PA: Shutting Down Special Ed
The Background
Among the Duncan-Obama administration's beliefs about education, we find the belief that special ed is unnecessary.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been pretty clear about this. He has argued that students with disabilities just need teachers who expect them to do well (Stop being dyslexic, Pat-- I believe in you!). The USED just this summer denied New York's request to use adapted testing for the Big Standardized Test-- students must take the test deemed appropriate for their chronological age and not their developmental level. And all along, trundling down the regulatory highway, has been this:Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged; Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities,
That regulation says basically that states may no longer make any kind of adaptations for any but "the most significant cognitive disabilities." Now all students must ride the same one-size-fits-all magical test unicorn, because many education policy leaders believe that expecting all students to do well on the same test will cause all students to succeed. If you want an uglier spin, you cold also say that the USED thinks that teachers are lying and making excuses for students with disabilities instead of teaching them. Here it is in government-ese:
The Department shares the goal that students with disabilities experience success. Removing the CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Shutting Down Special Ed: