If we were tasked with the mission of creating school and classroom ecosystems that worked for the students who are struggling, what would they look like? Probably not the way most classrooms look now. Most schools and classrooms are structured around the kids who aren\u2019t struggling (either that, or there are just some kids who are going to do well pretty much no matter what). But what would we do differently if we structured things in the opposite direction? Safe in the belief that what works for those who are struggling also works for those who aren\u2019t (and knowing that the reverse is not true), what structures, belief systems, and practices would we change?<\/p>\n
We\u2019d Focus on Developmental Variability<\/p>\n
Developmental variability refers to the natural differences or fluctuations in how individuals develop over time. It applies to all domains of functioning\u2014cognitive\/academic, emotional, physical, and social\u2014and it\u2019s guaranteed to be walking into your school and classroom. Amazingly enough, it\u2019s a term we don\u2019t hear very often in educator training or in schools. And yet, it\u2019s your reality. We should embrace it.<\/p>\n
The good news is that developmental variability isn\u2019t something you need to change; it\u2019s something you need to focus on, be responsive to, and plan for with intentionality. The quality of a school is measured by the degree to which it is responsive to the developmental variability of its students. (By the way, a good synonym for developmental variability is diversity.)<\/p>\n
We\u2019d Redefine Good Teaching<\/p>\n
If the goal is to be responsive to the developmental variability in our classrooms, then we would define good teaching as meeting every student where they\u2019re at. This definition is broad enough to encompass the pursuit of high (yet highly individualized) expectations, getting the most out of every student (with each student as their own reference point), and being important socialization agents. It\u2019s also a good way to define equity (as opposed to equality, which means treating every student the same). Equality would only make sense if every student were the same.<\/p>\n
So long as we\u2019re defining terms, what\u2019s it called when we provide equal access to opportunities and resources for students who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized because of their developmental variabilities? That, of course, is called inclusion. While the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion have been leveraged in the political realm, schools have no choice but to embrace and attend to them.<\/p>\n
Thanks to high-stakes testing, educators are under intense pressure to ensure that every student meets the same standard by the end of the school year, with evaluations of job performance and job security often pegged to how well they accomplish the mission. While there are supports that are designed to help students who are struggling to meet expectations, those supports often don\u2019t get the job done. High-stakes testing, even with supports added, has made it harder for educators to meet students where they\u2019re at.<\/p>\n
What we\u2019re circling around here is a concept we call expectation management<\/a>. Simply translated, this means giving conscious, deliberate thought to whether the expectations we\u2019re placing on students are currently in range for them, with each student as their own reference point. We fervently believe that if educators were managing their expectations better\u2014and given permission to do so\u2014they\u2019d be managing behavior a lot less. And they\u2019d be suspending, expelling, hitting, de-escalating, restraining, and secluding a lot less too.<\/p>\n How do we know if an expectation is in range for a student? That\u2019s a judgment call. But we have a simple, imperfect algorithm that may help you out. If a student can sometimes meet an expectation, it\u2019s in range. If a student is currently never meeting an expectation, it\u2019s probably out of range for now. Not forever, but for now.<\/p>\n Now, at this point, you might be thinking that special education<\/a> is supposed to be the mechanism by which we take care of all that developmental variability and try to meet students where they\u2019re at. If we\u2019re relying exclusively on special education for that, we\u2019re selling general education and the kids short and creating an unfortunate and counterproductive distinction between the kids who are and aren\u2019t meeting our expectations.<\/p>\n Education Essential Reads<\/p>\n We\u2019d Accurately Interpret Concerning Behavior<\/p>\n What happens when we place expectations on students that they\u2019re unable to reliably meet? They, like the rest of us, exhibit a frustration response. The synonym for frustration response is concerning behavior. Put differently, a good way to cause lots of frustration responses in a classroom is to place lots of expectations on students that they\u2019re having difficulty meeting.<\/p>\n As a side note, kids also have highly variable frustration responses. Some kids have milder frustration responses such as whining, pouting, sulking, withdrawing, and crying. We refer to these frustration responses as lucky, because they tend to elicit empathy, nurturance, and support from adults. Other kids have more powerful frustration responses, such as screaming, swearing, hitting, spitting, kicking, biting, throwing, destroying, and eloping. We refer to these frustration responses as unlucky, because they\u2019re less likely to elicit empathy, nurturance, and support from adults. Indeed, they often elicit the most punitive, exclusionary disciplinary practices our schools and society have to offer. In other words, it\u2019s the unlucky kids we\u2019re busy de-escalating, restraining, secluding, expelling, suspending, and hitting.<\/p>\n What explains the variability in frustration responses? If we pay attention<\/a> to the research that has accumulated over the past 40 to 50 years on kids with concerning behaviors\u2014and we definitely should\u2014the answer is skills. Some students are blessed with the skills to handle problems and frustrations adaptively, and others just aren\u2019t. We\u2019re referring here to global skills such as flexibility\/adaptability, frustration tolerance, problem-solving, and emotion regulation<\/a>. But whether lucky or unlucky, the most important thing to know about concerning behavior is that it communicates that there\u2019s an expectation a student is having difficulty reliably meeting.<\/p>\n Notice that last sentence didn\u2019t say anything about a student\u2019s level of motivation<\/a>. That\u2019s because there isn\u2019t a single study\u2014not one\u2014telling us that frustration responses are due to poor motivation. That being the case, we are left to ponder why, for so long, the standard approach to handling concerning behavior in most schools has been to apply motivational strategies\u2014consequences, some form of reward and\/or punishment<\/a>\u2014aimed at ensuring that kids have the incentive to behave adaptively.<\/p>\n