Archives for category: Special Education
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Louisiana: $615 Million for Consultants, $0 for Home Care for Disabled

By dianeravitch
July 22, 2013 //
28

Governor Bobby Jindal eliminated a $4 million program that provides home care for people with developmental disabilities. You know, the state can’t afford it.

But the state treasurer pointed out that the Louisiana Department of Education spent an astonishing $615 million on consultants in the five years from 2005-2010.

According to the local media:

“State Treasurer John Kennedy gave Gov. Bobby Jindal an idea last week of where to find dollars to expand home services for the developmentally disabled.

“Jindal vetoed $4 million that would have allowed more disabled to get care that keeps them out of institutions.

“Kennedy said in his “opinion column” that even though “money is tight” there is a way to restore the funding. A “good start” would be for Jindal to reverse his axing of a legislative plan to cut $2 million in consulting contracts.

“The state Department of Education pays tens of millions of dollars to consultants each year, many of whom are out-of-state,” Kennedy wrote. “In fact, from 2005 to 2010, the department issued 5,499 consulting contracts worth $615,773,580.74.”

Some of the $615 million spent for consultants:

Contract #662421; “Create a public awareness campaign targeting multiple
audiences in Louisiana to establish a positive image of high school
redesign;” $341,465.48.
Contract #655743; “Contractor to provide services related to interactions
with media, arrange interviews and provide reporters with information, draft
written materials;” $100,000.
Contract #663689; “Contractor will select and train focused individuals from
within education, as well as former educators, to become leaders in the
RSD;” $200,000.
Contract #672113; “Contractor to provide program that will assist students
to learn valuable social skills through organized play on their recess and
lunch periods;” $94,000.

Categories Budget Cuts, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Special Education

The Secret Of Achievement First’s Success

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2013 //
46

In Connecticut, the charter chain Achievement First is a financial and political powerhouse. State Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor was one of its founders.

But there is a worm in the apple. Achievement First leads the state in suspensions. Half its students are suspended or expelled at some point during the year. Legal Aid in Hartford filed a claim against the charter chain for its treatment of students with disabilities and won a ruling from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

“The complaint filed last year by the legal aid group said that students with disabilities were not getting “a free and appropriate education” because of the academy’s “failure to provide accommodations, modifications, and specialized instruction” as required under state and federal law.” It turns out that charter schools are not exempt from federal law.

One case was especially troubling:

“Johanna Rodriguez, whose eighth-grade son was included in the civil rights complaint, said her son was suspended and at home for most of last year, while this year she said he was suspended in school most of the time in a room set aside for students who are removed from class because of a behavior issue.

“For lesser offenses, he was given “re-orientation” where he could remain in class, but had to wear a white shirt and other students were not allowed to talk to him.”

Achievement First is a “no excuses” school and it treated this student as if he was trying to make excuses.

Categories Charter Schools, Special Education

Is the Tide Turning Against Corporate Reform in Los Angeles?

By dianeravitch
June 23, 2013 //
6

Something unusual happened at the most recent Los Angeles school board meeting. Even before newly elected Monica Ratliff was sworn in, the pro-privatization majority was in retreat.

Here is a fascinating account of the background and context:

So glad you are reporting this. I only wish that Zimmer had gone ever further on the class size issue and had reminded everyone that LAUSD has the largest numbers of charter schools. Every time a start up charter or independent conversion charter gets approved, money gets taken out of LAUSD’s budget. This has been brought up time after time, and even the budget director mentioned it at a recent meeting. So, it begs the question as to who Galatzan and Garcia are really supporting? Who is more important to them, charter schools or the vast majority of students in traditional schools?

I think the answer is obvious. After all, where does the big money come from when it comes time to collect campaign funds? The list of funders from Garcia’s recent board race reads like a who’s-who list of charter friendly corporations and charter operators.

Below is a paragraph from a recent IG report on how special education funding is negatively impacting LAUSD and thus contributing to class size increases. This happens because charter schools have a much lower percentage of special ed students and for those they do enroll, most have the least severe disabilities.

Click to access 13497FUNDINGSPECIAL%20EDUCATION%20PROGRAM.PDF

“An increasing number of charter schools is eroding the District’s ADA base for special education funding. The California funding system for special education is based on Census-Based funding model that funds special education programs based on school’s Average Daily Attendance (ADA) numbers. The establishment of charter schools takes away ADA numbers from the District resulting in less funding for the District’s special education program.”

Another item not discussed anywhere was the denial of a charter school.

From the LA Times:

“The board also voted to reject a bid from an independently operated charter school to remain open. Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School had sought a second, five-year charter, as well as permission to expand to offer a kindergarten-through-12th-grade program.”

This charter has two schools. The last time one of their schools came up for renewal, denial was also recommended. But, Garcia convinced her buddies on the board to overturn the charter division’s recommendation. After the vote, she got out of her chair and went into the street to celebrate with the head of the school, leaving behind her duties and missing out on voting on other issues.

This time, things were different. While the school was allowed to present their reasons for overturning the denial, when the board was asked to vote, NONE of the board members said a word. There was NO discussion…..ZERO!!! The vote was taken immediately and it was 6-1 in support of the denial. Of course, Garcia voted to overturn.

I suspect that this silence was pre-determined decision by the board. Perhaps it was because of the horrific report from the Inspector General’s office:

Click to access 12492ACADEMIA%20SEMILLAS%20CHARTER%20SCHOOL.PDF

The report above clearly states that, when an audit was requested, the school repeatedly refused to turnover any records. Perhaps the head of the school felt he had Garcia’s back and that, like before, the board’s charter friendly majority would ignore this “minor” problem. But not this time. Perhaps the board did not want an open discussion during which it may have been revealed that the board has been complicit in rubber stamping a charter that so blatantly disregards the rules.

Bottom line….the charter friendly board members took a major hit on Tuesday. Actions and statements by Garcia and Galatzan received numerous negative responses from the audience. Most certainly, this was only a precursor of what is to come.

Categories Charter Schools, Los Angeles, Special Education

How to Get Very, Very Rich While Providing Poor Services

By dianeravitch
June 21, 2013 //
22

This is a story about a private contractor who figured out how to make big money: open a center to diagnose and treat preschoolers with disabilities.

The state of New York pays for everything, and no one pays much attention to the quality of the services. The state pays for your beautiful new building and even your Mercedes.

So what if you misdiagnose children? Who will know? Then you order yourself to provide very expensive services, which you don’t really provide.

“Some children whose first language was Chinese languished in classes taught in Spanish or Korean. Others who were supposed to receive individual tutoring were thrown into groups of four or more children, all with different types of disabilities.” Some children didn’t have any disabilities but the state was billed for them too.

So what if your revenues grew over a decade from $725,000 a year to $17 million?

That’s business.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, New York, New York City, Special Education

Sarah Darer Littman: How to Create a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2013 //
10

Sarah Darer Littman watches in wonder as the Gates Foundation uses its billions to reorganize public education in Connecticut.

Their goal: more Achievement First charters, regardless of their high suspension rates for children in kindergarten and their poor record relating to students with disabilities.

Gates wants close collaboration with AF and other “high performing” charters. It wants them to be treated equitably, as if the generous support of Connecticut’s equity investors was not enough of a cushion.

What do they want? A dual school system of regulated public schools and unregulated charters, free to exclude, expel, or suspend any child?

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Special Education

The Shame of Providence

By dianeravitch
June 14, 2013 //
6

Providence and the state of Rhode Island allowed a school to use developmentally disabled students to do manual labor for little or no pay.

Both the city and state received a stern letter from the Civil Rights Division of the U. S. Department of Justice.

“Both Providence and the state allowed the Harold H. Birch Vocational School to operate a “sheltered workshop” that segregated kids with disabilities from other students and denied them the opportunity for integrated employment when they completed their schooling, according to a letter from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Birch obtains contracts with private businesses to perform work, such as bagging, labeling, collating, and assembling jewelry,” the letter stated.

“One former student stated that she was required to spend a much greater portion of her school day in the workshop, including full days, when the workshop had important production deadlines.”

Categories Special Education, Students

Charter School Rejects Student with Special Needs

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2013 //
59

Again and again, we hear the same story: charters excluding children with special needs. This is contrary to federal law. How do they get away with it? Where are the lawyers?

A mother writes:

My daughter is a mainstream student and has been attending Minnesota School of Science since they opened. For 2 years in a row I have been trying to enroll my son who is a special needs student but have been told by the school both years not to enroll him because the special education program is lacking and that my son’s needs will not get met and was told he is better off in a Minneapolis Public school not a charter school. This came straight from the mouth of the principal and two special needs teachers. I am glad they were honest enough to warn me that their special needs program sucks, but what does that mean for the children already enrolled? That their needs are not being met and that they are being under educated?

Categories Charter Schools, Minnesota, Special Education

Why High-Stakes Testing Is Useless For This Student

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
21

A teacher explains how useless high-stakes testing is for some students, and for this one student in particular:

He writes:

In response to a state standardized test question about analyzing the author’s use of hyperbole, a student of mine recently responded with one brief sentence: “I don’t know what analyze means.” This student (who receives special education services) sat with his head down for most of the testing session. I was struck by the fact that he felt compelled to finally lift his pencil and scribble this when he could have easily just turned in a blank test booklet. It tells me that, even at a school that does not emphasize the importance of these tests (like ours), they are stressful and demoralizing to students. Students’ self-esteem is damaged and they feel the need to explain why they can’t produce a satisfactory answer. Mainly, it reminds me that these tests are a huge waste of time and resources that could go toward engaging students in actual learning.

But what does it tell them?

A test scorer looking at this student’s response would conclude that the student’s response is “totally incorrect or irrelevant or contains insufficient information to demonstrate comprehension (0 points).” Same for most of this student’s other answers. So, he’s got a “below basic” achievement level in “literature,” according to the test. Most people could tell you that by listening to the kid read aloud for one minute. So what else can we gather from his poor performance? He’s probably not learning anything in school? Doesn’t keep up with the assigned readings? Doesn’t finish any of his writing assignments? His teachers must not be addressing his unique learning needs by teaching him all the state instructional standards… I bet he attends one of those “corrective action” schools that have failed to meet AYP measures over and over… (Hey, we should close all those schools!) …if he even attends at all.

The reality is that he attends an alternative high school that doesn’t believe in testing their students in the traditional way. Instead, this student demonstrates his learning through the completion of a multidisciplinary project each semester. His project is based on real world learning that he engages in at his internship at a reputable local motorcycle shop. Last semester, with the guidance and support of his internship mentor, he built a “go-ped” motor scooter from scratch using technical schematics that most of us would be hopeless at deciphering. He collected data on the cost of all the materials as well as retail pricing and crunched the numbers to determine how much he could reasonably charge for his product. He researched and wrote an essay on the inadequacy of driver education programs, presenting evidence from several studies that showed that teen drivers are largely unprepared for emergencies on the road. He developed a hypothesis and and analyzed the results of a science experiment that involved taking samples of and growing bacteria in a petri dish (How “dirty” are those go-ped handlebars anyway?). Instead of a final exam, he created and delivered an exhibition where presented evidence of all of this learning to a group of his teachers, mentors, and peers. Pretty amazing accomplishments for a student who is “below basic,” I’d say.

I keep this student’s response to the “analyze” question in mind as a good example of why these tests pretty much useless.

Categories Special Education, Testing

Yertle the Turtle and the Common Core

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2013 //
6

This post reminds us that literature speaks to us about life in ways that informational text can never do. That is why a story like Yertle the Turtle resonates with us long after we first read it and long after the informational text has been forgotten.

The post is about a kindergarten teacher. He is worried about how the Common Core will affect the children with the greatest needs.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Common Core, Special Education

Chicago Public Schools Sued for Discriminating On Grounds of Race and Disability

By dianeravitch
May 20, 2013 //
16

The Edwin F. Mandel Legal Clinic of the University of Chicago and a major law firm sued the Chicago Public Schools in federal court on behalf of students with disabilities and African American students. The closing of their schools, the lawsuit claims, has a damaging and disparate impact on these students.

In one lawsuit, the lawyers state:

“In violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the defendants propose to carry out the closings of 53 elementary schools in a manner that does not permit a timely and orderly process either for the proper review and revision of the individualized education programs (IEPs) for the plaintiff children and over 6,000 other children in special education programs or for the extra services and counseling such children require to make the difficult transition to unfamiliar schools and unfamiliar teachers and students. By putting off their decision on the closings to the eleventh hour, or the very end of the school year – for the largest closing of public schools in American history – the defendants place the plaintiff children and other children in special education at far greater risk than their non-disabled peers. The late date makes it impossible to conduct the closings without significant disruption to the programs in which these children participate and without adequate provision for the special safety risks faced by children with disabilities. In violation of federal law, this late, ill-timed, and ill-prepared program for the closing of 53 elementary schools will have a discriminatory impact upon the plaintiff children and other children with disabilities, compared to their non-disabled peers.”

The second lawsuit charges the school board, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, and the city not only with violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, but engaging in racial discrimination:

“I]n violation of Section 5 of the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003 (ICRA), 740 ILCS 23/5, and by repeatedly selecting African American students to bear the costs of the closings, the defendants have unlawfully used “criteria and methods of administration” that have the “effect” of subjecting the plaintiffs’ children and other African American children represented by the plaintiff parents to discrimination because of race. In conducting closings since 2001, the defendants have used various shifting criteria that they allege to be race neutral but that always have the effect of singling out poor and marginalized African American children to bear the educational and human costs of the closings. For the 72 schools that defendants have closed to date, African American children make up more than 90 percent of the displaced children; and in currently proposed closings, they make up more than 80 percent of the displaced children. Yet African American children constitute only 42 percent of the children in the public schools.”

Categories Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Special Education
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