One more reason to oppose NCLB

[proud2BlibKansan]

I teach special ed. Last week, we had to administer semester end exams to ALL kids. No exceptions.

Student #1 is a 3rd grade girl who suffered a severe brain injury at birth. She is barely verbal and bilingual, which makes speaking very difficult for her. Her brain has a hard time understanding ANY language, much less two. So she rarely speaks and only to people she is comfortable with. I have been her special ed teacher for 3 years and she just a few months ago started talking to me. She just recently learned all of the alphabet and can count to 8. She can write only her first name and still can't seem to learn her phone number. But she had to take a reading test, which involved reading stories written at 3rd grade level and answering 20 multiple choice questions. I am not allowed to read any part of the test to her; I can only explain the directions.

So I gave her the test booklet and told her to read the stories and answer the questions. She looked stunned and said "Mrs. P, I can't read!" I told her to just do her best and showed her where to fill in the bubbles after each questions. She smiled and said "I LOVE bubbles!"

So I handed her a pencil and walked away to help another student. About 10 minutes later, she handed me her test and smiled. I opened up the booklet and saw 20 questions with every bubble filled in after every question. 80 bubbles. It took her 10 minutes and she was so proud.

At the end of this test, the kids had to write a friendly letter. Student #2 is another 3rd grader who is severely mentally retarded and can't even write his own name. He also does not know his phone number. He asked me if he could write a letter to anyone he wanted. I said yes. So he sat down and worked diligently for 15 minutes. This is his friendly letter:

Aermkitgbnq klbrosp

Now can anyone tell me the value of this test for these particular children? I could have spent that 10 minutes teaching student #1 to write her numbers 1 thru 8 and student #2 to write the letters in his name. I also think that knowing their phone numbers will serve them better than knowing how to fill in bubbles on a test.

I am also wondering just how far they will be left behind.

Please, please, please write your congress critters and ask that this insane piece of legislation be thrown out!! Do it for all kids, but especially for those with disabilities.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. kick