Debate
Should Special Needs Students Be Exempt From Graduation Tests?

YES
Timothy Bush teaches special education at Seaford Senior High School in Delaware. Currently a member of the Delaware State Education Association executive board, he's also a lead teacher for his district's New Teacher Mentoring Program.

Special educators are trained to look at the whole child and make decisions based on individual needs. I feel that I must qualify my "yes" answer by rephrasing the question to read, "Should many special need students be exempt from taking graduation tests?"

I don't believe students should be routinely exempted, but I do believe that only the experts who participate on a student's Child Study Team should make that decision. As long as bureaucrats and politicians can mandate that all students take a single test to graduate, a team's ability to exempt a student from such testing is compromised.

If special needs students are lumped together with non-disabled peers and required to take high-stakes tests without procedural safeguards, I have grave concerns about fairness.

These concerns center around how special needs students are identified and tracked, what accommodations for them are made, and whether a single indicator is relied on for an assessment.

The referral process for identifying special education students always involves the use of multiple indicators. Tests, observations, psychological reports, student work samples, parent and teacher interviews, and many other tools are used to identify, describe, and provide information about disabilities that may be affecting a student's performance.

After identification, appropriate individual accommodations, supports, and adaptations are developed to modify instruction, allowing for as much success as possible. When tests are used in the classroom, they are often modified in ways consistent with a student's IEP and list of appropriate accommodations.

It's understood that the nature of a student's disability might not allow that student to demonstrate mastery of concepts the way other students do. Why isn't it understood that graduation tests require the same modification?

I believe that holding all students accountable to high graduation standards is certainly important and necessary. But test designers often fail to consider the possible disabilities of students taking the graduation tests. They construct the test items with standards in mind, but do they think about what kinds of students must take the test?

What about students who have visual or motor problems that interfere with their ability to quickly process and respond to information? Will the test come in a format that allows it to be untimed for these students?

Can the test be broken into segments or must it be taken in one massive block? Will there be enlarged print or Braille versions?

It's extremely difficult for test makers to anticipate the wide variety of accommodations that may be required, which returns us to the concept of considering special needs students on an individual, case-by-case basis.

Ultimately, I think, we may need to develop criteria for creating a "body of evidence" that assesses student mastery. My overriding concern is that special needs students be treated fairly. To do anything less is simply discriminatory and unfair.

Voting Results | Forum

NO
Ed Amundson is a special education teacher at C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento, California. Chair of NEA's Caucus of Educators for Exceptional Children, he is a national presenter and staff trainer on special education issues.

The question is not whether special needs students should be exempt from taking graduation tests. The real question is whether students should be required to take tests that do not include appropriate accommodations. The answer is no.

As states and locals move towards higher standards and expectations, it's critical to include students with special needs. For many years special ed was viewed as an adjunct program that was trying to "mainstream" such students into the general ed environment. Access to the curriculum was an afterthought.

Under IDEA '97, the emphasis is not just on access to the school but access to the curriculum as well, and, with it, recognition of student effort. We now expect that, with appropriate accommodations, students can complete the core curriculum.

Many states and locals currently acknowledge the different learning needs of all students and make accommodations through the IEP process. Schools recognize student strengths and weaknesses and allow for measures of what a student knows and not what they do not. Should a standard exit exam do the same?

I posed this question to a group of secondary learning disabled students to get their impressions. Their response was intriguing. The feeling was unanimous that they should be required to take an exit exam. They are eager to show what they have accomplished.

But these students were perplexed about why the core classes required to graduate could be modified but not the tests that would measure their success.

As one student put it: "I am good at some things and not others, but how would anyone know?"

The question is valid. What other people may know or perceive is extremely important. If students are not awarded diplomas, what do they receive?

If the purpose of a diploma is to demonstrate a student has successfully completed the required course of study, anything less sends a message of failure the student will carry for life.

"All potential employers are going to think is that I did not make the grade," one student told me. "They won't know how hard I worked, what I did learn, or what I can still learn. For the rest of my life, my application will say I couldn't do it. That just isn't fair."

Many would argue that making accommodations creates an unequal playing field. But equal is not the issue. Equal is when every student gets the same thing. Fair is when all students get what they need.

The national demand for high standards and accountability is appropriate for all students. But it's patently unfair not to make the accommodations that will enable students with special needs to demonstrate their abilities.

Would we not make accommodations for a student in a wheelchair? A disability is a disability.

For many students, gaining a high school diploma is a major life goal. As educators, we are the keys that open doors to opportunity and dreams. We must leave the door open for all students.