Trending Why are we still doing that? The Pedagogy of Panic
Pérsida Himmele, Ph.D.
William Himmele, Ph.D.
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Why are we still doing that?: Positive Alternatives to Problematic Teaching Practices, our most recent ASCD book, focuses on problematic classroom practices that persist despite credible evidence that these practices may do more harm than good. In this article, we’d like to address those harmful practices to which we may instinctively revert due to pandemic-related learning gaps. We’ll then make a case for focusing on formative assessment, a tried-and-true approach toward accelerating learning in K-12 classrooms without the negative side effects. COVID-19’s Discriminatory Impact It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted K-12 students’ performance in fundamental ways. It has changed our realities, from taking the lives of precious colleagues to inconveniencing our forms of instructional delivery. But the academic impact of the pandemic has not been evenly felt by students across socioeconomic realities. The pandemic has saved its hardest blow for those students whose performance has historically lagged that of their peers. For example, between fall 2019 and fall 2021, students in Illinois experienced an overall drop of 3 and 10 percentiles in reading and mathematics, respectively. In comparison, for those in moderate to high poverty schools, that decrease jumped to an overall drop of 11 and 14 percentiles in reading and mathematics, respectively (NWEA, 2022). 6
