Teachers are exhausting themselves trying to help special-needs students -- and everyone else -- writes Dissident Teacher on Substack. Eventually, they lower expectations so everyone gets an A or a B. Parents are happy. Administrators are happy. Students learn less.
At her school, more than a third of sixth-graders have an IEP (individual education plan) which promises them various "accommodations," and another fifth have a less-stringent 504 plan, writes Dissident Teacher. Everyone's in the same class.
A dedicated aide who was training to become a special-ed teacher quit the profession, the teacher writes. The aide saw her students "fall further and further behind because of extended deadlines for homework and multiple retakes on tests. She saw aides doing students work for them.
"At first, a teacher will spend hours modifying lessons in her off-time, writing out notes for students whose IEP dictates they be provided those notes in advance of lecture, truncating and/or simplifying readings, leveling assignments 4 or 5 different ways to 'meet students where they are,' etc.," writes the teacher. But there's not enough time.
After awhile, the aide noticed, her students' grades would rise and homework would vanish. They'd pass reading quizzes without doing the reading.
Study guides that used to be generic topic lists or broad questions (e.g., “Be able to explain how photosynthesis works”) began to mimic the actual test (Photosynthesis is the process of turning ____ into energy). Teachers would give the students — ALL students — the answers to the study guide the day before the test as part of a “review.” In more than a few classes, the study guide could be used during the test.
The aide wondered: "Are we actually helping any of these kids learn?"
They're learning the wrong things, Dissident Teacher believes.
If the teacher gives students the answers the day before the test, students don't learn to study. If the teacher allows retakes, students don't learn to allocate their time. If the class moves so slowly the teacher can't cover the material, students are unprepared for the next grade. "What do children learn when their world bends for them?," asks Dissident Teacher. "What happens to the kids for whom the world used to bend when they enter a world that no longer will?"
She recommends homeschooling to parents of special-needs children.