What are we doing as Special Educators

One mother's story about her son. What are we doing to make sure this is not the case in our charter schools and that this is not the common (mis)conception about all charter schools? What can be done?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/nyregion/charter-school-sends-message-thrive-or-transfer.html?_r=1&ref=education

CCS and Special Education

Some thoughts on how CCS (Common Core Standards) may effect students with special needs in the upcoming years...

http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CEC_Today1&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=15269

Michelle Rhee! And Special Ed!

Michelle Rhee's Students First organization, just posted an interview with Nathan Levenson, the guy I mentioned last post and the author of this white paper on rethinking special education. I guess he is making the rounds?

He makes a couple of interesting points. His moral thrust is that even though we have achieved a lot in terms of inclusion, disability rights, and greater funding for special education our gains in tolerance have not really translated into gains in achievement.

Despite these gains, overall it is hard to be pleased with the state of special education in America. Despite much caring, and even more spending, students with special needs achieve at unacceptably low levels, and too few are prepared for college, work, or independent living. 

Probably Levenson's  most controversial claim is that the last thing a student struggling in math (or reading or writing) needs is instruction from a special education teacher with no content knowledge of how to actually teach math. The most direct solution, he says, is to have gen ed teachers provide both core instruction AND the extra help. Leveson: "The math department should be responsible for students learning math, even students with disabilities, rather than the special education department."


I think he's write to some extent, although I think the problem actually could be solved in two ways: making gen ed teachers special education experts or making special ed teachers content experts. 


Since Levenson's larger point is that schools can reduce cots AND increase student achievement, i.e. have their cake and eat it too, Students First asks more people aren't taking him up on his suggestions. Levenson:

I think there are two obstacles: compassion and fear. Rightfully so, no one wants to take away anything from students who struggle. Out of love, we have lowered expectations, shielded students from rigor, and propped them up with paraprofessional support. This is well intentioned, but it hasn't actually helped many students with mild to moderate disabilities succeed.