Testing of special-ed students should be re-examined

Almost half of children with special needs failed their high school exit exam this year. Legislation calls for identifying new ways to assess performance and devising new methods.

The predictable result came in last week from forcing students with disabilities to pass a high school exit exam in order to earn a diploma. Nearly half failed.

Failed. A demoralizing word for some kids who struggle daily to perform tasks most teens carry out with ease.

The psychological damage “is horrific,” says Sid Wolinsky, director of litigation for Disability Rights Advocates, which fought unsuccessfully for alternative ways to measure the knowledge of special education students.

“We had dozens of sworn declarations from parents about the deep depression that their disabled children went into when they didn’t pass the exit exam,” Wolinsky says. “When you’re a child with a disability, you start with problems of stigma, societal stereotyping and self-confidence.

“Then you’re shattered when you can’t pass the exit exam. You blame yourself and have terrible problems with self-worth.”

The class of 2008 was the first in which special education students — those with learning, physical or mental disabilities such as autism or dyslexia — were required to pass the exit exam to receive a diploma. They could try unlimited times.

The state Department of Education reported last week that among the nearly 40,000 students with disabilities who took the exam, 53.8% passed and 46.2% failed. By contrast, among the non-special ed students, 93.6% passed.

Not all special ed students even took the exam, only an estimated 72%, according to the department. They’re generally students who are studying under what’s called “individualized education plans” — instruction that accommodates their disabilities — and are on a “diploma track,” taking all the required courses needed to graduate. Yet, nearly half of them flunked the exit exam.

My first reaction reading news stories of the exam results was that the state shouldn’t be harassing these kids. Give them a pass. Hand them a diploma if they manage all their course work. After all, California prospered for more than 150 years without a high school exit exam.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1999, when freshman Gov. Gray Davis was trying to ensure a legacy of education reform, that the Legislature mandated the exit exam for public schools. (Private schools aren’t affected.) The 2006 class was the first required to pass it. Special ed students in 2006 and 2007 were exempted, but no longer.

Get off the backs of disabled kids, I thought. Many can’t handle hours-long English and math tests, even if they are permitted the same accommodations — such as somebody reading to them — that they’re allowed in their special classes. Just let them fulfill their own potential and feel good about it.

But, of course, things rarely are as simple as they seem. There’s also merit in the opposite argument.

In an education speech Tuesday at a high school near Dayton, Ohio, the Democratic presidential nominee expressed confidence in public-funded charter schools, which operate outside the control of school districts and free of the union work rules that often stifle education. Local school districts often resent the competition for funding. But charter school educators nationwide are showing that flexible scheduling, budgeting, hiring, and governance can lead to significant improvements in academic performance, especially in cities.

Serious debate about the quality of US education has been wanting in the presidential campaign. But the next president will be required to decide whether to reauthorize the stalled federal No Child Left Behind law, which holds schools accountable for student performance on statewide tests. Obama’s speech put some needed attention on education, and should provide a comfort level for independent voters who value results over political orthodoxies.

Obama also reiterated his support for merit pay for teachers, another nod to reason in a nation worried that its students lag those in other industrialized countries, especially in math and science. Republicans seem to have no trouble recognizing that superior teachers should be rewarded for their special skills and subject expertise. Perhaps Obama can pull his party out of the rut where seniority in the classroom trumps skill.

Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, stumbles in the opposite direction. He supports voucher systems that allow some parents to use public funds for private and parochial school placements. Unlike charter schools, which are public, voucher systems attack the roots of education funding for public schools.

Massachusetts would benefit if Governor Patrick – a strong Obama supporter – would take up the call of his party’s leader. Patrick barely touched on charter schools in his recent 10-year strategic plan to improve the quality of education in Massachusetts. And he is lukewarm, at best, on the subject of merit pay for teachers. Obama isn’t satisfied with a second-rate-education system. His supporters should be just as demanding

Source:http://www.latimes.com/