"Our children are already being left behind. We teach the most severely disabled students in our county, and yet we have to teach at least 10 objectives in math and reading after we have reviewed the state standards and curriculum's. Appropriate education is not one of the objectives. Our students need to learn the most basic functional life skills, but we have to spend most of our time putting together and creating a test based on math and reading (soon to be science and social studies).

"It has broken the spirit of many of the teachers in our school and many schools in our county. We are told to start September 1.

"One teacher asked if she could transfer to another class that does not have alternative Maryland assessment (alt-msa), so she can go to graduate school (so she can be deemed to be highly qualified). She cannot do both. "We have visited the state's department of ed to share our stories, to no avail. I have presented information to our MSTA board of directors, including the state director of special education, who had been asked to attend. But we have not made any major changes.

"It is very difficult to teach math and reading skills to students who are so disabled that toileting, feeding, and language development are more important in their daily life. Our stories would make any teacher want to leave our profession. And many are.

"I spoke to our negotiating team and, due to my presentation, we were to include a half day of planning for each student that a teacher has to provide alt-msa. The story goes on and on. We are not giving up yet. We are planning to visit the state education department during one of their open meetings in September. We will not be quiet. We need help. Please listen to our stories.

"We do want accountability and appropriate education for our students, but NCLB has been a disaster to our schools, especially for the special education students in our system. So many of our school programs have been canceled, professional development has been canceled, all due to the amount of time and work needed just to create the alt-msa testing. Please help us. Where is the common sense?

"I could go on about the amount of money spent on materials, substitutes, and copying, money that could have been spent more wisely on good education. I do not have enough time to tell all the stories."

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