EA Applauds New Special Education Considerations Under ESEA

Statement from NEA President Reg Weaver about new regulations
for special needs students under "No Child Left Behind"

NEA is pleased that the Bush administration has finally recognized how building much greater flexibility into the ESEA/"No Child Left Behind" education law is essential to improving overall student achievement and closing the achievement gap.

These much-needed changes in assessing special-needs students were strongly urged by NEA, teachers, parents and many others across the country over the last two years. Now we call on the Department of Education to work with schools, school districts, and states to re-evaluate schools that may have been unfairly labeled as not meeting annual standards due to one-size-fits-all tests being used for students with disabilities and to re-examine many other areas of the law that require additional flexibility.

Unfortunately, many schools and school districts around the country may have been unfairly labeled as not making "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) or as being "in need of improvement" because their special education students did not perform at a level consistent with their age group. We call on Secretary Paige to work with states to reevaluate these schools' AYP scores. Such a review is needed to ensure that no school is inappropriately labeled as having not met AYP now that the regulations have changed, and provide reasonable flexibility in assessing students with disabilities.

We also call on the department to establish the same flexibility for states and schools in other areas of assessment, especially for English language learners, as well as for additional changes to the law to ensure that schools are not measured just on test results on one day.

We urge Secretary Paige to work with NEA in developing user-friendly materials and training for teachers that will put this policy into effect and help teachers understand and utilize the full range of assessment options for students with disabilities. We want every child to be given the tools that he or she needs to be successful.

We are pleased that some of our suggestions have been incorporated in the department's new regulations. We are hopeful that our other suggestions for the "No Child Left Behind" law will also be implemented. NEA has drafted legislation, the Great Public Schools for Every Child Act, that puts much-needed improvements in place. Several bills based on our proposals have been introduced in the Congress.

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According to an Education Week article on this topic:

Under the regulations published in the Dec. 9 Federal Register, states and districts can develop alternate assessments pegged to other than a grade-level standard and use them to test students with special needs who cannot take the grade-level tests even with accommodations. However, only up to 1 percent of students in the grade levels tested could take tests based on alternate achievement standards and have their scores counted as "proficient" or "advanced" for meeting the federal mandate of showing "adequate yearly progress," or AYP.

Without the Education Department's clarification, the test scores of such students would have to be measured against grade-level standards and considered "not proficient."

Change in federal rules reverses schools' failing status (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article)

Posted December 11, 2003