Craig Haller's Battle Against MCAS Abuse

From Monty Neill at FairTEst:

Craig Haller has been battling the state over requirements that his daughter Hannah take the MCAS. Hannah is unable to communicate and thus cannot respond either to the test or the alternative assessment. She should be exempted, but the state is stonewalling. Craig has been working with policymakers, advocacy groups and the media.

And the following is from Craig Haller's website, Leave My Child Behind:

My daughter is severely disabled. She is non-verbal, non-mobile and has an incredible personality. She cannot communicate a simple yes or no. She cannot signal where she hurts when in pain. She cannot inform you if she is hungry or tired. She is 15 years old. The state we live in demands that she be tested for her abilities in Math, English and more. Her math skills would be put to shame by Clever Hans the horse. Her English skills are greatly surpassed by Alex the parrot. And she does not come close to the communication of Washoe the signing chimp. This is not a reflection on her intelligence, knowledge or awareness, it is the statement that we do not know nor can we test what she does possess. Note that without the fantastic technologies he uses to communicate, Stephen Hawking would not be able to pass the exams either.

My daughter greatly surpasses Hans, Alex and Washoe in a myriad of wonderful and amazing ways, but alas, our state has no interest, and the No Child Left Behind legal quagmire could not care less.

__________________

The Boston ABC affiliate station, Channel 5, ran our story this evening. Note that the Commonwealth completely misled the reporter on the testing requirements. No guts to face what they do, I guess. I do want to thank Bianca de la Garza, the anchorwoman who did the story, and the camerman. Both were great with Hannah and did a wonderful job getting our story out.

WCVB Boston Channel 5 News Segment

A Headline That Says It All: "New testing standards devised for severely mentally impaired students"

The U. S. Department of Education has given "cognitively challenged" a whole new meaning, if you get my drift. The Spellings School Failure Enforcement Squad has come up with new demands in Florida to have children with IQs under 40 FCAT-ed each year and to have their scores figured into the failure rates:

Scores from this special assessment — designed for children classified by the state as profoundly mentally handicapped, among other disabilities — will likely count toward school grades in the 2009-10 school year.

So in fact these children, many of whom can't attend to their own bodily functions, will be tested in math and reading--and their scores will be added in to determine if the school is making AYP. Retardation, obviously, has no bounds--and I am not talking about these vicitimized children. From the Sun-Sentinel:

. . . federal authorities forced Florida education officials to develop the new alternate assessment this year for the students deemed unable to take the FCAT under any circumstance.

The U.S. Department of Education determined that the state's old measure was not sufficient for assessing students with severe cognitive disabilities at the lowest level of test taking, called participatory.

Participatory means that the student answers a question by gazing or pointing in the direction of a picture card, and the teacher records the answer. For example, a teacher holds up a picture of an American flag. Next, the teacher holds up picture cards of a tree, a star and a dog and asks the students to indicate which one is in the upper left corner of the flag.

State officials say the new assessment ensures that the performance of all students with disabilities will be included in whether a school meets the standard of Adequate Yearly Progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. If any students are left out of the assessment, schools face penalties. . . .

The only good part of this story is that, by 2009-2010, this abusive madness will be in the history books. If it is not, there is surely no way back.