An Unappreciated IDEA

Special educators are taking on two big laws for their students—IDEA needs more funding and NCLB needs more fairness.

Nancy Miller, an elementary special education teacher in Illinois, had a third-grader last year who couldn’t read the word “the.” Her self-esteem was poor. Other kids teased. But Miller spent lots of time working on that self-esteem, as well as those reading skills, and the student improved tremendously. That is, until the Illinois state test.

“You lied to me!” the student said, sobbing at her desk.

“What do you mean?” Miller asked, appalled.

“I am too stupid!”

For this one little girl, three days of tests ruined an entire year of instruction. How many more should also face purposeless humiliation? The inappropriate testing of special education students, as required by the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), should be eliminated, says NEA specialist Patti Ralabate. And, as Congress re-examines the law this year, NEA is gearing up for battle (see “NCLB: The Sequel ”).

Students with disabilities should be assessed with a student-growth model, so that their improvement can be recognized—as well as the efforts of their teachers. “It’s more fair and more appropriate,” Ralabate says.

The law also requires onerous certificates from special education teachers to consider them “highly qualified”—for example, a middle school educator who teaches multiple subjects would need multiple subject certificates, as well as a special education certificate. (Talk about expensive. And time-consuming!) Meanwhile, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), sets out more reasonable requirements, which states ignore.

And we could go on about funding…IDEA’s promise—that the federal government will pay 40 percent of the cost of special education—has never been kept. (Congress now funds 18 percent.) And, under the President’s proposed 2007 budget, the federal share would fall to 17 percent.

More information is available at www.nea.org/lac . While there, lend your support to NCLB reform bills, as well as the IDEA Full Funding Act.