Do we need special education anymore? Some parents might say no—that a regular class with high expectations, possibly some support, is all that is necessary. Arne Duncan has stated that students with disabilities should rise to the same level as other students. He has called for a “major shift” in how special education students are […]
Robin Williams and Lessons to Be Learned About Kids with Mental Illness in Public Schools
I have been reminded that Robin Williams died of a particularly severe neurological disease called Lewy Body Dementia. This is not a psychiatric disorder, so it is incorrect to associate Williams to mental illness. Unfortunately, this is an older post and the title is stuck. Still, the information about schools and mental illness I hope […]
How Backward Reforms Waste Time and Hurt Students with Special Needs
We should be beyond this in America. Every school district should be providing parents public access to top notch regulated education services, including utilizing cutting-edge research for all students, and especially for students with disabilities and/or our gifted and talented young people. Right now many teachers and parents are fighting to get decent services from […]
We Must Agree That We Need SPED Services—Even For High Functioning Students!
This past week has seen a flurry of special education talk surrounding the new goals of the Obama administration’s quest to toughen standards and make students—and they don’t specify which students, so we can assume they mean all students, even those with the severest of disabilities—score high on the regular tests. I’m pretty sure, behind […]
The Choices Parents Really Want for Their Students with Special Needs
Today I want to talk about the choices, I believe, parents want for their students with exceptionalities or students in general. “Choice,” today, in the eyes of the ed. reformers means having a lot of charter schools, and I am particularly speaking about those designed to make a profit. The owners want to stand on […]
The Real Meaning Behind the Duncan/Huffman Tough Special Ed. Compliance Talk
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. […]
New Website Entries
Back in August I passed the two year mark since I started this blog! Today I would like to draw your attention to many wonderful blogs, websites and books about education which I have been collecting like rare coins for the last year. I already listed many others when I first started this crusade. Check […]
Happy Father’s Day to Dads Who Speak Out: Keep Up the Great Work!
As a teacher, I once arrived at my classroom early in the morning to find a father of one of my students quite upset. I shakily ushered him into the classroom where he proceeded to lecture me about what his son had missed out on in school, up to that point, and what he believed […]
Special Ed. Labels—Why We Still Need Them in the Era of Common Core
Work hard at living the idea that differentness is just fine—not bad. Your child will learn most from your example. Help him to think of problems as things that can be solved if people work at them together. ~Nicholas Hobbs from The Futures of Children (p.288) Years ago a poster circulated that said “Labels are […]
The New Teacher Project’s Speedy Miracle Immersions! Who’s Your Child’s Teacher?
My husband is an accounting professor. Two weeks ago he received a perky email from Anh-Thi Mouradav out of Nashville’s The New Teacher Project (TNTP) Teaching Fellows looking for him to forward her email request to accounting students who would make, in her words, “highly-effective math teachers.” He was quick to reply telling her that […]