U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students
According to information given to me by Deborah Abramson Brooks, the U.S. Dept. of Education is insisting that the New York Board of Education continue to force all students with disabilities, except for those with the severest disabilities, to take the tests matching their chronological age, not their developmental age, ignoring their cognitive disabilities. HERE is the notification from June 29.
In addition, they are still insisting students struggling to learn English must take the regular tests after one year instead of two.
They will not consider the waiver requested by the Regents.
Both requests were aimed at reducing stress on students and yielding more useful results. State officials say that federal rules that require testing students at their chronological age, with narrow exceptions for students with very severe disabilities, set up some disabled students for failure and turn the tests into stressful guessing games. School officials in districts with many immigrant students say one year often is not enough for new arrivals to be ready to take language arts exams written in English.
Certain civil rights groups, as we know, have been behind this draconian testing too, along with, U.S. Assistant Education Secretary Deborah Delisle who is leaving to be the new CEO of the ASCD. The requirements, she says, are “necessary to ensure U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students: