Wilmington News Journal: Perspective
By PAT HEFFERNAN
Posted Sunday, February 18, 2007

It's the fifth anniversary of No Child Left Behind and we can consider the law a success despite serious flaws.

The federal education law is based on a yearly benchmark test that can't possibly measure real learning for all students accurately. The law is full of underfunded and onerous mandates. The achievement targets are unobtainable and the accountability component has too many problems to even list here.

How, then, can this law be considered a success?

From Wilmington News Journal Letters to the Editor
by Pat Heffernan
10/23/06

As a member of the Governor's Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens and as a parent, I am deeply saddened by the recent News Journal article quoting Red Clay Superintendent Andrzejewski saying that "by definition" students in special education cannot earn a proficient score on the Delaware Student Testing Program.

While the article indicated Dr. Andrzejewski was trained as a special ed teacher, his ideas have not been considered best practice in the education community for more than 30 years.

Special education students can learn along with peers

From Wilmington News Journal: Letters to the Editor
By Alex Rittberg
4/20/2006

Recent articles about which schools in the Red Clay School District should be accountable for test scores of special education students points to serious problems in the way we are educating children. Special education should not be considered a place, but rather the process by which children with disabilities get the extra support and services they need to learn.

The 75 page document, A Charge We Have To Keep: A Roadmap to Personal and Economic Freedom for People with Intellectual Disabilities in the 21st Century and the accompanying booklet from The President's Committee on People with Intellectual Disabilities, lays out priorities and plans to ensure people with intellectual disabilities (formerly referred to as people with mental retardation) achieve the same freedoms, rights and opportunities as all Americans.

To provide an indication of what the document is about, below is a excerpt from the report's Introduction.

From Leadership Jazz series at Brandywine School District February 2006
by Bruce Harter, Superintendent

In December, one of our parents, Phyllis Guinivan, attended an Administrators and Supervisors meeting to help us understand how our schools unintentionally create barriers for students and families with physical / mobility challenges. She shared both pictures and personal experiences of what it’s like to bring a child in a wheelchair into our schools. "Schools may meet the ADA technical requirements," she said, "but functionally they are inaccessible."

The next night after her presentation, I walked into a holiday concert through the entrance closest to the stage. As I stepped into the auditorium, I was delighted to see a student I know has multiple impairments including using a wheelchair singing with the choir. Yet, I was so dismayed when the choir finished to see that he had to be lifted out of the orchestra pit because a ramp does not yet exist at that school.

From National Center on Educational Outcomes
Prepared by Cammy Lehr and Martha Thurlow

For the past decade, states across the nation have been setting high academic content standards for all children, and developing assessment and accountability systems to ensure that all children learn to very high levels. Federal legislation, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), provides guidelines and expectations for implementation of inclusive instruction and assessment. States, districts, and schools are now keenly attuned to state assessments that are used to measure student achievement on academic content standards.

The Delaware Public Policy Institute (DPPI) issued the report Toward More Effective Financing of Student Achievement in Delaware's Schools.

Additional Resources
Financing Public Education in Delaware
Financing Public Education in Delaware: District Level Analysis
Page of Links related to Special Ed Financing
Center for Special Education Finance (csef.org)

From Wilmington News Journal: DELAWARE VOICE column

Special-needs kids should count too
By PAT HEFFERNAN
02/06/2006

In the Red Clay School District, the poor performance of students attending alternate schools is affecting the standings of those students' home schools. House Bill 349 has been introduced by state Rep. Wayne Smith as a way to address this problem. It may have severe negative consequences.

From www.edvantia.org

The document Between You and Me: Facilitating Cross-Race Dialogue About the Achievement Gap in Schools Between African American and European American Students was written in 2004. This document outlines the process used to facilitate a dialog in Charleston, West Virginia between a predominately European-American school administration and the African-American community.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the US Department of Education (DOE) commissioned the six year, Special Education Elementary Logitudinal Study (SEELS)to document the experiences of students with disabilities. By following the same 12,000 students from 1999 to 2005, OSEP believes they will be able to paint a clear picture of the special education process.