More Education Wars

While I am glad a school district has been exposed for penalizing special education teachers for merely following the law, people need to understand what they are going through is very commonplace in education. I went through this with an asshole administrator at a middle school, when he attempted to get me to violate federal law--not just NCLB but IDEA as well--to put all of my sped kids in my self-contained life skills class on alternate testing, even though only two of my eight or nine students qualified. He didn't care about the legality; all he cared about what his own career and whether the schoolwide test scores would be pulled down by having most of my kids take a test they are required to take. I won this battle, but ultimately lost the war as he found ways to retaliate, and that in large part ultimately led to my wrongful termination. I think in the end, the district is going to pay very dearly for what it has done, and it should.

Seattle will because those teachers knew where to turn, but I didn't. I didn't realize I could have filed a federal lawsuit against this district and this administrator at the time, but the statute of limitations has run out, as I was told by an attorney friend. Asshole gets off scot-free, or so he thinks. I, though, have other ideas. I am not going to let the district get away with this and other malfeasance.

One should note this:

All the parents in Jackson's class refused the test.

Judy Kraft says that's their right. But in large numbers, those refusals would cause problems. Federal regulations say 95% of disabled kids have to take tests like the WAAS and the WASL. When districts and schools don't hit that number, their federal funding is jeopardized.

Jackson's teacher and her colleague have appealed their suspension. They're back in the classroom for now. Jackson's teacher didn't return a call for comment. Her colleague says their lawyer told them not to talk to reporters. Their spokesperson says they're filing a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Actually, this isn't exactly accurate. Just because kids are "disabled" doesn't mean they automatically qualify for alternate testing. Most "disabled" kids take standardized testing; only the most severely cognitively impaired students take the alternate tests. Federal law is strict about that in order to prevent cheating by unscrupulous administrators, although in my case it certainly didn't stop him from approaching me--completely illegal.

Those two teachers got off easy; they were only suspended. They HAVE their jobs, but my career is ruined in large part because of this prick of an administrator.