From the Arizona Republic and the East Valley [AZ] Tribune:

A school board in suburban Phoenix, Arizona, has set aside an earlier decision barring a student with a disability from participating in high school graduation.

The Gilbert Public Schools board voted unanimously to let Kevyn Barton’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team decide whether he may walk with his Highland High class. Barton, who has an intellectual disability, wants to participate in the ceremony with friends he has known since kindergarten.

The district had earlier barred the 18-year-old student from participating in the commencement exercises because he won’t meet graduation requirements. Barton will continue in the district’s special education program until he is 22.

Kevyn’s dad, LRay Barton, said he is “happy” with the board’s decision. “That’s what we asked the board to do, and it looks like they will allow him to walk,” the elder Barton said.

A Facebook group called “Let Kevyn Walk!” has gathered 644 members, many of them students at Highland High.

Related post here.

See also: GPS to review case of special needs student — Arizona Republic

(Arizona Republic photo)

Exemption from exit exams is not what special kids need — Editorial in the Sacramento Bee:

The paper’s editors urge the governor to veto a bill that would would “require school districts to give high school diplomas to special ed students who have not passed the exit exam.”

Special education bills merit signature — an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee by Gloria Romero

The senate majority leader says the bills would give students different ways of demonstrating mastery of course material.

Earlier post here.

From the Los Angeles Times’ ‘Blowback’ segment:

High school special education teacher Dennis Blass says it’s not fair that kids with disabilities should be required to make the same scores on state exit exams as everyone else.

What I have found … is that a majority of my special-needs students who fail the exit exam (and that is a majority of my caseload in many years) do so by only 20 to 30 points. Students must score at least 350 points on both the language arts and mathematics portions of the exam to pass; many of my students score between 320 and 330 on these sections.

… The state Department of Education need only investigate the average exit exam score within the learning-disabled community and allow that to become the passing score for special-needs students, so long as the average score isn’t too low. Under such a system, special-needs students would still be accountable for their learning, would not receive a “free pass” and, most important, would be given a real chance to earn their diplomas.

See earlier post here.

Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton is worried about the students in special education who failed their exit exams — almost half of them, by the state’s count. He wonders whether California is harassing them by insisting that they pass. An excerpt:

We need common sense here. One size doesn’t fit all. Education is more than abstract academia. It’s also about building social skills and self-confidence — about reaching as high as possible, and not being punished for not fulfilling some bureaucrats’ or politicians’ expectations.

We should call a time out and reexamine the exam for these special kids.

See earlier post here.

From the Los Angeles Times:

High school seniors in California’s class of 2008 turned in the worst performance on record on the state’s mandatory exit exam, with one out of ten failing to pass. State officials said the passage rate fell because for the first time students in special education were required to take the tests to earn diplomas.

Nearly half of the students receiving special education services failed to pass the exam. A score of 55 percent is required to pass the math portion, which is geared to an eighth-grade level, and 60 percent on the English portion, which is ninth- or tenth-grade level.

UPDATE. See also: Don’t disable the state exit exam — San Francisco Chronicle

While it’s clear that disabled students need more help, that doesn’t mean that they should be exempt from the exam altogether. That would be an insult to these students’ abilities and a reversal for the future of the California economy.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Lance T. Izumi refutes arguments made by San Francisco school officials that it’s unfair to require students with disabilities to pass the California exit exam in order to graduate.

California’s exit exam sets the bar extremely low, and consequently many students with special needs have a good chance to pass it, Izumi writes. This is a good thing, he says, because it encourages schools to work harder at educating students with disabilities.

If students with special needs were exempted from the exams, schools might be tempted to artificially inflate their exam passage rates by dumping low-performing students in special ed classrooms. Writes Izumi:

A positive agenda focused on getting special ed students to pass the exit exam will, in most cases, help these young people succeed in life much more than compassionate defeatism.

Izumi is senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute.

From Newsday:

The state of New York is considering fundamental changes in the diplomas it awards to students with disabilities, including a name change that would make parents aware that such credentials are not academic diplomas.

Officials say too many students capable of earning regular diplomas are getting IEP diplomas instead, limiting their options after graduation. Some parents say a name change would cause unnecessary embarrassment to teens with disabilities.

IEP diplomas are granted to students who complete individualized education programs in school, and do not meet academic requirements for graduation.