Special Education and HST

As a special education teacher I have never understood the logic in this.

Federal guidelines for identifying students exist - "practicality-wise" most students are about 2 years behind grade level by the time they are identified for special education services. For whatever reason - lack of exposure to concepts prior to beginning school; a cognitive, physical, and/or emotional disability that interferes with learning; or an inability to maintain focus to a task - these students usually have something that keeps them from learning as quickly as the median of their peer norm group.

Then the state says we must test them on the grade level benchmarks. I have had students who have grown at least 2 years in their reading but could not pass the state test because they were in 4th grade and their reading skills at the beginning of the year were at Kindergarten level. In spite of their (and my) hard work and accomplishments they (and I) are still marked as 'failures'.

How is this 'fair' to anyone?

I do want my students to grow and learn and "close the gap" between themselves and their peers. I just want an assessment that is fair that will show their true growth! Does it exist? I have no idea .... I have yet to see it.

On the other hand - I have also taught high ability students. It's very hard to show growth for this group on a grade level assessment as well.

Using a grade level test is like trying to measure a mile long road using a 12 in ruler. We will only assess the part that our ruler allows us to assess and will miss the rest ....

One of the problems underlying this issue is the assumption by most people outside of education that all special-education students are the same. All students with a disability are in the same category regardless of their disability. For example several years ago there were two students in the eighth grade who are both placed in the same category of special education. One student was a gifted girls with an above average ability in every subject and a severe lisp; the other was a boy with microcephaly and no discernible reactions to most external external stimuli. According to the government, these students are both members of the same subgroup "special education", and their scores both count toward AYP.

I will say, however, that this year Colorado has changed how it compares students to each other. Rather than classify students based on how they compare to all students in their grade level, students are compared with any narrow band based on their previous testing results. All students who performed within a specified and narrow range are compared to each other rather than to the population as a whole. Their performance is then reported based on how much growth they made compared to other students within their narrow score band. While still not optimal, it is now comparing students to other students of similar ability, and therefore students who are behind can be compared to other similarly delayed students to see if they are growing at the same rate or more quickly or more slowly than their peers.

My sped students year after year have failed the reading, math or both assessments. They are placed in intensive reading or math classes and not allowed to have electives. At the elementary level, they were being taken out of PE for extra help. The problem with all of this in my district is that the intensive classes utilize the same curriculum year in and year out (one size fits all) and the class sizes keep growing. In our high schools,we have over 50% of the students tracked into intensive reading classes.-not exactly intensive IMO when the class sizes are 25-28 students. This tells me there is a problem with the test. After many years, many of our students pass the ACT or SAT and are then given a 'waiver' on the state test. But it's not allowed until 12th grade. Last year when I had to look at a student's testing history, he had failed the assessment for 5 years. When I asked the testing coordinator what was changed for that student due to his repeated failure (as in more intensity), her reply was nothing...no one looks at the results from year to year for an individual student. So not only are we not using the test to inform our decisions about students' needs, we are only using them for a school grade and VAM. I, for one, am SICK AND TIRED of my students being punished for having a disability. I have seen students placed on alternate assessment when they shouldn't have been IMO (usually as a result of an administrator trying to 'fudge" his numbers). So my students get punished rather than address the issue that caused the administrator to want the child to take an alternate assessment in the first place. Assessment decisions are supposed to be left to the IEP teams to decide according to IDEA...this is just another example of how people are trying to override existing law. They created the mess that caused administrators and teachers to track kids into an alternate assessment, and now,rather than fund appropriate programs and supports for these kids, they're doubling down on the standard testing. It's an upside down world when we expect anyone with a diagnosed disability to be 'average'. IDEA provides for ongoing assessment of students (at least every 3 years) so why do our students have to take any of these state standardized tests annually. I don't see the point when we're not using them to inform decisions about services or programs (or class size) that they might need.