Philippine Basic Education

With vaccines against the coronavirus now becoming available, there is reason to look forward to our schools returning to normal. Normal in the past, however, is not perfect and we must continue to address pre-pandemic problems in our schools. Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury  recently wrote  "‘Devastating’ new report finds major problems with special education in Virginia" , an article reporting the findings of the Virginia's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) on special education. One major finding is the state's general lack of oversight of special education. With the absence of monitoring, the quality of special education in Virginia remains elusive. Unfortunately, the red flags found by the commission also touch on racial inequity in basic education. African American students with disabilities are sadly disproportionately affected. Graduation rates are significantly lower for this group.  The 13-point gap is only between students with disa...

Jo Boaler and her student, Tanya Lamar, recently made the following statement on Time magazine :  "A number of different studies have shown that when students are given the freedom to think in ways that make sense to them, learning disabilities are no longer a barrier to mathematical achievement. Yet many teachers have not been trained to teach in this way." This is quite a lofty statement and yet, it is difficult to find research supporting this generalization. Accepting this statement actually means that the only reason why students with disabilities are not doing well in math is the teacher. There are correct and wrong answers in mathematics and in the sciences, there are fruitful and unproductive approaches to understanding nature. For this reason, both math and science require a combination of procedural fluency and conceptual understanding. Take for instance the addition of fractions. Without the correct procedure and an understanding of fractions, one may simply ...

Detroit News reports that Michigan is the only state identified by the United States Departement of Education as needing intervention in special education. As mentioned in a previous post in this blog, " Access to Literacy Is a Fundamental Right ", a district court judge in Michigan also ruled months ago that basic education is not a right guaranteed explicitly by the United States Constitution. News regarding basic education from Michigan do appear dismal but one must note that compliance dictated by the Federal government is truly a low bar to meet and that other states still need to address the needs of students with disabilities. In this aspect, for instance, the state of Virginia, although looking good (it is purple in the map below) is no exception. Above copied from EducationWeek Most states need assistance while Virginia is among the score of states that apparently meet the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The graduatio...

The results for the 2017 NAEP Math and Reading Assessments are now available. These scores are regarded as the Nation's report card in the United States. Fourth and eight graders have taken exams in both reading and math, and the recent scores are actually showing a decreasing gap between black and white students. Although the difference in scores between black and white children is shrinking, gaps remain and this time, the gaps are actually much more troublesome. The gap is increasing between high and low performers. If the race gap is diminishing, where is the additional gap coming from? Scores of students with disabilities are on a downward trend. Here is the black/white gap for fourth graders: Above copied from   2017 NAEP Math and Reading Assessments Below shows the increasing gap between low and high performers: In mathematics (4th grade): Above copied from   2017 NAEP Math and Reading Assessments In reading (4th grade): Above copied from  ...

The headline on PJ Media Parenting   maybe harsh, "The Evidence is Clear: Public Education Fails Dyslexic Students". Sadly, the truth is that public schools over the past decade in the United States have not been able to bridge the achievement gap between students who have disabilities and those who do not. Above copied from PJ Media Even when using exams that are guaranteed to align with what was actually taught inside the classroom, students with disabilities are significantly left behind. Schulte and Stevens, in their study of North Carolina elementary students find that "When disability status was determined on the basis of special education placement each year, the achievement gap was larger across grades than when the subgroup of students with disabilities (SWDs) was defined more broadly, including students who had exited special education or who were in special education anytime between Grades 3 and 7. Regardless of the identification criteria, the SWD subg...

When a child is blind or deaf, the evidence is clear. In these situations, it is also straightforward to see what the child needs. Students with special needs, however, are not always straightforward to identify. One area concerns learning disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the US defines specific learning disabilities in the following manner: Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The identification and choice of interventions for specific learning disability, however, remain challenging. A significant number of approaches currently employed in school districts in the U...

Warren Cornwall of  news.sciencemag.org  used this title first for one of his news articles, "Autism rates are up, but is the disease really on the rise?", but later changed it to " Autism rates are up, but is it really on the rise? " The word "disease" was dropped from the title after readers posted comments such as " I thought this was a science mag.... Autism is NOT a DISEASE " and " Autism is not a disease - it is a neurological difference ". Above copied from Muck Rack The main point of Cornwall's article is that autism diagnosis is on the rise, as he cites a study from Penn State University : "This graph shows the number of students (per 10,000) diagnosed with autism (blue) and intellectual disability (red) in special-education programs in the United States from 2000 to 2010. The increase in autism diagnoses during this period was offset by decreases in the diagnosis of intellectual disability, suggesting that ...

The US Nation's Report Card is out. The NAEP exam taken by a nationally representative group of about 600000 students stands out from other standardized exams because the test is not high stakes. Since NAEP scores are not available at neither school nor individual level there is no incentive to prepare students for this exam. Students in classrooms can not be prepared or drilled for this test. Seeing scores that are generally flat for nearly a decade therefore says a lot with regard to recent efforts in improving basic education in the United States. The percentage of students passing basic, proficient and advanced levels has remained practically constant throughout the past decade. The following, for instance, shows the percentage of students scoring below basic (orange), at basic (light green), at proficient (green), and at an advanced (dark green) level in grade 4 and 8 math. Grade 4 Grade 8 Above copied from the  Advocacy Institute Blog The graphs above are from t...

In Montgomery County in Maryland, one may find a student who has met criteria for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and yet is receiving accelerated and enriched instruction. The public schools in Montgomery County are among the few schools in the country that recognize that some students clearly have a set of specific strengths and weaknesses. Being gifted or talented oftentimes comes with drawbacks and a "one size fits all" approach simply does not work. There is both a disharmony  and a  harmony  hypothesis regarding gifted children, which is nicely summarized in the abstract of a paper by Maureen Neihart : -Maureen Neihart,  The impact of giftedness on psychological well‐being: What does the empirical literature say? What is missing, unfortunately, in the above paragraph, is how we, as adults, often view gifted children. In the classroom, for example, how a teacher relates to a gifted child can have an impact on how that child develops socially an...

Both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) rates in the United States are on the rise. For ADHD, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that ADHD diagnosis by a health care provider increased by 42% between 2003 and 2011. For ASD, the CDC reported a prevalence of one in 150 in 2002, but in 2010, the prevalence had soared to one in 68, a 150 % increase (three times the rate of increase in ADHD diagnosis).  With these increasing rates, it is easy to relate to a statement made by health economist Richard Scheffler in an interview posted on the American Psychological Association's website : "That's when we knew we were onto something, because if you want to improve test scores, one way of doing that is to have children diagnosed so you can get extra money from the school district to help tutor them or put them in smaller classes. Basically, you diagnose these kids because improving their performance hel...

A diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is not possible in one office visit to a pediatrician. Instead, symptoms of ADHD must be observed in a child regularly for about six months. The following is a recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics : To make a diagnosis of ADHD, the primary care clinician should determine that  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition   criteria have been met (including documentation of impairment in more than 1 major setting); information should be obtained primarily from reports from parents or guardians, teachers, and other school and mental health clinicians involved in the child's care. The primary care clinician should also rule out any alternative cause (quality of evidence B/strong recommendation). A child with ADHD may exhibit the following (from webMD.com ): Are in constant motion Squirm and fidget Make careless mistakes Often lose things Do not seem to listen Are...