New regulations are being put into place that will allow more children with disabilities to be given easier tests in order to meet standards under the No Child Left Behind Act. Lawmakers claim that this will benefit these children by holding them accountable to a higher standard. Wait a minute! Didn't you just tell me that standards are being lowered? I'm confused.
Let's take a closer look then, shall we? Okay. Presently, 10% of children considered "disabled" (and "disabled" covers a wide variety of issues, from severe cognitive difficulties to, say, dyslexia, and lots in between) are allowed to take a simplified version of the NCLB test and still have it count toward the school's goal. The new rules will allow an additional 20% of children with disabilities (remember that word covers a lot) to also take a simplified test. What this article does not tell me, however, is what I really want to know: how does this really affect children? How dumbed-down are the tests? Is this an excuse for poor education, or is it really supporting children with learning differences? The rhetoric sounds great, but what are the actualities?
My youngest child has Down syndrome. He's only three, and it's too early to tell as of yet what heights he'll be reaching for one day in terms of his education, but I do know this: I want the best possible for him, the same as I do for my other children. If the educational system automatically slots him into certain lowered expectations due to his disability, what then? I'm concerned that the system is going to fail my child and thousands like him, plus countless others with different issues entirely. It sounds sadly like case of lowered expectations to accommodate the dumbing-down of our country while at the same time insuring the continued public funding of schools that fail our children in so many ways. With all the educational dollars being thrown at American schools, you'd think that American children would be better educated. Certainly there are many heroic teachers and educators out there doing a wonderful job, but statistics don't lie and statistics say that American children as a group are poorly educated when compared to children in other developed countries. There's no excuse for that and, to me, NCLB is but one visible cause of the entire problem.
