Why Should Teachers Focus on Diverse Learners?

Diversity is one of my passions. I grew up in a military environment, so I experienced diversity at an early age.

First I want you to understand what a diverse learner truly is. A diverse learner is student who has a different language, literacy, ethnic, racial, and cultural background. A diverse learner is also a student who brings an array of learning styles and varying academic needs. If you think about your last classroom, I am sure you can think of several of your students that fall into this category.

All students should have an equal opportunity to learn and succeed in the classroom. As educators, we have the opportunity to provide each student with the tools to be successful regardless of the student's learning style, gender, background, or disabilities.

The way in which a diverse student learns involves different factors, such as a district's educational data, the achievement gaps in the school, the level of parental involvement, and a student's socioeconomic status.

Here is a little piece of history for you. One of the goals of No Child left behind (NCLB) was to reduce the reading and math achievement gap between white and non-white students and to reduce the achievement gap between rich and poor students. The NCLB Act created annual testing requirements which appear to be negatively affecting public schools by effecting the learning environments, students, administration, and teacher have been forced to teach to the test in an attempt to increase student achievement.

An effect of NCLB is an increase in dropout rates associated with high-stakes testing. Rates are especially high for African American and Latino students due to the lower achievement of this subgroup (Au, 2011). In the United States, education system students do not have an equal chance at becoming 'successful' based on how hard they work or study (Berliner, 2011).

ELL students are being left behind in public education due to high-stakes testing curriculum and the fast pace classroom instructions designed for fluent English speaking students (Katz, 2013).

The diverse student population is already at a disadvantage when they start school. Ritt (2016) states that students are thrown into English speaking classrooms and how it is idealistic expectations to assume this population of students should do well academically and on high-stake-standardized tests.

Data does not lie. Regardless of the perceived causes and initiatives that are in place to bridge the achievement gap, if there is no adjustment made in the high stakes testing currently required in public and charter schools, then diverse learners are going to continue to fall behind and the achievement gap will only increase.

The diverse student population is already at a disadvantage when they start school. Ritt (2016) states that ELL students are thrown into English speaking classrooms with the expectation that this population of students should do well academically and on high-stake-standardized tests.

It is time to take a deeper look at standardized testing and make the adjustments necessary since many of our schools across the United will be predominately diverse learners by 2022 (Hussar and Bailey, 2013).

Let's make a change in our focus today and be the change agents.

References:

Au, W. (2011). Teaching under the new Taylorism: high‐stakes testing and the standardization of the 21st century curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43(1), 25-45

Berliner, D. (2011). Rational responses to high stakes testing: The case of curriculum narrowing and the harm that follows. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(3), 287-302.

Hussar, W.J., and Bailey, T.M. (2013). Projections of Education Statistics to 2022 (NCES 2014-051). U.S. Department of Education,

National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office

Katz, S. R. (2013). Over tested: how high-stakes accountability fails English language learners. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 34(2), 209-211

Ritt, Maddolyn. (2016). The Impact of High-stakes Testing on the Learning Environment. Retrieved from Sophia, the St. Catherine University repository website: https://sophia.stkate.edu/msw_papers/658