We reduced the number of suspensions!

 We reduced the number of suspensions

 

The word came down from on high.   Principals you are suspending too many students.  That needs to stop.  The number of suspensions needs to come way down.  Yes sir, the principals said.

But what to do with these misbehaving kids.  Surely you don’t expect us to modify instruction or provide different incentives.  Absolutely not.

The kids need to go and here’s the plan.  Dial 911.  Call the police, tell them you need an emergency transport to the local psychiatric hospital.

One of the schools in Wicomico County, Maryland follows this scenario on average about three times a week.  Children as young as 5 are handcuffed and taken to a psychiatric unit where their parents are called to come pick them up. 

Black students and students with disabilities are much more likely to be removed in this manner.   As the number of suspensions and expulsions declined, the number of mandated trips to the ER for a psych evaluation ticked up.

Last year this happened to about one for every 100 students in Wicomico County.  Children were handcuffed and taken to the emergency room.   At least 40% of these children were twelve or younger. More than half of these kids were black even though only a little more than a third or the Wicomico population of students is African-American.  

Advocates and parents say the issue is two-fold.  First and foremost the culture is one of punishment rather than repair.  Secondly, there is a lack of trained staff to address the issues in a manner that would help rather than harm the children.

These children are terrorized by the experience of being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car without the support of a parent.  By the time the parents can reach their children, the damage has been done.

There aren’t handcuffs small enough for some of these kids, so their hands are tied together.  Parents report that children’s hands are chaffed from the handcuffs and children are confused and terrorized.  Wicomico County uses these emergency petitions more often per capita than almost every other Maryland district for which data are available.   It is against the law to use these tactics on children whose behaviors are a manifestation of the disability.  But that hasn’t stopped Wicomico County from using these emergency petitions repeatedly on children with autism.  

School officials, of course, deny the use of these tactics for disciplinary reasons.  They could not respond to why their use far exceeded all other districts.  But, hey, the suspensions are way down and ain’t that grand.

Mastery vs. Points Scored

 Mastery versus Points Scored

 

Leaders of the Dublin Wisconsin Unified School District had this great idea.  They wanted to replace counting points to determine a student’s grade with student mastery of the material.  Such a strange idea?   Lots of parents thought so.

At Board meetings, parents complained their kids were being guinea pigs for what they saw as an unproven approach.  Grades they insisted were a reward for rigor, hard work and participation in the classroom.  Under the new system, if a student showed he/she understood the material it would even be ok to skip homework once in a while.

Instead of giving letter grades (A-F) to show achievement, the standards-based system starts with a list of proficiencies to be achieved. Students then receive a number from 1 (below standard) to 4 (exceeded standard) for each proficiency.

New Hampshire, Maine, Wisconsin are all on board.  Connecticut, New Mexico and Oregon have recently adopted the system.

Teachers see the system as a way to emphasize learning over effort.   It is also a way to “recognize the individual journey of every student.  It acknowledges that we all learn differently at our own pace and in various ways.”  Fascinating conclusion but why did it take so long to figure out.

Maybe because there is a strong majority of teachers who will tell you that teaching to the test is what it’s all about and if something isn’t graded students won’t do it.  One teacher remarked that “many students want to do as little as humanly possible, they want to skate by”.  Might that not also true of some adults.  So why damn the entire system.   The same teacher believed that homework was an important adult life skill, teaching kids to meet a deadline.  From whence came the hubris that educators really can differentiate between an 88 and a 91?

Some students see the new program as an approach for kids who were getting bad grades under the old system. Students also said that they believed under the old system, teachers preferred kids who got good grades.  When students were polled the vast majority of them preferred the standards based new system.  Many people complained that the roll-out of the new program was poorly done, highlighting small points that attracted a lot of negative attention.

Still, a small but vocal group of about 35 parents, convinced the Board to do away with the standards-based system.  Shows to go, scoring points does still matter.

When is a handicap a disability?

 When is a handicap a disability?

 

 

In 1975, the Education of All Handicapped Children (EHA) was signed into law.  The world for kids with handicaps changed on that day.  No longer could schools exclude any child because the child had a handicap that the school chose not to serve.  All children regardless of disability had the right to a free and appropriate public education.

You will notice that in the above paragraph the word “handicap” was used repeatedly to refer to a child who was not typical.  That, too, changed in 1990 when the name of the EHA was changed to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).  Benefits to children with disabilities were improved and so was the language referring to these children.

But the underlying question is, other than vocabulary what else changes when a person with a handicap is now called a person with a disability.

Well, the answer is, it depends.  A handicap does not need to be a disability.  A person with a disability is also a person with many other abilities.  We can concentrate on the disabilities or we can choose to extol what our abilities are.

Viktor Frankl is a Holocaust survivor.  He has written multiple books but the one that is probably read most often is Man’s Search for Meaning.  He says we can discover the meaning of life in three different ways.   We can create a work or do a particular deed.  We experience something or some one person.  And finally, by the attitude we take toward unspeakable suffering.   Surely this was a man who has endured “unspeakable suffering”.  Yet, he says that even though almost everything can be taken from a person, what cannot be taken is the attitude toward that suffering we each choose to take.

So while a handicap may definitely cause difficulty and suffering, each individual may chose to make that suffering a disability while recognizing the abilities that are also within that person.

A person on the Autism spectrum has the ability to pay very close attention to details, a great skill if you wish to be a programmer.  A person with cognitive limitations may have a great ability to see through the pomp and circumstance of life and see the true person.

Each of us has many disabilities.  Each of us also has many abilities.  It is when we attend to the abilities that our disabilities are less likely to become handicaps.

what are you writing about

 What are you writing about?

 

Do we really need to write?  Write cursive that is.  In a time when most writing is done on some digital device rather than with a pen or pencil, is teaching cursive still relevant or should we just concentrate on keyboarding skills.  Lots of administrators think the latter.  Yet regardless of that attitude, cursive seems to be making a comeback, particularly in the nation’s largest public school systems.  As of 2016, 14 states require cursive as part of their curricula.

Teachers have different reasons for wanting to teach cursive as opposed to manuscript (printing).  

Cursive involves a portion of the brain that manuscript does not.  Many teachers believe that at age 7 or 8 when most cursive instruction begins, the activation of this portion of the brain gives students another pathway to learn the alphabet.  Some also believe it will improve manuscript.

It is also thought that teaching a second method for written communication reinforces the learning of the first method and helps students have a better understanding of the alphabet.

There is also the belief that cursive makes adults more comfortable with signing legal documents.  This notion is a bit anachronistic.  While many documents want a written signature, the fact is that even an “x” is perfectly legal for a signature.  Additionally, the feeling that using cursive makes people ultimately more comfortable writing checks is also not borne out in today’s world.  Banks would prefer that people not use a paper check since they are more easily modified in the interest of fraud.  More and more people are sending money electronically, not just to pay bills but to transfer money between private parties.  Many people do not even use paper checks with their checking accounts.

Perhaps, the biggest claim for cursive is its benefit for people with dyslexia.  While manuscript letters often look exactly alike except for the orientation of the letter (here’s looking at you “b” and “d”), with cursive, the letters “hold hands” so reversals are more difficult and the letters themselves look different.

There is also the argument that if we want today’s students to be able to read letters written by their elders, they will need to be able to read cursive. 

As school budgets tighten, as demands are made that schools need to do more during the day perhaps it is time to drop cursive.  Some people who were taught cursive have ceased to use it.  A child's school time is finite.  There are more useful skills, navigating social media and the internet leap to mind, than teaching a skill whose time has come and probably gone.

As we move further into the digital world, perhaps cursive will take its rightful place alongside of the manual typewriter.   That used to be state-of-the art too.

Folks are coming out of the woodwork?

 Folks are coming out of the woodwork!

New research is indicating that the number of adults with autism is growing by leaps and bounds.  Since 2011, the number of people over 18 diagnosed with autism has more than doubled.  Currently, there are over 403,000 adult Medicaid beneficiaries with the diagnosis.  The increase in adults between the ages of 25-34 has jumped 195%!   Curiously the incidence of people with intellectual disability has declined from 62% to 46%.

There has also been a steep increase in the diagnosis of children.  At this time, it is approaching 1 in 36.

The question then becomes, why?

There is an old saying, “seek and thy shall find”.  It may be that we are seeking.  There have been multiple theories advanced about why the increase in children diagnosed with autism.  

Various vaccines have been called into question as the cause of the increase.  None of those theories has been supported by research.

There have been studies that blame older sperm as the cause. While it was interesting to hear that older sperm rather than older eggs were the cause, the theory too has not been supported by independent research.  Other studies have blamed genetics and/or drug use.  All of these theories have also been debunked.

One of the interesting phenomena is that as the number of people on the spectrum has increased the identification of other disability groups has decreased leading one to believe that there may not actually be in increase in people on the spectrum.  But rather a refinement of how we are identifying the various disabilities.

Regardless of the why, there is a critical need to improve services to these individuals.  If it is true that some of these people were previously identified with a different disability, the treatment for autism is very different from those other disabilities and services will need to be created to meet those needs.  Adult individuals who have not received assistance in life skills adaptation are going to need that remedial instruction as adults.

The literature is full of “look back” studies in which it is determined that many famous people were on the spectrum from Thomas Jefferson to Albert Einstein and have been identified as possibly on the spectrum.

So the truth might be that these folks were living in the woodwork all along we just got around to figuring where they were hiding.

 

 

 

So what's the minimum?

 So, What’s the Minimum

Right now, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.   That’s pretty low and it’s hard to believe that anyone could live on that amount of money.  But some folks get are paid even less.

Under a law dating back to the 1930’s, employers can receive a special certificate and pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.  This is the 14(c) certificate.

We regularly read about workers not being able to live on the $15/hour wage that many states have adopted for typical workers.

Disability advocates have strongly argued that this provision of the law is preventing people with disabilities from gaining any independence.  The provision is called the 14( c) provision.

The Labor Department has now determined that it is going to open a review of the law.  It is asking stake holders to come forth and talk about their experiences with the program and what changes are needed to expand equal opportunity experiences for people with disabilities.

The review comes after expressed concerns from the Government Accountablilty Office, the National Council on Disabilities, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Labor Department’s Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrative Employment.  

In May, dozen disability organizations called on the Labor Department to issue a moratorium on the issuance of new certificates that allow employers access to this below minimum wage option.  

Sixteen states have passed legislation banning the practice.  The president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities and the time has come to move away from this program.  She said it has created subminimum and segregated employment situations.   Many years ago, sheltered workshops provided daytime employment for people with disabilities.  Wages were based on the number of pieces a worker could produce in an hour.  These workshops were disallowed and have ceased to exist.  But the continuation of 14( c) certificates, allowing employers to pay less than $7.25 an hour to a person with a disability, is the same situation just dressed differently.

Everything Old is new again

 Everything old is new again

 

Many years ago children with less than typical intelligence were called retarded.   It was decided that was unkind so now those individuals are called intellectually disabled.

What else has changed besides a better vocabulary?  Sadly not so much.

Years ago students with limited intelligence were classified as “trainable”.  They attended school and were taught to handle daily living skills and to do repetitive job tasks.  Their teachers were often acknowledged by administrators as being the weakest teachers.   I was told by an assistant superintendent of a local school system that they “assigned the teachers who couldn’t teach to the students who couldn’t learn.  No harm no foul”.

Today these youngsters still get the weakest teachers, because the unions do everything they can to keep these people from being terminated.  What else is the district to do with them.  If you go into one of the classes for the intellectually disabled you are most likely to attend a “movie day” when students are watching a movie.  On another day you might see the students coloring very primary looking worksheets.  Or perhaps doing some simple craft. 

Years ago, when these students aged out of school they attended “sheltered workshops” where they were paid pennies for piece work.  The tasks were repetitive such as stuffing plastic flatware into bags for restaurants or packaging marketing materials for give-a-ways.   But those facilities were outlawed as being exploitive and they were.  But they did provide a social setting and a sense of work.

Today, federal funds are provided for agencies to offer work training and daily activities.   Sometimes the adults work in cohorts at airports or other large facilities as cleanup crews with a non-disabled supervisor.  At these jobs they earn minimum wage.  Problem is there are not enough federal funds to provide service to all of the individuals who need the help.  So those people without the federal funding support get to stay at home.

Years ago, transition services were almost nonexistent.  Transition services are supposed to assist the individual in making the transition from school to work.

Today every school has transition service.   But the service is so poorly staff it is like dragging one chicken leg through several gallons of water and calling it chicken soup.  It is not unusual for one transition specialist to be responsible for over 100 students! Hardly sufficient staff to help anyone.

Everything new might not be as good as everything old.  Sometimes the good old days really were.

When is due process not due process?

 When is due process not due process?            

 

Federal and state law guarantees families the right to due process in seeking an appropriate education for their children.  The laws are really very clear.  There is even a stipulation in the law that the parents’ legal fees will be reimbursed by the school district if they win at the hearing.  Sounds good right?   But some school districts have figured out a way to deny due process while seeming to be cooperative.

This is how it all works.   Parents can go to mediation.  That is a process where both sides present their position to an independent mediator.  It is supposed to be a less expensive way and a less litigious way for issues to be settled.  However, families need to hire an attorney for the process and if they win, they do NOT get reimbursed so they are out that money.  If the parents don’t get what they want for their child, they go to a formal due process hearing that will cost them more money.  They can’t count on winning and getting their legal fees back.  Since Maryland law changed a number of years ago, the party proposing the placement has the burden of proof.   In over 98% of the cases, the party proposing the placement is the parent.  So even though the law says that the school district MUST provide a free and appropriate education for a child with special needs, the burden to prove that is on the parents NOT the Maryland school district. There was a bill in last year’s legislature to return the burden of proof to the school district but it failed to get out of committee.

School districts have attorneys on retainer.  These people are experienced at delaying tactics that cost the families money.  Very often money they can barely afford.  Once the hearing date is set, the school district attorney tells the hearing officer and the family how many days the school district expects for presenting their side of the case.  The school district attorneys add multiple witnesses and days to the hearing.  Often saying that their side will need 6-7 days to present.  Families then need to pay their attorney for those days plus days for the families’ case.  At $400/ hour or more, few families can afford this cost.  Additionally, the hearing officers are trained by the state so they tend to lean that way.  In fact, before the burden of proof was switched to the family, parents won 97% of the cases.   Now with the change to the burden of proof being on the party proposing the change, families only win about 8% of the cases.

Due process isn’t due process if this isn’t a fair fight.  Taxpayers don’t win either because that highly paid school district attorney not only has a retainer but he/she also gets an additional hourly fee for that extended hearing.  And since these are attack attorneys, they get paid top hourly dollars in addition to the retainer they have already received.

The system has been corrupted.   Taxpayers are spending huge sums for legal fees; parents can’t afford to fight the district.   Then there is the child- oh right-wasn’t the child the one due process was set up to protect?

Some parents aren't doing enough

 Some parents are not doing enough?

 

Have you ever noticed that there are some parents who never show up to volunteer?  Maybe do not even attend conferences or respond to email in a timely fashion?

Did you know that over 1/4^th of all families in our country are led by a single parent?

And yes, there is a connection between the two.   The majority of households led by a single parent are led by a woman.  The average salary in the US for a woman between the ages of 35-57 is about $57,000.  The average single parent has two children.  The majority of single women households are either the only income producing parent or are struggling to get child support paid on time or at all.

Single parents have at least two full time jobs, if they are fortunate.  The first job is the one that is fixing dinner, buying clothes, packing lunches, arranging day care or after school care, balancing the family budget and making arrangements for child care when a child is sick.  The second job is the one that is bringing in that $57,000.  When a single parent gets home from work, the first job starts.  There are notes and notices from school, dinner to fix, homework to get done, baths and getting ready for bed.  When mom finally collapses (and single parents with custody are overwhelmingly moms), is it any wonder that emails from school and/or volunteer opportunities get overlooked.  Evening meetings represent a new round of child care challenges.  You can forget about “me” time or heaven forbid, adult social time.

What does this mean to the children we face in the classroom every day.   Yearbooks, class trips, may not be covered by very limited disposable income.  Fashionable logoed clothes might be out too.  These kinds of situations can create behavior problems for kids.  No one likes to be the low person on the totem pole.  Kids don’t like to feel that their parents can’t provide for them. They are torn between protecting their parents and wanting to be like the other kids. Teachers often blame kids when parents are unresponsive. 

Education is a critical service for a child’s future success.  Education works best when parent(s) and teachers are linked in tandem to help pull the sleigh.  Those of us in education need to figure out a way for single parents to be full participants in their child’s education.

The reason some parents are doing enough is that they are already doing too much.

AI might write a very nice IEP

 AI Could write that IEP

 

How do you expect teachers to teach with all the paperwork that is now required for special education?   One of the biggest time eaters is writing that IEP (Individual Education Plan).  Now AI is to the rescue.

Some educators are pondering the use of ChatGPT or BARD to lift the burden.

In order for the rescue to work, the algorithms need to be flexible enough to account for all the individual differences in children.

There are multiple factors of good news and bad news.  There is no question that the idea of minimizing paperwork would be hugely appealing to teachers who could then spend more time actually teaching.  But these forms include very personal and sensitive information.  Using the platform that could be accessed by the public is risky and possibly even illegal.

IEP’s delineate the individual goals for each child.  But the possible repertoire of goals is limited to the knowledge base of the teacher or school district supplied resources.  AI has the potential of providing a huge repository of existing IEP language.  Will these goals meet the legal standard of substantially addressing the unique individual needs of a particular student, or can only a human do that?

Could AI assist in other ways?  Could AI, for example, provide voice assistants to narrate text for visually impaired students.  Or perhaps, translate text from English to a student’s original language?  What about using AI for children with dysgraphia?  Could AI help in writing papers?  Students would still need to be taught how to use the tool.  The other question is will using the tool teach the child how to improve his/her writing or just provide a work-around that is a crutch.  Then again if your leg is broken, what’s so bad about using a crutch.

The road ahead is forked.  Educators can do what they are best known for doing and that is to put their head in the underground and just try to avoid the issue.   Or they can acknowledge that these platforms exist and perhaps if controlled or understood could actually make like not just easier but maybe even better for the student’s IEP.  

Of course, the final question to ask is: If a teacher does not have the capacity to create a high-quality IEP that is unique to the child’s needs, does it really matter if AI creates one but the teacher can’t deliver it?

Because it's mandated

 Because it’s mandated

 

In Maryland, people whose jobs put them in positions of responsibility for children are required by law to report ANY suspicion of child harm to the local child protective services.  That means ANY thing a child might say or do that suggests a child is in danger. 

A person who "violates this section of the code is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction is subject to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or both. (c) This section applies only to a failure to report child abuse or neglect that occurs during the time the child is a minor."  If the individual has a license to practice his/her profession that license can be lost.   Child protective services bear the responsibility to investigate the seriousness of the event.

Pretty extreme don’t you think?  Well not exactly.  Children who are abused have life-long impacts both mentally and physically.  Depression, suicidal ideation and anxiety become lifetime challenges. Establishing relationships with partners is very difficult, especially if the partner does not fully understand the comprehensive damage of abuse.   Addiction to drugs and alcohol are also common to help deaden the flashbacks.  IBS, acid-reflux, even esophageal cancer can be physical manifestations of abuse.

What if I am just a "bystander", a neighbor or someone in a store.  The law does not require you to report.  If you care about the protection of children, your conscience should demand that you do.

The beginning of help for these children is to be believed. That means sometimes professionals have to recognize the unthinkable- some parents harm their children. That is why regardless of how outlandish the report from the child may seem to the caregiver, the child must be believed enough to allow for follow-up investigation and examination by a physician.

Johns Hopkins hospital has established the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse as part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

There are 24 child advocacy centers in Maryland.  In these centers, social workers, law enforcement, doctors, prosecutors and child advocates work together to support kids who have been abused.  

But hey, isn’t this overkill?   Let’s get real, do we report parents when kids say they have been spanked- yep you better had.  Because you are only the reporter NOT the investigator.  And the very first step to eliminating child abuse is to BELIEVE the child.  The rest will sort itself out after a full investigation.  And YES- there are real consequences to both YOU and the child if you don’t fulfill what you are required by law to do

Educators need to Woke up

 Woke Up Educators!

 

Parents in Montgomery County, Maryland sued to have curriculum related to LBGQT issues removed from the curriculum, including materials in literature and current affairs.  A judge said parents did not have the right to regulate curriculum.

In Arkansas, the Governor said her job was to protect the children from the “radical left woke mob”.  The Arkansas State Board of Education said schools may choose to offer the AP Course on African-American history but the children who take it will not earn credits toward graduation.  Never mind that many of the historical events in the course took place in Arkansas.   And the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, along with 200 other colleges and universities do accept the credit.

In Florida, the Governor has proclaimed Florida is where “woke goes to die”.  He declared that the AP course on African-American history would violate state law; therefore, it could not be taught in Florida.  The AP Board said that the changes Florida wanted would diminish the validity of the course; therefore, it would not be offered in Florida.

The mission of many politicians besides garnering media attention is to stop “wokeness” in our public schools.

To do this one must first assume that “wokeness” whatever that is, exists in public schools.  Indicators of “wokeness” include hiring an individual, particularly an individual of color, to lead an office of diversity, equity and inclusion.  

School libraries have gotten into the business of banning books that discuss issues of race, racism, antisemitism, or issues relating to gender difference or LBTGQ.

We have become afraid to allow our students to be uncomfortable with the past and the present.  The Governor of Florida has specifically said he does not want children learning about slavery to feel uncomfortable with something that has happened in the past. Education SHOULD make us feel uncomfortable about a lot of things.  Education should open our minds to new ideas and challenges.  The books that are being banned want to open children’s minds to new ideas and to teach them to think and rethink where they stand on issues.  Is that not the point of a public funded education system?

Woke up educators, we have miles to go before we sleep.

No person with a disability left standing

 No person with a disability left Standing

 

There is a legal principle called “standing” which essentially means an individual can’t sue about something unless he or she was harmed by whatever that something is.

Advocacy groups have, for a long time, used people as “testers” to see if such laws as public accommodations for race and/or disability were being upheld.

This fall the issue now will be raised to the level of the Supreme Court.

A Florida resident who uses a cane and/or wheelchair and has a significant visual impairment sued Coast Village Inn and Cottages because their website failed to offer sufficient information on accommodations for the disabled as required under Americans With Disability Act (ADA).   Her suit was dismissed by the lower court because she was not injured; and therefore, did not have standing to sue since she did not plan to visit the Inn.  

The suit was overturned on appeal.  The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found that her “feelings of frustration and humiliation and second-class citizenry” were “downstream consequences” and “adverse effects of the informational injury she experienced”.

Now the Supreme Court will get to decide whether a person with disabilities has standing to sue under ADA if they have no intention of visiting the business in question.  What does not seem to be addressed is how can a person with a disability make an informed decision if he/she can’t test out the access before trying to access the business in question.

This issue has gained increasing attention because over 600 lawsuits have been filed nationwide by these so-called testers.  Obviously, business groups are angry.  But so are advocacy groups for the disabled.  The groups representing both sides of the issue have filed amicus briefs, over 18 and counting for advocacy groups for the disabled.

“Despite the ADA’s promise to create equal access, insufficient oversight and enforcement means that businesses frequently ignore the civil rights of disabled people, making their lives extremely difficult and undermining the rights guaranteed by the law” said the senior director of legal advocacy and general counsel for The ARC.  “ADA testers are essential to ensuring the rights of people with disabilities are enforced and protected and that the full promise of ADA is realized”.

One of the attorneys filing an amicus brief explained that if a person with a disability discovers noncompliance when trying to use a business, it is too late to file a lawsuit.  

An unexpected twist occurred when the Florida woman asked the high court to drop her case because her attorney had been disciplined in Maryland.    The Supreme Court declined to drop the case but said it would consider the request in oral arguments which are scheduled for October 4.

The commitment to full access for those with disabilities needs to left standing at our highest court.

 

Even the wealthy are suffering

 Even the wealthy are suffering

 

Fairfax County Virginia is one of the wealthiest school districts in the country.  Parents have filed a lawsuit against the County for failing to deliver services to children with special education needs.  Last week a judge ruled in favor of the school district.   A lawyer for the parents said it is their intent to appeal this decision AND file a civil rights complaint with the state attorney general.

The families are saying that in addition to failing to provide special education services, the County has also repeatedly violated the civil rights of the children under the Virginia Human Rights Act.

Parents are not the only ones with concerns about the delivery of special education services in Virginia. The U.S. Office of Education has launched multiple investigations.   In late June the federal ranking for Virginia regarding the compliance with IDEA fell from “meets requirements” to “needs assistance”.   A state that spends more than one year in “needs assistance” will receive intensive intervention from the U.S. Office of Education.

One of the continuing family concerns is the state’s due process hearings which are in place to settle disagreements between families and the school district.  Following a freedom of information request regarding the frequency of families prevailing in such procedures, the plaintiffs learned that between 2010 and July 2021 there were 395 appeals in Northern Virginia.  Out of those 395 cases, the family prevailed in only 3.  The data show that over the whole state of Virginia, out of 847 cases, families won in only 13, a percentage of 1.5 successful challenges.

By comparison, in California parents won 35% of the cases and in neighboring Maryland, parents won 15% of cases. (This number is down dramatically since Maryland now requires the party requesting the change in placement to have the burden of proof.)   The Virginia lawsuit contends that the State has a carefully curated slate of hearing officers who almost always side with the parents.   In Maryland the hearing officers are trained by the State Department of Education so their views are aligned with the State Department’s views.   In Virginia 2/3rds of the hearing officers have never ruled in the parents’ favor.  

Many times, school districts will insist that the failure to deliver services is due to lack of funds.  That is not the case in Virginia.  In Virginia the issue is lack of will not lack of funding.

Really, you learned that in school?

 Really, you learned that in school?

 

Depending on where you live that early nineteenth century war was either the War Between the States or the Civil War.  Jeff Davis was either a great patriot for a great mission or a traitor for a lost cause.  The Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves for their bad behavior or were the victims of one of the most vicious villains of history.   

While educators argue over the virtues and importance of geometry and algebra II, our children are among the least educated when it comes to how our government, a democracy, is run.  A fact which is scary because how will they be able to recognize when it is in jeopardy.

Ron DeSantis is certainly not the first to attempt to re-write history. And in all likelihood, won’t be the last.   Although some of the additions to the African American history courses do seem incredulous.  “Slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” These and other such comments have led the AP course to be decertified by the College Board.   He has ordered math text books and social studies textbooks to be scrubbed for prohibited topics.  Not sure what in math is WOKE?

If your political leanings tend conservative, these changes might be appealing as a rescue from the WOKE culture.   If your leanings tend more to the left, you are either appalled or find these changes to be so egregious as to be humorous.

Sadly neither is the case.   The second draft of history is written by the winners.  (The first draft is written by journalists.)  

Education should be a process where our minds are stretched; our belief systems challenged.   Perhaps Florida history students will find the new versions so beyond any belief system that they will be challenged to seek the truth.  Or others might buy into this idea and perhaps not feel so guilty about their history.  African-American students will most certainly feel marginalized beyond belief. 

Recently a tour guide along the Mississippi River in the deep south, was proud to share that his grandparents, farmers in the 1930’s did not have slaves.  He was proud of that fact even though slavery had been abolished 67 years before.  Was he a product of his Mississippi education? 

History matters deeply.  As educators we have a responsibility to teach it as close to reality as possible given our point in time and our culture.  We do NOT have license to outright lie.  Teaching the truth is critical to our present and our future.  Really, you learned that in school!

You Can't Read That

 You Can’t Read That!

 

Question:  Which state is the least educated in the U.S.?   Answer: Arkansas.   

That’s not much of a surprise, although there are some other states in the running, Mississippi and Louisiana for two more.   

The Arkansas legislature passed a bill that would have taken effect on August 1, 2023.  Act 372 is designed to protect children from material “deemed “harmful”.   This term is defined by state law as containing nudity or sexual content, appealing to a “prurient interest in sex”, lacking “serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic or political value for minors” or deemed “inappropriate for minors” under current community standards.    The law also allowed anyone “affected by” material in a particular county or municipal library to challenge the “appropriateness” of the material.

Act 372 would make “furnishing a harmful item to a minor” a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the law.   In his opinion, the judge said there is more than one way to burn a book.  “The world is full of people running about with lit matches” quoting author, Ray Bradbury.

He also noted that Arkansas already had a statute making it a crime to provide obscene materials to minors.  Act 372 is pretty vague on who gets to decide what material is "prurient".   And ignores the Supreme Court ruling that prurient material is protected by the First Amendment.

Plaintiffs are challenging the law as a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guarantees free speech.  Plaintiffs also say the law is too vague and eliminates the protections librarians and school personnel had as being protected as long as they were performing their professional functions. 

Plaintiffs have said, “I want to fight for our rights to intellectual freedom and ensure that libraries remain spaces where young Arkansans can explore diverse perspectives.   On the other hand, the County is already hinting at possible future crackdowns on other library system’s policies and procedures.  The County has said it is dedicated to protect “children from exposure to materials that might harm their innocence”.

Looks like Arkansas has no intention of giving up its last place as the least educated state in the nation.

Which is the better number?

 Which is the better number? 

 

Which is the better way to go if you are looking for an appropriate special education for your child?  There is section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act and there is PL101-476 which is the Public Law of the 101^st Congress that passed the 476^th piece of legislation better known as IDEA.  

Let’s start with Section 504.  This section of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act says that organizations that receive federal funds  (almost every school district) must make accommodations for people with disabilities. That requirement includes staff as well as students.  In a school setting the accommodation might be smaller classes, longer test times, or even additional breaks.  Many school districts will default to 504 plans for good reasons.  They are generally less expensive to provide. There is little paperwork involved. And most importantly from the school’s perspective, there is no enforcement mechanism if the plan is never implemented or only partially so.

Parents like 504 Plans because they are quick to implement and children do not have to have a specific diagnostic category to have access.  They only need to have a “disability”.  

On the other hand, PL101-476 is much more difficult to put into place.  The child must be formally tested and be determined to have one of the 13 disabilities described in the law. Once that happens, a school team, including the parents, meets to construct an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for the child.  These plans can sometimes be contentious because they include not just the educational objectives for the child and the specific instructional supports, they also must include any additional related services such as speech, occupational therapy or counseling among several others.  Parents generally want more; school districts often want less. The other major difference between the 504 Plan and an IEP is that the IEP is a legally binding contract for services between the child’s parents acting on behalf of the child and the school district.  It is NOT, however, a guarantee that the instructional objectives outlined in the plan will be achieved.  IEP meetings need to be held at least once a year to be updated as the child’s needs change.

So which is the better way to go?  Well, that depends.   If what a child needs is an easy tweak to a typical educational program then the 504 Plan may fill the bill.  But if what a child needs is a full rounded, enforceable, contract for service then there is no question- the lower number 476 delivers on the goods more so than the higher number 504.

Birds, Bees & Disabilities

 Birds, Bees and Disabilities

 

People with disabilities learn sex ed in classes just like everyone else.  That’s enough-right?  Well not exactly.  There are multiple wrinkles to the needed sex ed for folks with disabilities.

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernadino Counties has created a six- session curriculum called “Equal Voices” that teaches people about sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, consent in a relationship and the perils of online dating and predatory relationships.

Many people with disabilities are naïve when it comes to relationships.  Even when they get a lot of love from family and friends, an individual may strongly want to bond with a partner. This need makes them very easy targets for predatory relationships.

Because people with disabilities usually have fewer sexual relationships, they lack the experience of being able to tell how sincere the other person is.  People with disabilities need to know enough about themselves to understand their own personal boundaries so they can tell their partners which behaviors are ok and which behaviors make them feel uncomfortable.

Sadly, some people with disabilities feel grateful for any partner/sexual relationship so they are afraid to say “no” for fear this will be their one and only chance for a partner relationship.  Families who work out ways for their offspring to live independently in group homes or supported apartments, don’t include advice on sexual relationships now that their children are living outside of the family home. Living independently will include dating and perhaps bringing someone home.  People with disabilities are often seen as asexual by the non-disabled community.  That is not the situation at all and explains why these individuals are such easy prey for those who would take advantage.  

It is also true that individuals with physical disabilities may need alternative methods for achieving sexual satisfaction.   Able bodied individuals generally have not thought of what those alternative methods might be.

Sex for people with disabilities begins with self-respect and self-appreciation so that people with disabilities can enter into relationships on an equal level playing field and not one of gratitude and thankfulness which can make the individual easy pickings for an unbalanced predatory relationship.

 

 

Can't Nobody Get This Right

 Can’t Nobody Get this Right?

 

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)made a big splash a few weeks ago with its grades for Maryland Colleges of teacher education.  Simply put with the exception of McDaniel, they were all terrible.

The Baltimore Sun jumped on the issue and immediately equated the ratings to why kids can’t read and are failing the state tests. Of course, no effort was made to evaluate either the organization or the method being used to make the determination.  Only 46% of the State’s 4^th graders are proficient in reading according to those tests. 

The first thing that needs to be known about these ratings is the method used by NCTQ.  Did the National Council send trained researchers to visit campuses and sit in on classes?  The answer to that question is nope.  Well then, did the organization send surveys to graduates to ask how their undergraduate programs have served their professional needs.  Again, the answer is nope nothing like that.  Did the organization review the credentials of the faculty to see if they were qualified to prepare and teach people to teach.   Again, no. Well then how did they come to their conclusions? Answer, they reviewed the descriptions in the college catalogs of the courses being taught.

The emphasis on the review was how much in depth was the teaching of phonics and phonemic awareness.   Instead, Maryland schools taught what is called “balanced literacy”.  That is in addition to word attack and decoding, Maryland schools also taught reading comprehension and literature- both of which are the point of reading!  Doesn’t do much good to decode words if the reader doesn’t get any meaning out of the sounds they are producing.

All of Maryland colleges and universities that prepare teachers are accredited by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).   The AACTE sends teams of professionals into the schools and they stay for most of a week.  They visit classes, interview staff and students, review and evaluate coursework AND talk with graduates regarding how well prepared they were to enter their chosen profession.  The review process isn’t easy.  Lots of paperwork is submitted in advance of the site visits.  So, when a school does get accredited it means something.  And yes, sometimes as a result of the review a school is put on probation, that means something too.

The Baltimore Sun and NCTQ did a disservice to the schools that are doing a comprehensive job of preparing future teachers.  They are getting it right and in the right way.

 

Should he have been included?

 Should he have been included?

 

Samir was excited to get his yearbook.  There had been lots of photos of him during the year.   As he and his mom went through the book they had ordered, there was no mention of Samir or of the other special needs young people who attended the school.  Samir’s Mama Bear was over-the-top furious.

But before you get too whipped up, here is the rest of the story.  Samir attended a post-high school federally funded program that was housed Northwest Career and Technical Academy in Las Vegas.   Technically they were not students at the school and since they had already graduated from high school, they would not be students at any other high school either.

Samir’s mother went to the media to complain about her son and the other “kids” being left out.  There are several issues here.   First of all, all of the young people in the program were over 18, some over 21, so they were not officially “kids” any more.  Secondly, they also were not citizens of the high school, merely members of a program that was leasing space from the high school.

Samir’s mother keeps referring to his completion of the program as his “last year of school”.   But the program Samir was participating in is NOT a school program; it is an employment training program for high school graduates.

So why all the confusion?   

First of all, perhaps the managers of the federal grant made an error by renting space in a high school.  That alone could have led to the confusion that the program was an extension of the school.  Yet all of the participants had already experienced a high school graduation.

Secondly, school staff do a notoriously terrible job of teaching families about post-secondary programs, about what they are and what they are not.  Then there is the fact that families also struggle to think of their children with disabilities as adults and not still children.    Certainly, this mom seemed confused as to what kind of program her son was in.

Clark County school district personnel tried to explain that the yearbook is typically for students in grades 9 through 12 and that these individuals were in a post-graduate program that just happened to be on housed on campus.   No dice, the school district was reduced to playing good defense.

Sometimes people, even people with disabilities, are left out because they should be.  I know hard to accept.

 

If you talk the talk, it't time to start walking

 If you talk the talk, it’s time to start walking.

 

It is the end of the school year.   Principals and school districts are beginning to hire up for fall.  What are principals looking for when they begin this process.  The results are interesting and depressing. The survey was conducted by the RAND Corporation.

According to this recent survey of school principals the number one thing principals are looking for in new hires is a mindset that aligns with the school’s vision.  What that means is the principal as the school leader sets the vision for the school.  New hires need to sign on to that vision.  No new ideas or outliers wanted.

The second area sought after is the alignment of the individual’s certification with the needs of the school.   So, if the school needs a first grade teacher, does the individual have elementary education certification?  Ditto for secondary education where certification in individual academic areas is important.   Certification is more important for secondary schools than for the lower grades.

And rounding out the top three is the applicant’s experience in behavior management. 

 

What is probably more telling than what are in the top three, is what is left OUT.

Job experience was a surprisingly low requirement. In fact,  less than a  quarter of principals thought job experience mattered.  Doesn’t matter if you  haven’t done this job before, what counts is can you keep the kids behaved and your willingness to follow the leader.

Educator diversity ranked pretty low too.  So in spite of all the chatter about increasing diversity in schools and about how that will be so much better for kids of color, this trait ranked low across all school types: urban, suburban, or rural.  Also didn’t matter if the school was majority white or majority non-white.

In all schools, talk was one thing, behavior was another.

One of the most remarkable omissions in the survey, an item that didn’t make the list AT ALL!  Was the ability to teach school!   This omission is incredible.

Politicians rail about the low-test scores.   Education leaders talk about what they are doing to raise test scores.  But when the rubber meets the road, no one seems to be looking for good teachers.

Clearly, we are best at talking the talk, but we sure aren’t doing anything to walk the walk.

 

School to Prison

 School to Prison

 

There is a new superhighway that folks are worried about.  It is the road from school to prison.  The wisdom in this approach is that by suspending students for aggressive behavior their next destination will be prison.  Quite a leap but then these are visionary thinkers.

One of the consequences of this type of thinking is that we do not suspend students even if their behavior is quite egregious.  On the other hand, we talk about putting school resource officers (SOROs) in schools, some of whom are armed or police officers.  In some states there is a push to arm the teachers themselves, not sure where target shooting shows up in teacher preparation courses, but that could be added.

We are told the current spike in school violence is still another negative outcome of the pandemic and kids being out of school so they have forgotten how to socialize in person. 

It is entirely true that there is too easy access to guns in our culture.  Perhaps it is a holdover from our early cowboy days.  On the other hand, we also know that the kids who do commit gun violence in school usually feel they are outliers and unknown to their teachers.

Is there a reasonable way to stop violence in our schools without sending all those "bad apples" to prison?

The best way to stop school violence is a two- pronged approach, a carrot and stick policy.

First of all secondary schools are just too big.  With 1,500 to 3,000 students in a school, there is no way that EVERY child is truly known by a staff member.  So the very first step in preventing violence of any kind in a school is for there to be a connection with a staff member for EVERY student.  A real connection so that the teacher, counselor, custodian, administrator- knows when something is off for that child.  There is a caring adult that is connected to the child.  That’s the carrot, and it needs to be a very big sweet carrot, not a perfunctory little sliver of a carrot.

Secondly, the stick needs to be swift and dependable.   If a student misbehaves, even a small infraction, there needs to be a consequence.   Not a suspension for all offenses but a consequence.  Profanity is not allowed.  If a student uses profane language or is disrespectful to a teacher there is a consequence, maybe having lunch in a room with a teacher monitor rather than peers.  Whatever, the consequence needs to be uncomfortable but not fatal.  Students need to learn that rules WILL be obeyed and if they are not the punishment will fit the crime.  An act of physical aggression is met with suspension. Verbal aggression that makes someone feel unsafe also warrants a suspension.  Those consequences are given with the warning, our school needs to be safe for everyone and you made people feel unsafe so you need a break.  The other important piece of the suspension is that it is short and re-entry requires a parent or guardian to appear and for there to be a discussion about what the unacceptable behavior was, why it happened and what’s the plan so it won’t happen again.   Yes, family members NEED to be inconvenienced because unfortunately sometimes that is the only way to get families invested in school behavior.  

School needs to be a place where kids want to be not where they are MADE to be.  Teenagers are relationship anchored.  We need to anchor some of those relationships both with staff and with the safety of the community.

Armed teachers, school resource officers and sworn police officers in schools do not set the tone for a safe community. They set a tone of us against you. Making a full on commitment to care about each other does.

School suspension can be a superhighway to prison.  But superhighways have many off ramps and educators need to identify those off ramps and make sure kids use them.

A safe school is a better school for everyone.

Where have all the high scores gone?

 Where have all the high scores gone?

Where have all the high scores gone, long time passing.   There has been a great deal of concern lately that scores on standardized tests are dropping precipitously since the pandemic has been over.   Several reasons have been advanced.  One is that the students didn’t get quite as much out of virtual instruction as once thought.  Imagine that!   Another reason is that it has been hard for the kids to get used to being in school buildings and settling down with in-school behavior thereby limiting learning.

Here is another reason.  Baltimore County has seen a decrease in population this school year of almost 5%.   It has been determined that these students are either being home-schooled or they are in private schools.

Here is how that can disproportionately negatively impact test scores.   Along with acknowledging the first three letters in the word assume, there are supportable reasons why the loss of over 5000 students would impact test scores.

It is reasonable that these parents care more about their child’s education than the average bear.  They are proactively moving their children out of the public schools because they are not satisfied with the free education.

Private schools cost money.  Unless a family is extremely well off financially, making the decision to place your child(ren) in a private school is going to impact the financial affairs of the family.  Maybe shorter or different vacations, maybe keeping that car an extra year or two.  These families are willing to make the sacrifice in order for their children to have a better education.

Home schooling also costs money, even if only sacrificing the income of the parent who is doing the schooling.  And even home-schooling requires technology, materials, books and money for field trips.

Families making these sacrifices value education and are showing it by their spending.   Probably these are the same kids whose parents made sure homework was done, followed what their students were learning in school and made sure they got good rest and a breakfast on standardized test days.

Losing 5% of your best performing test takers is bound to impact the overall performance of the school district.

Not saying that virtual non-learning didn’t have an impact, nor did getting back in the grove.  But if you wonder why even the “good” systems saw a drop in schools, maybe all the high scores have gone to private schools and home schools.   Just a thought.

When will we ever learn?

 When will we ever learn?

 

That line is a refrain from an old folk tune.   Today it is very relevant to the teaching of reading in New York City.   It seems the City of New York is the latest in an increasingly long line of folks who are convinced that the “science or reading” requires the teaching of phonics.  It seems that many children, particularly those in minority plurality schools, are not proficient in reading.   This situation is unacceptable so the cure for the problem is to require that all schools chose from one three packaged programs that are phonics based.  Afterall these are evidenced based instructional programs.  These programs will be replacing balanced literature programs that seek to have kids Enjoy Reading!!! On my God, not that!

Classrooms across the country are seeing lower scores in both reading and math.   Just might be that all that virtual learning wasn’t much learning on the part of kids and lazy teaching on the part of teachers.

The debate on how to best teach reading dates back to post WWII when the universal conscription for the war brought to light the fact that there were lots of young adults out there who couldn’t read.

In the ‘50’s schools used a program called the “whole word” approach.  By the ‘70’s it had morphed into the “whole language” approach.  By the ‘90’s it was discovered that there were some kids who were not good readers!   So, it was and so it will always be until we get off of this one size fits all approach to the teaching of reading.  One size fits all doesn’t work for coats and it doesn’t work for reading.

Tell me what method of teaching reading you want to espouse and I can find some research that supports the efficacy of that method.

We need to stop having smart, middle and dumb reading groups.  Regardless of what you call the groups, the kids know.   Having only one method of teaching reading just changes who is in the dumb reading group because the dumb kids will just be the kids who do not learn by that method.  Sort of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  

Phonics based approaches to teaching reading are really boring.  But if that is the way a kid learns best the pain is well worth the gain.   If it is not the way the child learns best, the suffering is compounded.

We should teach reading in basically three different ways, phonics, whole language and multi-sensory with an emphasis on motor input.   The reading groups should align with the method being taught to those kids.   Yes, that is more work for the teacher.  But if we want kids to read better, we need to teach them through a method that matches how they learn.  When will we ever learn this simple truth?