Educating One and All Students with Disabilities and Standards-Based Reform (1997) / Chapter Skim
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B WORKSHOP SUMMARY: STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES AND STANDARDS-BASED REFORM
B WORKSHOP SUMMARY: STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES AND STANDARDS-BASED REFORM
Pages 254-261
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From page 254... ...
Christopher Button, the director of governmental activities for the United Cerebral Palsy Association (UCPA) , was the first presenter.
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From page 255... ...
Agreeing that family involvement is critical to student success, Button noted that currently families participate through the individualized education program (IEP) process, although the nature of their involvement varies considerably.
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From page 256... ...
Button said, "The IEP too often, because it is not tied to the general curriculum, results in a watered-down curriculum because of the automatic assumptions that general educators and special educators too often have about the children, particularly children with severe disabilities, as not being able to do the general curriculum." She maintained that the participation of children with disabilities in standards-based reform could help solve this problem, and that giving these students more time to achieve some of the standards would be a useful accommodation. The participants agreed that the definition of participation depends on the definition of the general curriculum.
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From page 257... ...
The presenters also agreed that families need to be involved but were uncertain about the best mechanism to facilitate this participation, particularly since parental involvement in such decisions as whether a student should be included in a state assessment was not part of the concept of family involvement when the IEP process was first designed. The second group of presenters represented organizations of education policy makers and practitioners with an interest in standards and the participation of students with disabilities.
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From page 258... ...
"I am fearful that if we allow the exclusion of certain categories of children from the assessment process that we will destroy the feedback loop for them and, secondly, we will allow school systems and schools, who are going to be held politically accountable for their performance, to push those students who threaten to lower their scores out of the test loop, off to the side, and conceivably ignore them." The second presenter was John MacDonald, the director of the state leadership center for the Council of Chief State School Officers. MacDonald argued that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
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From page 259... ...
"There was very much a willingness to do that, particularly in exchange for some sort of flexibility, whatever that may be, and it is often undefined, just the perception of trying to get some ability to have some influence over how this program works at the state and local levels." Sullivan noted that, beginning with their education summit in Charlottesville in 1989, the governors have supported the concept of high standards for all students. "There was a coming together around that word very deliberately, but probably not an understanding of how far we had to go to do that and what it would take for all students to be able to achieve the highest standards." Jeff Schneider, a senior policy analyst at the National Center for Innovation in the National Education Association (NEA)
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From page 260... ...
"I do not believe that it is totally the schools' responsibility for the supports and services that begin to accommodate kids in schools." Huff added, "I think it is going to take more than standards-based assessment to reverse the devastating trends and practices that currently result in poor outcomes for children with serious emotional disturbances. However, standards that are formulated with system change in mind can provide the impetus to help schools begin to address the issue in a comprehensive fashion." In the general discussion that followed the formal presentations, the group discussed definitions of standards, accommodations, jurisdictional questions, and teacher training.
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From page 261... ...
Barth emphasized the need for teacher training. He said that there is insufficient federal financial assistance for the professional development of special education teachers because the large majority of it goes to general education teachers.
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