NCLB Undermines Special Needs Child’s Rights & Undermines IEP
No Child Left Behind has been a nightmare for my child’s Special Education and a huge waste of money and resources. Parents need to be included in determining how and if the alternative testing procedures are appropriate for children with disabilities. Please understand that the testing for children with special needs in Maryland starts in October and goes through March! The tested material takes priority over the Individual Education Plan because teachers are forced to make the alternative tests, pre-test, train and post test the goals so the child passes. In reality, the IEP gets whatever time is leftover. Principals could excuse children but don’t because it is a conflict of interest to THEIR grade on their school. Teachers don’t advocate for children to be excused where it is contraindicated because they are intimidated and threatened with their credentialing. At minimum there needs to be a accessible DOORWAY OUT for children who are being harmed by the weight NCLB takes over the rights to a free and appropriate education that is supposed to be protected by ADD and IDEA. It is tragic to make a child do trial after trial until they can point to the quadrilateral or table of contents on a book when what they really need to master is their speech device and how to say they need help or hello. Furthermore, the children are stressed and are learning failure and to hate school. I also fear good teachers will choose not to work in Special Education because making these alternative tests is ridiculously demanding and frustrating. Thank you.
This post was submitted by Janelle Maldonado-Saad, Ph.D..
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I urge you to not assume that the way Maryland does it is mandated by NCLB. It sounds as though your state and school district are operating in an inefficient and ineffective manner. NCLB mandates testing, but the specific tests required and how they are administered are determined by the states.
In my school district, I can see that NCLB has benefited my sped kid because of the requirement for a highly educated teacher. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the definition of highly qualified is also left to the states which means that many states can concoct a pretty vague definition, and that many deemed highly qualified are not that.
The main point I’m making is that one of the big failings of NCLB is allowing each state to come up with their own definitions, standards, and tests. Some states do well on this task and others fail miserably with regard to the benefit to children.