One size fits all

One of the reasons I became a Special Education teacher is that I thought I could tailor my students education to their specific needs. I felt that was ideal for any child but in Special Ed. I actually was given permission to do so. I believed in giving my students a good education with opportunities for them participate with their general education peers when appropriate. Afterall, I had been mainstreamed myself--so I knew given the right circumstances it could work. I never believed in standardized testing for general education or special education students. That's a subject for another blog. The point is, I liked SPED because it gave me the chance to opt my students out of standardized tests.

Then NCLB happened. On top of that, the consent decree specific to my district. This all happened not even 5 years into my becoming a teacher. All of a sudden, I was required to teach grade level standards to students 2 or more years behind in their education regardless of their readiness for grade level work and completely disregarding the fact that they may have just been placed in SPED because they had been failing for years already. Also, in order to give my students "equal access" to grade level work by mainstreaming them even if they really were not ready emotionall, behaviorally or academically. I sincerely believe in mainstreaming--I do. But it should be at the discretion of the ones who know the student best--the teachers and parents. It should not come as a blanket statement form a faceless government who does not know the face of my students. In order to pacify those who oppose this concept f indiscriminate mainstreaming, I have been given a directive that it is alright to write individual goals that don't reflect mastery of grade level concpts. Essentially giving my students permission to fail. Before they were placed in SPED it was unacceptable that they fail. This is supposed to assuage the teachers who are forced to educate in ways not beneficial to the student, the parents and students. But what student wants to fail? What parent wants to see their child fail? What teacher wants to give a student an education full of the wrong tools? Permission or not?

This is an attempt at one size fits all education. The standardized tests are the epitome of one size fits all education. All students in a particular state are to achieve mastery of state standards for their grade level by the end of an academic year. Disregarding obstacles from language barriers to socio-ecomomic barriers and disability. I'm not saying these standards are not achieveable--eventually. My problem with it is mainly the timeline. They make good developmental sense. Adding is a precursor to multiplication so you need to master that before you move on the multiplication. But the time constraint is arbitrary. Put in place so we can process the kids through an assembly line. A child who hasn't learned to add by end of second grade will have that reflected in his standardized test and will not get the same indepth teaching of the concept in third or fourth grade no matter how much the teacher scaffolds. Standardized tests are not measuring real time learning. If you look into the history of standardized teasting in this country there has never been an era in which children achieved satisfactorily in these tests. Yet NCLB states all children must pass these tests in the near future--regardless of barriers. That directive is written with the same thinking as the people who write the tests. They are completely out of tune with the real time needs of children besides an adequate education. Special education studentsmust take these thest that even general ed. students have difficulty passing. A fourth grade tests does not adequately measure the skill of a student working on her alphabet--despite the progress she has made. So she will forever have "failed"the test. If children must take a test by the end of the year, let it be written by the teachers. Let students opt out--really. We can allow students to opt out but if too many do so, the schools lose money--a catch 22 that no one wins. So where is the choice? Where is the attention to the individual? Welcome to assembly line education. Henry Ford would be proud.