Every year, students arrive in our schools with predictable challenges that interfere with their ability to master essentials at the highest levels.
Some struggle with food security or are responsible for supporting their families in countless ways after school; some are new to the country, still working to understand the language, routines and expectations of the classroom; and some are capable, but lack the academic confidence or motivation to invest in their own learning.
In Taking Action: A Handbook for RTI at Work (2018), Austin Buffum, Mike Mattos and Janet Malone argue that if the challenges that students face are predictable, they is also preventable.
Here’s why: If a challenge is predictable, a school’s leadership team should have an explicit plan in place for addressing it before it even happens.
Addressing the common challenges that students bring to school each year isn’t as hard as you might think. Here are some simple steps for creating a “Predictable is Preventable Plan” for a group of students that your school is struggling to serve:
Directions:
- Working with your leadership team, identify a group of students who have predictable challenges that interfere with academics.
- Describe the unique needs and challenges of students with the predictable challenges that you are working to address.
- Develop specific action steps for supporting the students struggling with the predictable challenge that you are planning to address, supporting the teachers who work with students struggling with the predictable challenge that you are planning to address, and supporting the parents of students struggling with the predictable challenge that you are planning to address.
- Identify faculty members responsible for designing, leading and implementing each action step.
- Establish a deadline for implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of each action step.
Want to see an example of what a Predictable is Preventable Plan might look like?
Here’s one that I recently wrote for the ESL students in my building.
What is important to note here is that this Predictable is Preventable Plan is developed by a school’s leadership team BEFORE a school year begins.
Why?
Because if you are trying to respond to student needs in the moment, your response won’t be systematic. Remember: The needs of ESL students, the teachers serving them, and their parents are predictable. Let’s have a thoughtful plan in place to address those needs. That’s what “working hard at the right things” looks like.
Does this make sense to you?
If so, you might want to make a copy of my Predictable is Preventable Planning Tool.
