A Response to “Differentiation Doesn't Work”

Jay McTighe

January 2015

In the January 7, 2015 Commentary in Education Week, James R. Delisle opined that “Differentiation Doesn't Work.” Given that I co-authored a book with “differentiated” in the title (Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design, ASCD 2005), I felt compelled to reply. However, given that my colleagues, Grant Wiggins and Carol Tomlinson, offer effective rebuttals of Delisle’s piece, I decided to veer down a satirical path for my reply. However, before launching into parody, I’ll make a few serious points.

It may come as a surprise to Mr. Delisle to know that we agree on the following:

• More than 1/3 of my 44 years as a professional educator was spent directly working in support of programs for “gifted” students. I worked as a G/T resource teacher, a program administrator (coordinating programs in 83 schools, K-12), director of a statewide, summer residential enrichment program, and state G/T specialist at the DOE in Maryland. Accordingly, I share Mr. Delisle’s advocacy for the importance of providing appropriately challenging experiences for highly able learners in “least restrictive” environments. Contrary to the opinions of some, I do not believe that precocious learners will simply “make it on their own.” They need and deserve proper programming to realize their enormous potential.

• I have witnessed the dissolution or reduction of programs for “special needs” students (both the gifted and the learning challenged) justified under the umbrella of “differentiation.” Over the years, some schools and districts have offered (often superficial) training in differentiated instruction only to declare that every teacher now has the tools to address the needs of all learners within their classrooms. Thus, they contend, there is no longer a need to employ specialists or offer special programming. While mindful of the reality of tight educational budgets, I do not condone the use of differentiation as a rationalization for such cost-saving measures.

• While I believe that effective teachers always differentiate to some extent (as do effective athletic coaches, extra-curricular sponsors and parents), I agree with Delisle that it is unrealistic to expect an individual teacher to be able to fully address the wide variety of backgrounds, skill levels, interests, talents, personalities and learning preferences of the large numbers students found in many of today’s classrooms. The growing percentage of students of poverty, from non-English speaking homes, and/or on medications exacerbates the teacher’s burden. Sadly, I have witnessed some extraordinarily conscientious educators harbor guilt feelings and “burn out” from the demands of trying to be all things to all students.

• Finally, I agree with his observation that differentiation is hard. Of course, trying to address the needs of individuals is more demanding than “one size, fits all” teaching. As a former swimming coach, my job would have been decidedly easier if all of the swimmers who joined the team came with the same skill level and swam the same event. Unfortunately, I had league record-holders sharing the lanes with first-time competitive swimmers. Annoyingly, I had to plan differentiated workouts for the sprinters and the distance swimmers, not to mention that I was coaching four competitive strokes, each requiring different techniques. Differentiation is just what the coaching of most sports requires!

Despite these points of agreement, I cannot abide Delise’s laughably simplistic assertion that “differentiation doesn’t work.”  Should the fact that something is challenging mean that is isn’t effective?  (By that logic, we should conclude that piano playing, dieting and parenting don’t work!) Should the fact that differentiation is hard disqualify it as an important part of a teacher’s instructional repertoire? Should the fact the teachers may be given insufficient professional development and support around a demanding practice like differentiation invalidate that practice?  I think not.

Like some members of Congress, Delise is quick to criticize, but fails to effectively support his argument. (See Grant’s critique on this point.) Moreover, his only solution seems to be homogenous grouping, a simplistic solution to complex and systemic challenges. (Again, see Grant’s essential questions on the challenges.)

Now it’s time for my “commentary” on his Commentary, guided stylistically by the noted educational authority, Dave Barry.

Exercise Doesn't Work

by Dr. L.A. Zee  

At the dawn of this new year, I set a resolution to lose weight by starting an exercise program. In theory, exercise sounds great – it promises to help one trim excess poundage, enhance physical health, reduce stress and gain mental clarity. However, after a dis-spiriting, 5-minute, mid-morning workout, it became obvious to me that exercise doesn’t work. Here’s my experience: I began my training regimen on January 2 at my local Silver’s Gym. Not being intimidated by the hard bodies preening before the full-wall mirrors, nor seduced by the pulsating electro beats emanating from the Bose boxes positioned around the perimeter of the torture chamber, I launched into a killer set of 10 sit ups. Whew – exercise is hard, I realized. Feeling light headed and sensing my heart racing, I did the prudent thing and immediately dispatched my aching bod to the closest watering hole to throw down a few “carbohydrate infusions” and ingest some needed comfort food – nachos and melted cheddar with bacon bits, to be precise. The next day, although my stomach ached from my exercise exertion, I had not lost a single gram. In fact, my scale notched upwards of three kilos. Then it hit me like an obsessive shopper zeroing in on a sought-after black-Friday sale item: exercise doesn’t work!

Given my eye-opening experience with the sweaty arts, I decided to direct my considerable research acumen to investigate and expose the farce that the exercise/health care industrial complex has perpetrated on a gullible public.

I began by Googling “exercise” and “does not work” and found a few rambling blog rants that reinforced my experience. Then, I surfed my way to a local on-line Craig’s List to search the classifieds under “exercise” and “gym membership.” You won’t believe what I found: more than two columns of ads posted by despondent flabbys desperate to dump their shiny new dumbbells and unused Planet Fitness memberships for which they had signed an 8-year commitment in a spasm of New Year’s resolve in 2009. What more evidence does one need to conclude that exercise doesn’t work?

Not being averse to serious scholarship (as long as I can Google it in my naugahyde barcalounger while slurping fine hops), I searched and found literally thousands of books, articles, doctoral dissertations and related research studies on the benefits of exercise. Given this extraordinary volume of published material, only staffers at a rural DMV office, Wall Mart greeters and regular viewers of MSNBC could miss the obvious: If exercise really worked, why on earth would we need all of this information?

Any serious practitioner of intellectual inquiry seeks verification and I pursued just that by initiating a conversation with my neighbor, Smoker Pike (behind his back, we call him “Smoky”). Between puffs on his oversized Cuban, I asked my friend whether he thinks exercise works. He told me that he never exercises – and he is in fact rather thin, given the years of battling Type 2 diabetes and incessant hacking. So, there you have it.

But inspired by the evidence I was finding, I could not rest in my quest to prove my point. Indeed, any researcher worth his sodium intake aspires to the gold standard. So rather than accept the findings of others, and at considerable sacrifice to my sitcom regimen, I launched my own original study to definitively answer the question: Does exercise work?  With one arm tied behind my back, I trudged to my local Friendly’s restaurant to randomly sample the first 16 people who made eye contact and posed to them an open-ended question about exercise (“Don’t you hate it?”). A resounding 83 percent agreed that exercise was hard. Moreover, a shocking 77 percent of those that tried it confessed they didn’t always stick with it. So, don’t just take it from me – these numbers ain’t lying.

In sum, the inescapable conclusion of my selfless inquiry is unambiguous: Exercise doesn’t work. Why then, despite this overwhelming evidence, would anyone even consider this unnatural and ineffective practice known as exercise?  Here’s my theory: The medical establishment has conspired with their sleazy cousins, the exercise equipment manufacturers and the health club industry, to systematically pull a damp and sweat-stained hoodie over the eyes of a gullible throng of corpulent sad sacks and hard-body wannabees. Indeed, with the cunning of a desert fox and through the guileless manipulation techniques of a Madison Avenue ad agency, they have perpetuated a farce and played a cruel, yet calculating, joke on the soft underbelly of our nation’s citizenry by suggesting that exercise has merit. What a sad commentary on the intellectual flaccidness of the population that they are so easily duped. Shameful, I say.