It is April. Time for step 4!  Tomorrow’s blog will be just that.

Steps 4 through 9 are for changing the path we are on. Switching gears. Following credible research. Keeping our eye on the prize–educating all students to high standards and preparing them for life after K-12.

As the editors of Rethinking Special Education for a New Century  wrote, back in 2002,

“The choice confronting today’s policymakers is not whether to keep the program as it is or return to the pre-IDEA status quo.  Rather, the challenge is to modernize the program, building on what we’ve learned about both special education and education in general.”

Until tomorrow!

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/congress/2011/03/us-house-reinstates-dc-school-voucher-program#

All that fuss and commotion and angst and emtion about vouchers.  AT MOST, they serve 1% of US students. Special education serves some 14% of US students.  The system is broken. Yet, it reform of that system does NOT make the front pages of our papers.  It’s about time that it does.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2011/03/dear_diane_if_george_orwell.html?intc=mvs

If you’re puzzled, join the crowd. This Bridging Differences piece includes  most interesting language used to describe our President’s speech.

The disconnect between our government’s policy and this speech about, in part, his own daughters in private schools–now what are teachers supposed to think and do?

We need clarity, not obfuscation.

Dear readers….

If you tried to download the nifty practical ONE-PAGE definitions of FAPE under the IDEA/ MA law and under Section 504, please try again. The links are fixed!

Please let me know what you think of the FREE STUFF. Thanks.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/03/lawmakers_grill_duncan_on_spen.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CampaignK-12+%28Education+Week+Blog%3A+Politics+K-12%29

This  article is listed under Politics-K12 in Education Week. Need we say more?

While it’s good that we’re talking about whether more spending on education is leading to better results (it is not, necessarily) it is bad that the discussion is wrapped in politics. One party says yes to more spending;  one says no. Knee jerk reactions?

Until we get the matter out of politics into reliable research on what works and what does not, we will continue to fret and fret and then spend and spend.

The discussion should be among educators–not politicians!

http://www.educationnews.org/ed_reports/thinks_tanks/151930.html

Thank you for this story. Finally, we are talking about burdensome federal regulations. 

However, the story has a HUGE gap–not a word about special education. That arena alone is burdened by paperwork, has onerous bureaucratic requirements that impede teaching and learning for all students, and costs schools some 20-40% of their budgets–though we  don’t even know how much of that cost is due to bureaucratic requirements.    The legal requirements in this arena alone take up hours and hours of educators’ and administrators’ time, drive teachers away from the field,  take teachers away from precious time-on-task with students, and incubates litigation and the fear of litigation in our schools.

It’s time to place this arena on the table.  I’m disappointed that it is not there yet.

http://edworkforce.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=229296

Thank you, Duncan Hunter, for bringing this issue forward at last. Let’s hope we finally get action to reduce  paperwork work and  focus attention on teaching and learning for all students!

And thank you www.mkcresources.net.  Teaching on Edge, for bringing this post to my attention.

http://www.mkcresources.net/teachingonedge/.  Go,  Mary!  as you say, let’s hope this action pushes that elephant out of the middle of the room!

A must read for all. And not a moment too soon, I might add! 

Our endless focus on teachers only will not get us where we need to be. For education, students need to be active participants in their own learning.  And parents need to support our schools. Only with this full-blown partnership will we finally see real and sustained progress.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2011/03/student_responsibility_for_learning_part_ii.html

It’s so obvious! Yet, until now, unspoken. Thank you for these important pieces and research. 

See also STEP 8 in my book, Fixing Special Education–12 Steps to Transform a Broken System.  The chapter is called, “Remind students, parents, and teachers that education is an active process.” Readjust our incentive system!

This little flipbook is available on Amazon.com on this website’s Store!

We, in America, need to raise the status of teachers.  So says the study discussed in today’s NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/education/16teachers.html. 

Instead, so much of what we do, lowers their status and we should not be surprised by the negative outcomes of that approach.

One place the status issue is ‘hot’ is in special education–though it is not discussed. The very concept of parents  ‘advocating’ for their children against the school–sets up a negative status for teachers. Teachers are (and were) the natural advocates for children they teach. I know that when I taught back in the 1960-s and 70-s, I viewed my role as an advocate for my students. It is time for us to get back to that truth, and in so doing, raise the status of teachers.

The very thought that we should have a due process hearing (or the threat of such a hearing) about whether the education plan proposed for the child by teachers and others–sets up a negative status for teachers. What other profession–Doctor? Lawyer? Architect? Car mechanic? Sales person? –endures the threat of litigation before they do their work? You guessed it, no other.

We can’t really be surprised–given these and many other policies–that we in America view teaching as a lower status profession

In South Korea, teachers are known as ‘nation builders.’ How different is that! We should head in that direction, instead of the one we are on.

Thank you for this study and let’s hope it has legs!