Originally Posted by 22B
Originally Posted by aeh
So this reminds me of the old rule of thumb in education (plastered all over RTI/MTSS guides, for those of you up on educational fads/buzzwords): no matter what you do, as long as you do it consistently, it will work for 80-85% of your population...be "meh" for 10-15%...and fail for 5-10%. Regardless of the composition of your student body, 15-20% will need something other than/in addition to your regular programming. And that last 5-10 will need something really different.

That sounds like someone patting themselves on the back. The reality is some educational practices are a failure for the overwhelming majority of students.

On the other hand, they shouldn't dismiss 10-15% of students as inevitably unservable (as if to say, why bother anyway).

Well, actually what it means is that 80-85% of students will manage in spite of whatever craziness you throw at them, as long as they know what the rules of the game are. (Are some practices much better than others? Of course, but these 80-85% will learn what they are taught, regardless of how it is taught, and generally survive the school experience adequately.) The remaining 15-20% require specific thought to be put into their education. Ideally, a small amount of tweaking (ability grouping, differentiation, etc.) will take care of 10-15%. The last 5-10% will need intensive/radical modifications. It is not supposed to mean that anyone gives up on the last few percent, just that there should be an awareness of the need for a range of services in any given population of students, no matter how high- or low-performing they may appear to be compared to the general population.

Of course, the reality is often far otherwise...

...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...