Are You a Dipstick Teacher?

I was lounging by the pool today (actually cramped in pain from recent surgery) and was reading a professional book called RTI from All Sides. Great read - found something interesting in it. It was an analogy between teachers and cars. Then it hit me.

I realized too many teachers are dipsticks. I think I might have been one in the not so recent past, and I hope my kids never have one. But they're out there. Are you a Dipstick Teacher?

What is a Dipstick Teacher?

It's a teacher who dips into assessment just long enough to see that something's wrong, and never goes any further. I'm talking about DIBELS, AIMS, and every other blessed assessment we use to monitor our students' progress.

Okay, think about a car. It needs oil (yes, even I am aware of that). You can check the oil with a dipstick. Wipe it off, stick it in, look at it, then call your husband or dad for help. Not really.

When you look at it, you have a choice. Stick it back in and forget about it, or add some oil. The dipstick only tells you if oil is needed or not. It doesn't tell you what kind of oil, exactly how much you need, if there are other problems in the engine...it just tells you if the oil is high or low. Maybe you have plenty of oil, but there's still that suspicious cloud of slime-green smoke that trails you when you drive down the highway. You know there's a problem, but your dipstick says everything's okey-dokey.

Now, doesn't that sound familiar? Ever met a Dipstick Teacher? I sure have.

They are the ones who know there is an issue with a student's progress, but hey, the testing came out just fine! No need to look any further. The dipstick has oil on it.

Or perhaps you have met the good teacher who tries every stinkin' intervention he can get his hands on because the dipstick was low, but never thought about which type of "oil" that child needed to perform best?

Let's not be Dipstick Teachers. DIBELS, AIMS and other assessments can only tell you so much. We can do better than that. We have the research that shows what good teaching is. We have the evidence-based strategies to implement in our classrooms.

When you check the dipstick, don't just stick it back in. Identify if the oil is low, figure out what type it needs to fill it up to work properly. If the oil is high and the car is still in bad shape, investigate further. Figure out the root of the problem, and deal with it.

Don't be a Dipstick Teacher.