Have you seen the recent reports of the lowest test scores in reading and math from students in 2023?
What is going on? What is happening? What are we currently seeing in schools today?
It’s known as the “Wait to Fail” model.
Schools are running education into the ground.
Public and private schools are both to blame. Instead of being proactive they are conditioned to be reactive.
Instead of taking accountability for low test scores.
They blame covid.
What is the “wait-to-fail” model?
It's when struggling learners, mostly Neurodivergent students, do not receive needed services as soon as their difficulties are evidenced. Instead these Neurodivergent students are set up to fail for several years until their achievement gap is wide enough for them to qualify for special education services.
Instead of proactively addressing these challenges, students are left to navigate their academic journey without adequate assistance, essentially being set up for failure over an extended period over their academic career.
The educational challenges we face today have a historical foundation that predates recent times. Rudolph Flesch's seminal book, "Why Johnny Can't Read," published in 1955, brought crucial attention to the difficulties in literacy acquisition within the education system. Flesch's groundbreaking work shed light on the alarming trend of inadequate reading skills among students, highlighting deficiencies in the prevailing teaching methodologies of that era.
Building upon Flesch's groundbreaking observations, Alice Ansara's documentation in 1969 further emphasized the persistent struggle faced by learners in acquiring essential reading abilities. Ansara's insights echoed and reinforced the concerns initially raised by Flesch, solidifying the understanding that these challenges were deeply rooted and ongoing within the educational landscape.
Jeanne Chall's extensive research, studies, and documentation further enriched the understanding of this complex issue. Her contributions delved into the multifaceted aspects of literacy difficulties, shedding light on the diverse barriers faced by learners and advocating for comprehensive solutions to address these challenges. Chall's work not only validated the prior concerns raised by Flesch and Ansara but also expanded the discourse, emphasizing the need for systemic reforms and tailored interventions to support struggling readers in educational settings.
If you’re a parent today, you might recognize this model in the phrase of being told to "wait and see". An administrator told my family in 2021, "it’s best to wait because some kids just mature at different rates". The goal of the school was to delay and deny any screening, identification, or intervention plans for my child until the third grade.
Educators are trained to suggest a "wait-and-see" approach or delay assessments until a certain grade level, usually around third grade. This delay in identifying and addressing learning challenges can detrimentally impact a student's educational trajectory, leading to frustration, decreased confidence, and a higher likelihood of academic disengagement.
This model typically involves delaying the identification, assessment, and provision of essential services or accommodations for students who require additional educational support. Instead of intervening at the earliest signs of difficulty, educational institutions often adopt a policy of waiting until the students' academic struggles become significantly pronounced, typically leading to a considerable achievement gap before offering specialized services or support.
Does remediation through special education services help? Not exactly. Most Neurodivergent students experience an exacerbated exclusionary practice. Most students that get an IEP or Individual education plan in the United States end up dropping out of highschool.
This wait to fail model tends to intersect with the process of qualifying students for special education services. Students who might require these services due to learning differences or disabilities might face significant hurdles in obtaining the necessary support, as the wait-to-fail model often necessitates a demonstrably wide achievement gap before qualifying for specialized assistance.
For instance, in the case of reading difficulties, a child showing signs of struggling with basic literacy might not receive specialized reading instruction or interventions until they are considerably behind their peers. The delay in providing tailored assistance often results in a widening achievement gap, making it more challenging for these students to catch up academically.
Do schools care? I’d argue that the system doesn’t encourage them to care. Essentially, no. It’s why private schools usually reject students that require an IEP. Public school data already segregates students from general education and special education graduation statistics.
The wait-to-fail model reflects a systemic flaw in the education system, where timely intervention and support for struggling learners are delayed, potentially exacerbating educational disparities and hindering the academic success and overall well-being of students who require additional assistance.
In most states and communities they proudly display their graduation rates. They fail to tell prospective parents that it's only the graduation rate of the general education population. Usually the IEP student graduation rates are much lower.
So what do we see today? Teachers and parents are also subjected to this wait to fail methodology.
Why did schools wait until after the pandemic to report these ongoing education test score issues? They waited until the data showed failure. Then the goal is to ask for more funding as if that's a realistic solution.
The truth is that neuroscience, the study of child development, and the social understanding of Neurodiversity is in a direct dichotomy of the current education methodology.
Behaviorism, PBIS, or Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports are currently sold by organizations, purchased by schools, and promoted on social media by teacher influencers as the solution to most behavior issues in the classroom.
Yet the data tells us it's not working. Depression and anxiety in young children are on the rise. School refusal is on the rise. Children being incarcerated and sent to youth detention centers or sent to hospitals for mental health crisis straight from a classroom behavior issue is on the rise.
The rise in behavioral issues in the classroom among young students highlights the need for a more comprehensive approach to address students' emotional well-being and mental health needs. Schools and educators would greatly benefit from professional development training that includes information from recent neuroscience research and neurodiversity advocates. The community should have access to strategies with comprehensive mental health support, fostering environments that prioritize emotional wellness, and offering individualized support to address the complex psychological needs of students.
Neurodiversity activists know that Behaviorism doesn't work. This is because ABA therapy or applied behavioral analysis therapy has been used for decades to traumatize and harm Neurodivergent individuals. Especially the autistic population.
The social media parenting influencer community knows through trial and error that gentle, or positive parenting is working. Social and emotional learning is helping adults understand that rewards and punishment or operant conditioning is not working.
Social cognitive learning theory is supported by neuroscience. The understanding of how the human brain learns and utilizes mirror neurons to acquire skills, is helping researchers understand that modeling is a powerful tool. This is reflected in explicit instruction which is understood by structured literacy or science of reading advocates.
Social cognitive learning theory explains that individuals learn not only through their direct experiences but also through observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotions of others. This theory emphasizes the importance of social interactions, observational learning, and the role of modeling in shaping behavior and learning.
Mirror neurons are brain cells that fire both when an individual performs an action and when they observe someone else performing the same action. This neural mechanism plays a crucial role in social cognitive learning by enabling individuals to imitate and learn from others through observation and imitation.
Neuroscience research on mirror neurons supports the tenets of social cognitive learning theory. Studies indicate that mirror neurons facilitate the understanding of others' actions, intentions, emotions, and the ability to imitate observed behaviors. This neural mechanism suggests that observing others' actions activates similar neural circuits as performing the action oneself, thereby facilitating learning through observation.
In education, understanding the role of mirror neurons aligns with the effectiveness of social learning environments. Creating opportunities for collaborative learning, peer interactions, and exposure to positive role models can leverage the power of observational learning. By providing students with opportunities to observe and model behaviors, attitudes, and problem-solving strategies, educators can enhance learning outcomes.
Experts like Dr. Anita Archer have helped people to understand that the gradual release of responsibility starts with first the teacher, parent, or mentor starting the explicit instruction by explaining the task and modeling the task themselves. Then you move into the next phase which is collaboration. The parent, teacher, or mentor then collaborates with the student to perform the instruction. This can happen in several different ways or over time. The last phase is when the student feels confident and becomes fully independent in performing the task. The student will be able to also fully explicitly explain how they understood the assignment.
Educators can use the concept of mirror neurons to structure lessons that involve modeling desired behaviors, fostering empathy, and promoting prosocial behaviors. By showcasing positive attitudes, effective problem-solving approaches, and emotional regulation techniques, teachers can influence students' learning through observational learning mechanisms.
This instruction benefits the inherently diverse human population. Neurodiversity tells us that all human brains are fundamentally differently wired.
Neuroscientist Stanislaus Dehaene has written several books to explain that the human brain learns to read and write best through structured literacy.
Neuroscientists and Neurodiversity advocates also understand that learning styles are a neuromyth.
Despite its prevalence in educational discourse, extensive research has failed to provide consistent empirical evidence supporting the existence of distinct learning styles. Studies attempting to validate learning styles have not shown a direct correlation between teaching methods aligned with preferred styles and improved learning outcomes.
Learning is a multifaceted process influenced by various factors beyond sensory preferences. Cognitive processes such as attention, memory, motivation, prior knowledge, and individual differences significantly impact how individuals learn. The idea that teaching tailored to a specific learning style leads to improved learning outcomes oversimplifies the complex nature of learning.
Research suggests that individuals tend to adapt their learning strategies based on the task, context, and the nature of the material being learned. Rather than adhering to one specific style, learners often use a combination of strategies based on the requirements of the learning situation.
Humans do not learn with one side of the brain. We don't learn with one modality. We need to incorporate all of these learning sensory skills into a beneficial education experience so that no matter how the human brain chooses to learn a skill, nothing is left to chance.
Focusing too heavily on catering to specific learning styles has shown to limit educational experiences. It can pigeonhole students into believing they can only learn effectively through one modality, potentially inhibiting their willingness to explore alternative learning approaches that could benefit their overall learning experience.
Humans have the ability to form preferences for certain learning modalities, but the notion that tailoring teaching methods strictly to these preferences significantly enhances learning outcomes is not supported by robust scientific evidence.
The emphasis of education should instead be on employing explicit instruction with built in differentiated work in order to engage students in multifaceted learning experiences. This approach allows for flexibility, adaptation, and a broader range of learning opportunities rather than rigidly adhering to the concept of fixed learning styles.
So, if we have the neuroscience to understand how the human brain learns a new skill and we know the best way to teach these skills, then why is it that schools in the United States are still failing to embrace this information?
Funding.
The truth is that the schools understand that the path to least resistance of getting the most funding is to have a title I school, with students in poverty, and especially special education students. This is effectively an education industrial complex.
The connection between the "wait-to-fail" model and Title I funding in public schools in the United States is intertwined with how schools secure financial resources based on students' academic performances, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The administration, the school board, and the people making money off of this funding benefit the most from this model.
Title I funding is a United States federal program aimed at providing financial assistance to schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families. The funding is intended to support these schools in implementing educational programs that help disadvantaged students meet academic standards and bridge achievement gaps.
The taxpayers stuffer. The parents suffer. The students suffer. The teachers suffer. The community, the employers, and the economy suffers. I'd argue that higher education also suffers due to the need for remedial classes for reading and math subjects that most highschool students should have learned prior to graduation.
Schools seeking Title I funding contribute to the perpetuation of the "wait-to-fail" model due to the way funding is allocated.
Under the "wait-to-fail" model, some schools delay or avoid early interventions for struggling students until their academic difficulties become pronounced or until they fall significantly behind their peers. This delay in providing necessary support could contribute to a scenario where students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who may already face various educational challenges, are not receiving the timely assistance needed to excel academically.
Schools aiming to secure Title I funding, there can be an incentive to wait until students' academic struggles are severe enough to widen the achievement gap. By doing so, more students might qualify for the program, thereby increasing the school's eligibility for Title I funding due to a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students performing below grade level.
The "wait-to-fail" model has created a toxic vortex where schools delay interventions, allowing more students to fall behind academically, potentially increasing the percentage of students eligible for Title I funding. This, in turn, leads to a situation where schools receive additional financial resources meant to address educational disparities, but the delay in support perpetuates the academic struggles of disadvantaged students.
Funding mechanisms and the approach to addressing educational disparities sometimes align in ways that inadvertently delay necessary interventions for struggling students, particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
What are parents to do? Well most of them have the funds to move out and away from these communities. It is very hard to advocate from the outside of a broken system. Families like my own have resorted to homeschool.
The best way to facilitate change in a broken system is to start from the top down. Recently the science of reading parent advocates have had success passing dyslexia laws in several states and have encouraged higher education to abandon debunked reading practices such as balanced literacy. The problem is that the very people who created these debunked programs are still free to make an LLC under a new business name and adopt new science of reading terminology to sell their ineffective programs to loyal school districts that continue to believe that the parent advocates are wrong and that this is just another "pendulum swing".
What's the difference this time? The pendulum is on the side of neuroscience and data. The teachers that embrace explicit instruction and structured literacy are seeing the difference in their classroom. It's the same difference that the creators of the Orton Gillingham method saw in the 1930's. It's the same difference that homeschool parents like myself see happen before their eyes when they embrace systematic phonics instruction.
I had to take it up on myself as a parent in 2022 when my local public school refused to evaluate my own child for dyslexia. The school said it was a medical issue. The pediatrician said it was a school issue. Thanks to an organization called Made by Dyslexia I found out that I was also a Dyslexic adult. I took the free training they offered through Microsoft learn. I took free training from Nessy learning online. I also took free structured literacy training online from an organization called Cox Campus.
It was then that I understood that I had learned to read back in 1998 with Hooked on Phonics, a company that got investigated for its ability to sell it’s information directly to functionally illiterate adults in the 1980’s and then expanded to families that wanted to teach their kids to read at home. “Reading” advocates, or actually whole language loyalists, were bothered that the company had made false claims of its effectiveness. They paid the fine. Yet the United States government had to issue a statement that they weren’t investigated for using phonics.
Hooked on phonics still is used by parents today to teach their children to read at home.
I understand that most people want to see the current education issue as a battle between public and private education. The truth is that parents need to understand that unless you do have the time and ability to research literacy and mathematics, it's harder now than ever to determine what a good school actually looks like.
Today I consider a school to be good if the graduation rates of all students is above the state average. IEP or special education students included.
My ideal school for my children would implement social and emotional learning, structured literacy, structured mathematics, use explicit instruction, offer accommodations and modifications built into the curriculum, and embrace neurodiversity. Above all, the ideal school would value diversity, inclusion, equity, and interdependence. In the school board, in the administration, in the teachers, in the students, and in the parents.
Until I see that happen, I'm making the difficult decision to sacrifice my career in order to be a homeschool teacher for my own children in our own home. I refused to follow the wait to fail model.
My homeschool chooses to practice a strength based, neurodiversity, and neuroscience model that promises to understand that failure is a part of the learning process. Yet we take accountability, we adapt, we grow, and we learn from the failures in order to succeed.
What do I recommend for other families? The best you can do is to not be afraid to do your own research, take free training when you see it offered, stay informed as best you can, be proactive, be assertive, and be collaborative. Schools know that parents can play a crucial role in challenging the "wait-to-fail" model and ensuring that their children receive the support and resources necessary for their academic success and well-being.
Join your local school board. Go to your local library. Talk to other families with similar issues. Chances are you can possibly form your own local advocacy groups. Support each other during difficult school meetings. The more you collaborate with each other, the better chance you have to facilitate meaningful change.
