This page is geared toward parents of school-age children who are not labeled special education. In this section, I provide information about the latest trends in education as well as information about how to help your child succeed in school.
Please feel free to use the links listed above to go directly to a particular topic.
In 1975, Congress passed Public law 94-142, which provided some of the first legal rights to children in special education. That law, later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), has been modified several times, most recently in 2004. One major provision of the law is that children with disabilities will be educated with their non-disabled peers to the greatest extent possible. In other words, the school district is responsible to provide supports in order for these students to be able to be successful in the regular education classroom. Although this movement toward inclusion of special education students has been gradual, states have recently begun to strictly enforce the law, leaving some school districts scrambling to provide the necessary supports.
In 2001, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The Law has four main principles: increased accountability for States, school districts, and schools; greater choice for parents and students, particularly those attending low-performing schools; more flexibility for States and local educational agencies (LEAs) in the use of Federal education dollars; and a stronger emphasis on reading, especially for our youngest children.
Traditionally, individual states have the responsibility for schools. NCLB requires each state to devise a system of accountability (read test) that is to be given to children annually in grades 3-8. In the past, test scores have been lumped together, so a school could report that 81% of their students reached a score that is considered proficient. Under NCLB, they are no longer able to do this. Instead, scores are separated by poverty, race, ethnicity, disability, and limited English proficiency. Districts are then required to meet certain proficiency goals for each separate grouping. If a school fails to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in even one of these grouping areas, they are subject to corrective action.
So what does this mean for your child? Schools do not want to be subject to corrective action. Therefore, there is great incentive to ensure that all groups meet the specific requirements of AYP. Each year in grade 3-8, you child will take a test that is state-specific. The scores on that test will be used to determine if your school has made AYP. If the school does not make AYP, your child may have the ability to switch to another school or request additional services such as tutoring, paid for by the district.
Although certainly not a new concept, differentiated instruction has become a popular buzz-word in the field of education because of the push toward inclusion. Basically, the term means that, given that all students are not on the same level, teachers need to tailor their teaching and assignments in order to meet several different levels. This may be done in a variety of different ways, including assigning group work, tailoring specific assignments, and giving alternate assessments. Although this may seem to some like an impossible task, it is striking to see a teacher who differentiates instruction well. It takes a great deal of organization and commitment.
Another initiative that is following the increased inclusion of special education students is co-teaching. Co-teaching is the idea that a special education teacher and a regular education teacher will be equally responsible for the teaching of a mainstream classroom. In the past, special education teachers have really taken the responsibility of teaching special education students and general education teachers have been responsible for the mainstream (regular education) students. As the special education students have moved into regular education classes, this responsibility has become less divided. Therefore, some schools are making a commitment to having two teachers in each classroom.
In schools, there is often a big debate between teaching children to read through phonics or whole language. Phonics programs stress the sound-symbol relationship and using that relationship to decode words. Basically, that means that phonics stresses "sounding out" words--teaching children the letters, then the sounds associated with each letter and then asking them to sound out the words. Many of the phonics programs use books that have limited vocabulary that follow specific word patterns (remember Dick and Jane?).
Whole language comes from the idea that children will learn to read more easily if they are reading more interesting stories and using language from their own worlds. Much of the focus in whole language is to immerse students in a language rich environment, teach them the sounds, but not make it the focus of the lesson. In many cases students will be doing choral reading (reading as a class) and reading pieces that they write.
For many students, a balance between whole language and phonics is the best approach. It is important for a teacher to have an understanding of each and to recognize when students require more rigorous phonics instruction. Students who have reading disabilities often have difficulty if they do not have direct phonics instruction.
The Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) provides teachers with a method for assessing and documenting primary students' development as readers over time. The DRA is designed to be used in K-3 classrooms. Using a set of 20 stories that become increasingly difficult, teachers assess students during one-on-one reading conferences as they read specially selected assessment texts. The DRA evaluates two major aspects of reading: accuracy of oral reading and comprehension through reading and retelling of narrative stories. Both aspects of reading are critical to independence as a reader.
Usually, the scores on the DRA report both instructional level and independent level. The 90-94 percent range represents the student's instructional level, and it is the instructional level that should be reported (at the end of the grading period). A student's independent level is the level is the level at which he/she reads with 95-100 percent accuracy, with fluency, and comprehension. A student's independent level is generally one or two levels lower than his/her instructional level.
In my experience as an educator, the two things that I found that children often have the most difficulty with, and are often not directly taught, are study skills and negotiation skills. By study skills, I mean the organizational skills necessary to prepare themselves to study. So many students do not know how to organize their notebooks or keep track of their assignments. By negotiation skills, I mean the ability to talk to one another in group work. Much of their time in school is spent talking with the teacher or sitting quietly, so when students are asked to work together in a group, they are lost. The important thing to realize is that these skills do not come naturally. Kids need to be directly taught how to organize and how to work together--and often it is not being done in the school. It is important for parents to do their best to teach skills at home and present opportunities for students to practice them. Some things to keep in mind:
- NEVER ASSUME: Often parents assume that children have skills that they do not. Many study & negotiation skills need to be directly taught to some children, particularly those with ADHD and/or LD
- BE DILIGENT: These skills need to be worked on daily--even if you are short on time. Fit them in--don't let children leave with his/her notes out of his/her binder--they are bound to get lost!
- BE FLEXIBLE: Ask children to share their own strategies & if their strategies work, don't make them change to yours--there are many different methods for study skills and working things out.
- BE PATIENT: These skills sometimes fall into that "duh" category--the ones that we can't believe that children are not getting it even though we have gone over it time & time again. Kids are not trying to make you angry--it is very tough for some kids to be organized or negotiate so it takes a lot of time and patience to help them.
Constructivism is the idea that students will learn best when given the opportunity to construct their own knowledge, as opposed to the teacher lecturing them. In a classroom that practices constructivism, you would expect to see students, probably sitting in groups as opposed to independent desks, working together on projects. I remember a saying that used to be posted at my first school: I hear, I forget; I see, I remember; I do, I learn. That is the basic premise of constructivist learning.
In the United States, schools are basically the responsibility of the state. Therefore, although there are national laws that govern certain aspects of education, for the most part each state has the responsibility of determining how those standards are carried out. The state standards are the skills that the state will be targeting in the assessments that are required each year. Each state is required to make those standards accessible to the public, and you may find them at www.education-world.com/standards/state/index.shtml.