“We are waiting to get him tested” is not a teaching strategy.

I couldn’t resist sharing this image I created a long time ago…it is as true today as it was when I created it.  I posted it back then because I had just been to a school visit where every other student who needed intervention wasn’t getting it because “they were waiting to be tested.”

The thing that cracks me up (well, it doesn’t crack me up really – it makes my blood boil actually!) is that the only thing that testing can provide is the same thing that intervention can: a pathway for knowing where to start teaching!

A Special Ed designation or learning disability designation just means that we need to take special care in providing instruction…but when it comes down to it, it’s all instruction anyway.

I also wish that we’d stop saying this because it totally degrades our profession.  It makes us look weak.

And I don’t like to look weak in a profession that I’ve chosen to be a lifelong part of, do you?