Despite its flaws, an increased focus on achievement among students with disabilities was one positive outcome of No Child Left Behind, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told members of Congress Wednesday.
In testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Duncan said that for all of its shortcomings, No Child Left Behind did bring needed attention to children with special needs and students in other high-risk groups.
“There is a lot of dissatisfaction with NCLB,” Duncan said, adding that the law needs to be fixed to be more “fair and flexible.”
Nonetheless, he continued, “NCLB was right to shine a bright light on achievement gaps and set a clear expectation that all students must learn to the same standards. This has led to great progress in schools focusing more on the needs of English learners and students with disabilities and other at-risk students.”
Duncan’s comments come as Congress prepares to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act — currently known as No Child Left Behind — a process that will likely begin in the coming months.
At present, Congress is working to finalize the federal budget for the current year and is weighing the president’s recent 2012 funding request, which called for increased education spending, a point of contention for many Republicans.
“Despite the near tripling of overall per pupil funding since 1965, national academic performance has not improved,” said committee chair Rep. John Kline, R-Minn. He urged Duncan to do more to minimize duplication of programs within the nation’s education system.
In my 11 years of teaching children with emotional / behavioral disabilities (9 of them under NCLB), the only effect that I witnessed was the slow and steady movement away from the progressive policies and practices established by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to an absurd system of forcing all children to conform to an arbitrary and uniform standard. Many school districts over the past decade shifted resources and support away from any program that did not directly support acheivement testing in the areas of reading, writing and math. Art, Music, Physical Ed., World Languages, History, Social Studies etc. and Special Needs programs, were marginalized and in many cases eliminated. In my district this was perpetrated by eliminating psychologists and counselors qualified to test and identify children having special educational or behavioral needs. One need only point to the number of law suits brought against so many schools and school districts by the parents of special needs children who were underserved or completely ignored over the past decade of NCLB view the magnitude of this issue. Forcing teachers to target, coach and manipulate average to slightly below average test-takers to pass poorly designed and administered acheivement tests, leaves no room for children with individual, remedial or disability needs. In a recent interview Secretary Duncan was quoted as saying “NCLB has resulted in the dumbing down and narrowing of curricula in the U.S.,” an observation that I wholly agree with. So please Mr. Secretary, let’s not make any appologies for a system that has produced nothing short of a crisis for our children and our country. NCLB left all children behind. The most sorely neglected and excluded were our special needs children.
I’ve been a teacher for 18 years, working with middle school kids who’s learning disabilities ranged from moderate to severe developmental delays. I took the job know the IEP/evaluation component and understanding the importance of following the laws laid down for them. Within IDEA, I’ve taken my kids and watched as they grew, learned, became excited about learning. I had so much fun teaching them with creative (and research based) teaching methods. Now, my days are spent agonizing over the requirements of Annual Yearly Progress. The Portfolios that are done by my students in lieu of statewide testing? They absolutely do not test my students…they test MY ability to file in their name, date, correct the paper and label the page numbers on each page. They test my ability to put the papers in proper order. I spend every night with my stomach grinding. 107 hours I spent on portfolio testing this year, for 6 kids. I learned nothing about my children that reevaluation and observation wont tell me. It is disgusting to me.
From my vantage point as a reading specialist in a large district it seems to me that loads of problems tend to come from the silly and arbitrary separation of Special Ed. and other sorts of interventions. I deal daily with Special Ed Staff that has had little to no training or theory in how children learn to read which has the tendency to make them very vulnerable to every quick-fix and boxed set of lessons there are. If we could somehow allow the RtI business to be totally seamless between all of the various intensities of levels, i think we would see even fewer “lifers” and more kids who have layers of interventions that are designed by the team to accelerate the child to grade level. Look at CIM (Comprehensive Intervention Model)at UALR.There does also need to be a realistic set of tests for kids that have dramatic disabilities in order to see where they actually function. The current batch of grade-level torture tests only tell us what we already know (that the kid is not a grade level, duh) but tell us nothing of where they are actually functioning. What was wrong with ITBS for the whole country? It seems to me that all states should absolutely be giving the same test. WE know of so much abuse of individual states and their manipulating data, test questions, scores, etc. SO NOT COOL
Rep John Kline quoted as saying that in spite of funding tripling since 1965, he complains that performance has not improved but failed to mention that funding really hasn’t kept up with inflation. Or are the dollars that he speaks of adjusted for inflation? Just a thought.
Per-pupil funding has only tripled since 1965? A dollar in 1965 bought what $6.92 will buy in 2010. So we’re spending half the money per child that was being spent in 1965, and Republicans are complaining about that?
No one disagrees that NCLB has flaws. The idea of pushing students to their potential is an honorable goal for not only special needs students but all students. Simply thinking the idea of “fair and flexible will eliminate the flaws in NCLB is not reality. I’ve spent 44 years in education (next year will be 45 and my last year). Whether one agrees or disagrees NCLB is very punitive in nature. I based my opinion upon the following:
1) The law lumps every single student under one umbrella. Thus by 2014 all “students” will perform at the academic level of their peers!! First of all politicians have last sigh of reality regarding public education in America. The assume all students “will perform within the normal range of intelligence” is not reality nor within the capabilities of “all students”.
2) In classrooms you find gifted/talented students; “normal” students; grey area/at risk students; English as Second language students; and special needs students. The is no such thing as “a single student” in public education.
3) NCLB assumes that each student is the same as his peer. Reality tells me that in the public school system, each student is unique individual with unique educational needs and individual strengths and weaknesses. There are no two students alike.
4) Making the assumption that all students will be at grade level and maintain one years progress during one school year is not reality.
5) Too many politicans and other individuals throw around the word “motivation” as if it is a catch word to address failure of schools. There is no magic pill to give to students to motivate them. Teachers, in fact, no one can motivate a student, they can only provide activities that may or may not allow the student to make the choice to be “motivated” to learn. Only the student through instrinic or extrinic choices can motivate themselves. You & I don’t “motivate” anyone because it is within each student to make that choice to learn or not to learn.
I am astounded that anyone can still stand up and pronounce NCLB as being beneficial to special education students. During my first 10 years of teaching I had the joy of seeing students with varying levels of ability succeed. I rejoiced when my student with severe mental disabilities learned how to pick up a spoon and feed himself. I saw students who finally saw success in the classroom because they were being provided intense instruction designed specifically for their needs. Since NCLB began I have watched the state of special education programs steadily decline. All students can succeed but the backbone of the specialized education program is the INDIVIDUALIZED Education Plan. Instead focus is switched to meeting standards that are designed for everyone, regardless of capability. In three weeks, my students who have disabilities including Mild Mental Disabilities,Autism, and Specific Learning Disabilities are going to take the statewide assessment.My MMD child who has struggled to master decoding CVC words and match quantities to numerals is going to take a 3rd grade test. Oh, sure there are accommodations but having some sections read aloud to him and having extra time is not going to provide anything close to an even playing field. And what is being learned from the assessments? The scores are inaccurate indication of the progress he has made. Then of course, the school is penalized for having a low test score because, surprise, this child who started life with a cognitive deficit is not able to perfom the same as other students his age. The funding that once provided for materials that would address learners’ needs is now shifted to other programs in hopes that these programs will miraculously prevent students from needing specialized services. Wonderful thought, but when there are severe academic deficits,cognitive deficits and developmental delays these students need programs that target their needs. Something is seriously wrong when a teacher has to sneak to teach developmentally appropriate lessons because everyone is taking a test and must meet the same standards. I seriously fear that we are moving down a road that is going to eventually erradicate all of the progress that those before us fought for. If we do not become more vocal about what is being lost, special needs students are going to experience a continuing decline of the services that they are entitled to. Can we really afford to go backwards?
This is one of many reasons that I home-schooled my daughter for five years!