LOST
BOY
have seen little progress on the
special education policies that
dictate their children’s schooling.
As the word “accountability” has
gripped education policy, students
have been left behind by special
education. Movies like Waiting
for Superman, the advent of “no
excuses” schools, states that tie
teacher evaluations to students’
standardized test scores — these
have defined the current trajectory of the nation’s public education
system. A slew of so-called reformers insist that opportunities
don’t matter as much as student
progress. With DCPS Chancellor
Michelle Rhee at the helm from
2007 to 2010, Washington, D.C.,
drove this renaissance.
But for students with disabilities, little changed. Schools have
few incentives to improve education for them, because for the
most part, schools aren’t judged
on these students’ test scores. In
fact, some advocates think that
recent policy changes leave students in special education programs worse off. Even the Obama
administration’s post-No Child
Left Behind school tracking system has allowed states — as well
as D.C. — to set significantly lower
performance goals for students in
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special education.
“It’s pathetic,” says Margaret
Spellings, who served as U.S. Secretary of Education under George
W. Bush. “We’re witnessing a gut
job on accountability for special
education kids.”
While IDEA might soon come
up for reauthorization, current
law makes it possible for D.C. to
argue that a boy like Max has been
properly educated, and that he’s
making progress.
His parents think it’s a joke.
THE NEW KID, OVER AND OVER
As D.C.’s cases unraveled, Greg
and Maya were diving into uncharted waters. Once they accepted the diagnosis, they had to
hunt down resources. They had
to learn a new language, an alphabet soup of acronyms that are
common parlance in the world
of special education services.
They asked friends for referrals
to therapists. They criss-crossed
the city trying to find help and
doctors and school advice. They
tried everything, from wonky behavioral approaches to diets rumored to help students progress,
before arriving at an approach
called verbal behavior. Early on,
they stumbled upon a meeting of
parents of students with autism.
Amid a sea of complaints, one
constructive but vague comment