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It's about time! No pun intended. Thank you, Education Week, for this long overdue front page--top story. We need to study how inclusion affects classrooms--teachers and students. While the story focused on an international study looking at general educators' time on task and the effect of behavior issues in classrooms, this is but a good first step. We need many more studies need to look at all other aspects of this vital question: How inclusion affects general education--teachers [...]

Special education still in "deep trouble" and needs reform--according to California's President of the State Board of Education, Michael Kirst. Here are the article about his comments (that includes some from me) and the podcast--again, Mike Kirst, followed by me. I do believe we're getting the word out...slowly, [...]

I attended the EdSource meeting last week in Oakland California and heard Michael Kirst speak about the need for reforming special education. The system is antiquated... and needs "another look." As you can read, the article cites several people, including yours truly and gives a shout out to my book, Special Education 2.0. [...]

Ed Week ran a fascinating Commentary.about this fact: while the number of students attending private schools has been rather steady, the number of wealthy students (especially in cities) attending private schools has risen. The statistics are from the years leading up to 2013. This trend is worrisome to me, as someone who believes passionately in the need for excellent public schools for all. If the trend continues, public schools will, more and more, be just for those students who [...]

Education Week ran an interesting article this week, linking children's sleep habits and problems to ADHD. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/09/20/childrens-sleep-problems-linked-to-attention-disorders.html Interesting. But surprising? I'm guessing that it's not to teachers and parents and even grandparents! We know about the importance of regular sleep habits, especially for children. Relating it to the incidence of ADHD (or perhaps other impairments as well) is the next logical [...]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/magazine/who-benefits-from-the-expansion-of-ap-classes.html?em_pos=medium&ref=headline&nl_art=1&te=1&nl=magazine&emc=edit_ma_20170910 Fascinating stuff--more students are "encouraged" or pushed to take AP courses and tests. The AP, you may recall was originally designed for advanced students. No more.Now, many more students take the classes and few get "passing scores" of 3,4, or 5--that provide them with college credit. There are some anecdotal [...]

http://www.joannejacobs.com/2017/08/what-if-everyone-gets-extra-time-on-sat/#comments Thanks for the blog and the interesting comments following it. I would simply add: 1. The issue I presented involves the WHAT before the WHO. The College Board (and the ACT) need to clarify once and for all what the role of timing is in the SAT and the ACT. That is, are these tests of speed and efficiency, or other attributes related to timing, or is timing merely done for administrative [...]

How great is that. "Have SAT accommodations gone too far?" is the MOST RECOMMENDED piece in today's Education Week. It has garnered 13 comments! Thank you all. Check it out and keep reading, sharing, writing. Thanks so much. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/08/25/have-sat-accommodations-gone-too-far.html#comments The comments are fascinating. I wrote the piece because I'm concerned that we are losing the purpose of the test. Why do we have an SAT? What is the WHAT of the SAT: [...]

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/08/25/have-sat-accommodations-gone-too-far.html I hope it gets us talking about validity... the WHAT before the WHO. More to come!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/have-we-got-special-education-all-wrong_us_5991daf5e4b0ed1f464c0cde I invite you to read this piece. It's excellent--and tracks several ideas and proposals in my book. Marc Tucker comes at the issue from a data perspective and international comparisons. He asks if we are really helping kids learn or just labeling them with a disability and setting up systems that, sadly, don't get the job done. He's the executive director of NCEE and a blogger at [...]