Every child doesn’t have to arrive at the same destination. There are many endpoints and lots of highways. So why are parents and students directed to one score and one test to say who will be successful? The Atlantic is asking whether No Child Left Behind (NCLB) should be considered an achievement when it comes […]
Parents of Students with Disabilities Who Love High-Stakes Testing: How to Convince Them Otherwise
Adversaries to ending high-stakes testing are not always misguided education reformers who worship big data, but other parents. Some of the loudest crusaders in favor of high-stakes testing are parents with students who have disabilities. As Congress plans to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), some parents are speaking up against changes that […]
Bill Gates’s and the Ed. Reformers’ China/Special Education Disconnect
Bill Gates and other ed. reformers praise China, Singapore and Korea as having the highest test scores in the world, of course, better than the United States they will tell you. What they fail to say is that in America, public schools teach everyone—students with disabilities too. Students who come to school with learning disabilities […]
Freedom and America’s Public Schools and School Boards: They Belong to All of Us
It is difficult to find a more patriotic day than the 4th of July. While many problems face the country, and there are plenty of differences, most of us look forward to celebrating the birth of our nation. While we are free to hold different beliefs, Americans enjoy waving their flags and they love their […]
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 […]
Why the Education Reformers Worry about Special Education
Posted on November 12, 2013 with updated changes by Nancy Bailey I heard someone, a parent or teacher, blurt out at an informal education meeting that education reformers are afraid of special education. I think that person is right. Many of those currently in charge of condemning public schools don’t understand anything about students with […]
Larger Classes Help Students with Disabilities? Who Does the Illinois Bd. of Ed. Think It’s Fooling?
The Illinois Board of Education believes larger general education classes will help children with disabilities http://action.aft.org/c/468/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7727. Restricting the size or providing self-contained classes would do them a disservice. Really? Shame on them! Who do they think they are fooling? Consider this profound statement: “The elimination of state requirements specific to class size will best ensure […]
What Part of Individual Educational Plan Don’t They Understand?
A recent Ed. Week article, “Common Core’s Promise Collides with IEP Realities,” claims, “Special Education teachers struggle to make sure individual education programs align with standards.” Wow! You could have fooled me! I thought IEPs were tailored to student needs, not to the Common Core State Standards. But really, aligning IEPs to the standards—has been […]
Advocacy Groups for Parents of Children with Disabilities
On Monday I wrote about two significant class action suits that steered the course for students with disabilities to receive a more “appropriate” education in their public schools. Today I am providing lists of some advocacy groups for parents to contact if they are dissatisfied with the Common Core and/or other issues negatively affecting their […]
Common Core and Students with Disabilities—What Now?
Not long ago children with disabilities were denied a free public education. Some were even institutionalized. Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens (PARC), in 1972, and the case that followed on its heels, Mills v. Board of Education (MILLS), helped open the door for exceptional learners to attend public school and receive an “appropriate” education. Here […]