school. The sad reality is that these are the same schools that generally have the smallest budgets for school libraries or even a school librarian.
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Never gave a damn about supposedly high student “achievement”. Only cared about if a student was learning as much as he/she could/wanted to.
We’ve probably all seen/read the too high a crossbar. Well, there’s another way to look at those crossbars and how to get over them. First, knock down the standards (double entendre intended), go over to the crossbars (tests) now on the ground and walk right over them, stepping on them as you go!
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Russ’ post had a lot of interesting points, but none so provocative as his suggestion that reading was associated with calling on everybody in a class. Some students are really terrified, and this might keep them from progressing at all. Better to know your children. Approach them where they are. Do what you can.
Russ’ experience with a coach that demanded a 6 minute mile suggests that he came from a very large school. One year our tiny rural school had 12 players out for football. A requirement like that would have killed the program. Thus, if football is good for boys, we would have denied our boys the opportunity due to undue expectations. If talking in class is good for children, we need to be funded so that classes are small and intimate. I can watch classes that approach 30 shut down as they near that size, the more timid becoming almost mute, hiding. That is the support he was talking about.
As for the suggestion about testing suggested above, I have always failed to feel good about tests that place children. Some look better than they are, others worse.
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Ray, You make a good point about calling on children in class and how that is difficult for some. My point was that students all need to be included in the learning and having the opportunity to articulate what you know, or think you know, is important to being a successful learner. That said teachers need to find ways to help those reluctant voices be heard, by having kids discuss in small groups and rehearsing students so that they can feel confident in talking in class. Thanks for having me rethink this.
I indeed went to a large high school. The 6 minute mile, on reflection, was a coaches pre-screening device. At this point in my life and career with five grandchildren, including two boys, I hope high schools do away with football.
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“APPROACHING” 30???? Come to Utah sometime. Our classes are approaching 40, not counting the first and second grade classes coming this fall with 60-70 students, one teacher, and two aides. http://www.standard.net/Education/2017/01/31/Davis-School-District-looks-to-implement-fusion-learning-model
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Holy Cow! 40? My point was that students begin to clam up as the class approaches 30. If Russ is correct, and I think he is, about children needing to talk to learn, what does this suggest?
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Utah has lost its mind. Is it because most students attend religious schools so they don’t care about the public school students? If this is the case, it is very unChristian of the powers that be.
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Unfortunately, we may need to step back and determine what quality reading looks like. I don’t think much of reading levels as reading isn’t about reading harder words or longer sentences.
Reading is much more intense and active.
Also, from what I’m seeing, all reading ability is determined by multiple Choice questions or how fast a child can read a text out loud.
And the other dilema I’m seeing is readers are grouped based on false assessments and never encouraged to be scholarly or push themselves to dive deeper or take time to really understand so many different aspects of texts because outward sources like computers determine a child’s ability.
So I hope Russ will write another blog about what reading really looks like.
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I tend to go with Frank Smith’s definition that reading is thinking. We are shortchanging students today by teaching them to answer questions on a test. Students should be reading whole books, not only snippets to answer questions on a bubble test. Entire books inspire real engagement and real thought with an emphasis on higher order thinking.
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