Students Rights
President Obama,
For the past five weeks I have been teaching in a K-3 special education classroom. This happens to be around the same time that the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, ISAT, was given to the students in the school. The third graders in my class were also given the ISAT’s. I don’t have a problem with having to administer standardized tests to children who receive special education. I do believe that their scores are just as important as any child in a general education setting. I have a problem in the ways that the tests are administered. What I would like to start with are the student’s rights. Children who receive special education reserve the right to a free and appropriate education, also known as FAPE, which falls under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
So hears the main question; by providing a third grader who is well under the reading level of his/her peers the same standardized test in compliant with FAPE? Appropriate does not seem to fit the above scenario. While in the classroom I saw several behaviors arise due to the frustration the students would experience because he/she had no idea where to start. The students struggled with every aspect of the test because reading was involved. It was tough to not want to help the children with the test. My mentor teaching said that it was illegal to do so. That boggles my mind, I was just as frustrated as the test takers were. My concern is that by administering standardized test to this population without any accommodations, we are setting the students up for failure and more importantly I believe we are violating student’s rights.
A solution, make appropriate accommodations for the child. Who makes the accommodations? The teacher, the teacher knows best on the learning styles of the students and they should have the responsibility to accommodate the standardized test so that is appropriate for the students. Its not a difficult change to make, accommodating curriculum is what every special education teacher as well as good general education teacher do.
I would like you to take a moment and think of the students who are on the other side of these test, who already struggle on a daily basis with more than just academics. Think of the rights that have been created to protect the students. We cannot let the students struggle anymore with something that can easily be changed to show that our educational system does care for the success of all children in all areas of academics.
This post was submitted by Kent Giardini.
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