 special education classrooms.
“Every child is being given the same materials at the same time,” said Oyler, who runs the Teachers College Inclusive Classrooms Project and directs the inclusive teacher education programs at the college. “The very essence of meeting the needs of children with disabilities is that learners need to be doing things at different times.”
During classroom observations, Oyler often finds teachers under the constant threat of scripted curricula, with every classroom expected to be on the same page, every day, no matter what.
“If you want students to be engaged in learning, they first have to feel successful at it,” said Oyler. “If a child has a third-grade reading level, they shouldn’t be given a sixth-grade book unless specific accommodations are carefully provided.”
Back in East Moriches, Charles Russo, who serves as both the district’s superintendent and also its elementary principal, advocates a balanced approach to the Common Core. Earlier this spring, only 10 percent of the district’s 750 students refused the statewide exams.
Russo has seen general education students—not just those with disabilities—bristle at the increased rigor.
“If we’re granting kids double time to take a test, why wouldn’t we grant them double time to learn the material?” asked Russo, referring to the testing accommodations many special education students receive when taking exams.
Russo views Papa’s classroom as a sort of Common Core laboratory. If he can show gains here, among seven of his most vulnerable students, the standards might work elsewhere.
Ultimately, he sees the success of the Common Core hinging on district-to-district rollout.
“We don’t have to have this all done this year,” Russo has said in faculty meetings. “I tell all of my teachers to adapt the work, to modify the work, to slow down. Get your students through it with fidelity and understanding and don’t worry if you don’t get it all done.”
Though he foresees special education students struggling with new material come testing time, he would much rather they tackle fewer areas in greater depth than speeding through an entire year’s curriculum.
In past years, as a former special educator, he saw students with disabilities achieving grades that weren’t reflective of grade-level work—with parents given a false sense of how their children performed.
“I’m OK with them being evaluated on work they’re supposed to achieve, but I’m not OK with forcing them through an assessment they’re not ready to take on,” he explained.
“If we see your kids hitting the wall of frustration, we’ll shut it down,” he said he has told parents. “But let’s give them a crack at the test. Even if it’s only 15 or 20 minutes. We don’t need 120 minutes of frustration and tears. It’s nothing but cruel.”