Tuesday Open Thread
So no snow in my area so here's hoping yours is dry as well.
I received my Seattle Public Library newsletter and wanted to alert readers with high school students about a new scholarship opportunity. It's the Stim Bullitt Civic Courage Scholarship. (This is a bequest from the late Stimson Bullitt who supported public libraries.)
High school seniors and undergraduate students who live, work or attend school in Seattle are invited to participate.
The competition asks students to write an essay about an individual or group of individuals from Washington state who have demonstrated civic courage on an issue of importance to the community at great personal, political or professional risk.
Essays must be submitted online between January 2 - February 28, 2014. Winners will be announced in May 2014. Winning essays will be added to the collection in the Hugh and Jane Ferguson Seattle Room at The Seattle Public Library and will be given directly to the participant’s school on their behalf.
1st Place: $5,000 scholarship, 2nd Place: Two $2,500 scholarships, 3rd Place: Three $1,000 scholarships
They have quite the who's who of judges; Sherman Alexie, Timothy Egan, Jon Krakauer and Jonathan Raban. The library is also offering free research assistance with this competition and will host two workshops.
What's on your mind?
I received my Seattle Public Library newsletter and wanted to alert readers with high school students about a new scholarship opportunity. It's the Stim Bullitt Civic Courage Scholarship. (This is a bequest from the late Stimson Bullitt who supported public libraries.)
High school seniors and undergraduate students who live, work or attend school in Seattle are invited to participate.
The competition asks students to write an essay about an individual or group of individuals from Washington state who have demonstrated civic courage on an issue of importance to the community at great personal, political or professional risk.
Essays must be submitted online between January 2 - February 28, 2014. Winners will be announced in May 2014. Winning essays will be added to the collection in the Hugh and Jane Ferguson Seattle Room at The Seattle Public Library and will be given directly to the participant’s school on their behalf.
1st Place: $5,000 scholarship, 2nd Place: Two $2,500 scholarships, 3rd Place: Three $1,000 scholarships
They have quite the who's who of judges; Sherman Alexie, Timothy Egan, Jon Krakauer and Jonathan Raban. The library is also offering free research assistance with this competition and will host two workshops.
What's on your mind?
Comments
The article focuses on the girl, her family and the effects of homelessness. The importance of her school as an anchor in her life is highlighted, and in particular, the relationship she has with her principal.
The effects of the political culture in New York is also highlighted. It will be interesting to see how the philosophy of Bill De Blasio affects the families living in homelessness, as well as the threats/promises of school reform under current mayor Michael Bloomberg.
It is a great series.
The NYS Board of Regents thinks that it is imperative that society be able to pinpoint just who is “good enough,” who is “career and college ready,” and who is not. The current policies in place regarding graduation and diploma requirements stigmatize students with disabilities, and ensure that many students will no longer earn a diploma of any kind. As of July, 2013, IEP and vocational diplomas have been phased out. Students with an IEP must achieve 55 or higher on five Common Core based Regents Exams or a 65 or higher on the ELA and Math Regents Exams to make up for scores lower than 55 on the other three exams. If a student is not able to do this, NO diploma will be awarded. Instead, a disabled student will receive a Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement Credential signifying that the student meets criteria for entry-level employment. Students who are assessed using the NYS Alternate Assessment (NYSAA) are only eligible for a Skills and Achievement Credential.
There is NO evidence that employers will value this credential or accept it in lieu of a diploma. Awarding such a credential rather than a diploma stigmatizes and identifies students with disabilities due to the fact that it is ONLY awarded to students with disabilities. When a young person with a disability is asked by a potential employer if he or she has a high school diploma, not only do they have to answer no, but they will have to disclose that they have a CDOS Commencement Credential, thereby outing them as a person with a disability and violating their right to privacy and confidentiality afforded them by education law. As a society, are we really so paranoid that we fear young men and women who are not “career and college ready” slipping by undetected? Who does this new policy benefit, other than those who wish to easily separate and identify students with disabilities?
- misst
Jane Addams Middle School Community Meeting
Jane Addams Middle School Library(Same agenda both dates)
Wednesday, December 11 6:30-8:00
Wednesday, December 18 6:30-8:00
Agenda
Overview of timeline, teacher hiring, and spring processes
Review of facility work
Q & A
Opportunity for parents and community to give first input into the educational design
Brief school tour
Tara
Special education students have every right to be educated alongside their general education peers. But if they cannot fulfill the academic requirements for a general diploma, then they should not get a general diploma. No different than any other student.
Like every other student they should have the *opportunity* to earn a general diploma. If they cannot do so, it is humane that there is a designation showing they had the capability and means to complete schooling to the best of their ability. That will still mean something for entry level jobs or cohousing situations.
For another section of students a GED serves as another way to show commitment even if the general diploma was out of reach.
It is not fair to employers or to those completing all coursework in a satisfactory manner to claim academic standards have been met if they have not.
Public Mom.
- southpaw
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177515/teachers-parents-complain-overcrowding-lack-support-plague-welcoming-schools
I think it's pretty likely that west of I-5 up to Ravenna-ish will be in Lincoln. How far east of I-5 and how far north are more open questions. It will have to come fairly close to Roosevelt because the fastest growth is in the NE, filling up Roosevelt and Hale. All that said, I don't know any better than anyone else.
It is a bit confusing because it is likely they will want to ship some Magnolia/Queen Anne students there (at least until there is a downtown high school).
If I had to guess, naturally all of Hamilton's middle school region which would include West Woodland, Day, John Stanford, McDonald, Green Lake plus some parts of Magnolia/Queen Anne. It might be useful to go back and see what Lincoln's original boundaries were.
Speddie
DistrictWatcher
An alternate certificate of completion says a lot more to future employers than dropping out. That should be the big employer warning sign.
DistrictWatcher
Why would it be important for an employer to know whether an applicant has a disability? Should applicants submit DNA testing, along with the outcome of Common Core standardized testing?
I wouldn't take such issue with your statement except for your statement of the "unfairness" of it all...
The emphasis for me is not on disability. There is no shame in having a disability. There is no shame in earning a certificate of individual achievement. That certificate should be celebrated for the effort it took student, family and system to achieve. School systems and society should encourage employers to value these individual efforts.
But an academic diploma signifies mastery of academics. No doubt many special education students can earn these and public school should provide every opportunity for that to happen. I do not believe subject mastery tests should be timed for instance. But public school should not indicate that mastery has happened when it has not. That just kicks the can down the road for failures in post-secondary school and in jobs.
Our diploma system is far from perfect and many argue that kids have achieved academic diplomas that are not backed by enough academic mastery. That may be true. But weakening the diplomas further by saying someone has done the work when instead they have done alternative or other work is not a step in the right direction.
Public Mom
Eddie Speddie
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if my child takes the Algebra EOC exam with accomodations, then that means she will not receive full credit for passing? Does the need for some almighty power to place all our children on the "level playing field" mean that someone who is differently-abled will always be labeled? Note, the accomodation was, as you pointed out Public Mom, extended time for test-taking. Do we excuse employers who want only abled employees to hire only those people? Then why the heck do we have civil rights protection? No hyperbole there either.
Simply because Gates' giant data systems and mega lobbying efforts make such private information available, does not make it justifiable.
As to the EOC, you may take it with accommodations (all students with or without disabilities are eligible for accommodations btw) and use it towards a certificate of academic achievement if you get a 3 or better. Things that move your child to the CIA are passing with a 2 under MO, taking the WAas-daw, taking a site based test, or receiving modified credits. That all is pretty reasonable and has no relation to the gates foundation.
Eddie
I work with many very successful people with dyslexia: jobs involving $Ms and complex management skills. Should they have been denied a diploma (and job) because they could not take standardized tests without accommodations and/or scored "55 or higher on five Common Core based Regents Exams or a 65 or higher on the ELA and Math Regents Exams to make up for scores lower than 55 on the other three exams"? How did we manage all these years without this finely-tuned measure of "career and college-ready"?
As for ADA, this federal law does not just apply to those public institutions and private employers who know their employees and can guard against lawsuits. I'm no constitutional scholar but the Declaration of Independence guarantees "all men(sic) are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; ... The private sector is a meritocracy, so let all who are selected make their way without a new construct, erected by the latest reform du jour.
I read the column you linked and I didn't see anything about not allowing testing accommodations. It looks like they are denying a diploma in cases where a student could not pass the required exam(s) with or without accomodations.
I would love a definitive answer on that question, because I inquired and was told that somehow my child's EOC would not count 100%. Anyone, anyone?
Anyhow, students with disabilities still get the academic diploma here, in NY and elsewhere. Many do. Disability is a big tent and is not the same as seriously cognatively impaired. Disabled students use their accommodations in achieving the academic diplomas all the time.
And why all the angst about the privacy rights of disabled students who are using public funds and getting accommodations that are obvious to the public. Why the defensiveness and secret-behind-closed-doors attitude? It's that approach that gives disability a bad connotation. Much better to say I or my child have a disability, we differ from others in that we have some law-given rights which help us to overcome challenges, but mostly we are just like you - doing our darnedest to get by.
The Gates Foundation and Common Core don't seem like the bad guys here. You sound like your own worst enemy, burdened by the assumption that the system and the public are out to do wrong by those with disabilities.
In general I find quite the opposite. But maybe that is my mindset.
SPED PROUD
SPED PROUD, I'd love to have you advocate more for sped students in this district along the lines of your mindset. I am also part of the SPED community. Perhaps the current state of SpEd at SPS; the OSPI findings of fault; and, Common Core etc) are all okie-dokie? I believe that, of late, much has been in violation of rather important laws.
Federal law preserving civil and disability rights does not require unique certifications for those who do not fit the standardized Common Core (copyright) mold. It does require that public education be individualized to a student's needs.
I'm not so concerned about the economic hardship of employers trying to quickly discriminate and cull the haves and have-nots. Likewise the PISA panic attacks are of no concern. What is of concern is the erosion of civil rights. Furthermore, privacy is really all the vast majority of us 99% have left.
So by all means, be more of a service to the SPED community and lobby for special certificates - instead of differentiated instruction, higher expectations, and recognition of the standards our children HAVE mastered.
On an entirely different subject: has anyone else noticed that the Ed Reform PR organs (Times, Crosscut etc) have NOT issued editorials and "news articles" decrying the composition of the new school board? I think they have figured out that they have to change their game, given the outcome of the election.
Eddie
You aren't doing the special education community any favors here IMHO. Also, hate to break it to you, but privacy is not all we have left. We have no privacy. Disabled and Abled alike. Have you not been reading the news? A little govt. agency called the NSA knows all about us. Data privacy vanished a decade ago and none of us are going to stop that train. Not when the majority of Americans could care less.
So, since we don't have anywhere to hide, best to live life on the bright side of intentions, not the assumption that bogeymen are out specifically to get us and ours.
But again, this is my own mindset.
SPED PROUD
testing/SPED.
I have waded through the links in the past. The information is detailed. If your child can achieve, with accommodations, grade-level expectations, then the usual diploma will be awarded. If less mastery at grade level, or mastery of a lower grade level, or social skills mastery is called out in a student's IEP, then a child will be on track for different certification of accomplishment.
EdVoter
You might also want to review the OSPI accommodations manual.
Sped Proud you are exactly right on the money. I too am sped proud.
Eddie
I'm not alone. SEAAC's position was framed earlier this year: SEAAC believes that (the MAP) testing and the agenda moving schools towards standards-based education is an indignity for students with disabilities and others as well. The whole point of these standardized tests is to create failures; first the students and then the teachers. Being "nonstandard" is not a failure for our students, nor our teachers, nor our schools. Diversity and standardization are incompatible.
If everyone did well on standardized tests or "measured to standard", we would say: "The test is too easy. Everybody passed it." Instead, we create tests that have failures built-in by design. The only question remaining: "Who will those failures be?" The answer is: "Whoever wrote the test will pass the test. Others will fail."
Students with disabilities already face an uphill battle in every class they attend. If schools really wanted to teach students with disabilities, there would be no need for the law, IDEA, mandating it. Students with disabilities already take tests routinely. They are poked, prodded and measured countless times as is. Standards based tests reflect disability, not ability. More testing confirming disability does not benefit our students with disabilities.
Finally, standardization and standards-based tests and grading are misused to deny our secondary students access to extracurricular activities like sports or clubs. Grades are used as gatekeepers, and our students are often left out, again. Of course, parents in the know, and parents who have the time to advocate for their children can circumvent these roadblocks. Once again, standardization minimizes the educational experience of students with disabilities.
Wondering
There is a reason it is hard to fill the seats on a committee ---notice the deadline for applicants for the committee gets extended endlessly every year--- that ceased to be productive aes ago. It's meeting after meeting of complaints followed by and position papers that the district smiles while receiving then immediately shelves.
A SEAAC position paper on testing has no practical impact on state testing practices nor on local school districts' compliance with those practices. Further, I find the SEAAC paper cited as not helpful to the SPED community. The student body community is tested. SPED students are general education students first. Therefore they too will be tested with accommodations as fits with their IEP plan.
If grade level mastery is not compatible with the IEP, then they will use other state-mandated means to show mastery of their individual goals. To insist on public school services while refusing to acknowledge the need to benchmark growth over time is ludicrous.
SPED students can achieve and can show that they are achieving.
SPED PROUD
Early Entrance Program at the Robinson Center.
Hope that helps.
Our position papers have led to better accountability for special ed funding (note SAO audit), determined efforts to provide families with program information, input to OSPI on corrective actions, and district's continued efforts to rectify disproportionate discipline. We meet regularly with the Superintendent and members of his leadership team. SEAAC will continue to present carefully researched and reasoned positions on issues critical to students and families in special education
It appears that your position is jaded and bordering on crazy diatribes.
SEAAC member
I know several people who had extremely difficult home lives, and almost didn't graduate from high school. Once they left the house, with diploma (but not other identifiers in hand), they were able to graduate from college with high honors. They subsequently were very successful in their careers.
They never needed to explain their prior life history unless it was on their own terms.
That is the gist of what I am getting from mirmac1--the inability to overcome because of history being destiny.
Obviously, if students with intellectual disabilities are unable to graduate with the comparable level of understanding as their peers, they should not be given a fraud diploma.
However, it's the marker for life that is the can of worms, just like all the consequences that putting health care records online potentially/likely will lead to.
I could be wrong, but this is the deeper concern that mirmac1 seems to be expressing here.
--enough already
We would all like to live in a world where people are judged completely on their abilities and characters, without pre-assumptions and stereotypes. That is not the world we actually live in. I think those of us without disabilities do not really have a full understanding of what it is like to constantly face such conscious and unconscious bias and discrimination. So may be try walk a mile etc.
CCA
CCA
Sped Proud said: "Data privacy vanished a decade ago and none of us are going to stop that train."
Way to give up. I'm not giving up and particularly for students. There is NO reason their data HAS to go out into the ether via a school district. (What they and/or their parents decided privately is another thing.)
CCA
We recieved a letter like the one you mentioned, but it did NOT offer admissions paid for by SPS. Our letter said that our child's test scores were high and that she is invited to an informational meeting at the UW in January. The program accepts fewer than 20 kids, so I highly doubt these kids were offered entrance without any application process or interviews. They are VERY selective and want to make sure the kids can handle not only the work, but also handle being on a college campus as a young kid.
My letter said my child was welcome to apply only, and I would bet these parents received the same form letter I got.
-pickle
fyi
The SEAAC paper was developed as a response to the MAP. There is good reason to reject the MAP both for students with disabilities and for students without. The statements from SEAAC about standardized tests do reflect a general consensus in this area.
However, having said that, there are many instances where standardized testing are very useful for students with disabilities and for students suspected of having disabilities. And before anyone starts launching their digital tomatoes at me, please read through my response to the end.
As an example of testing that is useful, many students may qualify for special education services or may be targeted for further evaluation based on standardized tests. For at least half of all students with disabilities, the traditional model of identification (before RTI) relied on a significant discrepancy between ability and achievement for specific learning disorders such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalcula. Keeping track of performance on standardized tests as part of the "present levels of performance," along with other information can help IEP teams make decisions about the effectiveness of interventions.
There is a lot of debate both within and external to students with disabilities about testing those students with lower cognitive functioning. For the last several years, the federal government has allowed states to exempt 2% of all students or 14% of special education students from these tests. Most disability advocacy groups think this number should revert to the lowest 1% of all students or about 7% of students with disabilities. Seattle Public Schools’ demographics indicate 0.3% of all students qualify for special education based on intellectual disability. This number of course, is low, as it does not include those who are multiply handicapped, nor does it include students who qualify based on a diagnosis of autism. (Seattle Public Schools does not make data available using the 13 federally-identified categories of disabilities. They say they are changing, but I do not have high hopes about this.)
The reason disability rights groups advocate for this goes along the old adage of "what gets measured gets done." The promises in IDEA ring false when the money and talk around such concepts as the "opportunity gap" consistently fail to include students with disabilities. Fully forty percent of the students who exist in "the gap" receive special education services, yet funding, state organizations, initiatives, research, and education reform groups fail to even mention students who receive special education services. As a practical example, the state EOGOAC (Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight Accountability Council) includes representatives from every known racial group, including Asian American (who are not known to make up a group that falls into the gap,) yet by not appointing a special education representative to the table, they are missing the elephant in the room. As other practical examples, a keyword search of all initial applications to the Road Map Project turned up only one district (I believe it was Kent but I could be wrong) which even mentioned the words disability or the phrase “special education” yet the acronym ELL turned up several hundred times in the applications. Responses from education reform groups which center on such topics as charter schools do not make sense to most families of students with disabilities as charter schools ordinarily do not do a good job when addressing the needs of students with disabilities (I have heard that there are some charter schools which do perform well, but research indicates they are in the minority.)
As long as the money and talk centers on the results of standardized tests, I personally favor students with disabilities taking an annual test. Do I think they should have to take the test that their same age peers take? No. I think they should take the test that applies to the goals established in their IEP. I think tests should be used to measure individual progress, and that’s about it. But the federal government says otherwise for now. Do I think that teachers of students with disabilities should receive evaluations based on their students’ growth? Again, absolutely not. But again, the federal government disagrees with me, and the state of Washington is going to be in trouble around this for NCLB funds if they don’t get in line with federal regulations.
As far as graduation goes, I can't really comment on NY state. I can barely make sense of all the regulations in Washington State. I do know this is another area where there are more hoops to jump for all students. Students with disabilities do have the options to take the the HSPEs or EOCs at grade level—with or without accommodations—but IEP teams adjust passing criteria from “Proficient” (Level 3) to “Basic” (Level 2). For students with disabilities, EOC or HSPE exams tied to graduation generally do not make sense, nor does the promise/threat of Common Core related testing (which will not be required to graduate until 2019), where more students overall will not pass, and it is likely an even greater percentage of students who receive special education services will not pass. Making graduation more difficult for all students will likely disproportionately impact students of color, students with limited English proficiency and lastly, students who receive special education services.
The district has identified several goals for special education. These are from the district website’s page on special education services:
• Increased performance on State assessments for students with disabilities
• Increased graduation rate for students with disabilities
What I haven’t seen is a plan on how they are going to do this. The focus this year has been on the corrective action plan and stabilization of staff. If and when the district develops a plan on graduation, I would love to see it.
As far as privacy goes, I agree with Mirmac1. Many disabilities carry a serious stigma. Really. If you think about the stigmatizing words in society, there’s the N label and the there’s the second worst label, MR. There’s mental illness, there’ss Fetal alcohol syndrome, there’s epilepsy, there's issues of abuse and neglect. There’s all kinds of issues of misidentification, prejudice, and prejudgment. What your child’s disability is may be something he or she cares to share with the world when he or she is ready. Out in the “real world,” as some like to call post school life, a worker can request accommodations but does not need to identify his or her disability. Invasions of privacy around disability issues can have serious repercussions for both students and employees. To SPED proud parent, good for you, your student, and your choice. Your choice may not be the right choice for everyone.
As Mary notes, this will become a growing problem once CC tests come online. As it stands, my child's school had a rude awakening when the Smarter Balanced Assessment test results come in. Scores were low.
It is written as though disability equals mentally incapacitated. This is simply not the case. There are many areas of disability protected by ADA.
It equates standards-based expectations with and standardized testing. Not the same thing at all.
It presents a number of opinion statements such as "The whole point of these standardized tests is to create failures" into fact.
It assumes that the SPED parent community does not want its students tested. This is not the case from what I can discern. Some may not. Many do.
-two cents-
Mirmac, if your child has the modification of "passing with a 2" on any state high school EOC written in the iep, then they get modified credit for the exam. And, it counts toward the student's diploma and certificate of individual achievement. That isn't "nothing" for a year of work. If the student earns a 3, that counts for any diploma. You seem to have a problem with the idea of certificates of individual achievement. That accurately describes and rewards students for abilities they do have. In these cases, it isn't the diploma that hinders the student. It is the disability itself.
Another seaacer
Both are valid proof of graduation. Both are public.
A child with an IEP is also eligible to gain the 'academic achievement' certificate by using IEP-outlined accommodations to meet the same academic standards that general education students must meet.
I agree with SPED Proud. Why the shame of an individual achievement certificate? Many SPED families are grateful for this option. Students can show that they have learned to the best of their ability. This *is* allowing for diversity within standards-based education.
-two cents-
-sped parent
Yes, I am aware of the fact that my fantasy about what might be useful in terms of tests doesn't match up with either the state or the FEDS.
I am also quite aware of letting districts decide what tests kids should take. I guess I should have prefaced my comments about testing as "In a perfect world, testing would not be used to manipulate district/schools scores, teacher performance or be tied to graduation." It is interesting that you talk about third grade. I have come to believe that for many teachers, third grade is the limit for possibility, at least as far as math goes. That's just my personal experience.
As far as low expectations go, IDEA,however, the "implementation of this title has been impeded by low expectations, and an insufficient focus on applying replicable research on proven methods of teaching and learning for children with disabilities. Almost 30 years of research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by-- ``(A) having high expectations for such children and ensuring their access to the general education curriculum in the regular classroom, to the maximum extent possible, in order to-- meet developmental goals and, to the maximum extent possible, the challenging expectations that have been established for all children; and be prepared to lead productive and independent adult lives, to the maximum extent possible. (IDEA 2004)
As you pointed out, many students with disabilities do quite well on standardized tests. Setting low expectations just because someone has a disability is wrong.
Sped parent