<p>Hooray, Linzoy!!!</p>
<p>You said exactly what I wanted to – caring is not enough. Anyone who thinks the special education system is doing such a great job should look at the long-term outcome for most sped students. </p>
<p>Schools depend on special education parents not to question things. More parents should be questioning things. They might be very surprised what they will find out (after dealing with the smoke and mirrors)!</p>
<p>"Anyone who thinks the special education system is doing such a great job should look at the long-term outcome for most sped students. "</p>
<p>Long-term outcome compared to what? If they are in “special ed” it’s because they are already outside the norm in some way. The spectrum of “special ed” is so broad statements like these make no sense to me. I have a child with an IEP so I am not ignorant about how the system works, but the reality is what it is – so I dont’ “get” that statement. Each “special ed” student’s outcome will be different based on what the disability is. The path to the outcome is still weighted the same as for mainstream students: a combination of the teacher, the student and the parents.</p>
<p>Hey, I just want to to point out that some parents around here fear confronting teachers because they’re worried about the consequences (teacher singling out their child and making things difficult). My s had a teacher who was shopping online during class time. He would come home and tell me “She bought a coat today and a nice pair of boots - nordstroms I think.” This was not an isolated event. So I approached the principal. HE said he was “shocked” and that “Mrs so and so” was a great teacher. Did I have other parents who could back up my story? So I reached out and finally found one who agreed to have a meeting with the principal (most said 'sorry don’t want to get involved" - and also “my child has never mentioned anything”).
Well the principal did finally investigate and found that the kids were doing NOTHING in that class - and put the teacher on warning. She was gone the following year.
So, yeah, I guess I was “helicoptering.” But I can’t imagine just standing by…my blood pressure went up every time I heard about another one of her “purchases.” I’m glad my kid decided to say something instead of using the class as a free study hall (as many kids did). Why would parents ignore this type of situation?</p>
<p>NOT helicoptering, toneranger.</p>
<p>Report on special education. Yes, it’s a little dated, but they don’t do studies like this every year:</p>
<p>[A</a> New Era: Revitalizing Special Education for Children and Their Families](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation/reports/index.html]A”>http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation/reports/index.html)</p>
<p>The majority of students in special education are Learning Disabled, and the majority of them have reading disabilities. I’m not aware of an official national policy or research showing that students with reading difficulties can’t be taught to read. Unfortunately, most sped teachers are not taught to properly teach reading remediation. Standards for sped certification are low (improving now with Highly Qualified Teacher provisions in No Child Left Behind legislation). </p>
<p>Sped does NOT mean stupid and incompetent. Too often, sped students really have suffered from the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”</p>
<p>There is a girl in my school who is taking Advanced Physics (I am as well, just a different class period). She was failing horribly (I am talking in the forties range) at and after the halfway mark. Lo and behold, when her report card comes, darling Suzy has a 3.9 GPA! How, you ask? Why, her dear mother called the teacher to complain about the physics grade. This particular student is ranked higher than I am in the class for two reasons: my school does not rank Honors or Advanced classes, which comprise my entire courseload, and her mother is pushy and apparently gets grades changed all the time. Her mom was talking to mine about my little sister’s grade in an art class (she got a B-) and the other mother asked mine if my mom had the grade changed. My mom told her she didn’t and the other mom said it’s easy, she does it all the time. </p>
<p>I am not happy that I worked hard for my 94 in Advanced Physics while Suzy had her mommy call the teacher.</p>
<p>Oh, and Anona, the term “sped” is helping to add to the special needs’ students feeling of incompetency.</p>
<p>
?</p>
<p>Are you a student “receiving special education services,” that you can speak with such authority?</p>
<p>I was simply shortening the term, and there was no offense or insult intended. </p>
<p>My son received “special education services” while he was in public school, and I became a volunteer sped (“special education”) advocate. </p>
<p>What is your background and familiarity with sped (“special education services”)?</p>
<p>Don’t sweat the small stuff, darlin’…and I’d also suggest not sweating what someone else’s mother does about changing grades. It’s been going on forever; grow up and move on.</p>
<p>P.S. And I suggest that “special needs” students’ feelings of incompetency stem not from my using “sped” as a shorthand for “special education services,” but rather from public education’s incompetence in educating these students. </p>
<p>Read the report I linked to for more information.</p>
<p>^^^^
My goodness, you don’t need to be an umpire to know a strike when you see it. </p>
<p>“I have no problem with special education students taking advanced classes so long as they won’t be detrimental to the rest of the students. My dad teaches an engineering course at a local school that’s the equivalent on an AP course and he’s had his share of special ed students which have been a pleasure. On the other hand, he’s also had students (of special education and otherwise) that are a complete handful and disrupted class every day, but he had no way to remove them due to overly involved parents pretty much forcing their will on him.”</p>
<p>If the student is not intellectually qualified, then yeah.
If they are, tough **** how much other kids and the teacher are bothered.
The are called disabilities for a reason.</p>