Monthly Archive for February, 2006

Right to effective teaching

Published
by
JohnL
on 12 February 2006
in Musings
. 0 Comments

Nearly 20 years ago, the Association for Behavior Analysis published a statement about an individual’s right to effective treatment. I’m wondering whether there shouldn’t be some sort of comparable statement about people receiving education.

We propose that individuals who are recipients or potential recipients of treatment designed to change their behavior have the right to a therapeutic environment, services whose overriding goal is personal welfare, treatment by a competent behavior analyst, programs that teach functional skills, behavioral assessments and ongoing evalutation, and the most effective treatments procedures available.

Van Houten, R., Axelrod, S., Bailey, J. S., Favell, J. E., Foxx, R. M., Iwata, B. A., & Lovaas, O. I. (1988). The right to effective behavioral treatment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 21, 381-384.

Link to a complete copy of the Van Houten et al. publication via PubMed.

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IDEA funding needs help

Published
by
JohnL
on 11 February 2006
in Musings and News
. 0 Comments

This is a copy of a letter I just sent to my U.S. Representative about full funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

February 11, 2006

The Honorable Virgil H. Goode Jr.
House of Representatives
1520 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-4605

Re: Please Encourage the House Budget Committee to Provide Full Funding for IDEA

Dear Representative Goode:

As president of the Division for Learning Disabilities, the largest membership organization of educators concerned with Learning Disabilities, and as your constituent, I strongly encourage you to co-sign by 13 February a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Nussle and Ranking Member Spratt supporting provision of full funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in fiscal year 2007. IDEA is essential for the millions of children (and their families) who need special education services, and the federal government has not lived up even to half of its responsibility to provide funding of this important law.

On Tuesday, 14 February 2006, Congressman Charles Bass will testify before the House Budget Committee on the need for Congress to honor its promise to fund IDEA fully. At that time, Congressman Bass will present the committee with a letter co-signed by his House colleagues who support fully funding IDEA. I ask that you sign that letter and show your support for the children with disabilities who are served by IDEA, but often do not have the supports and services they need due to lack of funding. The deadline for signing the letter is close of business Monday 13 February.

Ever since the enactment of IDEA’s predecessor, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), the US federal government has pledged to provide 40 percent of each state’s “excess cost” for educating children with disabilities. Although the law itself continues to work in other ways, the intended financial partnership among the federal, state, and local entities has faltered, because Congress has never lived up fully to its responsibilities.

In fact, funding for IDEA has decreased from 18.6 percent to 17.8 percent for fiscal year 2006. The President’s fiscal year 2007 request takes a step further backward, providing IDEA funding at just 17 percent! As a result, local communities and states have been forced to pay a higher proportion of the special education costs. Ultimately, however, children and families are the ones who are paying the price.

Please join Congressman Bass and support efforts to secure full funding for IDEA in fiscal year 2007. Please sign on Monday. Please issue a public statement endorsing the Bass letter.

Thank you for your consideration of my request that you sign the Bass letter on full funding for IDEA. I look forward to your response to my request.

Sincerely,
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D., President Division for Learning Disabilities

Write your own letter! The Council for Exceptional Children has a site you can use and suggested language.

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Changing brains

Published
by
JohnL
on 10 February 2006
in News, Research and Spelling
. 0 Comments

A couple of months ago over on LD Blog I posted an entry about Virginia Berninger’s (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, US) research on the effects of instruction on brain function. The University of Washington’s press office has another press release on the topic dated 8 February 2006. For those who are keeping score, this make the someteenth example of how systematic and explicit instruction causes changes in brain activity.

Link to the press release.

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BAAM conference

Published
by
JohnL
on 9 February 2006
in News
. 0 Comments

The Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan is holding a meeting in late March at which one can learn about some worthwhile methods and general ways of looking at teaching effectively. Skip over to the schedule to see abstracts of sessions. They even have a po-mo critique of behavior analysis!

Link to the BAAM Web site.

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Winner!

Published
by
JohnL
on 8 February 2006
in News, Reading and Written Expression
. 0 Comments

Ella Beaudoin, who is a sixth-grader, has largely overcome dyslexia to win an essay contest sponsored by the National Geographic Society, according to an article by Emily Kaiser that appeared in the Minneapolis (MN, US) Star Tribune. Ms. Kaiser attributes Ms. Beaudoin’s success to is a transfer from a public to a private school when Ms. Beaudoin was in third grade.

Dyslexia was disrupting Ella’s ability to read and write, dividing her from the rest of the class. Some kids called her stupid.

Now in sixth grade, the 11-year-old Minneapolis girl is a winner in a national essay contest that will send her to the Galapagos Islands on the first National Geographic Kids Expedition Team.

The differences between public and private schools, especially those that specialize in helping children with disabilities (Groves Academy, in this case) are many. Ms. Kaiser refers to the small pupil-teacher ratio (an important feature of special education), but there are also other potentially important factors. Indeed, I’d have to guess that there was probably someone at Groves Academy who knew how to teach literacy skills effectively.

Link to Ms. Kaiser’s article about Ella.

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Not right

Published
by
JohnL
on 6 February 2006
in News
. 0 Comments

In a story about controversy over school funding based on property taxes, Heather Gillers reported a view that is not quite accurate. Ms. Gillers (Beacon News, Aurora, IL; US]) indicated that a child with Learning Disabilities would receive different services depending on school funding. Here’s the relevant part of the story:

Deborah Soles shares [another parent's] indignation. Her third-grade daughter has a learning disability and receives one-on-one help from teachers and a social worker.

If the district can’t secure funding to build and staff new buildings, the girl will have to fight for attention in classes of more than 40 students.

As I understand it, if a child’s unique educational needs require certain services, as shown in the Individualized Education Program (IEP), those services are required regardless of the cost. Absence of tax revenue is not a reason to omit services. I wonder where Ms. Gillers or Ms. Soles got the idea that it was.

Link to Ms. Gillers’ article.

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For-fee degrees

Published
by
JohnL
on 1 February 2006
in Musings
. 0 Comments

I’m routinely amazed that the spammers send these solicitations to people with .edu addresses. Do they think that people who are attending or teaching college would want to throw away the learning just to get a paper degree? Are people going to college just to get a degree, absent interest in learning what’s taught. (Yes, I know folks go to college for the experience, too. That’s a different kind of experience, unless one’s suggesting getting a BA in Party.)

Perhaps, if I had an MA, I could get a position as a highly qualified teacher. Perhaps my work experience really is worth something….

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