Standards Run Amok

The Louisville Courier-Journal ran a fine article last week that actually recounted some of the harmful things that are happening because of NCLB. The article, Special Educators Find Standards Stifling, is a must-read for the people charged with reauthorizing the law.

The article brings to light what happens when standards that sound so good to policymakers and bureaucrats come down to the classroom level. Here's a snip:

Seventeen-year-old Corey Bohn doesn't know his phone number and can't make change for a dollar.

His Down syndrome makes it a struggle to talk, recognize letters, cross a street, or even let someone know when he's in pain.

Nevertheless, Corey, who attends Doss High School in Jefferson County, now is expected to learn versions of grade-level academics such as the Pythagorean theorem, the periodic table of elements, principles of cell division and the parts of a novel -- all before he leaves high school.

The change, required by the federal No Child Left Behind law, more closely linked those students' curriculum and testing to a selection of modified grade-level material learned by other students....

The idea is to ensure that Kentucky's disabled students receive the same academic opportunities as everyone else.

But teachers, parents, principals and professors complain that the new standards are promoting unrealistic and meaningless lessons that squeeze out instruction in practical life skills and limit the time such students can spend in regular classrooms.

Although teachers are allowed to reduce the complexity of the concepts and make accommodations, such as allowing students to point to one of three photos to answer a question, some students are growing so frustrated they're acting out, even hitting themselves, teachers said.

"It's just horrible," said University of Kentucky professor John Schuster, who heads the university's graduate program in special education.

"Imagine you're a parent of a high-school-aged child with a severe disability, and the state has said you have to learn the first 12 elements of the periodic table, and your child can't make a sandwich, ride a bus or make a grocery list."

Even sadder, they then test all these kids over this material. In fact, the nation is giving millions to testing companies to devise standardized assessments for this purpose.