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It's available at Review of Fixing Special EducationBy Emmy Partin Fixing Special Education: 12 Steps to Transform a Broken SystemMiriam Kutzig FreedmanSchool Law Pro and Park Place Publications2009This little flipbook takes a critical look at special education in America and offers twelve suggestions to improve it. The author argues forcefully that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is no longer adequate (though it has played an important role heretofore) and that [...]

Mass Lawyers Weekly recently ran a frontpage article about the rise in special education litigation. So sad. It's tagline was, "With school resources dwindling, special education disputes attract lawyers." Can it get any worse? So, let me understand what is going on in our schools: there's less money for teaching and learning and we need to spend more on lawyers and litigation. How sad is that--such a wrong approach. Rather than working cooperatively among teachers, parents, and students, [...]

It's amazing... my book, Fixing Special Education--12 Steps to Transform a Broken System is out.... It is available at www.parkplacepubs.com. Lots of interest and sales so far. People are looking to fix the system--at least that is what I'm sensing. We need to reduce litigation, reduce the climate of fear of litigation, reduce paperwork and bureaucratic burdens, and why? To increase student learning, teacher time on task, parent and school cooperation. And why? To improve results for all [...]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1940395-4,00.htmlInteresting, interesting. For everything there is a season and a backlash...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/hs graduate got cheated of an education ZC10KchIszRn4mGc1zUVjKThe 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, [...]

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, [...]

Here's the URL...http://www.directionservice.org/cadre/ctu/practicesA.cfm?id=102As you know from prior blogs, SpedEx is the innovative, child-centered, dispute resolution model in Massachusetts. Free to parents and schools (eight cases per year are funded by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education). First come, first served!

Interesting and sad.... today's set of blogs about the fact that university professors are finding that their science students do not write well. And their law students!What we do at the K-12 levels has legs that continue through the education and life systems... http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2009/10/literally-doomed.htmlhttp://www.joannejacobs.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 [...]