In a letter addressed to United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, GOP Senators from the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Lamar Alexander, Mike Enzi, Richard Burr, Johnny Isakson, Orrin Hatch, Pat Roberts, Lisa Murkowski and Mark Kirk have accused the US DOE of breaking the law when it comes to special education determinations being based on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) testing and making changes to IDEA without legislative approval. The letter was dated August 4th, 2014.
“The changes spelled out in your “Results-Driven Accountability” framework clearly amount to Federal influence on the standards and assessments states and school districts use to direct the educational program of students with disabilities and would give the Federal Government authority to use student proficiency as measured by the NAEP to evaluate and either reward or sanction school districts. This is clear influence and coercion, if not direct control. It is troubling that the Department made unilateral changes to the IDEA compliance framework without seeking legislative approval, disregarded Congressional intent, and appears to have violated the clear letter of the law.”
The Senators also said the authorizing statute for NAEP states “Any assessment authorized under this section shall not be used by an agent or agents of the Federal Government to establish, require or influence the standards, assessments, curriculum, including lesson plans, textbooks, or classroom materials, or instructional practices of States or local education agencies.”
Does this invalidate OSEP’s ruling against Delaware, Texas, California and Washington D.C.? Special Education has now become a Federal intrusion into public school districts. I hope this issue becomes much bigger, and can also be used as another reason why standardized testing and common core just don’t work for students with special needs. Someone needs to hold Arne Duncan and his wild bunch over at the US DOE accountable.
Thanks to Education Week for supplying the link to the letter: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/Secretary%20Duncan%20Letter%208.4.14.pdf
The Season Of Myths 
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
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BAM! I don’t think Arne Duncan has even read IDEA sometimes.
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I certainly hope some Democrats join in on this. Duncan’s DoEd needs some serious oversight.
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Someone needs to do something, because this has passed the point of absurdity. When you mix Common Core, standardized testing, rigor, and special education, the special needs children are the ones who will suffer the most.
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Not only are the test the stupidest for special needs children, that are also stupid for any student.
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Common Core is a way to dumb down our children while inoculating them into accepting socialism. Oh, and making Bill Gates billions as he has the contract to supply ALL hardware and software needed for testing our children.
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Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
Yesterday I spoke with a staffer named Bill Knutson with the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to get an update on this. Apparently, Arne Duncan and the US DOE have not given an official response, nearly three months later. Knutson explained this is all too common, especially with the US DOE. He reached out to them a couple days ago when I left a message for him about this, and they conveyed they should have a response some time in November. Stay tuned for more details on this! Meanwhile, the very things Duncan and the US DOE were accused of are being implemented in many states around our country…
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