I’ve been banging on for a while now,

that when you boil education down, the residue left in the bottom of the crucible is student progress: it’s the only thing that matters.

Now I have a hunch that

• for all the words
• all the statistics
• the quality of teaching
• the school infrastructure or equipment
• all the latest gizmos and
• this week’s teaching fad

won’t figure anywhere near the top of the list of things that prevent progress.  Because it’s ALL about the young person.

• are they interested in the material they need to study?
• do they understand why they’re studying something?
• is what they’re doing outside school more exciting?
• puberty
• family break-ups or relationship problems
• can they see a horizon of possibility?
• do they actually believe that they’re good at something?

Finding where a student is at, is more than just assessing what they know or what they can do.