Why is it... | Autism PDD

I hear ya Payne's mom! They are a joke. You know, i just wanted to mention that i take my son to Quantum Leap every saturday for tutoring (off baymeadows). the owner has a doctrine in educational law and she is more than willing to attend my next iep meeting. she has also applied to be a recipient for the mckay scholarship and is opening a school in the near future. i told her that my son next year would more than likely go to a public school because of the fact that this particular middle school has an autistic program. she said that my son doesn't need an autistic program, he needs speech therapy, social skills therapy, etc...and she is going to offer all of these things whenever the school opens. she said that there wouldn't be more than 10 kids in the class. just thought i would mention this as this sounds really wonderful.According to IDEA 2004, the curriculum for special education students is supposed to THE SAME. Our children are SUPPOSED to meet grade level standards. That is now the law. Search www.wrightslaw.com to find out more.That sounds fabulous! We live down toward West Palm, I just located an autistic privatized school that accepts MacKay Scholarship as well...we've got a pretty good situation now though...it things change we might be going there...it's a hefty commute for me though.

I'm sorry...for some reason i thought you lived in jacksonville!

Well, i'm glad you found a great school for your son.

There are a lot of us that do live there...I used to live on Amelia Island...that's probably why you thought that.

Payne's Mom,

NC may have done away with the FCAT but they still teach to the test... at least in central NC where we are. Particularly testing techniques. Frankly, I think it would make more sense for teachers prepare classroom tests similar to the end of grade format. That way students practice the style throughout the year.

Now in NC, there are adapted test formats for special ed kids. My son is 12 and this has been a frustrating situation for years.

Mary

Tony is not working on grade level either, yet he is not exempt from grade level end of grade testing (standardized tests). I assume that is what the FCAT is. He does have accomodations, but is not exempt. That is NC's interpretation of NCLB... however, his "failing" the end of grade has NO impact on his passing onto the next grade.

I think this is ridiculous too... and intend to discuss it at our meeting on Friday.

Mary

We are in Tampa and I don't know what to think sometimes either. Sometimes things are fine and they have a great teacher and a good school, but I have to threaten on a regular basis just to make sure they get the speech therapy in their IEP. And the classes are way over crowded for ESE classes. I didn't like DC but at least the cut off was 7 kids, here they don't have a cut off and she has 15 in there with one aide. There is a child with down syndrome that bites himself and others and kicks and hits and they don't think that is enough for a one to one aide. Their teacher is great but I know she gets frustrated because how can she help them all when she barely has time to talk to them. Hopefully she will get another aide soon. Sometimes I don't know what this county is thinking.

I am confused about "they" in the original post...

Did you mean do they (the school district, teachers, etc) want the kids to fail? or Do they (the federal and state governments requiring the testing) want the kids to fail?

I think it is fascinating that there are the two different "theys" in place here. Our state department of education requires that if the child can do the easiest item on the test, then they are not allowed any alternate assessment. Using that standard, MANY will fail because many kids are learning- but are slower than same age peers meaning that they can do the easiest things and not much more.

One thing all of the testing requirements for NCLB do NOT allow for is an individualized education program. The directive is that ALL students in special education will make "Adequate Yearly Progress" and that data is measured each year from one test group to the next meaning that this year's special ed third graders are compared to last year's special ed third graders..... their own individual growth as a group is NOT the data used to measure adequate yearly progress.

I am not understanding how measuring the test scores of one group of
special education students and comparing those to a different group of
special education students tells anything about how any school or state is
doing in educating its children.
NCLB is not really meant to measure progress of individual children. AYP is a way the Federal government measure whether a particular STATE is educating their kids and WHICH SCHOOLS within the state are failing to do this. None of the NCLB standards are individualized because NCLB testing is meant to test the SCHOOLS, not the individual children.

Off topic just a little. I teach regular ed. first grade. It is so interesting the discussion of special ed. children not meeting AYP. In the entire state of NC only 3 school districts met AYP last year. THose districts did not have enough special ed or ESL children to have that as an indicator. This idea of testing special ed children or even slow learners the same as an gifted child does not even make sense. I have a gifted child and a high functioning PDD child. I am faced with this testing stuff with my child. Just the idea of the frustrationit caused him is horrible. Sorry this is just a topic that has been discussed a great deal with my friends.

Lori

NCLB is now aligned with IDEA 2004. So IDEA now says that ALL special education children will meet ALL grade-level standards. Is that realistic? No. But it's meant to combat the pervasive low expectations of special education students. This is something that has been SHOWN to still exist. Of course, there may come a time in a student's life when it becomes clear that this individual student, after YEARS of research-based, peer-reviewed interventions, has reached his level of incompetence, but until that time, the schools are REQUIRED now to aim for having ALL kids reach grade-level standards. And, yes, schools can be singled out as "failing" thru NCLB if they don't. That's the law of the land. It actually give us parents FAR more leverage.

If you want to see the most recent caselaw that uses this new wrinkle, search "Mercer Island" at www.wrightslaw.com In this very recent case, a school district was made to pay for a very expensive boarding school for a 14 yo dyslexic student with a normal IQ who was never taught to read. OVer the years, the school put in every possible accommodation and modification (reader, scribe, etc.) but was shown to never have made a read effort to TEACH THE CHILD TO READ. So, it's not just about supporting our kids, but the schools have to show that the kids are making progress. And not just toward IEP goals, but also toward meeting grade level standards (which should be incorporated into the IEP goals, anyway). The judge in this case made it quite clear IN WRITING that the school's job is to prepare EVERY student for independent living and economic self-sufficiency as adults.

If anyone thinks that NCLB stinks, they ought to write their representatives in Washington and ask that they vote AGAINST the reauthorization of NCLB, which is being discussed right now. The NCLB testing is actually just supposed to keep the FLOOR of education from going no lower than the minimum, not test the ceiling for gifted kids. In fact, NCLB testing really has NOTHING to do with your individual child. YOu can even keep your child home the day they do the testing. It's supposed to see which schools are meeting minimum standards. Nationwide, only a small fraction of NT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES actually read on GRADE LEVEL. That means, plenty of kids are going to college not being able to read adequately. And these are kids who have NO disabilities. Ask the business world and they'll tell you that the workers they are now getting don't have the MINIMUM skills, even those who graduated in the top half of their class. I'm for ANYTHING that changes this. Perhaps NCLB is not the answer, but we need SOME KIND OF ANSWER.NCLB is unfortunately NOT the answer because it pressures schools to
"teach to the test", so that the scores that are achieved on those 4 DAYS
of testing are high enough to be the correct percentage greater than last
years in order to make adequate yearly progress. In our state, the
parents must write a letter to the DOE to excuse the child from testing or
if the child is absent on all four days the test will be administered when
they return as long as it is within the 2 week period.
We are spending so much time trying to teach kids how to do a good job
answering test questions that we have less and less time for things like
music, phy ed, media, art, science, social studies, and health. Reading,
writing and math are important, but I think that the other subjects
actually help the kids to engage the creative parts of their brains that help
them think and solve problems. If we want test scores to go up we
should be increasing the time for these areas, not decreasing them.
With NCLB in place, any district that claims to not be teaching to the test
is lying.
Having said all of this, I agree wholeheartedly that something needs to be
done. Funding education so that all kids can have books, workbooks,
photocopies, and all other necessary equipment would be a great place to
start. NCLB takes money AWAY from districts that do not make adequate
progress. Perhaps funding them to do their jobs would work.I'll second that.....
and continue advocating for art, music, media, phy ed and creative
thinking.
One other thing... Time spent testing is time spent NOT teaching.Amen!I never did understand that ... teaching info specifically on the test instead of just teaching what kids will need to know. We did away w/ the FCAT in NC when I was in school for that reason. It seems pointless and wasteful of time. that the curriculum in the ESE or self-contained classes is different from mainstream, yet when it comes to testing (FCAT in Florida), the test is based on the mainstream curriculum? This has me a bit confused as some of the science and math sample questions given on the sample FCAT, my son says they haven't even covered it in class. Do they want these kids to fail?The FCAT tests in Florida are a joke! I didn't think that the ESE kids had to take them...I thought that they were exempt. I learned something new on that today

I knew that the curriculum was different/modified, but Payne's is mostly just slower to cover the material. I'm not quite sure what to think of the school system here...sometimes they are up for the challenge and then others just seem to try to get the kids to fail by not offering the services needed.

I now, and always have for as long as I can remember, hated the "teach to the test" mentality.

I also believe that standardized testing in many respects does not truly reflect the intelligence, creativity, or drive of individual students.

The solution will be found somewhere "outside of the box"...perhaps by a high functioning adult with autism with a gift for teaching, evaluations, and statistics!