Published: 10-10-07
AUSTIN – A top official of the National Education Association will join two Education Austin members on Monday morning (Oct. 8) to showcase the difficulties the federal No Child Left Behind Act and excessive testing are inflicting on special education students and teachers.NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen will explain why the 3.2 million-member association is calling on Congress to revise the federal education law to lessen the negative impact of high-stakes standardized testing on special-needs and other at-risk students.
Haecker a bilingual teacher and an Education Austin vice president will talk about the Austin Independent School District’s obsession with standardized testing which piles on top of the requirements imposed by the federal and state governments.
Dudley a special education teacher at Joslin Elementary School will discuss how excessive testing harms special-needs students and impairs the effectiveness of their teachers.
At the beginning of the school year Education Austin launched a campaign to convince Austin ISD to scale back excessive testing. The local association distributed testing logs so teachers could keep track of how much of their classroom time is spent on mandated testing and resulting test preparation.
“We’re asking the district to review with us the full scope of district-mandated testing and how we can start backing out of some of these tests” Education Austin President Louis Malfaro said.
While the Bush administration and Congress have imposed new federal “accountability” mandates under No Child Left Behind the federal government still does not fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The federal government has not kept its promise to fund 40 percent of the costs of educating students with disabilities forcing school districts to redirect more and more money from their general education budgets to cover the federal shortfall. Since the inception of IDEA in 1975 the unfunded federal portion has cost local schools and taxpayers $225 billion.
