Including Students with Dyslexia in the State Accountability System: the Basic Legal Framework by Joanne Karger and Kathleen B
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Including Students with Dyslexia in the State Accountability System: The Basic Legal Framework by Joanne Karger and Kathleen B. Boundy cohesion created by two federal statutes has raised modified achievement standards, who are assessed using limit- A expectations and opportunities for students with disabili- ed assessment instruments or without appropriate accommoda- ties, including students with dyslexia, to learn to the same tions, and who do not graduate “on time” with their peers. standards set for all students. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), reauthorized and amended as Overview of the Legal Framework for Enhanced the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), created a frame- Accountability Under NCLB and IDEA work for enhanced State, district, and school-level accountabil- When NCLB was enacted in January 2002 to reauthorize ity for improved educational outcomes for all students. Title I/ and amend Title I of the ESEA (as originally enacted in 1965), it NCLB, in turn, provided a critical backdrop for the 2004 reau- expanded the assessment and accountability requirements that thorization and amendment of the Individuals with Disabilities accompanied the sweeping 1994 amendments to Title I. The Education Act (IDEA). These two statutes together have lifted 1994 amendments, adopted under the Improving America’s expectations for learning and have underscored the legally Schools Act (IASA) of 1994,1 had opened the door to the inclu- enforceable rights of students with disabilities to be effectively sion of all students in standards-based reform. NCLB went even taught by highly qualified teachers, to be provided an opportu- further by requiring States that receive funds under Title I, Part A nity to learn to the same high standards as their peers without to improve the quality of education for disadvantaged children. disabilities, and to be included in all State and district-wide Moreover, the statute holds all public elementary and secondary assessments. Protections provided under Section 504 of the schools and school districts (regardless of whether they receive Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and the Americans Title I, Part A monies) accountable for making sufficient, con- with Disabilities Act (ADA) and grounded in the Fourteenth tinuous improvement toward the goal of ensuring that all stu- Amendment of the U.S. Constitution also ensure that students dents reach “proficiency,” as defined by the State, by 2013-14.2 Today, all States receive federal funds under Title I/NCLB, and the system for assessing and reporting on school achievement Under NCLB, each State is required levels and for determining whether schools are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) must include all public schools within to adopt challenging academic content each State. As Congress expressly declared, the Act’s purpose is and achievement standards to be “to ensure that all children have a fair, equal and significant used by the State, its local educational opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achieve- agencies, and its schools. ment standards and state academic assessments.”3 Accordingly, students with disabilities enrolled in publicly funded education programs, including students with dyslexia, with disabilities are not subject to discriminatory policies and must, as all other public school students, be included in their practices. Rather, these students must be provided meaningful respective State accountability systems. Each State recipient of opportunities to learn the knowledge and skills necessary to funds under NCLB is required to establish a single statewide attain proficiency on their respective State standards; full and system of accountability designed to reduce the achievement fair opportunities to demonstrate their level of mastery of State gap between higher and lower achieving students, including standards through participation in appropriate assessments students with disabilities in need of special education under used to improve their instruction and learning; and equal IDEA. The mandated State accountability system is comprised opportunities to be counted in the publicly reported data sys- of a) State adopted academic content standards and academic tem that is used to hold schools, districts, and States account- achievement standards in, at a minimum, mathematics, read- able for the academic performance of all students. ing/English language arts, and science; b) a system of assess- This article will address the panoply of legal rights and pro- ments using multiple measures and aligned with the State aca- tections associated with the inclusion of students with dyslexia demic standards; and c) publicly reported data of progress by in the State accountability system. Participation in this system is students in meeting annual measurable outcomes (AMOs) for critical to ensure that students with dyslexia are effectively each State, local school district, and school. The latter is to be taught a rigorous curriculum and learn to proficient and disaggregated by certain groups—race/ethnicity, limited English advanced standards. This article lays the foundation for the other proficiency, migrant status, economic disadvantage, and dis- articles in this issue, including “Special Issues Affecting Inclusion ability as defined by IDEA.4 Disaggregating the data makes it of Students with Dyslexia in Statewide Assessments and Their possible to identify what portion of each subgroup of students Implications,” which discusses the legal implications for stu- assessed is proficient and where more attention is needed. dents with dyslexia who are assessed, and thus taught, based on Continued on page 12 The International Dyslexia Association Perspectives on Language and Literacy Fall 2008 11 Including Students with Dyslexia in the State Accountability System continued from page 11 Moreover, disaggregation helps ensure that all students attain law, States are required to adopt academic standards for all AYP or enough continuous improved progress to attain their public elementary and secondary school children in at least respective State’s defined goal of “proficiency” by 2013-14. mathematics, reading or language arts, and science, which Congress, in reauthorizing and amending IDEA in 2004 must include the same knowledge, skills, and levels of achieve- (IDEA 2004), added new findings and amended the purpose of ment expected of all children.10 For other subject areas for the Act to connect implicitly and expressly with Title I/NCLB.5 which standards are not statutorily required and have not been For example, new findings acknowledge that the education of developed, the State must have a strategy for ensuring that stu- students with disabilities is more effective by having “high dents with disabilities, including students with dyslexia, “are expectations” for these students and by taught the same knowledge and skills in such subjects and held ensuring their access to the general education curricu- to the same expectations as are all children.”11 This latter provi- lum in the regular classroom, to the maximum extent sion, as Section 504, which ensures that “otherwise qualified possible in order to… meet developmental goals and, persons” receive comparable aids, benefits, and services,12 to the maximum extent possible, the challenging protects students with disabilities from being denied learning expectations that have been established for all chil- opportunities by being channeled into different courses and dren; and … [by] coordinating this title with other curricula based solely on disability. local, educational service agency, State and Federal IDEA was enacted under the Fourteenth Amendment to school improvement efforts, including improvement protect from discrimination children with disabilities who were efforts under the Elementary and Secondary Education subjected to a history of mistreatment, abuse, and exclusion. Act of 1965, in order to ensure that such children The statute was also passed pursuant to the Spending Clause of benefit from such efforts and that special education the Tenth Amendment, which means that States accepting fed- can become a service…rather than a place…6 eral monies under IDEA must comply with the substantive and Other statutory changes that were introduced (discussed procedural requirements of the statute. These requirements below) further aligned IDEA with NCLB by ensuring that include providing all eligible children with disabilities with a students with disabilities fully participate in the State account- free appropriate public education (FAPE), defined by the statute ability system through access to the general curriculum aligned as special education and related services without cost to the to State standards adopted consistent with NCLB, through man- parent that meet the standards of the State educational agency datory inclusion in all aspects of State and district-wide assess- and are consistent with the student’s individualized education ments, with accommodations as necessary, and through public program (IEP).13 The U.S. Department of Education’s imple- reporting of disaggregated results. menting regulations define “special education” as “specially designed instruction,” which involves “adapting, as appropriate Specific Components of the Legal Framework to the needs of an eligible child… the content, methodology, or for Enhanced Accountability delivery of instruction… to ensure access of the child to