Parents Speak Out About Pontiac Special Education
By Tony Sapochetti, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.
Dec. 5–PONTIAC — Pontiac Township High School special education students lag behind their peers on standardized tests, and parents had the chance Tuesday to tell state officials why they think that’s happening.
The Illinois State Board of Education is conducting a two-day review of the high school’s reading program because of gaps in scores on the 2005-06 Prairie State Achievement Test, which is taken by high school juniors.
The scores showed 2.8 percent of the high school’s special education students met or exceeded standards on the reading portion of test. About 58.9 percent of students in the mainstream curriculum met or exceeded the standards.
Only three parents attended a public forum Tuesday night as part of the review.
The parents said they believe the district is doing a good job on the curriculum, and the state officials seemed to agree.
“Everything has been excellent so far,” said Susan Bever, the state school board’s principal education consultant. “We are very impressed with the programs and everything that is going on here. There are just so many options available, especially for students with disabilities.”
One woman who identified herself only as the mother of a senior special education student blamed the score gap on the fact that all students in the same grade level take the same test, regardless of whether they are in special education or not.
“It’s because they have disabilities,” she said. “My feeling is that the federal government thinks that there is a cure for these things.
“I have a senior that reads at a fourth- or fifth-grade level, but how would we ever expect him to do well on a test made for students reading on a higher level?”
The federal No Child Left Behind Act sets a goal of having all students meeting or exceeding standards by 2014.
The parents involved in the forum seemed to agree that the law sets unrealistic standards and should be modified for students with disabilities. They also complained that the curriculum should not be geared toward “teaching to the test.”
The state officials sponsored the forum, interviewed teachers and went through student records on Tuesday.
They will conclude their visit today with classroom observations, Bever said.
They then will have 45 days to write a report on possible improvements for the program that serves 156 special education students.
PTHS special needs coordinator Tera Graves said there are new programs in place to help address the state’s concerns, and they are going well so far.
The Pontiac elementary school district, which is separate from the high school district, went through a similar review last week.
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