What are they really doing? Everyone who cares about students with disabilities is troubled by Arne Duncan’s latest NPR blathering over the Obama administration’s plans to get even tougher on special ed. and to test these students more and include their scores in the National Assessment for Education Progress known as the Nation’s Report Card. […]
So Now You Can Read the PARCC and Smarter Balanced Tests to Students with Disabilities?
Ed. Week is having a live chat this Thursday afternoon, 3 to 4 ET, to discuss PARCC and Smarter Balanced accommodations for students with disabilities. They say this assessment will “offer the promise of more inclusion and self-sufficiency for students with special needs and English-language learners.” How any assessment is going to do all that […]
Refusing to Kiss the Chimp—Professionals, Crazy Stunts, and High-Stakes Testing
Years ago, back before test motivation had anything to do with calculated stunts, a friend of mine, who did some nice things for our school, brought in an adorable chimpanzee. It was a real hit with the students. At one point I was put on the spot to kiss it. Despite student begging—they drastically wanted […]
Could it End High-Stakes Testing?—The Bizarre Practice of Irrelevant Testing of Students with Severe Disabilities
Could the odd practice of using high-stakes testing to test students with severe disabilities put an end to America’s obsession with high-stakes testing overall? There is nothing that speaks to individual differences more than students like Ethan Rediske. America may have lost Ethan, but his mom, Andrea Rediske, and Orange County Public School board member […]