We Must Agree That We Need SPED Services—Even For High Functioning Students!
This past week has seen a flurry of special education talk surrounding the new goals of the Obama administration’s quest to toughen standards and make students—and they don’t specify which students, so we can assume they mean all students, even those with the severest of disabilities—score high on the regular tests.
I’m pretty sure, behind the “toughen the standards” talk, they are thinking of Common Core State Standards. It will be do or die. I mean, have you heard of any kind of safety net if students aren’t able to master the CCSS?
The assumption is that everyone will succeed. The reality is that some won’t. Will those students then be turned away? Will it be like the charter schools that reject the students with disabilities and the ELL students that need something more than what they have to offer?
There are, however, parents who insist that the standards for students with disabilitieshave not been tough enough.
It is hard to believe they buy into the Arne talk. Years of neglect in public schools, of good special education programming, has a lot of parents damning special education altogether. Instead of fighting for better services, and what should be, they are settling for common and they seem to believe tougher standards are for the good of every We Must Agree That We Need SPED Services—Even For High Functioning Students!: