Action Alert: Changes to NCLB

[Gena]

The No Child Left Behind act is currently being considered for reauthorization by the Senate HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).

On October 19 it is expected that Senator Isakson (R-GA) will offer an amendment S 1571. This amendment will allow states to lower the academic expectations for children with disabilities based on their scores of state accountability tests. Students without a disability who score poorly on this test will be provided with additional remediation; children with disabilities will not.

Current special education law allows schools to use alternate forms of assessment (rather than the standard state accountability test) but limits the number of students who can be tested by alternative means (a certain percentage of all students with a disability). Amendment S 1571 would remove those limits, effectively allowing schools to use alternative testing for all students with disabilities. By doing this, there would be no way to track whether students with disabilities are making adequate academic progress compared to their non-disabled peers.

Through these measures, it would be possible for schools to take students with disabilities off the track to earning a HS diploma as young as 3rd grade and to do so just because they receive special education services.

Potentially, it would also be possible for schools to identify low-scoring students as disabled in order to remove their test scores from state accountability systems.

This amendment threatens to undo all the hard work of parents, teachers, and students with disabilities who have fought for educational equality and accountability.

Read more here:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/esea.amend.s1571.htm
http://www.wrightslaw.com/nltr/11/al.1017.esea.htm

Then contact your Senator and ask him/her to vote NO on the Isakson Amendment S 1571.

[crl]

Thanks for posting Gena!

Catherine

[sariana]

I haven't posted on the BBB in a long time, but I had to post this update:

The amendment failed: http://www.autismpolicyblog.com/2011...goes-down.html

Thank you, Gena, for posting. I'm sorry I didn't see your post sooner, but I'm glad the amendment failed.

[Gena]

Thanks for posting the update, Sarina. I'm so glad and relieved the amendment failed.

Thank you to everyone who read and took action!

[BabyMine]

It's another time I wonder who really thought this was a good idea that they even proposed it.