.5 Remediation and Accountability

The current schedule does not give the teacher time or resources to provide remediation even when the need is known. Secondary teachers have a class full of students to deal with, an hour a day, five days a week for a semester. If our instructional patterns were more flexible, remedial time could be provided for additional work with individuals and groups of students when the need is first identified.

Providing remediation is part of accountability. If we are going to be really accountable as professionals, when someone displays a weakness in what they learn we should have remediation available. We should have some way for people to get out of the box if they are not doing well. They should be able to have some way to get beyond their problems.

At present remediation patterns are woefully inadequate. A student typically fails an entire semester or year and then has to repeat the whole thing. The second time around she gets an A in the first marking period (remembering things from the first time), a B or C in the second marking period - maybe even worse and often fails again or barely passes.

Even worse, we often know in advance that we are "promoting" students to levels where they will not do well. This is particularly true in language. If a student gets and A or B in first year language, we can predict success in the second year. If a student gets a C in the first year, we can predict that he will do poorly. Generally C level performance has too many "holes" in the knowledge to support successful study the next year. Wouldn't it be better to provide remediation until a student achieves at least a B level of performance in the first year curriculum and then have him go on to the second year?

Our current pattern of remediation - all or none - isn't working. And "the educational system" does not accept responsibility - accountability. We blame the student for not learning properly. The issue is not the grade - the issue is the prediction of success or failure. It isn't accountable to put a student into an educational experience for which we don't predict success. It isn't accountable to put teachers and students into class schedules which we know won't produce satisfactory learning for all.

	When remedial needs are identified, why don't teachers do more to help individual students?	Answer Here
	Jane Cuffee is a student in Mr. Palmer's sixth-grade mathematics class. Knowing that Jane lacks mastery of the basics at times and that she does not always perform on grade level, what can Mr. Palmer do to ensure that Jane makes progress and eventually has enough retention and mastery of knowledge to pass his class and have future success?	Answer Here