January 8, 2004
Education Week, Vol. 23, Issue 17
Education
The State of the States 2004
States have added a wealth of data to report cards, giving the public a better idea of the state of education.
Education
Measuring by Other Means
Federal law requires states to provide "alternate assessments" for students with disabilities who
cannot take regular state tests, even with accommodations. But the
1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act provides few details about how such measures should look.
The result is a wide variety of approaches.
Education
Tempting Teachers to Paradise
One of the most daunting challenges Hawaii has faced in the 10-year effort to overhaul its special education system is finding enough adequately trained teachers to meet students’ needs.
Education
Special Intervention
The assignment looks simple for an 11th grader: Learn to use a weekly
planner to write down homework assignments, with common
abbreviations and teachers' shorthand. But this special
education class, dubbed "Strategies for Success," may
give the four Cabrillo High School students and their
peers here the boost they need to perform well on
state tests--and earn high school diplomas.
Education
Accommodations in Oregon: A Juried Process
Students with disabilities often take state tests with accommodations, such as extra time, so that the exams more accurately measure what they know and can do.
Education
Teaching in Tandem
Collaborative teaching, a
resourceful approach to main streaming, is a
keystone of this school's plan to raise the achievement of special education students and move them into the era of state standards-based education.
Education
Put to the Test
States are making great strides in including students with disabilities in their standards-based systems.
Education
Diversity in Funding: Strategies Vary by State
State strategies for financing special education are almost as diverse as the populations the programs are meant to serve. Moreover, the amount and sources of money provided for special education vary greatly from state to state.
Education
The Funding Fix
States must deal with demands of higher academic standards and increasingly severe disabilities.
Education
Highly Qualified?
Teaching students with disabilities to high standards will depend on the skills of their teachers.
Education
Vouchers: The Florida Experiment
Florida’s one-of-a-kind voucher program for children with disabilities does not require participating private schools to give standardized tests. Ask Jay P. Greene if that should change, and he says he's of two minds.
Education
Charters: An Uneasy Fit
Tailored for children with autism, the Princeton House Charter
School in center-city Orlando is exempt from the A-to-F state
system of school grading that strikes fear in so many Florida
educators' hearts. But don't think Carol Tucker is unaccountable for results.
Education
The Testing Dilemma
School never came easy to Jennifer Hunt. She needed extra time to
write clearly and understand words on the page, but those hurdles never tripped up her ambition. Despite coping with the disorder known as aphasia, the Indianapolis native resolved early on that she would make it to college, and eventually, to a career in physical therapy.
Education
All Means All
Under orders to test every student with a disability, states are pondering how to do so fairly and accurately.
Education
No Separate Room
Special education classes have permanently closed shop at James
Russell Lowell Elementary School.
Education
Visions of the Possible
Special education students succeed with a general education curriculum.
Education
Basic Measures
Each weekday at W.G. Pearson Elementary School kicks off with more than two hours of reading instruction and activities. Pupils in kindergarten through
5th grade begin with basic word skills, work on spelling and vocabulary, take part in group- and individual-reading activities, and delve
into frequent writing tasks.
Education
Disparately Disabled
With African-American students showing up
in classrooms for children with mental retardation at
3.3 times the rate of white students, it was obvious in
1997 that Alabama had an equity problem with its
special education programs. Ordered by a federal
court that year to fix it, the state set to work.
Education
Teachers: Spec. Ed. Students Should Meet Own Standards
Teachers agree in principle that students with
disabilities should be taught to high standards, but their
opinions stand in stark contrast to the more concrete policies
embedded in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act as revised in 1997, according to an Education Week
poll.
Education
Enveloping Expectations
Federal law demands that schools teach the same content to children they wrote off a quarter-century ago.
Education
Special Needs, Common Goals
States are confronting how to help a diverse population meet the same standards expected of all.