New York

hrmjustin

(71,265 posts) Mon Mar 17, 2014, 07:06 PM Mar 2014

Bill lets special-ed students opt out

By Tiffany Brooks

Amidst the fallout of the controversial Common Core, Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk has introduced legislation that would allow children with special needs to opt out of standardized testing.

The bill, S.6758, would allow parents or legal guardians of special needs children to opt out of Common Core and other standardized testing, instead offering them an education program tailored to their special needs while the test is being administered. This would ensure that the student is not sitting idly in a testing area or simply being entertained. Parents would be required to give a principal ten days written notice that their child would not be taking the exam.

http://www.legislativegazette.com/hc.e.87218.lasso

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Bill lets special-ed students opt out (Original Post) hrmjustin Mar 2014 OP

If this has measures in it to divorce teacher evaluations and school funding from the numbers Squinch Mar 2014 #1

Totally agree. narnian60 Mar 2014 #2

Well said. hrmjustin Mar 2014 #4

only if the children d_r Mar 2014 #3

Squinch

(50,993 posts)

1. If this has measures in it to divorce teacher evaluations and school funding from the numbers

Reply to hrmjustin (Original post)

Mon Mar 17, 2014, 07:40 PM

Mar 2014

of children who take the test, this would be a very, very, very good thing.

Right now, school funding is cut if too many children opt out of the test, and teachers are judged partly on the total number of their students who increase grades in the test. So those provisions would need to be included.

Next step: on the other end of the spectrum, don't make gifted children sit through test prep for months out of the year when they could be moving ahead. (All of which boils down to: how about we let teachers teach the kids at their level, rather than at the level that some MBA who has never been in a classroom thinks they should be?)