“Low Average” students rarely get the services they need— and we need to talk about it.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious to me that there are a lot more “low average” students struggling academically than most people are aware of. Students who are severely below average regularly receive services through their handy-dandy IEP— and if you haven’t read my previous article on my experience with one of those children and the current disaster known as Distance Learning, I encourage you to give it a read. But what I’ve learned in the past year is that there are plenty of students who need the services their IEP peers have, but will not receive them due to their “low-average” test results.
—For those who aren’t aware, an IEP is an Individualized Education Program. In general, a child with learning disabilities, autism, ADHD, etc., should qualify for an IEP, but there are many who do not for various reasons.
Because they don’t disrupt the class, these “low-average” students do not immediately alert their teachers of any learning disabilities. Whereas some children may receive an IEP during their first few months of kindergarten, others may slip under the radar for years before any form of action is taken, and often it is the parent who tries to initiate it. The child’s report cards may complain of the child’s laziness and disinterest in their work. Marking period after marking period, their teacher will report on the limited-to-no progress the child is making. And yet, because they score low-average on tests, they will not receive additional services because they do not qualify for an IEP.
I’m sure there are people out there who would like to believe that a child is just lazy instead of acknowledging the failing public school system, but at what cost to the child? It’s astronomical.
A relative of mine has frequently vented that she cannot get her child to do any work. She’ll write gibberish or one-worded responses, roll her eyes and drag her feet through the entire assignment, making the experience horrid for both her and her mother. For a while, she assumed her child was just lazy as her teachers had reported. She soon found out, of course, that her child— a second grade “low-average” student—did not know how to write or spell more than a few basic words with at least half the letters backwards. She couldn’t do more than basic addition and subtraction. Never once was she pulled aside for extra help in math or ELA after a school psychologist determined during a brief observation that she was “paying attention” and “taking notes” during class, completely contradicting every complaint her teacher made. Sure, she wasn’t throwing tantrums and disrupting the class, but scribbling nonsense on the side of her paper could hardly be counted as taking notes. And besides, what 7 year old do you know who actively takes notes during class, unprompted?
For the past three academic years, this child has slipped through the cracks and failed every single portion on her report cards, and yet no one thought to give her extra help. Unless it was required, no one cared to. They just mark off “not meeting standards” on every report card and go about with their lives, never wondering why those standards are not being met.
What’s worse is, her daughter was recently diagnosed with ADHD and suspected to have dyslexia. You might think that this would be enough for an IEP or at least some additional services, but her school psychologist determined that she would be fine without them.
There are countless children like this in our country alone who will continue to fail their way through the years and learn only to mumble along with the rest of the class without understanding the content. They will grow to hate school. Some already do. They may not go as far in life as their peers will.
And nothing is being done about it.
What experience do you have with low-average students lacking access to services? Has your school system made any additional efforts to help these students?
