Response to "IEP Students and Their Impact on AYP."

I wasn't very surprised to learn that the special education population is growing at a higher rate than the general education population, maybe because I work in the field of behavioral health. I always wonder how much of this is due to an actual increase in the number of children being born with special needs, and how much is due to better screening methods and the emergence of new disorders (I'm pretty sure that Asperger's Disorder wasn't even a diagnosis until 1994). I don't know if there is any way to really find this out, but it is an interesting question.

I was very surprised to see the similarity in the scores across all three school districts. I wonder if that similarity would carry over if we looked at districts closer to my area, such as Wayne Highlands or Western Wayne.

I was also very surprised about the end result to the PowerPoint - that children with IEP's do not have a negative impact on a district's PSSA scores. I had always assumed they did, and I guess part of the reason for that stems from the school district that I live (and occasionally work) in. They have always had an outstanding special education program when compared with other districts in the area. In fact, I know several parents who deliberately moved into the area so that their children could go to this school. Thus the special education population has increased quite a bit over the years, and I'm pretty sure their test scores have gone down. I always thought there was a causal relationship between the influx of special education students and the fact that standardized test scores have gone down, now I'm questioning that. One thing I do wonder about is what will happen in 2014, when schools are expected to have 100 % proficiency. Do they take into account that some of these students will never be proficient, because of their disability? Should the schools/students be penalized for that? (NO!!) Obviously, this is something that will need to be addressed.

One final note on the more technical aspects of the presentation - I thought it was very well done and appropriate for the topic. I really enjoyed the sound effects - I think that they also helped to enhance the content. Good job guys!