[NOTE: the following letter by
Dee Alpert appeared in EducationNews.org.]
However...nobody,
but absolutely nobody is covering the fact that NYS Ed.
illegally waived all NCLB accountability for over 100,000
kids
To the
Editor:
While I
thoroughly applaud the sentiments behind the NY Times'
"Leaving Some Children Behind" editorial of 1/27/04, the
reality of New York State's No Child Left Behind
accountability program shows that a staggeringly-large
number of kids with disabilities and "at risk" kids have
already been intentionally left behind - and completely
left out. What about them? None of the 91
publicly-operated, all-special education schools in New
York State have NCLB objective accountability standards
or targets; nor do any of the numerous alternative high
schools. And no way of holding "small schools" in NY
accountable has yet been put into place.
In fact,
neither the New York State School for the Blind nor the
New York State School for the Deaf - both operated by the
New York State Education Department itself - have NCLB
School Report Cards or accountability targets and
measures in place. Does the Emperor have no clothes, or
is this a blatant case of New York saying "do as I say,
and not as I do" regarding kids with disabilities? How
hypocritical. How cynical. How typical.
Perhaps
the US Department of Education and the Congress should
devise some way of holding New York State seriously
accountable for totally leaving the thousands and
thousands of kids in these schools out of meaningful
accountability processes. Not to mention holding New York
State Education Department officials accountable for
publicly acting as though its waivers and omissions don't
exist.
But then,
perhaps the research, policy and media organizations
which have looked at NCLB accountability systems should
start holding the NYS Ed. Dept. accountable in some
meaningful way for having mis-represented its NCLB
accountability process in the first place.
- Dee Alpert, Publisher
- The Special Education Muckraker
- http://www.specialeducationmuckraker.com
References:
Commissioner Mills' January 2004 Report to the Regents:
http://www.oms.nysed.gov/comm/2004/reg104.htm
- kids with disabilities door poorly in current and past
SURR Schools (Schools Under Registration Review). SURR
Schools are the lowest group of under-performing schools
in NY's NCLB accountability system. This memo states that
kids with disabilities in poor-performing schools which
have, allegedly, been the subject of stringent State Ed.
school reform processes, don't do any better than they
did before the State stepped in.
Deputy
Com'r. Kademus Memo to the Regents, December 2003,
Section III, at: http://www.oms.nysed.gov/comm/2004/reg104.htm.
Lists the various types of schools which were never
included in NY's NCLB accountability process in the first
place. These include 91 publicly-operated, all-special
education schools; all alternative high schools and all
"small" schools. Well over 100,000 students, most of whom
are in the groups for whom No Child Left Behind allegedly
was written.
