Michelle
10-13-2006, 11:44 PM
State: DOE Needs to Improve Special Education (http://www.brooklyngraphic.com/site/tab6.cfm?newsid=17319873&BRD=2384&PAG=461&dept_id=552852&rfi=6)
By Michèle De Meglio 10/12/2006
The city Department of Education’s (DOE) special education program needs work.
So said the state Education Department in a new report, which listed the city school system among the 75 in the state that are “in need of assistance or intervention” to help them better serve students with disabilities.
“Students with disabilities can and do succeed in many schools throughout the state,” said state Education Commissioner Richard Mills. “But in other schools their performance is very low…All schools can and must help these students to achieve the standards.”
Mills specifically cited the city’s low graduation rate and high dropout rate for special education students as reasons for the placement.
According to data released by the state, the city’s dropout rate for students with disabilities was 29.1 percent as of June 2005. The graduation rate was 18.2 percent.
In Brooklyn, District 20, which covers schools in Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton and Borough Park, had the highest dropout rate for children with disabilities in Region 7, which also includes Districts 21 and 31 and schools in Coney Island, Bensonhurst and Staten Island. District 20 was cited for a 31.4 percent dropout rate.
In Region 6, the highest dropout rate for special education students was 31.1 percent and was credited to District 17, which includes schools in Flatbush and Crown Heights. Region 6 also covers Districts 18 and 22 and schools in East Flatbush, Canarsie, Mill Basin, and Sheepshead Bay.
Representing schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, District 16 recorded the highest dropout rate for students with disabilities – 44 percent – in Region 8, which also includes Districts 13, 14 and 15 and schools in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Williamsburgh, Greenpoint, Red Hook, Park Slope, and Sunset Park.
Considering the data, the state’s designation of the city’s special education system was unsurprising to some.
“The system has historically had problems for 20 or more years,” said Ira Zalcman, a former member of District 21’s Community Education Council (CEC) and a retired social worker who served special education students while at I.S. 98 in Sheepshead Bay.
Echoing the concerns of many parents, Zalcman said the special education program is not “parent-friendly.”
“The special ed system is too big,” he said. “It’s a bureaucratic maze for some parents to deal with. A lot of parents, unfortunately, throw up their hands and give up. And then the students suffer.”
Also problematic, according to a local teacher, are inclusion classes, which group children with learning disabilities or behavioral problems with general education students.
The instructor, who teaches a math class in a District 15 middle school and requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said the classes are a dumping ground for students who administrators believe have no chance of succeeding academically.
“The school basically knows that they’re going to fail the math test and they’re going to fail the English test. There’s no hope…We’re not banking on them making our school [look] good,” the teacher said. “So what they end up doing is sticking all of the behavioral problems and all of the kids in one class.”
And that makes it nearly impossible to keep students focused long enough to grasp the day’s lesson.
“I have 10 kids that are learning disabled and I have 10 kids that are not learning disabled but have behavioral problems,” the instructor explained. “It creates a bad environment.”
Carlo Scissura, president of District 20’s CEC, offered advice to the DOE on how to improve special education.
“The Department of Education has to get special ed out of the backrooms…and put it right up front with gifted and talented education,” he said. “Special ed has really always been too separate, too confined, and I think it has to be brought out into the forefront.”
In recent years, critics of the city’s special education program have deemed it unsuccessful and called for a major revamping.
The DOE has taken steps to address concerns and improve the program by providing professional development for more than 5,000 teachers and administrators serving special education students and increasing the number of small high schools accepting students with disabilities.
“We have made real improvements to our special education services and much hard work remains,” said DOE Spokesperson Andrew Jacob.
“We are gratified that the state acknowledged our efforts to provide less restrictive environments to more students, significantly expand professional development to teachers and administrators, and upgrade our data systems,” he continued. “These and other improvements have led to significant gains in test scores among special education students in grades 3-8 since 2003. We appreciate the state’s recommendations and will incorporate them as we work to provide a high-quality education to all our students with disabilities.”
For a full district-by-district breakdown of graduation and dropout rates, log onto the state Education Department’s website, www.nysed.gov.
By Michèle De Meglio 10/12/2006
The city Department of Education’s (DOE) special education program needs work.
So said the state Education Department in a new report, which listed the city school system among the 75 in the state that are “in need of assistance or intervention” to help them better serve students with disabilities.
“Students with disabilities can and do succeed in many schools throughout the state,” said state Education Commissioner Richard Mills. “But in other schools their performance is very low…All schools can and must help these students to achieve the standards.”
Mills specifically cited the city’s low graduation rate and high dropout rate for special education students as reasons for the placement.
According to data released by the state, the city’s dropout rate for students with disabilities was 29.1 percent as of June 2005. The graduation rate was 18.2 percent.
In Brooklyn, District 20, which covers schools in Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton and Borough Park, had the highest dropout rate for children with disabilities in Region 7, which also includes Districts 21 and 31 and schools in Coney Island, Bensonhurst and Staten Island. District 20 was cited for a 31.4 percent dropout rate.
In Region 6, the highest dropout rate for special education students was 31.1 percent and was credited to District 17, which includes schools in Flatbush and Crown Heights. Region 6 also covers Districts 18 and 22 and schools in East Flatbush, Canarsie, Mill Basin, and Sheepshead Bay.
Representing schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, District 16 recorded the highest dropout rate for students with disabilities – 44 percent – in Region 8, which also includes Districts 13, 14 and 15 and schools in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Williamsburgh, Greenpoint, Red Hook, Park Slope, and Sunset Park.
Considering the data, the state’s designation of the city’s special education system was unsurprising to some.
“The system has historically had problems for 20 or more years,” said Ira Zalcman, a former member of District 21’s Community Education Council (CEC) and a retired social worker who served special education students while at I.S. 98 in Sheepshead Bay.
Echoing the concerns of many parents, Zalcman said the special education program is not “parent-friendly.”
“The special ed system is too big,” he said. “It’s a bureaucratic maze for some parents to deal with. A lot of parents, unfortunately, throw up their hands and give up. And then the students suffer.”
Also problematic, according to a local teacher, are inclusion classes, which group children with learning disabilities or behavioral problems with general education students.
The instructor, who teaches a math class in a District 15 middle school and requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said the classes are a dumping ground for students who administrators believe have no chance of succeeding academically.
“The school basically knows that they’re going to fail the math test and they’re going to fail the English test. There’s no hope…We’re not banking on them making our school [look] good,” the teacher said. “So what they end up doing is sticking all of the behavioral problems and all of the kids in one class.”
And that makes it nearly impossible to keep students focused long enough to grasp the day’s lesson.
“I have 10 kids that are learning disabled and I have 10 kids that are not learning disabled but have behavioral problems,” the instructor explained. “It creates a bad environment.”
Carlo Scissura, president of District 20’s CEC, offered advice to the DOE on how to improve special education.
“The Department of Education has to get special ed out of the backrooms…and put it right up front with gifted and talented education,” he said. “Special ed has really always been too separate, too confined, and I think it has to be brought out into the forefront.”
In recent years, critics of the city’s special education program have deemed it unsuccessful and called for a major revamping.
The DOE has taken steps to address concerns and improve the program by providing professional development for more than 5,000 teachers and administrators serving special education students and increasing the number of small high schools accepting students with disabilities.
“We have made real improvements to our special education services and much hard work remains,” said DOE Spokesperson Andrew Jacob.
“We are gratified that the state acknowledged our efforts to provide less restrictive environments to more students, significantly expand professional development to teachers and administrators, and upgrade our data systems,” he continued. “These and other improvements have led to significant gains in test scores among special education students in grades 3-8 since 2003. We appreciate the state’s recommendations and will incorporate them as we work to provide a high-quality education to all our students with disabilities.”
For a full district-by-district breakdown of graduation and dropout rates, log onto the state Education Department’s website, www.nysed.gov.