http://www.all4ed.org/press_room/press_releases/05052011

CNN  picked up this story, http://communitycollegespotlight.org/content/the-broken-promise-of-college-readiness_5332/,

as did www.JoanneJacobs.com

We all know… as my father used to say, if something sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not. College readiness for all–in today’s current climate–is too good to be true. So now, students have to meet reality on their own.

So sad, this story.

We can’t do it all with a wink and a prayer, as we’ve been doing: pass everyone in elementary and secondary grades; water down standards; modify standards beyond recognition; get everyone into college. 

At last we are looking at what happens to these ill-prepared (and ill-served) students in college. Hopefully, clearer thinking will prevail.

We need to get back to basics at the elementary and secondary grades. Teach the knowledge and skills. Realize that college is not for everyon. Stop passing kids through just cause it looks good.   It’s not good.

http://www.joannejacobs.com/author/joanne/.  Check this out…

Note, for more information about SpedEx, please visit www.doe.mass.edu/sped/spedx

and for more information about Procedures Lite, please contact info@specialeducationday.com

Happy reforming!

No one is happy with special education so let’s fix it.  It’s the climate change we like!

http://educationviews.org/2011/06/17/an-interview-with-miriam-kurtzig-freedman-m-a-j-d-author-of-fixing-special-education%e2%80%9412-steps-to-transform-a-broken-system/

This is a trend worth watching. Just because high school students are in college classes, does that mean they are doing college work?  Not so sure.

http://communitycollegespotlight.org/content/iowa-are-dual-enrollees-ready-for-college_5201/

And I relate this to inclusion classes in public schools. Just because students with disabilities are included in regular classrooms, does that mean they are doing regular classroom work? Not so sure.

Here’s the citation–article came out earlier this week.http://www.aei.org/paper/100227. I haven’t read it yet, but will do so!

Rethinking special education–yet again. We need to reform it.

Here are a few numbers that say it all.

We educate 13-14% of students in special education (6.8 million students).

In contrast, we educate just 2-3% in charter schools and perhaps 1-2% receive vouchers–for a total of 3-5%.

 Yet, to date, there’s been very little talk of reforming special ed and tons of focus on these other two ‘choice’ options–that involve only about a third as many students.

Why so?  Why is special ed still off   limits? A third rail that noone will touch.

I’m looking forward to reading this piece and will comment later.

Here’s a great piece by Julia Steiny–about the children and families left behind with school choice options. While she supports those options, she raises concerns about the children left in the regular schools.  http://www.educationnews.org/ed_reports/157707.html.

We’ve always known that, with choice options, most children and families will be left behind in schools that come to have an even greater concentration of needs. This piece states the case well.  Thus, choice, which Steiny supports, has unintended consequences. 

However, I have two concerns with the piece.
First–she suggests that states do something about this issue.  And I say, where is the notion that parents, too, have a responsibility. At what point does their role come to play? In this piece, Denny’s mother and father should have a job to do to help Denny at school and, if they choose, to help Denny apply to a school choice option. They can’t. They won’t. They don’t–and the piece says nothing about that. Just about the state doing something.  I don’t believe that getting more programs by states is the answer.  It’s time to tackle the issue at home.
Second- I am saddened that the analogy chosen here is to ‘shopping.’  Shopping is the American way and parents now shop for schools–so it says.   A major concern that many of us have about schools is that they are now in the consumer business. The customer is always right. Please the customer, etc.   It’s a problem.  “Hey, I sent my child here and he’s not getting a C. I want him to have a B or an A.”   Teachers now have to educate kids but also please parents as consumers–not as partners in education.  Let’s change the analogy please!

And what about a different option–not school choice–but closing all private schools and concentrating everyone’s children in the public schools. That, too, will improve them for all kids and I suspect, quicker than by opening the door for some kids to leave. Just a thought!  And yours?

Fascinating article about how the web is personalized for each of us… and how we get ‘news’ only about the stuff we already like and favor…

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26

The web is personalized. We get cocooned. We  live in echo chambers–listening to and seeing only what we are predisposed to. Our world view gets limited…

I’m afraid this happens in our schools and communities, also. We create bubbles–and talk only with people who agree with us.  The rest?  Well, we don’t see or hear them.

Sad to me and scary. And to you?

Yes, it’s more than possible.

While he talks about lots of things in the comparison with how other good school-nations do it (including getting better teachers from the get- go and paying them well, etc., etc., and not focusing on charter schools, testing, accountability, vouchers, etc., etc., I will write about only one of those aspects. 

Testing and accountability…

I believe that our curent obsession with accountability to “get rid of bad teachers” is over the top– it’s like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. It’s too much. Too complicated. Too, too, too. And it’s not going to change our system–as most teachers are already good enough and many teachers are excellent.  We are upending the entire system in order to be able to fire perhaps 5%- 10% of teaching staff.   Makes no sense to me.

http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=5060

I recently got a whiff of this…. I had put in a proposal to speak to the superintendents group about reforming special education and was told there’s no room on the program because it’s all devoted to evaluating teachers. Really?  I do believe we are heading in the wrong direction.

We have two gaps in our educational system… One we work hard at and one we ignore–to our detriment.

The one that we work hard at is the gap between the lowest performing students and the middle (making AYP under the No Child Left Behind Act).  Let’s say, the bottom 50% of achievement. The one we ignore is the gap between students who already have grade level skills and the top students–gifted, talented, etc.  That is, closing the gap of potential–how do we focus on getting, let’s say, the top 50%  to achieve to their potential.

Here is an important and timely debate on this issue.

http://educationnext.org/are-we-lifting-all-boats-or-only-some/comment-page-1/#comment-69127

The question debated  is, are we short changing or even ignoring the top students? In my view we are. To our detriment as a nation. In fact, I think we are on a suicide mission–when we compare how we educate our top students with other advanced countries.

Thank you for this timely piece. Your thoughts?

http://educationnext.org/sage-on-the-stage/

Say it ain’t so!

Another example of education by belief system–not research!  In modern pedagogy, we are lead to believe that problem-solving is better than lecturing –especially in the middle school years. Well, here’s research to question that.

From my perspective in this blog over the years, we can add this research to the list we have compiled about special education.  For example,

• the belief in ‘learning styles’ has been deeply questioned by brain research.
• the belief in the ability of students to multitask has been deeply questioned by brain research. Thus, we need a quiet space without the IPhone for work! 
• the mantra of ‘inclusion’ is powerful, even as it often lacks research support.
• the notion that all students can or should pass the same state tests fails the blush test.
• the focus on student weaknesses lacks a research basis.
• the use of  ‘accommodations’ that actually lower standards goes unreported.
• the idea that if something is hard for a student to learn, it means that there’s something ‘wrong’ with the student–not that the student needs to practice, practice, practice to learn the subject or skill.
• Etc.

Do you have a list of your favorites?