The problem is with the sped students and why the parents are suing, is because their child won't ever pass AIMS but their child has acheived their goals set forth on their IEP. The IEP is a federal document, so the parents don't understand, which I completely agree with, why their child, who is special needs has successful completed their goals but won't be able to recieve their diploma because they can't pass AIMS. It's not fair to those kids.
I don't know enough about funding so I'm not even going to hazard a guess about funding
That's totally fine that you don't agree with my analogy of the 4.0 kid, but I can say, from my personal experience, that when I was in high school I had about a 3.5 and I don't standardize test well. Giving me a math test and saying you have 40 problems and 30 minutes to finish, I can't do it. I can't do it.
And that is how AIMS is, the writing is untimed (but basically the writing portion has to be completed in the school day so it's "timed" in that aspect). But the reading and math portions are timed.
What's worse is that in 08 the kids get tested in science and 09 in social studies. I can say from teaching and talking to teachers at my school, the kids AREN'T learning the science and social studies required by the state's standard (which is what the AIMS test will cover). There isn't enough hours in the day.
There has been this huge push for reading, writing and math and now they are realizing "oops science and social studies are floundering, let's test them on it" but we don't have the time to teach it.
Let me give y'all an example of my day:
8:15-10:45 Voyager, which is the current adopted reading/writing curriculum
10:50-11:20 Lunch
11:30-12:15 DLT (this is the differentiated instruction time that the office of
civil right is demanding that we give to to children labeled
ELL. It is a crock of crap and basically we are losing 45
minutes of instructional time)
12:20-12:55 Math
1:00-1:30 specials
1:34-2:00 review, clean up, pack up, home
I was using that 45 minutes that was taken away from us for science and socials studies and so were my coworkers. But since the stupid office of civil rights (did I mention that we are SEGREGATING these children from their first grade peers) has demanded we do this, we have lost the ability to teach the science and social studies standards.
My kids will not be ready to take science and social studies when they get to 3rd grade. Yes, they have learned some science and social studies but nothing based on the AZ standards. Yet, they will be expected to pass it.
Doesn't seem quite fair does it?
Every day my job is hard. Every school year the state or the federal government makes it 10 times harder with their mandates.
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