Interview with a Teacher
... seven students that are on IEPS’s, six of which are labeled learning disabled and have deficiencies in reading and writing areas. She has one student who has Aspersers Syndrome and is extremely intelligent, yet requires much assistance in areas of social and emotional support. Overall, the wide range of abilities within her classroom make it extremely challenging to feel ensured that she is reaching every student successfully and completely on every end of the spectrum. After talking much about her classroom management, we came to a large discussion on the No Child Left Behind Act. No Child Left Behind is an act that in order to receive federal funding there is an Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) that each public school has to meet. This AYP is determined through standardized test scores. Some of the laws major features include “Mandated annual tests in reading and math from grades 3-8 and at least once in grades 10-12 and additional tests in science beginning in 2007, given once between grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12” (Karp, 200). Every school has approximately eighteen subgroups of students ranging from regular education students to special education and ESL students. All subgroups must have at least 47% of the students meet or exceed testing areas in reading, writing and mathematics. If you have all groups with the exception of one subgroup meet or exceed, it is considered that you did not meet your Adequate Yearly progress (AYP) and your school is deemed failing. An example of this is in Meadow Ridge School where all groups of students met or exceeded in the reading and mathematics area with 95%. Unfortunately, they have a very high special education subgroup (there needs to be at least 40 students to comprise a subgroup) and they only had 27% of their special education students meet or exceed. Therefore, they did not meet their AYP and were labeled a failing school. If a school does not meet or exceed in all subgroups for two years in a row, parents have the right to move their child to another school within the district that does meet or exceed. The major flaw in this is that virtually every public school has either full inclusion or some kind of inclusion with the special education students. The chances of every school not meeting or exceeding within at least one subgroup is extremely high. Regardless of having all of the other subgroups meet or exceed with very high percentages. In addition, each year the percentage in which all students must meet or exceed will increase until ultimately by the year 2014 100% of the students will meet or exceed. This included all subgroups meeting or exceeding. Mrs. McGarry’s feeling was that No Child Left Behind is completely unrealistic. “To say that all children will meet or exceed is simply not realistic from an educational standpoint” (McGarry). She felt that special education students are on lEP's for a reason. They learn differently and at a much slower pace than regular education students. To expect them to meet or exceed on a standardized test is truly ridiculous and unrealistic from a veteran teacher’s perspective. Meadow Ridge School has 95-97% of their students meet or succeed and because one of their subgroups, special education, did not meet or exceed the required 47%, and they did not meet their AYP. No Child Left Behind essentially deems very highly regarded schools with excellent reputations failing. As far as No Child Left Behind affecting the way that she teaches, Mrs. McGarry said that of course it affects the way you teach, yet not to an extreme. “I have always had a cluster of at least five special education students in my classroom. Therefore, I have always strived to make the learning environment equal and meaningful for all students. Depending on the ability of the student, I have always adapted, modified, enriched and differentiated in whatever way is necessary to make the learning experience for every child succe...