Learning About the Disabilities in Education Act

Due to the report lambasting Delaware for coddling special ed children, I have dug into the topic of education disabled children…..As usual… it comes down not to science, but wishful thinking….

Here is how the department of Education described forcing children to achieve a high bar that is impossible for them…..

“Under the Department’s proposed regulation, students with disabilities who have been taking the AA-MAAS (Alternative Assessments-Alligned to Modifed Academic Achievement Standards) will transition to college and career ready standards and general assessments that are aligned to those standards and accessible to all students. Research has shown that struggling students with disabilities make academic progress when provided with appropriate supports and instruction. .”   That seems to meet the common sense test doesn’t it?   Pushing people harder gets more productivity.

The key is in “red”….

Scientific research shows that raising the bar and firing the coaches when they don’t meet it, raises student performance. Supposedly. Case in point.  An invading army pulls into your development and forces everyone outside: moms, dads, women, and children.  They set up a six foot high jump and say they will shoot all those who do not make it…  You see your neighbor’s family shot before your eyes.  It is your turn… it’s six feet.  Will you make it?

Here is what an advocacy group for those with disabilities says about scientific research….

“Unfortunately, the amount of rigorous, evidence-based research on programs that promote positive outcomes for students with disabilities is severely limited. First, most research is aimed at young students and strategies to help them learn to read. Second, the few evaluations that are available usually involve a very limited number of students, sometimes fewer than a dozen, which makes drawing conclusions about a broader group very difficult. Third, most of the evaluations only focus on one type of disability (e.g. severe cognitive disability or learning disability), again making general applicability of findings difficult. And last, while a few scientifically rigorous studies of programs were identified, there were almost none in the area of dropout prevention, and only a few on the transition from secondary to postsecondary education.”

People who know and are directly affected, say there is little to no scientific research…..   

And believe me, they are concerned and have read every little tidbit on this topic…. (Wouldn’t you if you were disabled?) They continue with what they found……

“According to the research that does exist, strategies that seem to be most effective in helping students with disabilities persist in high school typically include counseling services, reading remediation, tutoring, attendance monitoring, or after-school clubs (Lehr, Hansen, Sinclair, & Christenson, 2003). Other services could include sustained and supportive monitoring
interventions focused on school completion (Scanlon & Mellard, 2002). An early 1990s study of three dropout prevention programs for students with disabilities sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education found that five components were common to all programs: persistence, continuity and consistency; monitoring; relationships; affiliation; and problem-solving skills.”

Does anyone see…. setting the bar higher?   Does anyone see…. rigor?    Does anyone see…. forced humiliation?……  Does anyone see in the above even a hint of forcing a fat slob through a thin door is going to make them thinner on the other side?  No?  Because such analogies are ridiculous… Just like this rigor policy for children who are disabled is ridiculous….

Let’s expand… Do physical therapists tell rehabilitation patients to get up and walk before the bones are set?  Are open surgery patients told to run a mile immediately after surgery?  Are injured football players forced to play their positions after injury?  Why not?   We seem to be having great fun at humiliating special ed students to perform activities they completely lack the pieces in their brain to do….   What kind of parent would attach their child to their family car, take off the brake, put it in neutral and make them pull it downhill?…  The Arne Duncun kind of parent….. that’s who.

This is what is at stake here.  The dark sinister anti-children theorists of Common Core, have doubled down on special-ed children… Unless a child is born perfectly from two Stepford-like professional parents, by this Department of Education that child is ordained not to succeed. Instead, he is to be punished and public humiliated as comic sport,… just to goad those onward who can succeed into not falling any further behind….

That is Roman. That is cruel.