http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/hs graduate got cheated of an education ZC10KchIszRn4mGc1zUVjK

The New York Post reports this tale….

The high school ‘graduate’ with a diagnosed learning disability who has 2nd grade reading skills, got a high school diploma. He ‘passed’ the tests for graduation.

How did he do that? Well, on the fifth try, someone read the reading test to him (though testing rules did not allow it) so he ‘passed.’

Note that in some states, including Massachusetts, reading tests CAN be read to students!

Surely a case of testing and standards and accommodations gone awry…

I am so happy to let you know that my latest little flipbook is out! It is available at www.parkplacepubs.com and wwww.schoollawpro.com.

Fixing Special Education–12 Steps to Transform a Broken System, balances the tale of special education’s success with 12 steps to transform it for the 21st century.

I hope you find it thought provoking–let’s start that national frank and open conversation! Let’s get that transformation underway. It is time!

Thank you, thank you, Meet the Press, for bringing together Arne Duncan, Newt Gingrich, and Al Sharpton to discuss education. It was a very powerful, positive, and uplifting show. Takeaways? It’s all about results–we have a results problem. All of us need to move outside our comfort zones and focus on children, not adults. Schooling is our 21st century civil right. Parents need to work as partners with schools, not fight with them. And on it went. Fantastic.

If you missed it, it’s today, November 15 Meet the Press: http.//www.msnbc.com/id/8987534/ns/meet_the_press.

To put it all in context, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has 4.5 billion dollars to spend on excellent programs and proposals that focus on results… in the “Race to the Top” funds. Let us wish them all well.

But consider that he also will spend 12 billion dollars in ADDITIONAL funds for special education–even while that system is still input, not outcome, driven, and fully needs reform.

That is what my new book is about: Fixing Special Education–12 Steps to Transform a Broken System. Its publication date is this week! November 18! It is available at http://www.parkplacepubs.com and http://www.schoollawpro.com

LRP ran an interesting story on line about these scores and students with disabilities (SWD). Among its findings are that SWD continue to perform poorly and the gaps between student groups are pretty much as they were in 2007.

Another issue was highlighted, however. That is the fact that different states exclude different numbers of students from the NAEP testing–the range is wide. For example, on the 8th grade math tests, the range was reported to be from 9% in Arkansas to 56% in Maryland.

How are we supposed to make any sense of these numbers and how are comparisons to be drawn. The article cited my concerns about this, and I quote a small portion for you.

“This, not the gap in scores, is the real problem, according to Miriam Kurtzig Freedman, a special ed attorney and consultant. After all, she said, many students with disabilities have academic problems, which is why they’re in special ed in the first place. “If we now are supposed to close [achievement] gaps, I don’t think that’s realistic…..” she said. On the other hand, “we want this thermometer [theNAEP] to work. . . . But if we have exclusions all over the place, we have a broken thermometer.”

The July 22 report by the National Assessment Governing Board’s Expert Panel on Testing Students with Disabilities, on which I sat, urged states to have a 95 percent participation in NAEP by students with disabilities. You can find the report at http://nagb.org/newsroom/PressReleasePDFs/SD-Panel-Report.pdf. There is also a PowerPoint presentation at the NAGB website.

Finally, note the upcoming hearings in Los Angeles and Washington DC about the reports by the Expert Panels (for students with disabilities and English language learners). Information is at http://www.nagb.org/newsroom/release/release-100109.htm
Written comments due on November 10.

In the context of our national health care debate, today’s NY Times front-page story is fascinating… about the rise in births of twins–especially through fertility treatments. The price? Into the seven figures per births…..

As I read it, I was struck by the fact that The Times indexed the story in the Health section. Those of us who work in public schools, especially with special education, know that it should also be indexed in the Education section, as, sadly, there is a link between premature births and special education. Will The Times run the education story next?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/health/11fertility.html?hp

Dear friends of education reform,

My almost-ready-and-soon-to-be published new little flipbook, FIXING Special Education–12 Steps to TRANSFORM a Broken System is almost here. We expect a late October launch!

The book is mentioned in Joanne Jacob’s terrific blog today,
http://www.joannejacobs.com/tag/miriam-kurtzig-freedman/

This little flipbook will be availabe at Park Place Publications….
http://stores.homestead.com/parkplacepubsstore/-strse-School-Law-Pro-Series/Categories.bok

And, of course, through my website, http://www.schoollawpro.com/

This little flipbook of reforms balances the tale of special education’s success with the need for reform. 12 steps to transform this broken system for the 21st century. The 12 steps provide a framework for discussion and action–with openness, balance, common sense, and without the fear of touching this law.

Stay tuned! Onward and upward for systemic reform!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/willingham-reading-is-not-a-sk.html

While this debate is going on about the national standards movement for all students, I am reminded of the many IEPs–Individualized Education Programs–for students with disabilities that schools provide across our land. Too many, focus on reading skills: decoding, encoding, reading comprehension, fluency, etc. —without relating reading to the knowledge that students need to learn and know. Reading is not an isolated skill, as this op-ed points out. if students continue with IEPs through elementary school–then middle school and even beyond, when do the knowledge-based reading programs kick in?