I've got a new Education Next article out today, drawn from a book I've been working on (actually, more like working on selling!) that's for parents thinking of choosing a diverse public school for their kids. It looks at what I think is the key question in American education today: How the heck do we deal with the incredible variation in academic preparation that kids come into the classroom with? Is ?differentiated instruction? the answer, or just a bunch of malarkey? Should we turn to ability grouping and tracking, or do those just create segregated classrooms? In the article I try to sort through these difficult issues, and then visit my (very diverse) local elementary school in Takoma Park, Maryland to see how it is attempting to meet the academic needs of all kids while maintaining a diverse learning environment at the same time.
Here's an excerpt:
So if grouping all students together leads to pernicious effects, but divvying kids up by ability is politically unacceptable, what's the alternative? The ed-school world has an answer: ?differentiated instruction.? The notion is that one teacher instructs a diverse group of kids, but manages to reach each one at precisely the appropriate level. The idea, according to Carol Tomlinson of the University of Virginia (UVA), is to ?shake up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn.? Ideally, instruction is customized at the individual student level. Every child receives a unique curriculum that meets that individual's exact needs. A teacher might even make specialized homework assignments, or provide the specific one-on-one help that a particular kid requires.
If you think that sounds hard to do, you're not alone. I asked Holly Hertberg-Davis, who studied under Tomlinson and is now her colleague at UVA, if differentiated instruction was too good to be true. Can teachers actually pull it off? ?My belief is that some teachers can but not all teachers can,? she answered.
Hertberg-Davis worked with Tomlinson on a large study of differentiated instruction. Teachers were provided with extensive professional development and ongoing coaching. Three years later the researchers wanted to know if the program had an impact on student learning. But they were stumped. ?We couldn't answer the question,? Hertberg-Davis told me, ?because no one was actually differentiating.?
Oops.
Check it out, if you'd be so kind.
?Mike Petrilli
