UK: Ofsted - schools exaggerating special needs to hide poor teaching

The Telegraph ^ | 9/14/2010 | Graeme Paton

[bruinbirdman]

Schools are wrongly labelling almost 750,000 children as having special needs to disguise poor teaching, according to Ofsted.

In a damning report, inspectors said as many as half of children with certain categories of behavioural and learning problems were actually “no different” to other pupils.

It was claimed that many of those with special needs were simply “underachieving” because teaching standards were not good enough and expectations of pupils were “too low”.

The study suggested that state schools were being encouraged to over-identify pupils to attract more funding from local councils and boost their positions in league tables that give weighting to schools with high numbers of special needs children.

Ofsted also suggested that middle-class parents were more likely to push for their children to be registered to make sure they received extra tuition.

In a devastating conclusion, Ofsted told schools to stop labelling children as having special needs when they “simply need better teaching”.

It is likely to lead to a sharp drop in the number of children deemed to suffer from learning disorders, emotional and behavioural difficulties and communication problems – currently put at around 20 per cent of the school population.

Christine Gilbert, chief inspector of schools, said: “Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching and learning, would lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs.”

Currently, 1.7 million children in England are registered as having special needs.

Less than three per cent of the pupil population has a formal special needs “statement” – a legal document setting out their entitlement to certain teaching and support – and the number has dropped over the last seven years.

But at the same time, there has been a huge rise in pupils diagnosed with special needs by schools themselves. Some 18.2 per cent of the

[BenKenobi]

I’m not surprised. I used to work with disability services, and what they told me is that 80 percent of so-called ‘special needs’ is directed at ‘learning disabilities’.

That was an absolute shocker to me. I could see 10 or 20 percent, but not 80 percent. Supposing 20 percent were ‘learning disabled’ that would mean that the total would drop 3/4. So 75 percent of those recieving disability accommodations are in actuality not disabled at all.

It’s big business.

[James C. Bennett]

Criminal corruption.

[Der_Hirnfänger]

When a friend of mine was a teaching assistant, he was asked to administer a quiz to students to determine whether they were in need of special needs classes. The questions were phrased so you had a 5 point scale of “not at all” to “completely agree” and they included the following: “I have trouble relating to my parents.” “I have trouble paying attention in school.” “I have trouble dealing with peer pressure.”

In other words, the quiz was stacked to make every normal teenager a special needs kid, so the school could get more $$$$. My friend said he didn’t feel qualified to give such a test and assess students for learning disabilities. When his contract came up he was not renewed.

Another friend’s brother was put into special ed classes and his grades went DOWN, and his mother had to threaten to sue to get him out of there. It’s a total scam.

[jiggyboy]

“King of the Hill” No Bobby Left Behind (2008)

Original Air Date: 9 November 2008 (Season 13, Episode 5)

Genre: Animation | Comedy

Tom Landry Middle School labels Bobby and some of his other lazy classmates as “special needs” students so that they don’t have to take and fail the standardized test and lower the school’s numbers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1299890/

[James C. Bennett]

You give government employees the controls to the funding they receive without any linkages to their actual output, they are bound to exploit it.

This is why government-run enterprises always fail. The thieves have the key to the bank, and they know when the guards will be off-duty.

[jimt]

I used to work with disability services, and what they told me is that 80 percent of so-called ‘special needs’ is directed at ‘learning disabilities’.

Unfortunately, what they often label "special needs" are actually "discipline challenged", meaning rotten little b@stards that cuss the teacher, hit the other kids, refuse to work, haven't ever heard of homework, etc. The "special education" these lttle creeps need is a term in what we used to call a reform school.

My wife teaches "special needs" children who are autistic, don't speak, have physical brain damage, are Downs syndrome kids, etc. If you don't think their needs are special I challenge you to try it. I know for a fact I couldn't do it.

[BenKenobi]

Where did I say that there aren’t some who have legitimate learning disabilities? I agree with you that in some cases it is legitimate, but not to 80 percent of all people with a disability.