Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w...
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The facts,
1) 75% of special ed students have average or better IQ's... but only 7% passed the WASL or the WAAS in the state in 2006. This is the real acheivement gap.
2) If we introduce a loophole in accountability by removing special education students from NCLB requirements, special education will become a dumping ground for all the other failing groups. In fact, it already is a dumping ground for minorities the district choses not to educate. It is well documented that SPS sped students are highly over-represented by minorities, especially considering that the city is actually 70% white.
3) Special education students are very often excluded from any special WASL preparation that other at risk students receive. The argument usually goes, "Well, they already get special ed. Isn't that enough?"