Our daughter’s annual IEP meeting is coming up. It’s a big one, she is headed to middle school next year and this is the document that is meant to wrap her in protection. To make sure that she still gets the services that her numerous teachers have offered her through the years as we have watched her grow from barely reading to where she is now. It has been a long process, I have documented it on this blog, and yet the growth has been there because of the people who have seen her for more than a reading score. For more than a reading level. Who have sat with her, countless hours, and asked her to read, to explain, to try, and taught her new ways to look at the pages and find meaning. Who have seen her whole process as a reader as something to pay attention to, and not just her comprehension. Here as a human being. We owe so much to the teachers that have had her in their care. Who, like us, know and believe that the best we can do for kids who are vulnerable in their learning is to put highly qualified professionals in front of them in order to see the child and not just the disability, the lack of, the less than. To keep their dignity and humanity at the center of all of our work.
So imagine our surprise when we were told that in middle school her reading growth would be measured using Lexile. A computer test will test her throughout the year and progress will be reported to us this way. After we made sure we heard correctly, we told them that that would not be acceptable. We know our rights as parents when it comes to an IEP. Her meeting is next week, I know we will come to a solution with her team because that’s how they are.
And yet, what about all those kids who do not have someone fighting for them? Who do have people fighting but no one listens? Whose parents or caregivers are not even invited into those conversations because our assumptions about them have shut the door? Whose parents or caregivers do not know why Lexile is problematic? Why trusting a computer to spit out a test score is problematic? Why basing a child’s reading instruction which inevitably becomes part of their (reading) identity on what a computer test tells you is problematic? Why, once again, removing experts, trained professional, from the equation is problematic? Why reducing a child to a score is problematic?
And it keeps happening to our most vulnerable kids. The kids we worry about and then have no problem putting in front of a computer who will not understand the nuances of their thinking, the way they reached an answer, or even give them enough time to think about it. But sits there, waiting for an algorithm to be complete, in order to supposedly tell us everything we need to know. And we base our instruction on this? And we base our assumptions on this?
We are in the business of human beings and yet how often do we, educators, say yes, or are forced into, instructional components that have nothing to do with valuing children as people. Education says yes to the easy. Education says yes to the packaged. Education says yes to the computer. To the limitations. To the less-than-equal instruction, because it might save us time, it will make us more efficient, it will make us all achieve, but it doesn’t. Because the kids who continue to strive are left behind while we pour our human resources into the kids that can.
My daughter will not be left behind. She will not be left behind a computer screen. Or behind layers of inequity that would rather dehumanize her than provide equity in the deepest way we can; human power, human potential. Because we will fight. But it’s not enough for me as a parent to just fight for her. Because this is a story that plays out loudly in so many places. How else can we mobilize and try to break the cycle of inequity that has always been a part of our system? That has always been based on creating further inequalities and separating the kids who can from the kids who can’t. A system that continues to protect those whose circumstances allow them access to more opportunities, better opportunities, and offer nothing but band-aids to the kids who need so much more than that. And I am supposed to be okay with that.
On Monday, we meet and while I will gladly pull out research and offer alternatives, I also know that it won’t be a hard fight, not for me, because of my privilege as a white, college-educated, middle-class woman. Because of the quality of educators our daughter is surrounded by. But it shouldn’t have to be that way. I shouldn’t be able to game the system because of what I know. I shouldn’t have to raise red flags when those flags should have been raised before the program was even purchased. Before the first child was placed in front of that test. We owe to all our kids to do better. To fight and break the continued systems of oppression who function alive and well within our educational system. Which have created a system that can predict who will succeed before they even show up.
Right now, it’s my daughter who’s on the line, my miracle, but it could just as easily be any other child.They all deserve better.
If you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.. If you like what you read here, consider reading my latest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block. If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.
Pernille Ripp 
As usual, you bring the essence of our chosen work…that we are in the profession of growing a whole human being and meeting their needs. I came to a district several years ago were students were a “reading level” first. Each week students were told to choose books “on your level” & the majority of students did just that to be compliant. I dismantled the Reading Counts program (with the exception of one hold out school) & used the RC funds to buy kid requested books. Kid wants a Metallica book, a book on how to pick locks, absolutely I am buying it! I still get students asking, “where are the 650 Lexile or Z level books, but I always say, “you are not a level, what do you want to know about or like to do outside of school” and help them get a book that speaks to their personal needs or desires. One child at a time, I will not allow them to think they are a level. In an era of “personalized learning” a diverse school library is the greatest personalized learning environment and should not be commandeered or have students subjected to “leveling” by companies or ill-informed educators.
Stinking spell check on my phone 😉 *where
Happy 🦃 everyone!
I used to wrestle with some of the same concerns when my kids were in a School who lived and died with AR and Lexiles. They had access to hundreds of books at home and someone who has read lots of them. But what about those “other” kids? Keep spreading the word so we will not leave any child behind.
What measures will you suggest to measure reading growth at the secondary level?
For now, F&P, because of where she is at in her reading, however, I have requested more information about the measures that are available to us and then I will suggest others. I am fine with a MAP score being used to inform on top of what they see, but I want further measures than that that involve actual human interaction. Much like every child deserves.
I am a high school special coteacher for English 9 and 10. We use a readers/workshop model and I struggle with ways to document growth …we do rely heavily on SRI Lexie and star reading. I am always looking for other measures. I also have anecdotal from conferencing. My SPED team feels passing grades is enough…ugh