Story on Special Ed causing rating drop for Stonewall Jackson (Long, Woodrow)

[Ramona72]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Then...and maybe this is stating the obvious...they ought to be given a different test that is geared towards their language?

Tell it to the Texas Education Agency. If deaf children lag behind hearing children in reading tests because of their language deficit, where would you like to draw the "passing" line for a deaf 5th-grader taking the 5th-grade TAKS reading test? The 3rd grade level? 1st grade?

Would you like their test results to be measured by "progress" rather than mastery? That was tried -- it was called the TPM -- and it resulted in howls of outrage.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Ramona72

Tell it to the Texas Education Agency. If deaf children lag behind hearing children in reading tests because of their language deficit, where would you like to draw the "passing" line for a deaf 5th-grader taking the 5th-grade TAKS reading test? The 3rd grade level? 1st grade?

Would you like their test results to be measured by "progress" rather than mastery? That was tried -- it was called the TPM -- and it resulted in howls of outrage.

Why not separate them as a cadre for testing and compare results with other sets of deaf kids?


Right now having a large set of deaf kids in a school is a big time negative vis a vis ratings. That's an awful arrangement that should **** off everyone.

[Ramona72]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Why not separate them as a cadre for testing and compare results with other sets of deaf kids? Right now having a large set of deaf kids in a school is a big time negative vis a vis ratings. That's an awful arrangement that should **** off everyone.

Maybe. I'm not an expert, but deafness is often (but not always) accompanied by other special education issues that can complicate an effort at apples-to-apples comparisons. People are also saying "deaf" like it's a monolithic class of kids who can't hear, but deafness can range from mild to severe hearing loss with varying degrees of ability to be included in a general ed classroom. The point remains that kids with hearing loss as a group often score lower than hearing kids.

I think the larger point is that people shouldn't get so hepped up about a simplistic ranking or a single high-stakes test. If homebuyers or homeowners in Stonewall are freaking out about the drop in rankings, it's the issues with the rankings that need to be explained to them.

I agree that it's a negative vis a vis the RANKINGS, if that's all you care about, but it's not a negative if you care about a diverse education. As far as I know, including deaf kids at the school doesn't really p*** off everyone, only people who like to look at nothing but a simplistic scorecard.

[Lakewooder]

We have been proud to host the regional deaf school - as I have posted at first it was only at Stonewall then the kids went to other schools for secondary education. I can't remember which middle school it was but they ended up at Samuell. So Long and Woodrow lobbied for several years to secure the school so that all these kids would stay together.

Here's a story about a J. L. Long Middle School teacher for the deaf in Language Arts and Reading:

neighborsgo.com: post your community news

" ... Andrea is aware that most deaf students are several years below their grade level in reading and need extensive modifications to their class work, so she is determined to find ways to help them catch up and she believes many of them can'

[Lakewooder]

Stonewall TAKS ratings falls to ‘acceptable’. Who cares? | Advocate Magazine