The original article by Chris Kenning:
SPECIAL EDUCATORS FIND STANDARDS STIFLING:
Some fear practical skills are taking a back seat to the
Some fear practical skills are taking a back seat to the
new academic demands of No Child Left Behind
"Seventeen-year-old Corey Bohn doesn't know his phone number and can't make change for a dollar.His Down syndrome makes it a struggle to talk, recognize letters, cross a street, or even let someone know when he's in pain.Nevertheless, Corey, who attends Doss High School in Jefferson County, now is expected to learn versions of grade-level academics such as the Pythagorean theorem, the periodic table of elements, principles of cell division and the parts of a novel — all before he leaves high school.
"I just don't think learning that is important for him," said Debbie Bohn, Corey's mother, who is a special-education teacher for Jefferson County Public Schools. The requirements are the result of revised state standards that took effect this year for thousands of Kentucky students with moderate to severe mental disabilities.
The change, required by the federal No Child Left Behind law, more closely linked those students' curriculum and testing to a selection of modified grade-level material learned by other students.The idea is to ensure that Kentucky's disabled students receive the same academic opportunities as everyone else.But teachers, parents, principals and professors complain that the new standards are promoting unrealistic and meaningless lessons that squeeze out instruction in practical life skills and limit the time such students can spend in regular classrooms.
Although teachers are allowed to reduce the complexity of the concepts and make accommodations, such as allowing students to point to one of three photos to answer a question, some students are growing so frustrated they're acting out, even hitting themselves, teachers said.
"It's just horrible," said University of Kentucky professor John Schuster, who heads the university's graduate program in special education."Imagine you're a parent of a high-school-aged child with a severe disability, and the state has said you have to learn the first 12 elements of the periodic table, and your child can't make a sandwich, ride a bus or make a grocery list."
Requirements defended
Johnnie Grissom, who oversees special education for the Kentucky Department of Education, said the revised standards aren't harder, just more explicit. Teachers should have been incorporating grade-level concepts from the beginning, she said.She and other state education officials say teachers can simplify concepts in meaningful ways for students — while melding academics and life-skill lessons — so that nothing is lost.
But that doesn't always reflect classroom realities, and across the state, teachers are "pulling their hair out," said Belva Collins, a UK special-education professor.
April DuVal, director of Louisville's Council on Mental Retardation, said she sees "a breakdown between what Frankfort is saying and school systems are trying to implement, and the sad part is parents are being caught in the middle."Even in the hands of the best teachers, some parents still object to the new policy.
"It may be a noble idea, but we have to be realistic," said Todd Robertson, who believes her 10-year-old son, Nicholas, who can't communicate well or recognize his name, shouldn't be learning a "grocery list of knowledge that can be regurgitated."
Addressing challenges
There are more than 3,200 Kentucky students with functional mental disabilities. Some are "high-functioning," able to grasp ideas; others communicate by changes in muscle tone or eye glances.Most leave school with certificates of completion, not diplomas, and often are taught until they reach 21.
Kentucky has long used an "alternate assessment" for students with moderate to severe mental disabilities, consisting of a portfolio of academic and functional skills that were examined once in elementary, middle and high school.
The revised standards, required by No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, expanded the frequency of testing to mirror that experienced by other students — with at least some subjects tested every year.They also limited social skills as part of testing and required standards to be better linked to grade-level content in math, reading and other academic subjects.
Teachers say they used to have more leeway to decide what was appropriate for students. Now they must adhere to a list of concepts selected from the state's required curriculum.
Experts say many states have wrestled with how to link lessons to grade-level concepts without overwhelming special-education students. The resulting standards have varied greatly in level of difficulty.
"It's something we're struggling with nationally as a field," said Linda Van Kuren, spokeswoman for the National Center for Exceptional Child Education in Washington, D.C.
Congress has indicated it might loosen the rules regarding how special-education students are tested when it considers whether to reauthorize No Child Left Behind.But in the meantime, Kentucky's revised standards will continue to require elementary students with severe disabilities to learn how to analyze data, identify the plot and setting in a story, measure the perimeter of an object and identify the parts of a plant.And special-ed students in middle school will try to identify literary devices, determine the area of triangles and classify chemical compounds.
The idea is to teach the key concepts behind those skills, state officials said, and to tie them to practical skills, such as stressing caution about bleach during a lesson on the elements.
Higher expectations
The change is rooted in evolving ideas about how much disabled students are capable of learning."Special educators haven't always held their kids to high standards, and we've learned they can learn a heck of a lot more than people thought," Grissom said.
Nancy Hilton, of Carroll County High School, said she was surprised by some students' math abilities. She found some students could grasp the ideas behind the Pythagorean theorem, an equation that states the relationship among the sides of a right triangle .
"When I said, 'There are people who think you can't do this; let's prove them wrong,' they jumped all over that," she said.
However, in science, students have struggled, she said, and it has cut into time she can spend teaching about money, telling time, cooking or doing laundry."A lot of teachers and myself struggle with what purpose is this serving our kids," she said.
On a recent day in a small Atherton High special-education class, a senior worked on a resume for a work-transition program. Another student screwed bolts onto a piece of wood to improve dexterity.Nearby, a teacher's aide held the hand of a student with cerebral palsy, maneuvering the girl's hand to push a red button in an elementary-level computer-reading program. The girl didn't respond to questions or look at the screen, but stared at the ceiling .
Near a "word wall" filled with letters and corresponding words such as " school," teacher Renee Hollinger sat at a table with two juniors who had periodic tables in front of them — a lesson mandated by the new standards."How many electrons in neon?" she asked, after which the students would look on their charts, and then choose one of three slips of paper to provide an answer.
Hollinger noted where certain gases were present in everyday life, but she said later she wasn't certain they were grasping the larger concept. A lesson on genetics stumbled for the same reason.
"How do you teach algebra to students who don't know their numbers?" she said.Sharon Davis, head of Jefferson County's special-education department, said the change is "very different from what we've ever done," but that teachers were being trained and working hard to adapt.
A training issue?
State officials said it's possible some teachers are taking the standards too literally and failing to simplify them into concepts students can grasp. They said they might redouble efforts to train teachers."I guess we'll have to go out and do more professional development," Grissom said.
Some parents want their children challenged but believe the new standards should be rethought.
Debbie Bohn said her son, Corey, who is also autistic, can't attend sports events or go shopping; he communicates by using "yes" or "no." He has trouble making friends, at times spitting on people to get their attention.
Tougher lessons have increased misbehavior and anxiety, she said."When the materials are pulled out, he just keeps saying, 'No. No ,' and turns his head," she said. "He's not working on money skills" as much as he used to, she said.
Corey will likely attend school until he's 21 . Then, Bohn will have to get him into an adult day-care program while she works. She hopes to eventually find a residential care program for him, but the waiting lists are nearly a decade long."I just want him to be able to function as best he can," she said."
Edition: metroSection: NewsPage: 1A
Dateline: Kentucky
Copyright (c) The Courier-Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Record Number: lou40504326
In her letter to the editor, Debbie August says, "I would like to see Johnnie Grissom and others who are overseeing the No Child Left Behind project in Kentucky spend more time in the classrooms and less with the bureaucracy and paperwork. We have many children being left behind.
Cindy Baumert says, "… Of the 109,354 children who receive special education services statewide, around 92,000 have average to above average intelligence and are more than capable of becoming proficient learners of state standards..."
Milton Tyree writes, "Based on successes with students who studied academics in addition to functional skills, many special educators began to question if they held high enough expectations for these students…. We fear a backlash when the directives of No Child Left Behind are misinterpreted. Valid, relevant educational practices may be lumped together with efforts that merely adhere to the letter of the law."
And, Anne Weaver opines, "The question is whether the Kentucky Department of Education chose to link to standards that were most meaningful and in ways that "make sense" for this population of students. Let Kentucky do a side by side comparison with surrounding states and see if their plan in indicative of what is best for our students."
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