Happy Mother’s Day! Sometimes moms who make complaints are looked down upon—given the eye roll by certain school officials. But with today’s school reforms, complaints can change a child’s schooling and even provide needed support for teachers and schools. Today, I pay tribute to a mom, Yadira Calderon, who recognized that, in her child’s case, […]
Challenge to the Common Core King and Queen: Get Involved Really!
Bill and Melinda Gates say “Working on reforming the U.S. education system is the hardest job they’ve ever tackled — even more difficult and complex than trying to find a cure for malaria.” Their hardest job? Are they kidding? Sitting in an ivory palace pulling school reform ideas off the top of your head is […]
IEPs for All—Or Something Else?
Some of us imagined a public school system that would drop special education labels and look at all children individually and collectively for their strengths and what they need to learn. We thought of it as Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) for everyone. You will likely hear about “IEPs for All” in the future, if you […]
The Damn, Destroy then Privatize Special Ed. Plan
Watching the demise of our public schools, and the dissolution of special education services, we see a common ploy that takes place within local school districts. Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine wrote about how, after Katrina, elderly and ailing–free market Guru–Milton Friedman, with help from the Bush administration, used the NOLA devastation to shutter […]
Before Common Core—IDEA and Aligning IEPs to Regular Standards
While Common Core’s focus on math and English language arts does nothing to address the needs of students with disabilities, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) re-authorizations weren’t great either. Much of IDEA (the changing of PL-94-142) was to make students with disabilities over into normalized regular ed. students. Individual Educational Plans were to […]