Teachers perceive an imbalance between the critical need to differentiate student learning and the lack of support built into provided curricula.
Educators express frustration at and seek support for the challenges surrounding differentiating their practice, particularly a lack of built-in differentiation in curriculum, both for students who need additional support and for students who excel beyond the curriculum.
Sample Educator Conversations:
- Teachers argue that provided curriculum materials often do not include the scaffolds necessary to differentiate adequately.
- It’s impossible to differentiate for students “while teaching a standardized curriculum, in accordance with a pacing plan,” and with only the provided resources.
- A SPED teacher writes that they want to differentiate student learning but says, “I’m finding it impossible because we can ONLY use HMH. So I spend a lot of time looking stuff up that I can’t use, and then crying.”
- Teachers describe the impossibility of sufficiently supporting both students who need additional support and those who need a challenge at a higher level than the curriculum.
- A teacher said that this “differentiation gap” prevents teachers from being effective. When students are missing “foundational skills,” those needs are not addressed in the provided grade-level curriculum, and teachers must innovate around the curriculum to provide support.
- Multiple teachers describe asking high-achieving students to support peers as an extension of their learning.
- Many teachers emphasize that they would love to provide fully differentiated learning experiences for all students but that they do not have the time or support to execute this successfully or sustainably.
- One illustrative comment: “The biggest lie in education is that it’s possible for teachers to differentiate instruction to a classroom full of kids.”