The Results are in May 26, 2007
Posted by Daniel Dage in Alternate Assessment, Special Education.comments closed
I can’t believe I’m blogging about this…AGAIN. Already. I really, really was hoping to just sort of put things behind me and finish the year, relax and then start next year all fresh. I was willing to go into next year with a more open mind and determination to do better.
But it just couldn’t rest.
This past year, this blog was dominated by the Georgia alternate Assessment and the havoc that it caused in my life as a teacher. I logged in countless hours going over and over and over the stuff. I really did try my best to make sure I did all of it correctly. I did make the one snarky remark and got my butt soundly and roundly chewed for it. But over all, I put in what I can only describe as my best effort. As one assistant principal Harry said, “It’s not the students that are graded, it’s the teachers.”
I finally got my grade for the GAA.
No, the results for the students won’t be ready until June 11th! What the hell good that does, I have no idea. It’s demoralizing that we broke our butts to submit them in a timely manner and then they can’t score them in a timely manner. No matter. The damage has been done. I personally have spoke to a dozen or so teachers who are moving, retiring and transferring to escape the GAA. Students with the severest of disabilities will have the most inexperienced teachers next year, thanks to this crap.
I was observed earlier in the year and got a good classroom evaluation. But yesterday, on the last day of school, another assistant principal, Carey, pulled out another evaluation form for me to sign. It was a reprimand, noting my unsatisfactory performance on the GAA. They said they found mistakes that I had failed to correct. They said I had submitted incorrect data collection dates. They said I failed to measure up. Carey said that they had to rush at the last minute to correct whatever errors they found. I had submitted and resubmitted multiple, multiple times and tried to incorporate every suggestion and correction asked. As my first time through this, I was doing the best I could and under pressure.
It doesn’t even matter how Taz did, now. Because if he passes, the AP’s will take the credit based on their corrections. If he fails, they’ll blame it all on me. It’s the ultimate CYA.
Now I don’t know if I even want to come back next year. It certainly does provide the incentive to look for other options and it seems to be pointing towards getting out of the severe and profound business. The Washington and Atlanta bureaucrats are making an already challenging job unmanageable.
dick
Haha! Misspelling the title was so indicative of my confusion! No wonder I can’t do these things right.
Going back in time for Spaz May 23, 2007
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, Behavior Analysis, Parent Support, Parents and parenting, Special Education, Teachers, Therapy.comments closed
If you could go back in time for Spaz, what do you think should have been done to better his outcome (in any and all areas you care to comment on).
Wow. That’s so tough, but I think it’s important for any parents who do have children with severe autism and behavior problems. It’s important to realize that back in 1985, when Spaz was born, no one knew much about autism, let alone interventions and services. So just being born later will improve the prognosis for most kids. Spaz was born 12 weeks premature, so he’s actually lucky just to be alive. Even 30 years ago, that may not have been the case.
First off, I’ll say there is no substitute for diligence as a parent. What I mean by that, is holding firm to behavioral expectations like a dog on to a bone. I’m drawing from my own experience as a parent here, and therapies come and go but parental consistency is the one thing that stays the same. Hopefully. Jane and I were hyper vigilant early on, and this paid off as Thomas grew older. And this leads to a second thing: you can not do it alone. Jane does an excellent job and takes the bulk of the credit but I’m in there as well. It helped being in the field and actually trying out some interventions that I was learning about, like floortime, discrete trial, pivotal response training, ABA, augmentative communication, PECS and video modeling.
If I had to recommend one publication for parents who are seeking peer-reviewed literature on Autism, it would be Focus on Autism and other Developmental Disabilities. This is a journal but it has stuff that an everyday parent would find interesting. Jane would get it before me, and read the entire thing before she’d let me have it. The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis is okay, but it quite technical and not specific to disabilities and autism. The Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions is another journal of practical interest, especially for teachers.
The reason why I recommend knowing the literature is because the temptation towards fads in inescapable. So many people are out to cash in on the epidemic, that if you have little to on knowledge, you’ll become just another proof of PT Barnum’s maxim.
Jackie mentioned in her comment that her son has many of the behaviors Spaz has. Keep in mind, Spaz has actually improved and matured since I got him 6 years ago. I went to work on his most serious behaviors, which were hitting, kicking and scratching the crap out of all of us. Almost all of that aggression is gone, now. Now we’re working on the spitting, self-gagging, biting stuff and potty training. We still have a long way to go, but one has to understand how far we’ve come. So if a child of 8 years is where Spaz is now at 21, there’s time for making even more improvement. Sort the behaviors from the most severe, and work on them accordingly. Be aware that new behaviors can and will probably pop up and have to be dealt with.
Boys and masturbation: I’m not quite ready to go there, but it is something to look forward to into the teenage years! Spaz’s wiring seems to have spared him this ultimate of self-stim behaviors or maybe it just hasn’t hit yet.
One thing that really helped Spaz and Thomas was being around peers. Not necessarily non-disabled peers, but peers who were a bit higher functioning that were social. It’s when Spaz got interested in making friends that he really made strides with the aggression. It was the same for Thomas and the potty training. Once he got around classmates who were all potty trained, that was it for him.
Spaz has had access to all sorts of therapies including OT, PT and speech. His mother really has done well taking him out, enrolling him in activities and making his life as full as can be. But he still has a tendency to tear the house apart.
It’s hard to say what I would do with a younger Spaz. Sometimes I think I should have went after the potty training more aggressively myself earlier on, but I was still acquiring knowledge myself. I did the best I could with the physical and mental resources that I had. And really, that’s all any parent or teacher can do. It’s interesting to think about what we might do differently, and I hope I’m doing things better nowadays. That’s why I prefer looking forward to looking back. I know I made mistakes back there and that’s where I’d prefer to leave them, while carrying the lessons forward.
dick
Graduation Test May 10, 2007
Posted by Daniel Dage in Ed Policy Discussion, NCLB.comments closed
In my last post, I discussed a bit about end of course tests, which many of you are finishing up in one form or another. But the topic of the Georgia high school graduation test (GHSGT) needs its own treatment, as this is a much bigger fish with it counting towards AYP for NCLB purposes. BTW, if you don’t like acronyms, a special ed. blog is NOT the thing to be reading!
A county that is very near Magnolia county has adopted a policy that any senior who has failed a section on the GHSGT can not walk on graduation day. (Here’s an article about another district that did something similar in 2003)This caused quite an uproar at a recent school board meeting where parents and students complained bitterly about how unfair this is. A student goes through 12, 13, 14, 15 years of school, gets all of their credits, pass all of their classes, does all of their work, may even make the honor roll and get a HOPE scholarship. But if they fail a single portion of the GHSGT, that’s it. No graduation.
They can still take the test every time it is given until they pass, but by then graduation day is over.
My attitude towards our test-crazy culture can be seen below. However there are more insidious things behind this policy that the board passed. They claimed that it was a policy designed to make sure that they were upholding the standard. The fact is, this is a graduation ceremony. Why allow someone to be a part of it who is not actually and truly graduating? A board member stated that this policy was set in order to be true to the standard and to insert some level of integrity into the system. They want to reward actual graduates, not those who hope they will get a diploma at some point in the future.
While this is all fine and good, that is not the real reason for this policy move. It has nothing to do with fairness or standards or moral integrity. It has everything to do with No Child Left Behind. If your child is left behind, and not allowed to walk across the stage on graduation day because of this test, it is because of NCLB. You see this policy is all about NCLB and AYP. A board member stated that he wanted to make sure that the subsequent test takers understood the seriousness of this test and would work harder to pass it.
And that is the real reason for this policy. It is the equivalent of chaining the galley slaves to their oars, so they will row harder knowing that if they don’t, they will go down with the ship. In this case, chaining the student’s graduation exercise to the test in hopes that they will perform better and so help the school’s efforts at making AYP. If the school fails to make AYP, there will be many students who will NOT be walking across that stage. They will go down with their ship. No matter how long or how hard they’ve been rowing, if they fail that test which is tied to NCLB, they will drown in their shame.
This is the sort of crap that goes down when politicians in Washington decide to get involved with something they really don’t know anything about. These folks are too busy raising money for their own re-election to raise their own children, and these are the folks you want deciding how your kids should be raised and educated?
NCLB is a terrible law created by beltway baboons in order to gain political points at little cost. Schools were institutions prone to doing silly things before, but NCLB has raised the standard of insanity to new heights.
dick
EOCT May 9, 2007
Posted by Daniel Dage in Alternate Assessment, Ed Policy Discussion, NCLB, Regular Ed.comments closed
I’m dead in the middle of IEP writing (and LEAing) but I need to say a word or two about End Of Course Testing or EOCT’s. The EOCT’s are the brainchildren of our own Georgia state legislature, who decided that they would develop and pass their own version of NCLB and require these tests for certain subject areas. Fortunately, my kids are all exempt and so the impact upon my little universe is minimal. However, for the 95% of the rest of the school, it is significant. I mean really significant.
This entire week, Mon-Thursday, the schedule is modified and we are effectively on a block schedule. Since we’re not used to this, it really causes problems with students who have to sit in their classes for about 2 hours, whether they are taking a test or not. The result is that students (and teachers) are incredibly bored by the second hour. Tons of students are getting restroom passes and wondering the halls.
For those who are taking the tests, the pressure is really on. The state mandates that the EOCT count as 15% of the final course grade. So failing these tests can have dire consequences, especially since we are less than 3 weeks from graduation.
What makes these tests sort of stupid and redundant is that the subjects currently being tested are exactly the same areas that are measured by the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT). I recognize these because they are the same areas that I had to look at for the dreaded GAA!
So basically, an entire week of instruction is piddled away for more testing. I suppose one could argue that the EOCT is a good warm-up for the GHSGT. The GHSGT counts towards a school’s AYP, but the EOCT does not. The EOCT counts towards a student’s grade, but the GHSGT is basically pass-fail. A student can theoretically fail an EOCT and still pass a course, but if they fail the GHSGT they will have to retake the portion that they fail.
Clear as mud?
EOCT’s can be taken as either paper-pencil tests or they can be taken on the computer online. Last year, 880,000 students took an EOCT and about 80,000 were administered online. Schools have the option of doing either or both. Here in Magnolia County, we do pencil-paper tests and then make-up tests are done online.
The reason I know all of these fascinating facts is because our beloved superintendent, Kathy Cox, sent us all some pamphlets explaining all about Georgia’s testing program. You can read it for yourself if you have any questions.
Education is pretty much test-focused all around now. Actual learning, acquiring a skill, successful work habits and anything promoting good character has really been taken over by The Test, whatever the test happens to be for your state and grade level. The rationale happens to be that testing informs instruction, but if that were true it would be done at the beginning of the school year, not at the end. Here we are, taking tests a couple of weeks before graduation. What good does that do anyone? By the time school starts again (which will be in about 9 weeks from now for us) these tests will be forgotten. A new group of teachers will come into our school who have never seen these tests and will have to start all over again. It might have some value for returning teachers, but this is buffered by the fact that it will be a whole new crop of students taking their courses.
One other reason the DOE gives for these tests is so they can ensure all students have access to a quality curriculum. It’s the same rubbish they gave us about the GAA. A test does not ensure access to a quality curriculum, it only mandates minimum standards. It simply ensures all students have access to a test! Assessments are good and necessary, but they should be ongoing, done within the regular routine of instruction, provide near instant feedback and not disrupt the entire school system. Tests are only a tool, but they have turned into the sole engine for education today. It’s like throwing a hammer into a boat and expecting it to sail around the world. A hammer is a perfectly good tool, but it takes a lot more than that to get a ship to sail.
Good luck to those of you taking EOCT’s or giving EOCT’s or having to fiddle with whatever testing is mandated for students in your state and grade level. Summer will be here before you know it!
Now I’ve got to get back to my own paperwork nightmare. If nothing else, the GAA made IEPs look pretty simple by comparison.
Dick
“You’re not so bad, after all!” May 3, 2007
Posted by Daniel Dage in IEPs, Services, Special Education, Teachers.comments closed
That’s what Thomas’ teacher said yesterday after our IEP meeting. There wasn’t a whole lot of drama, but there were issues that we managed to work through.
One was the issue of PE. The regular PE teacher described the atmosphere of PE as about 60-70 kids in the gym, doing all sorts of different activities (several groups running at the same time) with different equipment all going at the same time. It was described as organized chaos and extremely loud. Basically I was wondering how anyone could function in an environment like that! The adaptive PE teacher is someone I know very well, and she was there and offered to try to help with modifications. So we postponed an APE referral because he probably wouldn’t qualify anyway.
The input statement went over really well. His case manager really doesn’t work with him at all, so she was really searching for some input for his current level of functioning. This turned out to be a gold mine for her, which wasn’t exactly the intention, but it still served a very important purpose and it will again in the fall.
They had community goals written and I told the case manager that we could just skip those and delete them all. There was nothing in the present level to indicate the need for CBI services. It was just something the 1st grade teacher recommended that she thought would be nice. The CBI teacher was there, and I know her fairly well. I think she got a bit defensive about the fact that I didn’t want him in CBI, but I did smooth it over later when we went ahead and okay’ed resource services for him with her as his resource teacher and case manager. She was basically really wanting and needing some sort of affirmation of her abilities.
I’ve encountered this several times during Thomas’ IEP meetings where the service providers all want to hear something that affirms that they are doing the right thing. I don’t always deliver, and it’s not intentional. I’m not trying to make people feel bad or incompetent; I just deliver the reinforcement to those most deserving at the time. I never thought of the lack of positive feedback as a big negative, but they sometimes take it that way.
Anyway, he will still be getting speech and OT plus an hour/day for resource. This future-resource teacher has been to most of Thomas’ meetings and it wasn’t till the end that I discovered that she really wanted to be his case manager all along. Who knew? I would describe her as experienced and competent, and feel okay with her helping him and the teachers and paras he will be dealing with. She’s had some of the same training that I have in the area of autism and is one of the few in the building that knows anything about it. So I’m hopeful that he can continue to make progress in all areas.
I saw his achievement test results and was like, “YOWZA!” Given the WJ mini-Battery, his reading was in the 5th grade range and his writing was in 4th grade range! His math and factual knowledge was pretty much right on at grade 1.6. So academically, there’s not much reason for the extra support, it’s all the behavioral stuff which I think is common for many individuals with autism. It was certainly the issue for me when I was his age. I didn’t like all the busy work that teachers gave and to me it seemed pointless to keep doing the same exercises over and over. This is why I’m not very good at helping him with his homework because it gets to a point where I sort of see his point: I know he can do this. He knows he can do it. His teachers know he can do it. So what’s the purpose of wasting the time in proving mastery over and over? Let’s just get it over with so we can watch Sponge Bob!
The meeting went well, all things considered, and we actually finished in about 2 hours which is a record for us. I notice a LOT of people are hitting my IEP series as it IS the season for these things. No matter which side of the table you are on, I’m hoping all of your IEPs are stress and drama free.
dick
Pre-Meeting Observation May 2, 2007
Posted by Daniel Dage in Day-to-day school drama, IEPs, Special Education, Teachers.comments closed
This is it; IEP day for Thomas. I have a parent input statement along the lines of the one done by Charles Fox, along with specific recommendations for goals and services. And because I do have access to the online file, I went ahead and updated the behavior intervention plan (BIP). This plan was in place when he was in kindergarten, but for some reason last year it was dropped. So his teachers hadn’t anything to look at as far as interventions which I’ll make sure that he does this next year.
Things aligned just right yesterday where I had a chance to observe Thomas in his class for about 30 minutes and talk to his teacher for just a bit. I picked a good time, because they were doing some “buddy reading” which basically involved Thomas reading to a para. Then they had some teacher-led discussion which he actually participated in. He raised his hand, waited for the teacher to call his name and then contributed to the discussion without talking about trains! She asked him some follow-up questions and he answered them all appropriately. Then it was time to right about the story in his journal, and of course this is where the trouble really started. Thomas hates written seat work because his fine motor skills are so low. He basically inherited this disability from his dad who had the same sort of problems when he was little. But getting Thomas to just get started by writing the date was a major chore. I was set to take interval data on on-task vs off-task but there wasn’t much comparison to do because he was off-task almost the entire time.
I have 2 10×10 grids on a sheet of paper, and mark O’s for on-task and X’s for off-task behaviors. I also write definitions of each on the paper, based on the activity. One grid is for Thomas and the other is for some other random student in the room as a basis of comparison. While I didn’t have a timer or stopwatch, I was able to very roughly look at Thomas, record the data, look at the other student, record the data and go back and forth. I was roughly looking for 6 second intervals, which translates into marking one row per minute.
As I said, Thomas was off task on 90% of the intervals while the student I picked for comparison was on-task almost 100% of the time. Not a good comparison, as there were other students who were off-task a lot more. I watched the para keep trying to get him to do his work by cajoling him, talking and generally trying to persuade him, “Your daddy wants to see how you can do good work!” While persuasion is good, there wasn’t much firmness in her voice at all. So after 2 minutes, I quit the data collection and went over and worked on him myself. He was trying everything he could to escape the task, including saying that he was sick and didn’t feel good. Evidently this tactic works sometimes, because it does elicit sympathy from the para. In fact, the reason I observed was because Jane called me saying they had called her. They seemed to want her to come and get Thomas, which was just par for the course as far as his behavior. The school nurse said he didn’t need to go home but the teacher or para kept pestering Jane. It just so happened I was between IEPs at the middle school, so I was able to go over for a quick visit.
Jane and I are a bit frustrated with the apparent helplessness of the teachers, but now that I see they had no behavior intervention plan to work from their difficulties make more sense. This is why we’re having more written input this year because we want to make sure future teachers and paras have some accurate information from which to work.
I’ll post more after the meeting and hopefully there won’t be much to write about. Even though y’all might find the drama entertaining, I’d rather keep that to a minimum if it’s all the same to you!
D.
