Had my oldest son’s IEP yesterday. The team said that it was best a student get a C or D in a regular class then to get an A in an LD class. My son does want to go to college and having regular classes makes sense but my understanding of colleges is they look for students with good grades. Also scholarships are based on grades if he is just “squeaking” by how is he to get a scholarship? They said that my sons achievement test scores indicate he should be able to handle a regular classroom for all subjects. My understanding though is that these group achievement tests are all multiple choice which is easier then the types of exams given in a classroom. They used his MAT7 scores which according to his current team manager was all over the board and gave her concern—but the receiveing case manager did not think it was a problem. They still only had grade equivelant scores and not percentile ranks. His grade equivelant scores ranged from 6.3 (science) to 11.3 (language). Should I insist on getting percentile ranks, I have asked but they come back with this is what we have. The thing that worried me and the current case manager was his reading, he scored 2.5 years below grade level. Current case manager suggested the summer school reading program but the high school special ed teacher thought he just needed more practice. She told me to have him practice at home. Although his independent reading level was low his instructional reading level was on target and his frustation reading level was above test limits? How can this be? It is all very confusing. Should I insist they do an individual reading test to see where his true reading ability falls? This year in his regular reading class he has gotton a D, F, C, and if he continues at current pace should get a C this semester. His current reading teacher stated that he has gotton C’s on all his tests this semester and has even out scored kids with “no” problems. Are all kids doing so poorly that I need not worry? Sorry so long but things are not making sense.
Re: Does this sound right?
This, my friend, is outrageous. No he shouldn’t be getting c’s and d’s in regular ed. I can not believe they made this statement. Okay do you have this meeting on tape?
The IDEA states they must have adequate goals to progress through general ed curriculum. If he is capable, something is preventing him from doing this. He needs more practice? He is in High school and he needs more practice? Yes,I would be wondering what the heck this is about.
Did they do a formal educational evaluation? This I am confused on? Is there reccomendation on the report in regards to accomodations interventions instruction?
I would also consider writing a follow up letter of this meeting. Write down everything you remember them saying using quotes. Send it to the chair person of the meeting,asking that if you misunderstood anything to please respond back in writing within 5 days. Send it registered. Will be curious once there statements are in black and white and they see what they are actually purposing, how ludicrious it sounds. This is denial of a Free and appropriate education if ever there was one.
Keep us posted.
Re: Does this sound right?
No they did not do a formal educational evaluation. The scores I gave you was from the MAT7 that all students took. His triannual review is not due until 10/03. When we arrived at this district in 2000 (7th grade) they accepted his 4th grade testing to get him services. At the 2000 triannual review the only testing they felt needed was language testing. It was determined he had a language disability to go along with his APD (that was already dx’d). I had already had an independent evaluation scheduled for this Jun because I found a person good at determining strengths and weaknesses (she saw my youngest son)and providing the school with good intervention strategies. I now think this testing will come in more handy then I thought. It will be with a neuropsychologist who will give him an IQ test, achievement testing, and look specifically at areas that are weak according to his school performance. His last IQ/individual achievement testing was 4 years ago.
The recommendations the school had was all regular ed classes with a resource room. The resource room is an actual scheduled class the child attends similar to a study hall. They said there he would get help with his homework. They did not recommend any accomodations at all because he has not “asked to use the ones he had in the past.” They commented that he has developed enough compensating skills to cope. Compensating is ok but should we not try to remediate?
Re: Does this sound right?
Your comment:
“They commented that he has developed enough compensating skills to cope. Compensating is ok but should we not try to remediate?”
This is the BIGGEST problem I have with my school! Compensation vs. remediation! I will be very interested to see any thoughts anyone has as to how to get the schools to change the perception that “compensation” is adequate!
Re: Does this sound right?
please hop on to sites like Beacon or Wrights Law, your school system is giving you the run around or they have failed understanding and acommodating your child’s learning differences, all children do not perform as you described in your posting
good luck
knowie
Re: Does this sound right?
Thanks Marion I found out this is exactly what they do. My son has a friend who is also an LD student this student takes 100 percent LD classes where as my son takes a mix of 50/50 right now. My sons friend was told that since he is in all LD classes he can NOT take regular ed classes next year? I don’t know what this students achievement testing looks like so may not have the whole story. I do know he is getting an A in all his LD classes.
It all seems so strange these different standards for students who appear to be at least on the outside functioning the same.
Re: Does this sound right?
When I brought up remediation, they tried to tell me that even though they do not necessarily personnally agree, remediation is no longer the focus, it is to get children educated in the mainstream classes (with reference of course to my child, to be fair). Well, we can, and I am getting both, but it took a lot to get the remediation part.
Re: Does this sound right?
AH HAH!! I think you hit on what you need to do first..
A formal educational eval.
Re: Does this sound right?
From my understanding from research on learning disabilities, remediation is not always appropriate. The disability can not be “fixed”. The child needs to create other neural pathways to perform the same task as a child without learning disabilities. Thus compensation strategies would be more appropriate.Obviously, a child who has difficulty reading must be have remediation, but that help should utilize different strategies of teaching than used in regular ed. Also, different neural pathways need to be utilized for the child to gain skills. Remediation will only go so far. Compensation or processing information through different pathways will probably be more beneficial in the long run. IMHO.
It is indeed sad how low the reading levels are for many kids from what I’ve seen of national averages your son may not be so far behind the rest. Which does not mean it is a good thing.
Check where you live and make sure of what kind of diploma they give to kids in sped classes. Sometimes they only get a Certificate of Completion of school. If they give some weird thing like that your son is better off being a C student in regular ed than A in sped.