Posted June 19, 2026 by Dr. George Farmer
One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing teachers talk about what students “can’t do”. A few months ago, I recall passing by a team of teachers meeting, and instantly I paused to listen to the conversation. What I heard began with identifying the percentage of students who failed an assessment and moved to a constant barrage rooted in frustration about the prerequisite skills the students did not have.
Conversations about what students “cannot do” lock out an entry point to discover what students can do. Consider this statement: “My students cannot multiply”. As an instructional leader, this is a dead-end statement that does not allow an entry to problem-solving, but in reverse, consider the statement: “My students understand repeated addition.” This allows an entry and a plan of action to help students understand multiplication.
For student success, educators must have a mindset grounded in student success while providing the appropriate supports to help students meet exceptional expectations. High standards without the appropriate support do not increase productivity. When the conversation is framed around students’ strengths, our students are placed in the best position to succeed and achieve high excellence.
Create Meaningful Expectations
Refusing to accept mediocrity should be the norm in education, not an anomaly. Asking the best from teachers and students is not a character flaw. Instead, demanding the best of teachers and students places a demand on their ability to rise to the surface. I recall taking over a school where assignments were accepted throughout the entire trimester. My instant response was that this practice had to change immediately, because this practice, while probably implemented with careful thought and reason, was now lowering the academic standards for teachers and students.
Assignments given at the beginning of the trimester were lost and only became a topic of conversation until the end of the trimester approached. Students would ask for the missing assignments and turn them in before the end of the trimester, and teachers would scurry to grade them and input grades before the end of the trimester.
This practice does not assess student mastery and only reinforces bad practices and habits. Undoubtedly, the process was arduous, and there was resistance, but maintaining the expectation of giving assignments, receiving assignments, assessing assignments, and providing prompt feedback proved successful, as demonstrated by higher state assessment results. The change in expectations did not simply bring about higher assessment results, but the expectation, coupled with helping students meet high expectations, was the key.
Help Students Meet Meaningful Expectations
I began this article by recalling when I overheard a team of teachers dialoging about what their students “can’t do” and how this type of dialogue is unproductive and leaves no entry point for problem-solving. Well, as I sat and listened to this team of teachers, the instructional leader in me could not walk away without addressing my team. Instantly, I had them all review their assessments and find commonalities in the standards students deficient. From there, we deconstructed the problem to understand what skills were required of the students to complete the problem successfully.
The next step in the process was the most effective instructional move for students’ success. As a team, we analyzed the problem to discover where students were making their mistakes. With this understanding in mind, I had the teachers create anchor charts for each step in the problem- solving process. The next day, students were placed in groups based on which step they failed to complete successfully. Using the anchor charts, students were able not only to complete the step, but were also able to complete subsequent steps using the anchor charts, thus completing the problem.
When I reviewed the results with this teaching team, there was a point of emphasis that it was not about what the students were not capable of, but rather an entry point of what the students are capable of. Students were more apt to attempt the math problems when they understood the skills they possess. When students understand how to access and approach the math standard, mastery is attainable.
All Means All
In a professional development session this year, I began by asking teachers a simple yet profound question: Do you believe all students are capable of learning and succeeding? I made it clear that this was not a rhetorical question. I asked each teacher to pause, reflect, and answer honestly.
I was fully prepared for someone to answer “no.” In fact, if even one person had expressed that belief, I was prepared to abandon the planned session altogether. Before discussing instructional strategies, data analysis, or interventions, we would have needed to address something far more fundamental: mindset. If we do not genuinely believe that every student is capable of success, then no instructional framework, program, or initiative will produce the outcomes we seek. The belief that all students can learn is not merely an educational philosophy; it is the foundation upon which all effective teaching and learning must be built.
The reality is, as the school year progresses, the rigor increases. As the rigor increases, so does the difficulty for teachers in making sure all students are succeeding, and keeping all students at similar skill levels becomes more challenging; however, if the belief is that all students can succeed, then what approaches and conditions can be set to ensure all students will succeed?
My approach with the teachers was a calculated approach to demonstrate that all students are capable of success when the appropriate supports are implemented. For educators, student success cannot be optional. Excellence is the opportunity to tap into the cognitive demands of students and engage in rigorous learning processes with appropriate supports that enable success. The next time you hear a staff member state what students cannot do, pause the conversation and ask a different question: What can they do, and how do we build from there?