How does nclb help special education

In edu-speak, students needed to achieve designated benchmarks known as AYP, or adequate yearly progress. The recent opt-out trend—in which thousands of largely middle-class parents and their children have boycotted new standardized exams—is in large part a reflection of how strenuous those mandates became. For some advocates, No Child Left Behind marked a new chapter in which kids with disabilities counted.

Could the new law mean students with special needs may, once again, all but disappear on test days and end up back in their segregated learning environments? A blind student today needs a book in Braille, not a separate school; a student with an emotional disorder may require an aid in the same classroom, but while doing the same projects as his peers.

Candace Cortiella of The Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit focused on special-education rights, fears that the potential loopholes in the new law could mean those students would be again relegated to second-rate educations. Now that Democrats and Republicans have recently started its reauthorization process, it is time to examine one particular aspect, special education, that raises several different challenges.

Assessment of students with disabilities is perhaps the thorniest issue in education policy. For decades students with disabilities were not assessed or educated along with their peers. Schools, like all organizations, value what they can measure.

The education system did not value students with disabilities because their success or failure was not counted. It mandated that students with disabilities participate in state assessments. States argued it was unfair for students with severe cognitive disabilities to take a general test because they were unable to achieve proficiency.

Disability advocates were right to include all students in assessments and states were correct that some students would struggle to succeed in the new system. To address this issue the Education Department issued regulations allowing states to alter assessments for some students with disabilities. Students who received support services but were unlikely to achieve proficiency on the general test could take a modified assessment covering the same content with easier questions.

Students with the most severe cognitive disabilities could take an alternate assessment that covered less content and included less challenging questions. The intent was to ensure all students were counted and also to recognize that students with severe disabilities may not reach grade level proficiency.

Despite these changes, the core policy conflict remains. The IEP or team determines how a student will participate, not whether a student will participate. Furthermore, out-of-level testing is not allowed under NCLB. These provisions will ensure that all students are included and that practices such as out-of-level testing begin to disappear. The requirement of grade level testing will enhance access and exposure to the general curriculum for students with learning disabilities, providing opportunities for accelerated learning for those who previously have been subjected to watered-down curricula and limited expectations.

A: The data are used to determine if a school, district, or state is making progress in student achievement in the areas of reading and math. Schools that fail to achieve AYP for the students in each grade assessed, each area assessed, and in each subgroup are subject to a series of sanctions. So, as you can see, the performance of students with disabilities can have a substantial impact on the overall performance of the school.

It is entirely possible for a school that achieves AYP for the total school population, as well as all but one subgroup, such as the subgroup of students with disabilities, to be rated as needing improvement under NCLB. It is this level of accountability that will help improve instruction for students with learning disabilities. This requirement applies to regular education teachers. The definition and timeline for highly qualified teachers of special education is contained in the IDEA.

However, most students with learning disabilities spend the majority of their instructional time in regular education, so the new requirement will work to improve the quality of instruction for all children, including those with LD. Several critical elements in NCLB ensure that schools are held accountable for educational results so that the best education possible is provided to each and every student.

The three most critical elements to understand are:. State assessments are the way schools must prove that they have successfully taught their students.

These assessments must include students with disabilities. Schools must also provide the accommodations and alternate assessments that may be needed by students with disabilities. Accommodations are changes to the assessment materials or procedures that allow for students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills rather than the effects of their disabilities.

Students with learning disabilities should be participating in the regular state assessments with or without accommodations. Alternate assessments are assessments designed to measure the performance of students with disabilities who are unable to participate in state and district assessments even with appropriate accommodations. These alternate assessments are typically designed for students with complex disabilities and probably would not be appropriate for most students with learning disabilities.

IDEA specifically provides services to students with disabilities.