The U.S. Department of Education has proposed revisions to NCLB which would permit as many as 30% of all children with special needs to meet standards at a substandard level. In effect this proposal permanently leaves behind many students with special needs especially those with learning disabilities. {This news story came to my attention from a reader, Karen Purcell]
It is not as if students with learning disabilities are going to be
judged and measured by some lesser standard when they get into the
workforce and life. This system of two-tier testing will exempt
schools from pushing to find the tools and means to reach for a more
normative standard of achievement for many more students with disabilities.
In effect, this proposed revision endorses the notion that large
segments of students with disabilities are not remediable to a large
extent. Schools in my experience give up on so many students from a
very young age any way, and now the Federal government is giving them a
green light that this resignation is legal. I see far too many students
who are supposedly receiving "specialized reading instruction" who do
little if any reading. are not being exposed to rig0rous curriculum,
and are not be taught with scientifically based methodologies taught by
trained staff. The problem is not the children, it is with the system
which under this proposal will be taking a giant step backwards.