I spent most of 2021 learning. I learned about the false dichotomy between content and skills. I learned about cognitive load theory. I learned about various teacher education programs, the process by which school psychologists recommend accommodations, and Scarborough’s Reading Rope. I learned about different screeners for dyslexia and conflicting theories of student support, and evidence-based tutoring programs. I learned how to build a website. I didn’t really learn how to use social media. 

Some combination of accommodation, modification, and intervention is likely appropriate for most students with learning differences. However, when schools rely too heavily on the former two instead of the latter—and indeed it’s convenient to rely on the former—they are depriving students with learning differences of the opportunity to become more independent and grow new skills.

It won’t be possible for every teacher to “interventionalize” every accommodation, of course. But I think if we take these ideas as starting points—both that students need to be taught how to use their accommodations AND that accommodations are probably most impactful when they’re tied to actual learning—we’ll be on a better path.

In this piece, I am going to undermine the value and purpose of academic accommodations, and I’m going to explain how accommodations can undermine academic progress.

On Monday this week, the Goyen Foundation hosted its first student panel with five high school students. The students reflected on their experience being diagnosed with learning and attentional differences, considered accommodations, and interventions that have helped them in school, and explored what they wanted and needed their parents and teachers to know and hear. Our panelists were thoughtful, expressive, and brave, and I’m incredibly grateful for their insights and honesty.

When people ask me why the Goyen Foundation has chosen to focus on supporting students with learning differences, I usually reply that it’s because it’s an equity problem. Simply, students from wealthier families are able to get expensive support (private neuropsychological testing, relentless advocacy, and expensive tutoring ) and students from lower-income families (who are disproportionately Black and Brown) do not have access to these services that are often transformative. When people ask about organizations that are working to ameliorate these inequities, I always tell them about the Promise Project (Promise). In this piece, I’m going to tell you about Promise’s work, and then I’m going to explore what we can learn from it.  

The Goyen Foundation is not especially wealthy. It doesn’t have a bottomless bank account. It won’t give away millions of dollars a year because it doesn’t have millions of dollars a year to give. 

So, let’s consider, as a thought exercise: 

• You have about one million dollars in the bank. 

• You want to make the world better for students with learning differences. 

• What do you do? 

We are failing students with learning differences. This was true before the pandemic (1). This was true during the pandemic. This is still true now. I think we’re failing these students in three fundamental ways, and I think these failures (particularly the last one) harm all students.

Welcome to the Goyen Foundation! Two years ago, I was an administrator at an independent school in Washington D.C. I spent my days counseling students, advising teachers, and talking to parents. 

One year ago…