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DEL.ICIO.USSpecial Education: An Especially Complex Issue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I recently visited an East Point school, Brookview Elementary, where pass rates on the state curriculum test are excellent and a can-do attitude permeates the building. While I’m saving most of my observations for a story that’s scheduled to run a week from Thursday, I wanted to mention a brief interview I had with a special education teacher.
For one, there’s a severe shortage of special education teachers. And secondly, the No Child Left Behind law had a huge impact on special education, in that it requires most kids to take the same standardized tests as their non-special ed peers.
Eugenia Shorter has been teaching special education for 23 years. She teaches kids with learning disabilities, emotional and behavior problems, even autism. Here’s what she said:
“The first thing I do is assess where my kids are academically. When I find the gap, I work to close the gap so they can pass the test. I challege them, and I push them. Sometimes, they only need a push. Sometimes, I might need to lower the bar temporarily and let them feel some success.”
She said she believes the federal law pushing special education teachers to teach their kids the same curriculum as regular education students makes sense. She doesn’t want her students to have to settle for a special education diploma. “They need a regular diploma, because they have to make it in the real world.”
I asked her about burnout, and she said she is fortunate in that she has a tight bond with the other teachers and administrators at her school. She said her principal, Paul Brown, “gives us an avenue to vent, to relieve stress. He goes that extra mile to help us. He remembers when he was a teacher.”
I know special education is a loaded topic, but what have your experiences been? Are public schools properly serving students with special needs?
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Jennifer
February 7, 2005 04:05 PM | Link to this
I love Ms. Shorter’s comments. It’s wonderful to know that she has permission to find and close the academic gaps with her students. If teachers of “normal” kids were given the same support and flexibility, our schools may actually make some tremendous strides towards improving the education of our kids. In my experience, with “regularâ€? kids, like my 7th grade students who were reading on a 4th grade level, teachers are not allowed to work towards fixing the problem. Instead, since states are test-driven now, some teachers, myself included, are directly told NOT to use alternate materials in an attempt to bring students up to grade level. Rather, since the reading-level of the tests will not change to accommodate our students’ abilities, we must teach them how to use whatever skills they have to do the best they can with 7th grade material. It would be helpful if we were trained in a similar manner as special ed. teachers so that we could bring in some of their teaching tactics into the “regularâ€? classroom. I do wonder, if “normalâ€? kids so often fall through the cracks, how do special ed. kids manage to keep up with grade-level academic instruction? I look forward to your article Thurs. to get more insight into this issue.
By Shirley Keith
February 8, 2005 09:11 AM | Link to this
I to am a special education teacher. I teach middle school Mildly Intellectually Disabled (ID) students and students on various levels of Autism. I commend Ms. Shorter on her ability to bring her students (not ID) up to grade level. What do we do with the students that are functioning on a kindergarten to 3rd grade level in grades 6-8 or higher? They are expected to pass the tests also. My students also need to be able to function in the real world and I feel that I am doing them a disservice by not teaching them the skills needed to do this. Instead of teaching them Algebra (something so abstract that it is like a foreign language to them), I need to be teaching them the survival skills to function in the real world outside of school. Our govenor stated in his recent block party that all students would be on grade level in the year 2014. Where are all the ID students going to be, back in instutitions like they were years ago and forgotten? What is it going to take, a special education student’s parents suing the state or the federal government because their child was not taught the skills needed to function effectively? I love my job and my students and I want them to succeed. Instead, I see them frustrated when they can’t understand what I am required to teach them by the state. The NO Child Left Behind law is leaving my children behind.
By Stephanie
February 8, 2005 10:56 AM | Link to this
I am grateful that someone was bold enough to speak on such a sensitive topic. I am the mother to a wonderful little boy who is fighting a behavioral disorder. Our fight has been extremely overwhelming because the school district of where we live has refused to provide my son with the services necessary for his individual needs. The Special Education teachers are wonderful however the principal at his school is very uneducated in the area of special needs/behavioral disorders, as such she has caused my son to experience a great deal of anxiety and frustration. My son does not have any learning difficulties his disability is only behavioral. I have fought two long years to have my son placed in a self-contained class, since my son’s disability is increased when trying to cope in large classrooms. LARGE CLASSROOMS + BIPOLAR = JUVENILE COURT.
By Travis Norris
February 8, 2005 11:10 AM | Link to this
Just want to ask a question. What type of ideas can a teacher use to push the special education students, without destroying them in the process and making the teacher frustrated at the same time?
By Nicole Brown
February 8, 2005 12:30 PM | Link to this
I enjoyed the article regarding Special Education. My daughter attends Lawrenceville Elementary and have a learning disability. I really feel that funding needs to be in place to ensure that students will have a regular diploma. I feel that the state is not doing all they can do to ensure that all kids are treated equally. the real world doesn’t discrimated.
By Tom
February 8, 2005 12:43 PM | Link to this
I was a special education teacher for 5 years and admire anyone that is able to teach, encourage as well as remain above all the blog of politics that unfortunately in one way or another weighs down most special ed teachers/programs. Unfortunately during my 5 years as a teacher of an interrelated self-contained class of between 12 to 18 students, the bog of politics more than often interfered with my ability to be an effective teacher.
An attitude of “I don’t want to be bothered” by any special ed issues was prevalent and this made it impossible to receive the necessary resources and/or support to be an effective teacher. I left the teaching field after 5 years because I was very much burned out with the constant struggle that most of the teachers as well as myself dealt with on a daily basis.
The goal of special education is deal with the student(s)academic and/or behavior problem(s) in order for them to eventually become mainstreamed into regular ed classes again. Most students though usually stay in special ed classes and the problems they are experiencing cannot be addressed sufficiently enough, due to bog of politics, to reach this goal.
By Sunshine
February 9, 2005 09:09 AM | Link to this
I helped teach special education classes when I was a member of the Beta Club in junior high school. My fiancee was also a member of a special education curriculum through all of his pre-collegate schooling. My experience was vastly different from his, where I saw students encouraged to succeede, he says he was meerly passed through grades just to get him out of the way. Because of that he quit school in the 11th grade. He spent many years after that feeling like he wasn’t smart enough to accomplish the goals he always wanted to achieve. It wasn’t until recently that he became aware of the high school at home programs and now is enrolled in one and is doing quite well at it because it allows him to do things at his own pace. Maybe if children in need of special education serves were given the opportunity to work at their own pace, the success rate would be much higher.
By Amanda
February 9, 2005 10:38 AM | Link to this
I teach English 9-12 in a resource setting to students with specific learning disabilities and behavior disorders. Some of my students are certainly capable of succeeding in the regular classroom with support. However, other students, especially those with emotional problems need the smaller, more structured setting. What will happen to these students? The majority of the ID population is in desperate need of functional life skills instruction. How will these needs be addressed in the regular classroom? I have been in the field of special education for almost 10 years, but next year I am hoping to teach English in the regular classroom setting. I never thought I would get out of special education, but lately I have lost sight of our purpose. Thanks for addressing this issue.
By Monique
February 9, 2005 12:20 PM | Link to this
I am an Interrelated Special Education teacher in a high school and I strongly agree with Mrs. Keith. We are expected to teach our kids in a “regular ed” setting that puts more pressure on the kids and makes it hard for them to perform. How can we expect for a 9th grader that reads on a 3rd grade level to “fit in”? Not all cases are that severe, but that is the majority. Some kids will do well with the mandates from “NCLB” but most will not. Even in the regular ed classes where I co-teach, the expectations for special needs students are tremendous and not designed for all. The politicians need to think about this system and find educators with hands on experience to help revamp it.
By Alexa
February 9, 2005 01:14 PM | Link to this
This is a topic I feel passionatly about. I am the sister of an adult with special needs who came through the public education system in several different states. For years my parents fought to have her in an inclusive, “normal” classroom setting. She passed biology, history, and many other “regular” classes. Over time though, it became obvious that what she needed was not instruction on the composition of cells, but on how to cope with and live in the world where there is not always a teacher/parent/sister to guide and protect. She did not retain the information from the “regular” classes and it in no way helped prepare her for life outside of school. She would have never been able to pass a mandated grade-level test. What she did gain from the inclusive experiences was exposure to “normal” functioning kids her own age and how to socialize with them appropriately. However, what my sister needed most, and received, was a chance to learn life skills. Because of these opportunities, she now lives in her own apartment with a group called “Just People” and has an office job. These are things she never could have accomplished without being taught life skills, such as handling money and appropriate workplace behavior. Lessons that were taught to her by teachers, family, and friends.
No Child Left Behind will not completely solve the problem of children being below grade level. It only makes the teachers’ lives more stressful. They are forced to teach a test and not teach students how to think. The act also applies broad laws to students whose needs are very diverse, as are my sister’s. This law will not only force out good teachers but it will ignore the true needs of different students. This is one of the greatest injustices of the act.
By mitch
February 9, 2005 01:51 PM | Link to this
I am a teacher with 12 years’ experience in the high school setting. I have taught gifted and special ed. Food for thought: will the police make exceptions for behavior disorders? do employers have to put up with insubordination because of ADD? Of course not. If we want no child left behind, we should teach them about proper, responsible behavior. If you were called a GD. MF’in, SOB, as I was yesterday in the real world, would your Individualized Education Plan keep you out of jail? Probably not.
By Mother of High School Student
February 9, 2005 02:41 PM | Link to this
My child goes to Cherokee High School. They need to learn a thing or two from you guys. They are deplorable. They do not believe in any child not being left behind. They even refuse to call you including William Sebring. Drug busts happens quite a bit there. They do not care about IEP children. I left over 16 messages since September got one returned from their IEP person blessing me out, for depending on her to update me on my child’s progress. They all need to be fired, and Cherokee High closed down.
By Mother of High School Student
February 9, 2005 02:42 PM | Link to this
My child goes to Cherokee High School. They need to learn a thing or two from you guys. They are deplorable. They do not believe in any child not being left behind. They even refuse to call you including William Sebring. Drug busts happens quite a bit there. They do not care about IEP children. I left over 16 messages since September got one returned from their IEP person blessing me out, for depending on her to update me on my child’s progress. They all need to be fired, and Cherokee High closed down.
By Mother of High School Student
February 9, 2005 02:43 PM | Link to this
My child goes to Cherokee High School. They need to learn a thing or two from you guys. They are deplorable. They do not believe in any child not being left behind. They even refuse to call you including the principal. Drug busts happens quite a bit there. They do not care about IEP children. I left over 16 messages since September got one returned from their IEP person blessing me out, for depending on her to update me on my child’s progress. They all need to be fired, and Cherokee High closed down.