The Alabama Board of Education Had Best Clean Up Its Act

[Minimalist]

I can barely believe they are proposing this it's so odious. I wonder what the mechanism would be to force parents to institutionalize their kids? Would they refuse to teach them? Or have the parents arrested?

It's Alabama.  If they're black they'll have the cops shoot them.

[Javaman]

Why oh why are people still so enamored of standardized testing? Why do people still believe such things are necessary to providing and guiding public education?

Standardized testing pretty much runs counter to what we know about educating children. Why does the media have such hard-on for the results of standardized testing?

Step 1 to improving public education: eliminate standardized testing. Then we can move forward.

Title IV funding. 

Schools receive funds from Title IV based on academic scores. Since the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) act was putt into motion, many schools and LEA's (Local Education Authorities) have struggled to reach the scores necessary to receive that funding from the Federal Government. Supposedly, scores from special needs classes/students/ are lumped in with the rest of the student body scores in order to comply with the NCLB act. This in turn, brings down the overall score for the schools and the LEA's (Local Educational Agency).

This is what I know from being the mother of a special needs student. But certainly forcing someone like me to make my child institutionalized should be a crime. Does my daughter not have the same rights as any other child when it comes to education and learning and being at home with her parents? Yes. Putting my daughter in an institution just so some stupid school board doesn't have to have its schools reflect lower test scores is an abomination and anyone proposing such a ludicrous thing should be publicly removed from their position and should have to issue a public apology to all of the families they offended. 

You send your teachers through continuous learning seminars/classes so they are better equipped to handle teaching special needs students. You make programs available to those students, which they have a right to under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). You strive to do better by all  of the students in your district so that none of them have to pay the price for your arrogance and unwillingness to properly make sure all educational opportunities are in place for them. 

Most importantly: you don't hire or elect any officials to sit on your BOE who are going to be a detriment to any improvements or opportunities your district needs to make to become better. And you sure as hell make sure they don't set your district back 60 fucking years when they stupidly propose institutionalizing some of its citizens as a way of getting better test scores. 

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I like that you used the word abomination. Because that's really what it is. The idea that a school should receive less funding because they have more special needs students is just so utterly ass-backwards that it leaves me speechless.

Title IV funding just sounds so utterly weird to me. Funding should be based on student needs. It always boggles my mind that self proclaimed fiscal conservatives argue against increased funding to public education when all the evidence supports increased funding of public education as a way to boost the economy and reduce (future) taxes.

I should point out that I'm a teacher in British Colombia (Canada). We spent 15+ years fighting a neo-liberal government that illegally stripped our contract of clauses that guaranteed minimum levels of support for special needs students. The Supreme Court of Canada ultimately ruled in our favour in a way that really smacked down the government that introduced the illegal legislation.

[Joods]

I can barely believe they are proposing this it's so odious. I wonder what the mechanism would be to force parents to institutionalize their kids? Would they refuse to teach them? Or have the parents arrested?

IF I were forced with that sort of decision, my family would be leaving the state ASAP. No way in hell someone is going to violate my freedoms or my child's freedoms and force her to live in an institution simply because the BOE was saying it was necessary for their stupid fucking test scores. Fuck. That. Shit.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Or at least get rid of the shitheads on it.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/alabama-...st-scores/

Alabama state school board member wants to institutionalize special needs students to boost test scores

A member of the state-wide Alabama Board of Education wanted to know why the state couldn’t force parents to put their special needs children into institutions so that test scores would increase in the schools.

Where do they find these dumbasses.

Oh right.... probably in republicunt churches.

Did you hear about the Texas A&M student who transferred to OSU?

He raised the average IQ of both states.

[Minimalist]

[Wyrd of Gawd]

This is a very complex issue that requires a long essay to give it justice. But start by considering the question of fairness. Is it fair to the more intelligent students with IQs of 110-140 to be held back by students with IQs of 70-90?

Who benefits from having low performing students mixed in with high performing students? Is it just a ploy to push the idea of school vouchers to enrich the operators of charter schools?

Based upon objective real world evidence what's the best outcome a student with learning disabilities can expect to achieve in modern America? Is it better for all of the students if such students be mainlined or should those students be placed in an environment specifically tailored to their abilities?

As a superpower on the world stage should we concentrate on producing the highest possible top achievers to compete with the rest of the world or should we be satisfied with a pool of low achievers?

And then there's the whole issue of foreign students. Some are smart, some are not. There are some school districts where the student body speak 130 different primary languages.

And of course there's the traditional problems of racial and class discrimination.

Mix all of those things up in a school and you have a heck of a mess.

[Minimalist]

Institutionalizing kids is not an answer.  I don't care how fucking complex things get.

[Joods]

This is a very complex issue that requires a long essay to give it justice.  But start by considering the question of fairness.  Is it fair to the more intelligent students with IQs of 110-140 to be held back by students with IQs of 70-90?  

Who benefits from having low performing students mixed in with high performing students?  Is it just a ploy to push the idea of school vouchers to enrich the operators of charter schools?

Based upon objective real world evidence what's the best outcome a student with learning disabilities can expect to achieve in modern America?  Is it better for all of the students if such students be mainlined or should those students be placed in an environment specifically tailored to their abilities?  

As a superpower on the world stage should we concentrate on producing the highest possible top achievers  to compete with the rest of the world or should we be satisfied with a pool of low achievers?  

And then there's the whole issue of foreign students.  Some are smart, some are not.  There are some school districts where the student body speak 130 different primary languages.

And of course there's the traditional problems of racial and class discrimination.  

Mix all of those things up in a school and you have a heck of a mess.

In this country (USA) ALL children have the right to learn in a public school, regardless of IQ. Regardless of disability status or non-disabled status. Every single child has the right to be given the chance to grow intellectually. The fact that there are people out there who doubt any disabled person's chances of success - well that's just ignorance and quite frankly - those people shouldn't be governing any school system. Period. 

Just as there are classes for special needs kids, there are also classes for children who excel in their studies. They are called honors classes. I have two children. One child went through the special needs environment. The other child is currently enjoying four honors classes in 9th grade this year. 

Both kids are/were in the same school district. 
Both kids have been given opportunities that ALL students in the school district are able to enjoy. 
The district doesn't "suffer" any losses because of the inclusion of special needs kids. 
My oldest daughter was the first child in this school district to break stereotypes and cause inclusion to become a regular thing in this district. She spent less than 4% of her time away from regular peers (non-disabled students in her class).
She graduated in 2016 with a regular diploma. The school district didn't take a loss of money from any title IV grants because of her testing scores. 

I'd like to see what other excuses the Alabama BOE comes up with in regards to its special needs population. My school district went above and beyond to ensure that my oldest was given every opportunity to advance and grow, both as a person and academically. Not once was I ever told that she could not receive a certain type of education because the district couldn't afford it or didn't have anyone with the necessary training. It was the law that they provide what she needed, and they complied. Simple as that. For Alabama to go to the lengths of even suggesting institutionalization of any of its students is just mind blowing. If I were a parent living there - a Federal law suit would be filed the next day over this issue. This should be a wake up call to the entire nation that children are being treated in this fashion by this state.

[Pat Mustard]

Removing these students will not help.
More funding will not help the scores come up either.

The only thing that can do that is more parent interaction and involvement.

You're wrong on that. It's been shown over and over again that better funding, mixing streams and classes improves educational outcomes for all. Like with healthcare the US has managed to build a system with the worst of both worlds, high costs, low outcomes.

[Pat Mustard]

Actually, you did welcome me in my intro thread. We shared jokes about about whether my name referred to coffee or the fossilized early humans my nickname might refer to.

Good times...

Must have been a while ago.  I'm old.  I forget.

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LOL Min... he's been here for six years.

92 posts in 6 years?  I do that in an afternoon.

Ya but you're an auld fart. You've a lot of time and practice complaining.