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| www.education-consumers.com | Phone & Fax - (423) 282-6832 | |
| September 2001 | Volume 1, Number 9 | |
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Charles Arthur, M.S.Ed. / President and Executive Director / Mastery Learning Institute / Portland, OR Virginia P. Baxt, Ed.D. / President / Education Agenda, Inc. Wayne Bishop, Ph.D. / Professor of Mathematics / Department of Mathematics / California State University-Los Angeles William L. Brown, Ph.D. / Director of Institutional Assessment / Lansing Community College Guy Bruce, Ed.D. / President, APEX Consulting / Assistant Professor, St. Cloud State University Louis Chandler, Ph.D. / Professor & Chairman / Department of Psychology in Education / University of Pittsburgh Andrea Clements,Ph.D. / Professor / College of Education / East Tennessee State University Donald Crawford, Ph.D. / Education Specialist / Otter Creek Institute Nathan Crow, B.A. / School Administration Consultant / Education Consumers Consultants Network George K. Cunningham, Ph.D. / Professor / School of Education / University of Louisville Mary Damer, M.Ed. / Instructor & Student Teaching Supervisor / Northern Illinois University Jerome Dancis, Ph.D. / Associate Professor / Department of Mathematics / University of Maryland-College Park Edwin J. Delattre, Ph.D. / Professor / College of Arts & Sciences / Professor & Dean Emeritus / School of Education / Boston University Benjamin F. Eller, Ed.D. / School of Education / Western Carolina University Lucien Ellington, Ed. D. / Professor & Co-director, Asia Program / College of Education and Applied Prof. Services / University of Tennessee at Chattanooga John Eshleman, Ed.D. / Apex Consulting David R. Feeney, Ed.D. / Director of Digital Education / Fox School of Business & Management / Temple University Carol C. Gambill, M.Ed. / Director-Special Projects / Curriculum & Instruction / Tennessee Department of Education Patrick Groff, Ed.D. / Professor of Education Emeritus / San Diego State University Bonnie Grossen, Ph.D. / Professor, College of Education / University of Oregon Richard Gruetzemacher, Ed.D. / Director / Planning, Evaluation, and Institutional Research / University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mark Y. Herring, Ed. D. / Professor & Dean of Libraries / Winthrop University |
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Featured Research: "Rethinking
Special Education" Briefing: Special programs for disabled students partly account for the poor achievement and the high and rising costs of American schools. Of course, programs for blind, deaf, and other children with scientifically evidenced disabilities are clearly justified. But most of the roughly 6.1 million U.S. children in special programs are in such psychological categories as "learning disabled" and "mildly mentally retarded." In the last twenty-five years, they have accounted for the approximately 65 percent increase in special education enrollments and huge increases in costs without better learning. Money, conflicts of interests, and disingenuous accountability often motivate the growth of such programs. The more children whom educators classify as psychologically disabled, the more money comes into their states, districts, and schools. School, district, state, and federal administrative jobs multiply accordingly, and the ensuing expanding bureaucracy distracts educators from learning; Michigan, for example, has some six thousand detailed program regulations. When children are psychologically classified, they can be neglected since they are excused from accountability examinations, thus making their schools appear to be doing better than they actually are. Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Carolina made leaps in reading scores alongside big increases in excused special students. In 1982, the National Academy of Sciences contended that psychological classifications are unreliable and that special programs often do little good and sometimes do harm. Subsequent research has shown that the present classification systems misleadingly suggest that as many as 80 percent of all school students require special programs, which cost about 2.3 times more than regular programs. Yet studies show that mildly disabled students do no better in regular classrooms because what they need is better-not special or differentiated-teaching. Moreover, spurious diagnoses stigmatize children, give them a debilitating excuse not to learn, and lead to their segregation from other children. Special programs also lead to discrimination and unfairness. Special educators more often litigiously classify big-city children as mildly retarded and expect less of them. But middle-class students are less demeaningly labeled (for example, "special learning disabled"). In affluent Greenwich, Connecticut, educators classify about one in three high school students as disabled. Such students may be get tutors, note takers, laptop computers, and extra time on tests, including those for college admission. The rapidly growing numbers of charter schools suggest a solution: Charter schools are privately governed and largely deregulated, but they receive public funds. They must admit all applicants (or use lotteries when oversubscribed). To begin, they must attract students; to continue, they must retain them and report achievement gains. Analogous special education charters would work in a similar way. Any charter school or regular school could apply for a waiver of special federal and state regulations. Waivered schools would continue to receive extra money for special children but be held responsible for their retention and learning. They could, for example, declassify special children, remove them from segregated programs, and provide all children with more learning time and effective teaching, which are proven policies for promoting achievement for regular and special students. The resulting deregulation, competition for special student applicants, and increased accountability to parents, citizens, and legislators would help even more. [This Briefing was written by Herbert J. Walberg, Ph.D., University Scholar, University of Illinois-Chicago. It was published January 21, 2002 as a Hoover Institution Weekly Essay, copyright Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University, www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/we/2002/walberg_0102.html]
The Education Consumers Consultants Network is an alliance of experienced and credentialed educators dedicated to serving the needs of parents, policymakers, and taxpayers for independent and consumer-friendly consulting. For more information, contact J. E. Stone, Ed.D., at (423) 282-6832, or write: professor@education-consumers.com |
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Daniel Hursh, Ph.D. / Professor of Educational Psychology / College of Human Resources & Education / West Virginia University Carol Jago, M.A. / English Teacher, Santa Monica High School / Director, California Reading & Literature Project / UCLA Jerry Jesness, M.A. / ESL Teacher & Author / Los Fresnos (TX) Schools Daniel Konieczko, M.Ed. / Science Teacher, Brunswick High School / Brunswick, ME Martin Kozloff, Ph.D. / Watson Distinguished Professor / School of Education / University of North Carolina at Wilmington Rob Kremer, M.B.A. / President / Oregon Education Coalition Elaine K. McEwan-Adkins, Ed.D. / Author & Consultant / McEwan-Adkins Group Richard P. Phelps, Ph.D. / Economist & Author Michael Podgursky, Ph.D. / Professor and Chairman / Department of Economics / University of Missouri J. Martin Rochester, Ph.D. / Curator's Distinguished Teaching Professor / Department of Political Science / University of Missouri-St. Louis Linda Ross, Ph.D. / Director & Instructional Design Specialist / Archimedia eLearning Solutions Valerie Copeland Rutledge, Ed.D. / Associate Professor / College of Education / University of Tennessee at Chattanooga / Member, Tenessee Board of Education Douglas Sears, Ph.D. / Professor & Dean / School of Education / Boston University Mark C. Schug, Ph.D. / Professor & Director / Center for Economic Education / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Lewis Solmon, Ph.D. / Dean Emeritus / UCLA Graduate School of Education / Executive Vice President, Education / Director, Teacher Advancement Program / Milken Family Foundation Robert Spangler, Ed.D. / President / Spangler & Associates, LLC J. E. Stone, Ed.D. / Professor / College of Education / East Tennessee State University Sara Tarver, Ph.D / Professor / School of Education / University of Wisconsin-Madison John Towner, Ph.D. / Professor Emeritus / Woodring College of Education / Western Washington University Herbert Walberg, Ph.D. / Research Professor of Education & Psychology / Emeritus / College of Education / University of Illinois-Chicago John T. Wenders, Ph.D. / Professor of Economics, Emeritus / University of Idaho Richard Western, Ph.D. / Professor (retired) / School of Education / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee |