Search Results for: blog the no child left behind act and special education

Voting for Homeschooling in the Presidential Elections

I am reluctantly writing this to address some questions recently posed to me about homeschooling and various candidates’ positions. My disclaimer is that I haven’t read every single piece of paper, every speech, nor have I reviewed every voting record out there. Which candidate do you think is most against homeschooling? Hillary Clinton, hands down is most opposed to homeschooling. She supports school choice, universal preschool and a slew of other legislation that could stand in direct opposition to homeschooling. On a side note, I have actually met her, and she feels strongly that homeschoolers should have more oversight at … Continue reading →

Reasons Why Students May Have Personal Assistants

I previously discussed the services provided to students by the public school system. In this discussion, I addressed the fact that some students receive special services from the faculty and staff of a school. Included in these services is a personal assistant for some students. In most cases, people think of special services for students who are challenged academically. While those students do receive the help that they need. Other students can also receive special services. There are several reasons why a student may have a personal assistant. By personal assistant, I mean a staff member that stays with the … Continue reading →

Personal Assistants for Students

The public school system provides many services for its students. Some of these services are academic related and some are not. Some services provided by the public school system are home related. Others are health related. The public schools can provide free lunch for students, hearing and vision exams, and in some cases even medication. In addition to having different services in the public school system, there are also different levels of students. Some students are in a regular classroom and receive a regular education. Other students receive what we normally call “special services”. In most cases, people think of … Continue reading →

“Hey Mom, I LIKE Gifted School!”

My eight-year-old son has embarked on his new journey into the gifted “spectrum” program in our school district. At first, he was very reluctant. He has several good friends who live within walking distance of our home who he liked to play with at school. Leaving those buddies behind was a little hard to face. “I don’t think I want to go to gifted school,” he said. Several readers urged me to have him attend anyway, because of the marvelous educational opportunity he had been given. Finally, somewhat hesitantly, he determined to give it a try. One drawback has been … Continue reading →

A Response to the NEA’s 2007-2008 Homeschooling Resolution

The NEA, for those of you who don’t know, is the National Education Association. And every year, they pass a set of resolutions as the ’experts’ in education. To be fair, this is one itsy bitsy tiny piece of their entire resolution. In short, they are against home schooling and always have been. They are so against home schooling in fact, that they’re willing to tout an article, written by a janitor, as good reasons not to home educate their child. But I digress. Below is this year’s resolution, and my response. B-75. Home Schooling The National Education Association believes … Continue reading →

Blue Diamond Breaks Record Sales – I Hope It Ain’t the Hope!

I saw on Yahoo today that a rare blue diamond was sold for $7.98 million in Hong Kong, setting a new record as the most expensive gemstone per carat. I saw “blue diamond” and immediately thought of the infamous Hope Diamond. If you haven’t heard about the Hope Diamond curse, let me tell you about it. The Hope Diamond is 45.52 carats of beautiful blue diamond. The blue color is derived due to traces of boron within the diamond. Now I love diamonds as much as the next girl, but the Hope Diamond is one you probably don’t want to … Continue reading →

Keeping Good Teachers

In a previous article, I discussed the challenges of finding and keeping experienced and skilled teachers. Some states are beginning to track teacher performance by examining student gains. While tracking the gains of students from one year to the next can help administrators and school leaders see which teachers are possibly more effective, it too has it downfalls. States should never solely place a teacher’s creditably and worth into student gains on a state test. There are some factors that a teacher just cannot control. Class size and student economics are a couple. One of the problems is that the … Continue reading →

NCLB Highly Qualified Provision is Challenged

Common sense and research alike tells us that students perform better and have more academic success when they have an experienced, highly skilled and knowledgeable teacher. It is also a well known truth that schools with large ratios of minority students and/or low income students have a difficult time getting and keeping the teachers that they need. Determining how to get and keep skilled, experienced, good teachers is not an easy task. Many groups have different views on how this should be accomplished. Some believe that the teachers with high performance ratings should be paid more. Others feel that a … Continue reading →

Washington D.C. Rethinks Special Education Program

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Meeting the needs of special education students seems to be a concern in just about every school district I come in contact with. Washington D.C. is no exception. The D.C. Council is in search of a new way to reconstruct its special education program. The cost of the special education program in Washington D.C. is depleting the education funds. D.C.’s special education budget is well out of range with that of the national average. The overall special education enrollment in Washington D.C. is only five percent higher than the national average of 15 percent, however the budget is much more … Continue reading →

Educating Twice-Exceptional Students

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Since the No Child Left Behind act five years ago, there has been much talk about various groups of children being “left behind”. As society and as educators, we group children into categories by learning abilities, race, economical status, gender, and so on. We then examine the different groups and track to see which groups are succeeding or falling behind. The latest group of children to be evaluated is a group that I never had really thought about. This group is the twice-exceptional students. They are high-ability children with learning disabilities or differences. These children are academically gifted but also … Continue reading →