[Blindtlk] Teachers' pay based on test scores

[T. Joseph Carter]

I don't know about those who teach the blind specifically, but it does
raise some questions about special education teachers in general.  If you
are a special education teacher, your students are performing below grade
level.  That's one of the major defining factors of special education as
defined and funded by the federal government.

A disability doesn't automatically qualify you for special education.
Only when that disability impedes academic performance does it become a
matter of special education.  Blindness certainly does, but these days the
child's reading, writing, and mathematics are typically taught in the
general education classroom unless the student has other disabilities
which warrant placement in special education for those core curriculum
areas.

Essentially, education in the skills of blindness becomes largely more
like a content area, and we don't test those.


I don't personally support this legislation because it seems like congress
is grasping at straws.  NCLB was fundamentally a good idea (though its
implementation has left a lot to be desired, in my opinion.)  This
legislation would, I believe, compound the problems without leading to a
solution.

The issue is, and at this point I am speaking of the general population,
not of blind students in particular, that fully half of our kids are
reading below grade level.  Fully half!  I don't have the statistics on
mathematics where I can get at them easily, but I suspect it's a similar
story there as well.

We have college students today who cannot read at the sixth grade level
and cannot solve n + 3 = 8 as easily as an eight year old.  This results
in congress concluding that something must be done.  This is something,
therefore it must be done.  Somehow, this syllogism doesn't quite work for
some reason.  *grin*

On Sun, Nov 04, 2007 at 02:01:08PM -0500, Eric Calhoun wrote:
> Hello everyone?
> 
> I am dead set against the proposal to pay teachers, based on test scores,
> with regard to the No Child Left Behind Act.  I feel it will harm teachers
> of the visually-impaired.  Are you for, or against, this bill before
> Congress?  Why or why not?
> 
> Eric