s, with 15 general education students and seven special education students, completed the first of four English segments in October. Meanwhile, Papa’s self-contained class, with a month of school left to go, was still on the first segment and only one-quarter of the way to the finish line. At the end of the year, some of Papa’s students were tested while others opted out of taking the tests.
In and Out of Classes with Peers
Mary Herrle has twin 10-year-old sons, Paul and Philip. Paul has autism. Philip has Asperger’s syndrome.
Herrle lives in Saint James, about 40 miles from East Moriches. Her husband works as a carpenter; she stays busy looking after the couple’s four children.
Paul attends Ascent: A School for Individuals with Autism in Deer Park, N.Y. alongside 25 children with severe cognitive impairments. After Paul turned two, Herrle noticed that Philip also wasn’t meeting many of his developmental milestones. Philip later received a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, a higher-functioning form of autism.
Since kindergarten, Philip has bounced between self-contained and inclusion classrooms, depending on the year. By the time the Common Core came to Saint James Elementary School in September 2012, Philip was in a fourth-grade inclusion classroom. Five of his classmates had Individualized Education Programs, or I.E.P.s, a requirement for children receiving special-education services.
Philip thrives on repetition, particularly in math. In third grade, he scored a 3 in math (4 is the highest possible score). Then everything changed.
“Suddenly, in fourth grade, they’re giving him math he’s never seen before in his life,” said Herrle.
After failing all subjects, Philip repeated the fourth grade. Looking ahead to fifth-grade math, Herrle saw a curriculum way above her son’s skill level. Come September, Philip will be back in a self-contained classroom, where Herrle hopes he will finally receive the individualized attention he so badly needs.
“I have no problem exposing him to higher standards and to more intense rigor, but if you’re going to teach kindergarten to fourth grade one way, you’re going to have to go back and reteach the other methodologies before diving in at fifth grade with a whole new approach,” said Herrle.
As for self-contained classrooms, Herrle doesn’t believe segregating special education students from their general education peers is the answer, either. Federal law requires schools to educate students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, or exposing special-needs children to their non-disabled peers as much as possible.
“It’s a huge step back for him, but he isn’t getting the proper scaffolding in his current classroom,” said Herrle. “We’re overhauling the plane in mid-air. My son doesn’t fit into this one-size-fits-all model, so what are we going to do with him?”
Looking ahead, Herrle worries that large numbers of students with disabilities won’t graduate. During a recent school board meeting, she asked administrators to reevaluate the Common Core’s impact on special education students. “If my son, who is more than capable of being a producer in our economy, doesn’t get a high school diploma, he will be receiving services, with your children footing that bill. It will bankrupt our economy, when all of these children can’t support themselves.”
Across New York State, many parents were stunned by last summer’s release of the first test scores aligned to the Common Core. Among students in grades three to eight, only around 30 percent demonstrated proficiency in English and math. Children with disabilities fared worse. Statewide, just 5 percent of students with disabilities were proficient in English, with 7 percent proficient in math.
On Long Island, which has 124 school districts,more than 20,000 students did not take this spring’s English and math exams. Though entire districts can’t opt out of state-mandated testing, individual parents can sign waivers allowing their children to refuse the exams.
Parents in districts separated by only a few suburban streets reacted very differently t