Education is important in the current campaign for mayor of the District of Columbia (DC; US), according to a story in the Washington Post by Lori Montgomery. Citing poll data and interviews with citizens, Ms. Montgomery reports that peopl apparently are focusing on improving schools. The focus is not necessarily on the right point, though. The report notes that public outcry over expenditure on a baseball stadium led DC to spend $100 million per year on buildings for schools.
But repairing schoolhouses doesn’t guarantee improvement in the classroom. Cherita Whiting, PTA president at the newly renovated McKinley Technology High School in Eckington, off New York Avenue NE, complains that some teachers don’t enlist families to help their children excel.
“There are kids in McKinley with five F’s on their report cards,” Whiting said. “These kids want to do good. The problem is some teachers do not communicate with the parents.”
There are hints that people are actually concerned about what really matters—students’ actual outcomes—and I hope that someone starts writing about this matter.
Link to Ms. Montgomery’s article.
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The National Union of Teachers in the United Kingdom considers the policy of inclusion in UK schools to have been a failure and has called for a halt to the closure of special schools. Based on results from interviews with teachers, children, and parents, the union considers the policy of educating all children in the general education environment to be potentially harmful, according to an article by Tony Halpin in the London Times.
The National Union of Teachers dramatically reversed decades of support for “inclusion” and demanded a halt to the closure of special schools. It called on the Government to carry out “an urgent review of inclusion in policy and practice”.
The union issued a report by academics at Cambridge University, which suggested that inclusion was harming children with special needs, undermining the education of others and leaving teachers exhausted as they struggled to cope with severe behavioural and medical conditions.
Almost a year ago, as reported here, Baroness Mary Warnock reversed fields and raised questions about whether inclusionary practices were universally beneficial. Baroness Warnock, who had championed inclusion for many years, published an article in which she raised doubts about it. She told the BBC (UK)
This ideal of inclusiveness “springs from hearts in the right place” but she describes its implementation and the consequent moving of pupils out of special schools as a “disastrous legacy”.
Governments must come to recognise that, even if inclusion is an ideal for society in general, it may not always be an ideal for school.
Statements attributed to people affiliated with the National Union of Teachers are quite strong, reminding me of the over-reach I have heard coming from supporters of full inclusion. I hope that this does not forebode an extreme swing of policy. We need neither full inclusion nor exclusion.
Link to the Mr. Halpin’s story.
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Over on Teach and Learn, Michael Lach has a good note about the misdirection that passes as educational reform. He commented about an editorial in the New York Times, but it’s his phrasing here that caught my attention: “It seems that the reform trend these days is increasingly focused on structures and governanace, and less on what actually happens between teachers and students and content in the classroom.” Ain’t that the truth? It’s nice to know that there is at least one other person who understands that messing with time schedules, the array of seats in rooms, and so forth will likely have far less impact on students’ outcomes than bulking up the teaching that happens there. Sure, it’s sad that some schools have lots of resources and others have few, but the critical element, as Mr. Lach noted, is “what actually happens between teachers and students.”
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Over on The Life that Chose Me, Dick Dalton has a thoughtful commentary on inclusion. He’s not convinced it is right for everyone and he is convinced it’s different in theory than in practice. Read Mr. Dalton’s column.
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Joseph P. Batory, a former school administrator, has an editorial about the importance of funding IDEA. It’s not about effective teaching, but it is about resources needed to support effective teaching of kids with disabilities. Here’s a link to his column.
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A charter school in Ohio (US) hopes to improve student performance, which has apparently been poor enough that Ohio officials have cited the school as needing improvement, by securing training in Learning Disabilities for some of its teachers, according to Jennifer Mrozowski of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Harmony Community School hopes to improve its program by having about a third of its teaching staff become certified in special education by next school year.
The charter school, which was cited by its sponsoring agency in December for poor performance, has teamed up with Antioch University McGregor in Yellow Springs, a division of Antioch University, to create an in-house licensing program for Harmony’s teachers.
Faculty from the university comes to the Roselawn charter school twice a week to give instruction to about a dozen Harmony teachers, who are paying for the master’s program with federal financial aid and student loans.
Think this is enough? Does it matter what sort of training the folks from Amherst provide?
Link to Ms. Mrozowski’s story.
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I got home from a wonderful visit with special educators in Portugal to find a copy of the 4th edition of Better IEPs in the mail. It looks just as fine as the previous 3 editions. It’s updated so it corresponds with the most recent revisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of the US.
A well designed IEP can change a child’s schooling experience from one of repeated failure, loss of self-esteem and limited options to one of achievement, direction and productivity. Alas, our experiences persuade us that legally correct and educationally useful IEPs are all too rare. We devoutly hope and sincerely believe this book can help change that situation.
I share the authors hopes and strongly recommend this book to those who participate in development of IEPs: Parents, teachers, admininistrators, and others.
Link to the publisher’s page about Better IEPs.
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Stan Simpson, a columnist for the Hartford Current (CT; US) and host of a radio show in that area, revealed in a column 28 April that his son Cash’an has been tentatively diagnosed as having autism. He uses his column to express his intention to focus on his family’s hope for effective therapy and success for the boy.
Citing the success of adults such as Temple Grandin, Mike Marino, and Dan Malloy as examples, Mr.Simpson asserts, “With increased awareness, modern science and money for more research, there’s no reason why we can’t help these kids reconnect.” Here’s hoping his prediction is correct and that his forthright discussion of his family’s situation promotes greater awareness of autism.
Link to Mr. Simpson’s column.
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