Common Core State Standards Don’t Rhyme With Individual Educational Plans

Originally Posted on October 3, 2013 by Nancy Bailey

Think about it. Common Core State Standards do not rhyme with Individual Educational Plans. Say it slowly. Listen to the words. They don’t go together. The whole point of CCSS is for everyone to get to the same standard. It is the same goal. You can argue that students with disabilities might get to the same goal in a different way…but it is not an individually designed goal.

Parents need honesty and they need teachers who rally to bring their child forward from whatever point they find them. Implying that the child is not quite right if they don’t master the standards is an insult. Telling all parents of students with disabilities that their child is going to do the general curriculum and master the same standards as everyone else, is nothing short of irresponsible.

I am not saying some students with disabilities cannot do all of the above. But the reality is many will not. Many students will have special needs for their whole life. I don’t care how many books are written about aligning standards—Common Core OR State Standards—to IEPs. The truth is, forcing all special education students to master standards is cruel and unusual. It is definitely not what the old idea of individual educational planning was all about.

There are all kinds of questions in general about standards. How many do we need? Do we need any standards? If standards are so great and we have had them for years, why are public schools closing? Why are we getting MORE untested, unpiloted standards?

I wrote this post today out of a great deal of frustration trying to find information to show how CCSS connects with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The trouble is the reauthorizations that have taken place over the years have stripped the original law, PL 94-142, of its meaning and original intent, so there really isn’t much special about special education.

I am disappointed in many of my fellow special educators who go along with the false idea that all students with disabilities must adhere to the Common Core State Standards. The belief is that all students with disabilities must have schooling that will include proper alignment of standards to individual educational plans. Students will become like everybody else with just the right goals leading to the mastery of the standards. I have also noticed they are long on goals and short on strategies to reach them!

Directors who have bought into this false ideology, are leading special education and regular teachers over the cliff. Many will get fired when the next value added testing scam is rolled out. They will not be able to get their students to reach the standards, and when they walk out the door they will be leaving special ed. students in the lurch. I have yet to see how CCSS will address the students who DON’T master the standards. So far I have seen NO safety net.

The idea that all students, even those with disabilities, must master the same standards is an insult to the differences ALL children display. Common and individual do not rhyme no matter how you try to make it so.