After Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced new rules for special education, requiring higher standards and more testing for students with disabilities, many teachers and parents debated this course of action on the blog. This teacher in Florida offered some real-life experience to inform the debate and, perhaps, the Secretary:
“Let me start by saying that I am an ESE teacher. I teach students with learning disabilities and language impairments. The students I have are in the unit they are in because they are at least two grade levels below their regular ed peers in reading.
“Currently, in Florida, we already have to give these students access to the same standards that their on-grade level peers enjoy. That has been the case for years. We already know that Florida tests pretty much everyone, no matter their disability. Again, this has been the case for years. I can’t believe that in this education environment that there are many other states that are significantly different. And yet, Arne is going to say that these students aren’t getting a quality education? That they aren’t held to high expectations?
To me, it is pretty obvious that these students are held to much higher expectations than their regular ed peers. It would be like telling two mountain climbers that they have to reach the same peak, but one of them will do it with both hands tied behind his back. Sure, he can have some accommodations. Someone can hold his rope steady. Someone else can yell out supportive verbal encouragement. He can even take longer breaks, and we’ll take away any time requirement (as long as he finishes in the same day that he started).
“The world of special ed was already insane. I’m not sure where this takes us. As I said, in my class, the students are all at least two years behind in reading. What I didn’t tell you is that I teach in an elementary school. What this means is that many of these 3-5th graders are non-readers. The few that can decode are either doing so at a kindergarten/first grade level or at a level approaching grade level but without any comprehension whatsoever of what they have just decoded. Despite this, they have the same designation on paper (or computer) that other LD kids have who are just slightly behind their regular ed peers.
“In Florida, as I imagine is the case in other states, we already track academic progress. You might think it would be as easy as seeing what they are capable of doing at the beginning of the year and then comparing that with what they are capable of at the end of the year. Not so. Remember, they are working on the same standards as their regular ed peers. And, so, they are tested with the same tests that their regular ed peers take. This means that a fourth grader who cannot read anything above “see sam run” is being tested on those “rigorous” non-fiction passages that are on a fourth grade level (not the fourth grade level of yesteryear but the new, improved 6th grade, I mean 4th grade level of today). And then we track their progress on a graph. If you’re thinking that these graphs look like random peaks and valleys, you are correct. When you cannot read and you are given a test, you are just going to guess. Which is what these students do. Sadly, they have become so inured to this that they guess on the few items that they actually are capable of doing.
“The federal government is already involved through NCLB, etc. These students count towards AYP. They count towards the school’s “grade.” The schools have every reason to give these students everything they’ve got, so why aren’t the slackers doing anything to give them a “quality education”? Well, they are. Florida is an RtI state. To get an ESE label, a student has to show that they are “resistant to interventions.” That is, they have to show that they require extensive interventions, that if they are weaned off of the interventions, they regress. Or, they have to show that despite intensive, research-based interventions, they are still showing no progress. In other words, before these students come to me, they have already received every intervention imaginable. In addition, even after they are found eligible for ESE services, they are usually started in a less restrictive environment. If none of this has worked, why should it work when they get to my class? Indeed, it had to be shown that it did not work in order for them to get into my class in the first place.
“Alas, I’m afraid I do not have a magic wand or a bag of pixie dust with which to work miracles. So, what is an ESE teacher to do? Most of us actually work with the studennts where they are at. And we move them forward from there. There is no huge spurt of growth (very rarely anyway), but they do make academic gains. None of these gains will show up on the regular ed grade level assessments, but they are there nonetheless. We’ve often wondered why these students aren’t given meaningful assessments that will show growth and that will actually tell us where these students are still struggling (thanks, FCAT, I already knew they couldn’t read on grade level). Now we know why. It’s to show that these students aren’t getting a “quality education.”
“I would tell you that these students, who are as bright as you or me, struggle immensely with academic subjects. That they are usually Language Impaired as well. That most of them are also ESOL students. That most of them come from low SES homes. That most of them come from single-parent households. That many of these parents come in to thank us because their child used to hate school and now they want to go. That their regular ed teachers in the past told us that they wouldn’t do anything in class, that they would shut down when anything was required of them, and now they are working in class. That through a lot of hard work and effort of both the teachers and students, the students get to a point where they stop saying, “I can’t do this, I’m stupid.” That non-writers become independent writers (legible despite the many spelling, grammar, and convention errors). That non-readers become readers (yes, still way behind their regular ed peers) and learn to enjoy reading. I would tell you these things, but it doesn’t matter because none of it shows up on the tests. The tests show that these students are not making any gains. And, as we all know, there are no excuses.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank God we have teachers able to say they are taking children in, sheltering and teaching them, and protecting them from the monsters who would rob them of their one and only chance at a human childhood.
More of this. Duncan might not hear you, but we do.
Unfortunately, Duncan and the policy makers who could make a difference do not read this blog or any other blog articles that might be perceived as critical. Our elected leaders who have the public “trust” (ha!) are wearing blinders and do not listen to the people they represent. They listen to their inner voices of “superiority”, “greed” and “lust for power”.
Tears in my eyes because this is my reality, too, though I am regular ed and in Michigan. My school has the same type of demographics and the same struggles and triumphs, but all that matters to the powers that be is one flipping test score! We keep soldiering on, because the kids matter to us and we pray that one day this madness will end.
I cringe when I hear Special Needs teachers refer to the “unit” their children are assigned. It is an unprofessional term that is demeaning and scapegoats children. I don’t know where it started but can we please cease using it. It is too closely related to prison terminology.
I have to say that when I hear the word unit, I think of many things (the armed forces, hospitals, police officers, measurement, sports, and, yes, schools (both in terms of classes and parts of a subject)), but I don’t think I ever thought of it in terms of prison terminology. I don’t doubt the connection. I’m just saying that it isn’t the first thing i think of when the word “unit” appears. As you know, it’s derived from the word “unity,” which makes sense to me, as the classroom units form together to make a school. In any event, it’s basically admin-speak and refers equally to ESE, regular ed, and blended classes. If it bothers you, please feel free to substitute it with the word of your choice.
My concern is not that it bothers me, but that it surely labels any child who is assigned to a “unit”. The Texas Prison System is classified by Unit Name and Unit Code. Every aspect of the prison system is designed around the name “unit”. Perhaps this is for a reason, since the ACLU has designated the “Pipeline to Prison” based on the “12 year sentence” in public schools. Maybe being “incarcerated” in a “unit” throughout the 12 year sentence of public school makes for a smooth transition to a prison “unit” in adulthood? Or maybe an “incarcerated” child in a “unit” can relate to their “incarcerated” parent in a “unit”?
“Unit” is not a good word to describe the school environment of a child.
In many school districts, it has become common practice to refer to Special Needs children as being in a “unit”, while that term is not used for other regular classes in the school. It is like the Special Needs kids are singled out, which is a form of scapegoating. We do not hear parents say, “My child is in the 2nd grade “unit”. No, they say, “My child is in the 2nd grade “class”. “Unit” is a term in schools that has become synonymous with Special Needs children as a derogatory distinction. It needs to be deleted from everyone’s vocabulary. Call the Special Needs class by the same term used for other classes in the school.
I’m not trying to make excuses here but about the time NCLB kicked in we started consolidating our special needs classes here in FL. It is my understanding that the word “unit” is now used because all of our special needs classes are multiple ages/multiple grades. They are not like a regular “grade level” class anymore.
We have tremendous burnout and turnover in my district because it is not uncommon for an elementary ESE teacher to be assigned a class of students that are chronologically grades K,1,2 and also be responsible for any mainstreamed students in those same grade levels and their IEP-required interventions.
Almost all of our ESE classes at the elementary level are now called “varying exceptionalities” (VE) meaning they are comprised of all ESE students instead of being grouped by IEP goals and needs as in the past.
The class size is no longer capped at a smaller size group as in the past. ESE classes may have the equivalent amount of students as a general ed classroom under the class size amendment which is often ignored anyway.
ESE classes may include students with physical handicaps, students on the autism spectrum, students with severe emotional disabilities, students who are physically violent, etc.
Having to teach each student’s individual IEP goals, all the grade-level standards for each child, maintain an accurate IEP for each child, test each child at their designated grade level, etc. is more than overwhelming.
I work every year with our primary ESE teacher and mainstream as many children as is possible when it fits their IEP goals. These teachers are the heroes of the teaching world and deserve so much more credit than they get. Instead they are now in the target of Arne Duncan and VAMboozling. It’s beyond criminal. It’s evil.
I can’t imagine how anyone could claim that these special needs children are getting an appropriate education. I don’t care how gifted a teacher is, even attempting to meet the basic needs of all these children in the same classroom (unit?) is an impossible job. I don’t know how those in power can make it more obvious that they plan to destroy special education.
Keep teaching, Florida teacher! Your children are lucky to have you as a teacher!
I retired from teaching at the RI School for the Deaf in 2011. One of the things that drove me to retire before I had planned was that the state dept. of ed. designated our school a Persistently Lowest Achieving School, based almost exclusively on scores on the state assessments, which might have led to school closure or being taken over by a charter. I agree completely with this special ed teacher, who articulates perfectly the absurdity of the mindboggling nature of the “logical” thinking of grand poobah Duncan. That the national organizations that supposedly advocate for special needs students are not storming the federal department of ed is inexcusable. At least the BATs will be there in a few weeks. What Arne is doing to special education will demolish 40 years of progress. And he and his cronies are hypocritical enough to claim it’s “all for the kids.”
Arne Duncan has no knowledge or credentials in education, especially special education. Your students are capable of learning the content of many subjects at grade level, but testing them through the only option open to them – reading, is the same as testing a blind student through sight.
We have tons of research about SLD, Speech & Language Impairment, and other disabilities, which is being ignored while only one approach is being shoved down children’s throats.
It is a crime!
Malpractice!
We need to teach our hearts out and teach our children everything they need to know, via any strategies, assistive technology, with any accommodations and creative interventions necessary. We know how to to this. We have done it for years.
The mandated CCSS and it’s components is not working for millions of children, especially children with learning differences.
This is mighty close to THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY for all American children.
A CRIME indeed! Abusive malpractice!
You are spot on with this comment. I weep for the future of our country. I weep for the lives of children. President Obama will ultimately own the destruction of public education and a generation of children as part of his legacy. Shame on him for allowing our great country to lose the foundation that built this great country. Shame on me for once believing he would be the change our country needed.
“President Obama will ultimately own the destruction of public education and a generation of children as part of his legacy.”
Not only the Obomber but also the dip sh!t before him, Georgie Porgie.
I applaud this teacher as well but I know that under Florida law, she/he will most likely be fired, sooner rather than later.
Two low VAM ratings means loss of job and revoking of teaching license in Florida and 50% of that VAM must, by law, be based upon the test scores of that teacher’s students.
Some have escaped so far because there were no tests outside of grades 3-5 so they were rated on school averages of those students, even though they didn’t teach them.
Next school year there will be computer tests for all grade levels, including an End of Course test that will be compared to the beginning of year Placement Test and that comparison will yield the “growth” measurement. It will be grade level regardless of the student’s IEP. Having sat in as the required general ed teacher on many IEP updates this year the only accommodations we were allowed to include were more time, small group administration in a separate location, and the use of a bilingual dictionary. Imagine how these kids will fare when placed before a computer screen that demands complicated actions, including keyboarding, to complete the timed tests, with no teacher direction or input allowed.
Florida is moving away from “units” (a state DOE term that this teacher was using probably because that’s what we here from our administrators and district personnel, like it or not Izzy) and moving all ESE students into mainstream classrooms whether it is an appropriate placement or not. The idea is to do away with ESE teachers and classes altogether, except for a very few specialists that will be cheaply shared among schools at a huge cost savings compared to the current paradigm. I got this info from a recently retired ESE director I met serendipitously at a social event.
The legislature passed a requirement last year that mandates all teachers must complete a new ESE certification class before being allowed to renew their teaching license, whether they have already completed classes before or not.
This new law was followed by a concerted PR campaign from the state DOE claiming that far too many students are labeled ESE without reason. To make this charge more palatable it was claimed that too many boys of color are labeled ESE so it must be racism at work.
Now I’m sure that here, in the still racist deep South, that racism plays a part in a lot of school decisions, including ESE placement but after 15 years teaching in Florida I can tell you that it is nearly impossible to get any student qualified for ESE and it has been this way for the last 6 or 7 years.
The default idea is that teachers are to blame and that students without visible physical difficulties or medial diagnoses are not really in need of ESE designation and support rather teachers need to pull up their bootstraps and teach better under threat of dismissal.
This dovetails nicely into Arne Duncan’s idiotic statement and policy, doesn’t it?
Thank goodness(?) I lost my job before they figured out how to use RtI at the high school level. I didn’t need data from such exercises to tell me a student couldn’t read. There was no intervention on earth that was going to allow a student with a third grade reading level to read the material expected in their high school classes. My experience with testing expectations were similar. The students knew that they were not going to do well, so blowing the test off was the sensible thing to do. Why torture yourself?
Any educator with an ounce of intelligence knows that testing needs to be diagnostic and should bring kids from where they are to the point where they can achieve to their own maximum potential. This doesn’t seem to penetrate the thick skull of Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, et al.
Does a coach think every player can achieve the same skill level? Some kids are less agile or limber. Some have physical limitations. Some have no potential of stardom. The same is true of learning capacity.
I am so tired of the unrealistic and punitive lack of critical thinking exhibited by these “reformers”.
PL 94-142 happened because special needs parents went to Washington and demanded their children be serviced. These parents need to make another trip to Washington to protest the treatment of these students. They are identified special education for a reason and the IEP goals alone should be used for growth and progress. Many educators believe the department may be doing away with special education. Parents wake up snd find your voices again.
The business community has made it quite clear that spending money to educate children with special needs is no longer going to be tolerated. After all, there will be no return on investment for educating children who will, more than likely, never grow up to hold positions that increase a business’s bottom line. PL 94-142 is no longer the law of the land. Children with special needs have been designated ‘throw away children’, by the United States Chamber of Commerce.
Spot on. So many children are data points and not individual learners whose individual maximum potential should be realized. What a disservice we are doing to these and every child
Well, I feel like I’ve won the lottery. Thanks for posting this, Diane. My hope is that more people will speak out as they realize that silence is consent.
This is a good article. I also agree with izzy’s comment that we need to stop using the term “unit” for Special Needs kids. It definitely has a derogatory distinction in my HEB school district.
This must be a term adopted in certain states or districts for whatever reason. The only place I have ever heard it in connection with schools is on this blog. So far, we still have classes rather than units where I live.
2old2teach: “Unit” is now used pretty much all over the country to refer to the self contained class that is the most restrictive environment for Special Needs kids. Since the SpEd guidelines are coming from the feds and consistent all over, it seems that “unit” has taken hold. It needs to go away.
I taught self contained classes at the high school level We did not use the term.
Madison, the term “unit,” at least in my county, is not used for ESE students. It’s actually not used for students at all, but for classrooms, both ESE and regular. So, when the principal tells us that we’ve lost a 3rd grade unit, gained a 4th grade unit, gained a kindergarten unit and haven’t lost any ESE units, what she’s saying is that she’s moving one of the third grade teachers to fourth grade and will be hiring a new kindergarten teacher. Oh, and you ESE teachers can stop worrying for now.
It’s interesting to me, in a purely academic way (most of my college work was in the area of English lit), that we don’t see this kind negative connotation with the word “unit” in other endeavors like sports (e.g. the punt return unit) or health care (e.g. the burn unit). I see the term in a neutral light, but I can see where it could be a negative term depending how it’s used in various locations. Anyway, thank you for your comment.
Unit is not used at my school. Class is the term that is used. The first I have heard the term is today in this post. But then again, being a supposedly backward state, “unit” must not have become in vogue, yet.
And I, like Izzy, find the term abhorrent due to its prison and military connections.
“being in a . . . “
It’s somewhat amusing that out of everything, the use of the word “unit” is what gets everyone’s attention. I invite you to substitute the word “class” or something else you find to your liking in its place.
i applaud Florida teacher’s efforts to expose this testing debacle and hope it encourages others to speak up for the mistreatment of Special Needs children in the schools.
I also agree with izzy’s comment that we need to cease using the term “unit” as placement for Special Needs children. It does have a derogatory distinction in my school district, and I think most others as well.
As I mentioned elsewhere, “unit” is a term for a designated number of students as per funding allocations. It is not a term to negatively label students.
…unless one chooses to make it into that…
I am an instructional assistant, and work as a private tutor. My thought is what curriculum is being used for all of these children. I am sure it is “balanced literacy”, “whole word” reading curriculum. It is a shame that explicit phonics is not taught. You might be amazed at what it can do for these children who are being left behind in the system. We always talk about differentiated instruction, but we give them more of the same thing that has failed them in the first place. And yes, Duncan is a tool.
“Balanced literacy” and “whole word” do not belong in the same sentence. If you are going to try to denigrate an approach to literacy, be familiar with the approach.
You would be mistaken then Bonnie FRench. In my school and in my whole district we have used SRA (direct instruction phonics) in all of our special education classes for as long and I’ve been teaching here (14 years). We also have Delores Hiskes’ “Phonics Pathways” (another “approved” direct instruction phonics program) which we use for intervention services.
It’s not as simple as you attempt to portray it here. We haven’t used balanced literacy or “whole word” reading approaches in ESE for over 15 years so it’s not “more of the same thing.”
I know this is a recurring trope in the conservative world — that kids are being shortchanged by “new math” and “balanced literacy” and/or “whole language” but most schools that are not in NYC or the Northeast ran from those programs years ago after the public ridiculing started coming out of Fordham and other rightwing organizations.
We used the mandated “Reading First”, which was actually phonics first for the duration of George Bush’s presidency. We had no choice and we were closely monitored for “fidelity” on a daily basis.
There was no miracle reading surge. New research is showing that poverty affects brain size, brain functioning, and recall memory. Exposure to teratogens in the womb and unhealthy living conditions (primarily lead poisoning, which affects brain development) and constant stress from abuse and hunger (again, affecting brain size and function) are not things that the “phonics is the answer to everything” generation had to deal with and it has no impact on a smaller, compromised brain function.
Yes, phonics can have a powerful impact for SOME children. It is not a panacea. I believe in and teach systematic phonics to the children who need it. Many don’t. Some are not helped by it at all. That is differentiation — giving each child the kind of instruction they need. I’m not sure why you denigrate it?
This is exactly right. We’ve been using various direct-instruction, phonics-based programs since I started 17 years ago, and the county was using them before I started. As you said, it works great for some, works ok for others, and doesn’t really work at all for some. One of the things that really hinders these students is there deficits in both short and long-term memory. It impacts everything they do.
As real educators know, there is no “one size fits all” way to learn. My brain is spinning from all the buzz surrounding every facet of ed reform. The biggest alarm is coming from the way those who promote these changes do not acknowledge the fact that “input does not guarantee “!
The mere fact that these techno gurus don’t realize that people are not computers boggles the mind.
Thank you from a fellow Special Educator in New York.
This horrible movement Demonstrates zero understanding of child development or developmental differences. We were taught testing was to be used to inform instruction and respond to the learners needs not the needs of corporations and politicians.
My students and their families deserve so much better.
I am annually befuddled by how the State of California will give the end of course tests to students with 5-6 weeks of class left. Who thinks this is a good idea? How can you be tested on content you have not yet been taught!?!?!
European schools give the end of course test at the end of the course! It’s not really rocket science here!