FYI - Assiciated Press, Sp Ed Testing Senate Bill

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Subject: FYI - Assiciated Press, Sp Ed Testing Senate Bill

FYI - Assiciated Press, Sp Ed Testing Senate Bill

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/402835_wasl09.html

Under Senate bill, WASL could change for special ed

Last updated March 8, 2009 11:09 p.m. PT

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Most people involved in special education in Washington have heard the story

of the teacher who bagged up a vomit-covered Washington Assessment of

Student Learning test booklet to show that a student had met the state

testing requirement.

Whether the story is fiction -- or a true tale of a youngster stressed

beyond indigestion by the mere thought of the WASL -- it is widely repeated

to illustrate why state and federal officials need to take another look at

achievement testing requirements for special education students.

Despite impassioned pleas to the Legislature for changes in those testing

rules, and much testimony concerning misunderstandings and misuse of the

WASL and a special education alternative called the Washington Alternate

Assessment System, only one bill mentioning such testing is still on the

table in Olympia.

Senate Bill 5414 proposes a number of WASL changes and makes one mention of

special education students, urging the Office of the Superintendent of

Public Instruction to review the special education assessment and the

appeals process.

The bill has passed the Senate and is expected to start moving through the

House.

State Schools Superintendent Randy Dorn already is convening a special needs

advisory committee to figure out what can be done to change the state

assessment system while still complying with the federal No Child Left

Behind law, said Barron, assessment communications manager for the

superintendent's office.

Barron said he has been impressed by the number of inquiries his office has

received from people interested in being on that committee. He said " a ton "

of people have expressed interest.

" Because both Randy Dorn and the Legislature had interest in creating the

committee, it went forward and I really feel like they were listening, " said

Cook, a special education teacher in the Shoreline School District

who testified in Olympia earlier this year.

The current rules for testing of special education students are complicated.

Depending on a child's ability and whether he has an Individualized

Education Program, he may take the regular WASL with his classmates; may

take the regular WASL but be allowed to pass with a lower score; may be

required to pass a developmentally appropriate WASL or complete an alternate

assessment portfolio; or may be given a test unique to his school district.

Christie Perkins, volunteer lobbyist for the Washington State Special

Education Coalition, said she thinks the plan for an advisory committee

involving all the interest groups is a move in the right direction.

What she'd really like to see is an emergency moratorium on the WASL for

everybody and have the state take the money it has spent on testing and use

it to help kids who are struggling in school, as well as for smaller class

sizes and dropout prevention.

Perkins said more than 60 percent of the students in special education are

not developmentally disabled. They have dyslexia, behavior problems or a

mild learning disability and would do fine with some extra help, she said.

Meanwhile, Dorn is in Washington, D.C., this weekend, meeting with other

state school chiefs to talk about changing the No Child Left Behind law,

among other issues.

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