Earlier this week, I asked what single thing people would change about the special education system to make it function better. Marcus A. Winters and Jay P. Greene, two fellows at the Manhattan Institute, suggest that one solution could be vouchers.The authors have written several papers in support of special education vouchers, and their latest report, released Tuesday, says the voucher program in Florida, called McKay Scholarships, has worked to slow down mislabeling of students as being in need of special education.

Thanks to Chicago Special Education Examiner, Kindall Nelson, who reviews and recommends books every parent of a child with special needs should read. Several of Kindall’s favorites, she says are “invaluable to parents, teachers, and others,” are our favorites too. Don’t miss what Kindall recommends: Wrightslaw: Special Education Law by saying “Nobody who buys this book will be [...]

     Big transitions have never really seemed to be a problem for C. We’ve moved more times than I can count with his gleeful participation and joy in settling in somewhere new. He happily troops along on road trips and thinks sleeping in a hotel is an adventure, even if it is just a dumpy old place along the road between the old house and the new. If we switch his toothbrush on that trip, however, it’s a problem worthy of major meltdown proportions.      This school year involved a big transition which everyone was nervous about.

If you make a living on a ranch, that’s a success. Just living on a ranch is a success. Heck, just taking one more breath can be a victory. Everybody is a winner, at least in some small way. Success does not always manifest itself with visual clues, but you often see the trappings of new equipment, well-cared-for property and cattle that could win a stock show. Perhaps they did win. Definition of success Those things mean success in at least a material way, and they imply things are going well.

By Clem Guttata   Here in West Virginia both Sens. Byrd and Rockefeller as well as Reps. Mollohan and Rahall voted for the stimulus bill. Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito voted against it.  
There’s a cool new map feature from USDA and Google Maps that shows stimulus spending at street level !
For those preferring lists to maps, below the fold I’ve included a fact sheet (rec’d via email from White House and Department of Education Communications) detailing the impact of President

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – A total of $7,330 was authorized last week (Aug. 11, 2009) to be spent for Pottsgrove School District teachers and administrators to attend professional or skills development functions. The district Board of School Directors approved the expense unanimously and without comment during the first of its two August meetings in the administrative offices on Kauffman Road.

( Editor’s Note: There’s a lot going on at Citizen Dick world headquarters.  As Kevin described on Sunday, three-fifths of us are prepping to return to school.  At the time of this writing, I’m a mere 36 hours away from sitting through my building’s opening meeting.  Two days after that, I’ve got students streaming into my classroom.  To be perfectly honest, I’m thinking a little more about my third period algebra class than I am about Circulatory System.  Add in the three hours I watched my aunt’s

Issues and challenges in the new academic year   (Cont’d) There is significant proportion of untrained nursery and primary teachers. This is of special concern in the light of the implementation of new literacy approaches. Further, disadvantaged groups of children (Amerindian/ indigenous, children with disabilities, unregistered children) have greater difficulties accessing ECE. Nearly fifty percent of the teachers at nursery level are still untrained and the proportion of untrained teachers is much greater in remote hinterland and riverain areas.

The gap in achievement between students with special learning needs and their typical peers gets less attention than the racial achievement gap, but it is no less important and no less shocking. Every once in a while someone points out that African American students in San Francisco have in recent years scored lower than special education students (that is actually not true this year, in English/Language Arts or Math).

  In the year plus preceding the amending and final passage of the Mayoral Control law one of the only issues that was uniformly accepted by all sides was an “outside” organization to review educational data.  This blog , independent scholars Sol Stern and Diane Ravitch have been loudly calling for an independent review of Department data for a few years.   On June 4th testimony Ronnie Lowenstein, the Director of the Independent Budget Office referred  to the office as an “honest broker ,” and looked forward to the passage of the bill and their new role.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke Tuesday before a group of state special education officials gathered in Washington, pledging his commitment to prevent “horrific tragedies” resulting from inappropriate use of seclusion and restraints on students, and asking officials to be a part of the development of common state standards to make sure the unique needs of students with disablities are considered.Duncan spent much of his time talking about the broad policy agenda that the Obama administration is pursuing.

I was just wondering about some laws regarding special education.  Are all schools required to have life skills programs available to its students?  Or are they only formed on an “as needed” basis?  It seems like they would be more successful if there was one already in place before a student entered the classroom, but obvious budget constraints may not make this feasible.  It may also not be logical if there are not currently students who require such a classroom.  However, is there a minimum

Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release August 19, 2009 VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN, SECRETARY DUNCAN HIGHLIGHT RECOVERY ACT SUCCESS IN FLORIDA   Orlando, FL — Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today visited Jackson Middle School in Orlando, highlighting how the Recovery Act is saving tens of thousands of teaching jobs and providing the resources necessary to prepare American students for the 21st century economy.

At first glance, my blog looks just as it has for the past few months.  If you’ve been here before, a closer look should reveal a significant change.  I’ve given my blog a new name.  Until yesterday, it was Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education.  That name made more sense to me when I started the blog over three years ago.   That was before several things that had long troubled me about education came into sharper focus.

I’ve posted before here about my love of Voice Thread and I just received an email from them touting even MORE to make Voice Thread better! If you’d like to read even more about Voicethread – check out their blog. They’ve added the New York Library’s Digital Library with over 700,000 historical images that can be used in the Threads. VT has also improved its Flickr search and import capabilities along with adding Learning Modules which allow you to set options giving other’s permission to copy and use your VoiceThreads.

Today Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan released the details of the economic stimulus’ impacts on Kentucky. Let’s take a look at a bit of it. $475,518,587 in State Fiscal Stabilization funds have been awarded in Kentucky so far. Those funds: Help stabilize state and local government budgets in order to minimize and avoid reductions in education and other essential public services.

The Legislature has been trying to pass a Special Education scholarship plan for years.  While public charter schools and the EdChoice scholarship are saving taxpayers money, could a Special Education voucher do the same?It has helped in Florida.  McKay Scholarship students cost less to educate on average than traditional students in public schools.  And now new research from Jay Green and Marcus Winters for the Manhattan Institute indicates that in Florida, even more money is saved because

The big news making rounds today is the new GAO report on teacher education as related to special education. In it, the GAO finds that most schools of education require at least one course related to students with disabilities and only 20 percent offer instruction related to ELL students. One of the elements mentioned as a component of the special education training are the federal laws.  Well, from my experience, this training is woefully lacking in quality. Every time I have undergrads or teach grad.

My dad sent me this article today. It is a story that is ALL too familiar with THIS family. As many of you may know, I had a heck of a fight trying to get the appropriate intervention for my daughter, and the school system just could NOT deliver. Now she attends a private school specifically designed for children with her disabilities, thanks to her grandparents.Column: Kids with autism deserve better – Opinion – USATODAY.com.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York TimesA teacher seeking work gave Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein an earful. Imagine, after leaving a job at Goldman Sachs, turning down a teaching job in Philadelphia and securing a spot in New York City’s vaunted Teaching Fellows program, you are eager to teach children the wonders of geometry and algebra. You send your résumé to dozens of schools, go out to give a sample lesson in the Bronx, and impress the principal enough that she wants to hire you.

Earlier this week, I asked what single thing people would change about the special education system to make it function better. Marcus A. Winters and Jay P. Greene, two fellows at the Manhattan Institute, suggest that one solution could be vouchers.The authors have written several papers in support of special education vouchers, and their latest report, released Tuesday, says the voucher program in Florida, called McKay Scholarships, has worked to slow down mislabeling of students as being in need of special education.

Thanks to Chicago Special Education Examiner, Kindall Nelson, who reviews and recommends books every parent of a child with special needs should read. Several of Kindall’s favorites, she says are “invaluable to parents, teachers, and others,” are our favorites too. Don’t miss what Kindall recommends: Wrightslaw: Special Education Law by saying “Nobody who buys this book will be [...]

     Big transitions have never really seemed to be a problem for C. We’ve moved more times than I can count with his gleeful participation and joy in settling in somewhere new. He happily troops along on road trips and thinks sleeping in a hotel is an adventure, even if it is just a dumpy old place along the road between the old house and the new. If we switch his toothbrush on that trip, however, it’s a problem worthy of major meltdown proportions.      This school year involved a big transition which everyone was nervous about.

If you make a living on a ranch, that’s a success. Just living on a ranch is a success. Heck, just taking one more breath can be a victory. Everybody is a winner, at least in some small way. Success does not always manifest itself with visual clues, but you often see the trappings of new equipment, well-cared-for property and cattle that could win a stock show. Perhaps they did win. Definition of success Those things mean success in at least a material way, and they imply things are going well.

By Clem Guttata   Here in West Virginia both Sens. Byrd and Rockefeller as well as Reps. Mollohan and Rahall voted for the stimulus bill. Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito voted against it.  
There’s a cool new map feature from USDA and Google Maps that shows stimulus spending at street level !
For those preferring lists to maps, below the fold I’ve included a fact sheet (rec’d via email from White House and Department of Education Communications) detailing the impact of President

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – A total of $7,330 was authorized last week (Aug. 11, 2009) to be spent for Pottsgrove School District teachers and administrators to attend professional or skills development functions. The district Board of School Directors approved the expense unanimously and without comment during the first of its two August meetings in the administrative offices on Kauffman Road.

( Editor’s Note: There’s a lot going on at Citizen Dick world headquarters.  As Kevin described on Sunday, three-fifths of us are prepping to return to school.  At the time of this writing, I’m a mere 36 hours away from sitting through my building’s opening meeting.  Two days after that, I’ve got students streaming into my classroom.  To be perfectly honest, I’m thinking a little more about my third period algebra class than I am about Circulatory System.  Add in the three hours I watched my aunt’s

Issues and challenges in the new academic year   (Cont’d) There is significant proportion of untrained nursery and primary teachers. This is of special concern in the light of the implementation of new literacy approaches. Further, disadvantaged groups of children (Amerindian/ indigenous, children with disabilities, unregistered children) have greater difficulties accessing ECE. Nearly fifty percent of the teachers at nursery level are still untrained and the proportion of untrained teachers is much greater in remote hinterland and riverain areas.

The gap in achievement between students with special learning needs and their typical peers gets less attention than the racial achievement gap, but it is no less important and no less shocking. Every once in a while someone points out that African American students in San Francisco have in recent years scored lower than special education students (that is actually not true this year, in English/Language Arts or Math).

  In the year plus preceding the amending and final passage of the Mayoral Control law one of the only issues that was uniformly accepted by all sides was an “outside” organization to review educational data.  This blog , independent scholars Sol Stern and Diane Ravitch have been loudly calling for an independent review of Department data for a few years.   On June 4th testimony Ronnie Lowenstein, the Director of the Independent Budget Office referred  to the office as an “honest broker ,” and looked forward to the passage of the bill and their new role.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke Tuesday before a group of state special education officials gathered in Washington, pledging his commitment to prevent “horrific tragedies” resulting from inappropriate use of seclusion and restraints on students, and asking officials to be a part of the development of common state standards to make sure the unique needs of students with disablities are considered.Duncan spent much of his time talking about the broad policy agenda that the Obama administration is pursuing.

I was just wondering about some laws regarding special education.  Are all schools required to have life skills programs available to its students?  Or are they only formed on an “as needed” basis?  It seems like they would be more successful if there was one already in place before a student entered the classroom, but obvious budget constraints may not make this feasible.  It may also not be logical if there are not currently students who require such a classroom.  However, is there a minimum

Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release August 19, 2009 VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN, SECRETARY DUNCAN HIGHLIGHT RECOVERY ACT SUCCESS IN FLORIDA   Orlando, FL — Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today visited Jackson Middle School in Orlando, highlighting how the Recovery Act is saving tens of thousands of teaching jobs and providing the resources necessary to prepare American students for the 21st century economy.

At first glance, my blog looks just as it has for the past few months.  If you’ve been here before, a closer look should reveal a significant change.  I’ve given my blog a new name.  Until yesterday, it was Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education.  That name made more sense to me when I started the blog over three years ago.   That was before several things that had long troubled me about education came into sharper focus.

I’ve posted before here about my love of Voice Thread and I just received an email from them touting even MORE to make Voice Thread better! If you’d like to read even more about Voicethread – check out their blog. They’ve added the New York Library’s Digital Library with over 700,000 historical images that can be used in the Threads. VT has also improved its Flickr search and import capabilities along with adding Learning Modules which allow you to set options giving other’s permission to copy and use your VoiceThreads.

Today Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan released the details of the economic stimulus’ impacts on Kentucky. Let’s take a look at a bit of it. $475,518,587 in State Fiscal Stabilization funds have been awarded in Kentucky so far. Those funds: Help stabilize state and local government budgets in order to minimize and avoid reductions in education and other essential public services.

The Legislature has been trying to pass a Special Education scholarship plan for years.  While public charter schools and the EdChoice scholarship are saving taxpayers money, could a Special Education voucher do the same?It has helped in Florida.  McKay Scholarship students cost less to educate on average than traditional students in public schools.  And now new research from Jay Green and Marcus Winters for the Manhattan Institute indicates that in Florida, even more money is saved because

The big news making rounds today is the new GAO report on teacher education as related to special education. In it, the GAO finds that most schools of education require at least one course related to students with disabilities and only 20 percent offer instruction related to ELL students. One of the elements mentioned as a component of the special education training are the federal laws.  Well, from my experience, this training is woefully lacking in quality. Every time I have undergrads or teach grad.

My dad sent me this article today. It is a story that is ALL too familiar with THIS family. As many of you may know, I had a heck of a fight trying to get the appropriate intervention for my daughter, and the school system just could NOT deliver. Now she attends a private school specifically designed for children with her disabilities, thanks to her grandparents.Column: Kids with autism deserve better – Opinion – USATODAY.com.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York TimesA teacher seeking work gave Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein an earful. Imagine, after leaving a job at Goldman Sachs, turning down a teaching job in Philadelphia and securing a spot in New York City’s vaunted Teaching Fellows program, you are eager to teach children the wonders of geometry and algebra. You send your résumé to dozens of schools, go out to give a sample lesson in the Bronx, and impress the principal enough that she wants to hire you.