GOP ESEA drafts 'seriously undermine the progress and academic achievement of students with disabilities': News of the Day

Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities is the latest organization to come out against the Committee Republicans' draft ESEA reauthorization proposals. In a letter to Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), the coalition of national disability organizations including advocates for children and their families, special education teachers, and state directors for special education - expresses concerns with three fundamental issues that "seriously undermine the progress and academic achievement of students with disabilities." They are:

• The lack of subgroup accountability: "Students with disabilities have made considerable gains thanks to the current focus of the ESEA on all schools and all subgroups….Students with disabilities may be most at risk if revisions to the law do not ensure all schools are accountable for student achievement at the subgroup level and receive extra resources and attention when they fail to produce progress…Flexibility should not eliminate the current focus of ESEA’s accountability framework on all schools and all subgroups or eliminate targeted help to schools that need it. "
• The lifting of the cap on the Alternate Assessment on Alternate Achievement Standards (AA-AAS): The draft bills "would radically reduce high expectations for all students with disabilities...[by eliminating] the current cap (often referred to as the 1% regulation) which restricts, for accountability purposes, the use of the scores on less challenging assessments being given to students with disabilities. Such assessments – known as the alternate assessment on alternate achievement standards -- are intended for only a small number of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities...Raising or eliminating the cap would violate the legal rights of students who do not have the most significant cognitive disabilities and who should not be assessed on alternate academic achievement standards...The lack of a cap on the use of the assessment virtually encourages schools to expect less from students with disabilities. This will jeopardize their true potential to learn and achieve."
• The rollback on teacher quality: The draft "bills eliminate all baseline preparation standards for teachers, instead focusing solely on measuring teacher effectiveness once teachers are already in the classroom...[They] lack any significant equity protections, particularly with respect to ensuring equal access to fully-prepared and effective teachers for our nation’s most vulnerable students..Finally, these bills represent a significant step backwards in the area of transparency, particularly with respect to providing parents with information about their child’s teachers."

As we look to reauthorize ESEA, we must maintain a commitment to the achievement of students with disabilities. Students with disabilities deserve an equal educational experience, one that allows them the ability to make academic gains and graduate high school ready to succeed in postsecondary education and employment. This means ensuring for those populations of students strong accountability, appropriate assessment, and effective teachers.

To read more opposition to the GOP's draft ESEA bills and about the state of ESEA's reauthorization, click here.