Ableism
Giving tests–the California Standards Test, DIBELS, Woodcock-Johnson NU–all week to my special ed students has made me wonder on more than one occasion just what I’m trying to prove. Okay, I’m a little worn down. By the end of next week I will have given the End of Year (EOY) DIBELS assessment to 40 kids, the CST to 12 students, and the W-J NU to five kids for IEPs. Am I trying to help them–identify and address areas of weakness–or am I practicing what some disability studies people call “ableism”, punishing disabled kids for not conforming to what able kids can do?
A number of social model theorists argue that the act of problematizing individuals amounts to a
