Posted on 07/05/2012 3:05:26 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Special education students seem to be disappearing in Texas.
The Lone Star State diagnosed just 8.8 percent of its public school students as having special needs in 2011, down from 12 percent in 2000. Texas now has the lowest percentage of special education students in the nation - a full 4 percentage points below the U.S. average. Urban giants like the Houston and Dallas school districts identify even fewer children at 7.9 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively........
[SNIP]
.....Gene Lenz, director of federal and state education policy for the Texas Education Agency, said the declines in special education numbers can be traced to improved training for teachers, additional classroom resources and the state's focus on ensuring that all children can read by third grade.
"While we're proud of the work that's happened here, we're not naive," Lenz said. "We're always worried about whether everyone has access to special education services that needs it. But nothing seems more inappropriate to me than to place a child into special education when they don't have a disability."
Texas has moved away from over-diagnosing students, he added. At one point, children may have been sent to special education because of the color of their skin, he said. Now, every effort is made to refer students only after they fail to respond to intervention.
"Districts are taking care to make sure that's 100 percent true before they place a label on a child," Lenz said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
There are teacher unions in Texas......but being a right to work state they do not have the membership nor the power they enjoy in other states!
At one month he was already lifting/moving his head to watch your mouth as you talked or sang to him. Is focusing on wall art. When his daddy came home from being on tour for a week yesterday, he verbally responded from his bedroom to “Charlie I'm home”. Not bad! for two months.
Both of his parents were academically gifted, athletic and musical, BUT they both dealt with some inherited learning challenges. They understand what hard work must be done to overcome those obstacles.
I could have just put a recorder on repeat....but hey, they are very successful now which they would not have been if labeled. Some people just can not fit into the school mold.
PS...Grandma get to Love, Spoil and encourage....and she’s good at all three.
Outstanding, great story. You’ll have a lot of fun with him.
Am planning on it. Love Facebook and the constant contact, picture. If you can’t live next door it’s the next best thing....But they are also with an afternoon or evening drive. Dad hasn’t been well, so our trips are limited.
I stand corrected on TX but what I stated is true in many states - the teachers themselves will say so!
Teacher’s unions most certainly exist here in TX, although the teachers are not required to join. My wife teaches Special Education students and gets constantly pressured to join the union.
They are simply leaving black students in the regular classroom to disrupt the other students so that the number of blacks is approximately the same as any other group sent to sepcial ed classes. Head Start also does this because people accuse them of labeling blacks. This only delays the parents getting the “Special Ed” money they want.
This is what I’ve been told by many educators in my state.
No. There are no teachers unions in Texas. There are teacher organizations, but no unions. [Trust me, I know about this, because I belonged to ATPE.] Membership is high in teacher organizations because that’s how a teacher gets professional insurance and has access to lawyers for professional concerns. You are correct that these organizations have little power beyond, for instance, helping a teacher hold a principal or school district to the law. One of these organizations cannot save a teacher from being justifiably released or fired.
“Early intervention is the secret”
The schools are hamstrung by GW Bushes no child left behind kaka rules. Sometimes to meet these guidelines it takes a year or more. Private/parochial schools do even better, they kick the kids out and dump them on the public schools so it takes even longer for the child to get help especially if they don’t fit the mold.
“I would suggest that you do not live in Texas, or you would not be talking about teacher’s unions, which do not exist there.”
You have to remember that a lot of the people here assume everything is just like it is where they live. There’s a lot of flyover country that they just don’t understand.
I’m a retired dallas ISD Texas teacher and I assure you there are Texas teacher UNIONS of which TSTA is only one!!!!
dallas=Dallas
TSTA is not a union. It is indeed affiliated with the benighted NEA, and part of TSTA dues does go to NEA, but TSTA is not a union. TSTA teachers can’t strike, and union rules do not protect them.
TSTA is as union as any union can be in a right to work state....IT is a union they vote in national union elections!!!
The dummies are moving to California. Gov. Moonbeam promised them more money!
“[Trust me, I know about this, because I belonged to ATPE.”
That org. was mostly for the legal services wasn’t it.
“The schools are hamstrung by GW Bushes no child left behind kaka rules.”
I guess that I don’t know the rules, but if you’re referring to testing, I don’t have a problem with it. I’ve seen the tests here in Texas on math and if you can pass the test you know the subject. If teachers are “teaching to the test” then they are teaching math - which is a MAJOR IMPROVEMENT in education.
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