Contributing Factors

Today is the day…Rosebro1 has his driving test with @HannaDrivingSchool at 4pm today (please don’t storm, please don’t storm).  Because he will now be driving on his own, without the guidance of an adult, I suddenly have an extreme amount of anxiety over the things that I do not think we’ve covered in the six months he has had his permit…. like a 4 way stop sign, the dreaded Asheville Highway traffic circle- a concept that blew my mind when I moved to Sparkle City-, a deer jumping in front of the car, or changing a flat tire. Before I could drive a car alone, my father made me change a tire, change the oil, and reconnect a battery (because those disconnect all the time???).  He made sure I was prepared if not through his guidance through his impatience with my lack of ability. Now, 30 years ago, we did not have AAA, cell phones, and I lived in a virtual oasis of corn and cotton fields and maybe those things were really important to know.  Yet, on Sunday afternoon, after a whole lot of praying at church, I attempted to show Rosebro1 how to change a tire.  What he had that I didn’t have 30 years ago, was 1. a compassionate parent who has patience and 2. YOUTUBE.  As he went through the steps as shown by HOWdini on the best encyclopedia ever-Youtube, I watched the car lift using the jack (eventually).  Rosebro2 and I enjoyed watching Rosebro1 struggle and finally get the idea of how this all should work and we applauded his efforts when he was all done. 

As we retreated into the comfort of our house and I started doing some professional reading, I got to thinking about that whole process again and it made me think of school. 

So often in schools during faculty meetings, administrative team meetings, PLCs, and individual teacher meetings, we talk about raising test scores.  And yes, raising test scores is important. It is one piece of evidence that judges how well we are doing on moving our students towards the ideals of a high school graduate and a student who is prepared for college and/or a career. Yet, so often, in my conversations I hear reasons why the test scores haven’t improved much like Rosebro1 did the first three times he tried to raise the car using the jack.  First, it was difficult to fit the lug wrench into the jack, then the lug nuts were on too tight, and then the jack handle kept hitting the pavement. He was right. All those things were making it much harder to raise the car up. In “educanese” we call those things contributing factors. Things such as class size, students not on grade level, attendance, discipline issues, tardiness,  teacher attendance, negative home situation, a disability, and lower socio economics can all contribute to test scores not improving.  While I can take the lug nuts off the car and attempt to take the tire off, it is next to impossible without the jack raising the car. So, the goal of changing the tire, cannot be accomplished without addressing the jack, the hubcab, the lug nuts, the wrench, the position of the jack, etc.

And so, with us in schools, can we adequately address test scores without addressing the contributing factors.  Yet, just with Rosebro1 and all the contributing factors we must find out if the contributing factors really are contributing factors-meaning are they really getting in the way of the tire being changed. For instance, Rosebro1 was complaining about the lug nuts being too tight and he was unable to turn them….well, in actuality, he was not pushing hard enough on the wrench and while they were tight (which is a good thing) it really wasn’t a problem-not a contributing factor-in being unable to change the tire. Yet, when he started lifting the car, he didn’t have the jack in a stable enough position under the car. Once HOWdini warned him of this, he corrected the position of the jack and then was able to proceed in raising the car.   This was a contributing factor. 

Now, how does this all really apply…..it seems we must continue to work really, really, really hard in providing our students with high quality, high rigorous instruction that matches their current level of mastery-small group instruction. Yet we must also look at those contributing factors and stop seeing them as excuses but rather look at them for what they are. If a student is not stretching words out to figure out unknown words, we would reteach, and monitor their use of that strategy-  we need to do the same for contributing factors. For instance, one grade level has RTI first thing in the morning. One student is late to school or absent almost every day. This was negatively effecting his growth in reading-a contributing factor. The contributing factor was addressed through a home visit since the mother would not return a call or respond to papers sent home.  In this small case, the mother truly didn’t comprehend the real impact of the student’s attendance. 

As we start to look at the growth our students have made in this first nine weeks, take a look at those contributing factors AND don’t look at them as excuses. Look for ways we can address them. 

EDIT: Due to our tornado today, Rosebro1 was unable to take his driving test.........So I guess the weather is his contributing factor!!!