‘No Child Left Behind’ is credited with pushing many to higher levels of achievement

By Maria Glod in the Washington Post

See related post: Students in the mainstream, but isolated

Parents of students with disabilities hail the federal No Child Left Behind law as an important ally in their efforts to secure the best education possible for their children. It appears that Congress could soon revive stalled efforts to renew it. Disability rights activists are urging quick action amid concerns that a delay until the next administration would put the measure on the back burner.

Glod visits with Stephen Sabia, a Montgomery County ninth-grader who is reading “Romeo and Juliet” and studying the Holocaust and World War II for honors history and English. Stephen has Down syndrome. Ricki Sabia, Stephen’s mother, says the law “really pushed the envelope for expectations for Stephen.”

The six-year-old law’s requirement to raise student achievement across the board has forced schools to pay attention as never before to special-needs children who too often had been written off as incapable of handling the same lessons as peers in mainstream classrooms. Students with disabilities have made some strides in math and reading on state and national tests in recent years, although experts debate whether the law is responsible.

… Some educators complain that the law is too rigid and that schools with dedicated teachers can be unfairly punished when even a handful of students with disabilities fall short on tests. Some parents worry that children with significant disabilities are ill-served if they are pushed into grade-level classes too far above their abilities, reflecting persistent debate over “mainstreaming” for special-needs students. There are also perennial questions about containing the high cost of special education.

Ricki Sabia is associate director of the National Down Syndrome Society’s National Policy Center.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 7:04 am and is filed under Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, No Child Left Behind, education, intellectual/developmental disabilities, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post