Monday Musings: IDEA: When Good Goes CCS/CTE Bad

Fighting CCS and CTE for those with special needs is especially heart rendering. I’ve had the honor of speaking with several parents of these wonderful students. In my educational experience, I’ve worked with these families and seen how an education that fits them, NOT streamlines them is a delight. However, when I speak with parents today, they are not delighted, their students are miserable, and all involved feel absolute anger and frustration toward the misuse of education and IDEA funding.

What’s IDEA funding? It is a federal statute set up in 1975. It’s original name was “Education for All Handicapped Children”. Congress, at some point, began to refer to it as “IDEA”. The name then or now isn’t so important as WHAT the funding does.
From what I’ve found the Act has 2 purposes: a) due process detailing parental rights, and b) permanent grants available to states for ‘free, appropriate public education to all children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment’.
(*Source: http://atlas.newamerica.org/individuals-disabilities-education-act-overview)

.

Where Good Went Bad:

Let’s see if we can pinpoint what other groups are supportive of the shift where IDEA went from its original purpose (stated above) of ‘appropriate education in the least restrictive way’ and when it aligned with Common Core. 

From 2009, a pdf file from the NASDSE (National Association of State Directors of Special Education). Why this pdf? See the screen shot below:

To access the entire pdf: idea_partnership
Why this matters in 2015: 1) if you’re a new anti CCSS Warrior, this may be information which is new to you; 2) knowing the dates of the pro CCSS Machine’s activities can help those who’ve been fighting CCS and all its other entities by tracking when and where it showed up in their states, who might be involved and knew what the states were in for, but went along with it, etc.

So what’s the NASDSE up to now, in 2015? Currently they are conducting 8 projects. One of which might be of particular interest in our War Against the Core. It is called the “National Center on Educational Outcomes Subcontract”. (NCEO for short). This particular subcontract is through the University of MN. Working with the NASDES, the Univ. of MN, is the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers)! The goal of their teamwork? Assessments! More assessments for our special needs students. To read more about this project, see: http://www.nasdse.org/Projects/TheNationalCenteronEducationalOutcomesNCEO/tabid/421/Default.aspx
(*NOTE: this page will have an embedded link to the NCEO’s website. Go to that website. You’ll find “College and  Career Readiness Standards”, formative assessments, Universal Design of Assessments, and, you can access any of their publications {which date back to 1996}. You can access the 2015 publication where you can find out how CCSSO is driving IEPs to be written, as well as how assessment for ALL learners was discussed: 2015ForumReport Be sure if you live in CO, AL, or KS, you see how your states are used as success models.)

Somewhat related is the 2006 Report I found featured on the website for the National Assoc. of Secondary School Principals  (which just this past weekend I showed you how aligned to CCSS/CTE they are).  This particular report is addressing the need for IDEA to become ‘fully funded’. Take note of the other groups in the IDEA Partnership involved in the full support of this. It can help you trace IDEA funds timeline, especially where the 2004 re-authorization of the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) was concerned. See: principalsreport
Another project of the NASDSE is the “Idea Partnership”. Fully funded and equipped to work across  ‘federal agencies, federal investments, national organizations, State agencies and stakeholder groups’. To see the full description of this project, see: http://www.nasdse.org/Projects/IDEAPartnership/tabid/413/Default.aspx

To see the 2015 list of all the IDEA partners: http://www.ideapartnership.org/the-partners.html
One of the IDEA Partnership ‘Working Together’ activities? The “Cradle to College and Career Pipeline”! When did this happen? 2011, according to the website. You need to have the rest of the information on this directly from the website. Visit: http://www.ideapartnership.org/working-together/collaboration-on-issues.html?id=1572:overview-on-cradle-to-college-career-collection-work&catid=400:cradle-to-college-a-career-ccc-collection
Below is a screen shot from the IDEA Partners stating what they believe to be their purpose in the Pipeline.

Be sure to click on the website address directly above the screen shot, scroll down and click on ‘Dialogue Guides for Cradle to College and Career’. Once there you can see an ‘Early Learner’ Guide, which is for pre-K to 3rd grade; for Middle School, it’s the “Breaking Ranks” reports I told you about in this past weekend’s news. Lastly, the transition for middle to high school in included. Other than the national group of those secondary school principals I told you about, you can see how the ECS, ‘Education Commission of the States’ is cited as a source for the dialogue documents.  If you are curious as to the alignment of the ECS to CCSS and CTE? Don’t be. It is 100% evident on their website. See below.

As far as not taking sides, I would have to disagree. Why? Here is an excerpt of just one of the education projects they are conducting, ‘ECS is continuing the Blueprint Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Designed for state leaders, the Blueprint features a menu of 10 critical policies that promote college readiness and success.’
Briefly, the 10 policies most critical according to ECS:
1) high school policies (has 4 distinct subsections)
2) higher education policies (has 4 distinct subsections)
3) policies for bridging from high school to higher education (has 2 which include data mining)
To get the “Blueprint”: ECSBlueprint (*Note: 2 states which didn’t take CCSS, TX and VA, are used in this report as shining examples of college and career readiness.)
To learn more about ECS, http://www.ecs.org/html/aboutECS/home_aboutECS.htm
(*Note: I will be digging into this group more in the near future. There’s a lot more information we need waiting there.)

Bottom line for the musings today: We’ve got some great information for using to fight the Core, let’s get busy!