Sunday, September 30, 2012
Labels Influence Behavior and Academic Success

I am the Director of a program that trains teacher candidates in a secondary mentor teacher's classroom while they are attending graduate school to complete their credential and master's degree. Afterwards, they are hired in an urban secondaryschool in the Los Angeles basin. Last week, I observed one of my graduates, who is in his first year of teaching. As a math teacher, he has been assigned classes that have "low performing students". These students have all scored "far below basic" or "below basic" on their annual standardized math test. This particular school (and many like it) have scheduled students in a double block of math and they must also attend a Flex period of "intervention" three times per week. Most of the students were disruptive, boisterous, antsy, impulsive and they had a short attention span. It comes as no surprise when schools have determined that forcing students to take 2-3 hours of math and labeling their experience as "Intervention", while other students on the campus are allowed to take electives and their Flex period is called "Enrichment"; that they rebel or develop a low sense of self worth. Are we setting students up for failure when we create school schedules that label, alienate, and marginalize them? As thoughtful and reform-minded educators, I think that we need to seriously consider how we establish programs that may either undermine or encourage student achievement. LABELS INFLUENCE BEHAVIOR AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS!