Should special education students participate in standardized testing?

No, it isn't fair. It's like taking a young, untrained athlete to the Olympic Trials. Ridiculous.

Hope you will forgive my lengthy response Deven, and I hope I don't come across too strongly, but this is a topic that I am passionate about.

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking. Hope I don't miss the mark....

Do you mean what kind of alternatives are there for standardized testing, or for accountability of sp ed student progress and learning?

In regard to standardized testing, it is my belief that if we qualify a student as "really" having an impaired (disabled) area of learning, then for reasons that are obvious, it is unrealistic and unethical to have the same type of assessment expectations as that of a typical or non-disabled learner.

In regard to accountability of student progress and learning, I have to question the full understanding of team members (general ed teachers, special ed teachers, parents, etc.) as to the learning capacity of their disabled students. Even though we do not have to maximize student learning (federal law statement), we have a responsibility as educators to do just that. The money may not be there to support us with materials and assistance, but for the time we are engaged as the instructors of these students,it is an absolute MUST for US to maximize OUR understanding of how they learn.

At initials or 3yr evals when the IQ assessment is reviewed and discussed with team members, THAT is the time to sit up an pay attention. Many times the psychologist will ramble on about results and, most often than not, team members never ask the first question about what are the strength and need areas of the student. Seldom are questions asked about how those deficit cognitive areas will impact that student in the classroom and what ways the teacher can shape and 'maximize'student success.

It's so important as a team member to be taking note of how strong or weak the students' verbal comprehension, processing speed, working memory, perceptual understanding and non verbal performance will impact the student's responses, performances and learning. This knowledge is an important aid in the development of instructional strategies and effective accommodations that help students demonstrate a better understanding and more successful performance of what they know.

It's my opinion that special ed teachers should ABSOLUTELY be accountable for students' learning, but that doesn't have to be on a grade level standardized test. There is no reason that it can't begin with the development and consistent measurement of realistic academic, social and behavioral goals. This measurement can be monitored on a consistent basis to identify student progress and modify goals to reflect actual student needs.

With all said, I want to add that accomplishing the above is a monumental task given all the other tasks deemed as "our" responsibility.

It is wrong for us not to be able to account for the individual student's learning style and that is what is happening with standardized tests. For example, we currently have a non-verbal student with very limited vocabulary, even when it comes to reading. Yet we must ask him to put a story in order and it's not a picture story. How is that going to measure his progress when you are setting him up to fail? Another student in our room is having to take part in standardized tests since only 1% of the population can be exempt and in our dist. and that happens to be out medically fragile students. We have to test him three times a year and show progress but he is very hit or miss. He would rather hit the letter B to tell us he wants a balloon than to focus on abstract concepts like graphs, radius, or other such things. When we are forced to show progress that's when inaccurate data rears its ugly head. I'm not saying all should be exempt and we should be able to show progress but we need to focus on the students needs / strengths, not the tests.

I agree with Shirley's comment. I think that progress should be based on functional levels, and whether a student has made at least 1 years growth within the IEP dates. I don't think standardized testing adequately shows what student's know. The students typically need additional time, and a familiar test adminstrator. (Teachers are not allowed to test at our school). Only unit/chapter type tests.

I totally agree with this train of thought. We are able to do many things for our students to help them succeed and close the discrpancy gap between them and their peers. When it comes to testing however, the powers that be refuse to allow any type of consideration for the levels of the child's ability. I have seen 5th grade students that had the ability of a K to 1 level in reading and math have to take the grade level assessment. Talk about a slap in the face and esteem builder for this child. When will the disconnected leaders of education wake up and find a solution instead of making these students feel worse about themselves? I have truly had enough!! Stop the insanity!!

I think that it is grossly unfair. When you have students reading 2-4 levels below their peers and need assistance just taking AR tests, how fair is it for them ? Just so we can say we are making everything equal. The MAP A in MO is designed for those kids. It is an assessment that takes into account the child's IEP, and measures the child's progress to the goals and benchmarks. The only thing is, they make it hard to qualify students for it.

Oh we have an alternative test, that I have to give individually, and I give the district benchmarks to justify why they have to take the alternative state assessment, but get this: parents received a flyer explaining this test, before it became real explaining that their student would have to take this teacher designed (we designed the tasks, and type up ALL the obsevation notes and scored it) but that your child would be counted as an "automatic failure" because he/she did not participate in the standard state assessment. Oh boy, my PPCD parents received it and now their children are in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade and even though I don't have to score it, I still have to document progres in at least 3 different ways, online, in my free time (sarcasm) and do this test, plus give the regular test to my one who is closer to grade level and any other small groups they have. ARGH! Fair, I wish the ones making the decisions would come teach for a day and then get the real picture of true measures of our students progress and successes and then go back to the drawing board. NCLB left some students behind!

We are required to give the state test at their grade level. My students do well in math and science because it can be read to them but none of the reading sections can be read to the student. If an IEP states books on tape or other accommodations, I think the student should be able to have the test read to them. Some of my students read at a first or second grade level and they just stare at the reading test in 6th grade. This is cruel!

I agree absolutely with what Deven said originally, and the other comments I have read. I just had this conversation at a conference day. I talked about the absurdity of being trained to differentiate curriculum and to use a variety of modalities to encompass and validate different learning styles, but then after all this work to empower students has been done, we ask them to once again fit into the same square peg!!! If we are adapting and modifying curriculum because the research says that people learn in different ways, both special ed and regular ed, but then not designing assessments to support these principals and practices, is pure insanity (or stupidity...depends on how you want to look at it!)...so, yes it is completely unfair for special education students, but it is also unfair for all those students who are not paper and pencil learners.