President Obama’s Testing Remarks: What about Students with Disabilities?
The President suddenly cares about children and too much testing. What about all the students with disabilities that have been tested poorly or unnecessarily for years?
I shouldn’t say his sudden remarks. As many bloggers pointed out over the weekend, he has a long list of comments against high-stakes tests from the past. His actions have been different than his words on this issue since he took office. Here’s just one example from ProCon.org:
…[O]ne thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching to the test. Because then you’re not learning about the world; you’re not learning about different cultures, you’re not learning about science, you’re not learning about math. All you’re learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and the little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test. And that’s not going to make education interesting to you. And young people do well in stuff that they’re interested in. They’re not going to do as well if it’s boring. Univision town hall meeting on education, www.whitehouse.gov (transcript), Mar. 28, 2011
In special education, most parents and teachers understand the value of some testing, but it should be relevant and lead to results that say something useful. It should also involve teacher and parent input. Teachers know what kinds of tests their students President Obama’s Testing Remarks: What about Students with Disabilities?:
