End of the School Year Blues: To Pass or Not to Pass? That is the Question.

The school year is winding down. I entered my final grades on the computer today. As a teacher, no matter how hardened you think you have become, you always agonize over the grades. Was the kid actually trying? Will he or she benefit from summer school? Should you fail a borderline kid who was a jerk and wasn't really trying, but actually knows more than some of the kids who are busting their butts? What criteria do you use with special education students, those with IEPs (Individual Education Plans)?

Within the general heading of Special Education there are a great many labels that are applied to kids. The most common is LD (Learning Disabled). Theoretically these kids have some disability that can be overcome by the IEP and the child can then achieve at the same level as kids in general education. In reality, LD is a dumping ground for kids that we used to call "dumb." Very few of them actually achieve anywhere near the level of general ed kids. There are levels of disability in this class, LD1, LD2, LD3, etc. that tell you the degree of severity of the disability. If you're paying attention, it tells you how low the IQ goes, that is to say it goes lower with the rise in numbers attached to the LD label.

When you get beyond the LD label, you get to EMH (Educable Mentally Handicapped). This is what once was referred to as "mildly retarded." Then you have TMH (Trainable Mentally Handicapped). I think that is more or less self-explanatory. These kids will need care of some sort or other. They can be trained to dress themselves and brush their teeth and bathe, but little else. They have a severe mental handicap.

Of course the really frustrating kids are the ones labeled ED/BD (Emotional Disability/ Behavioral Disorder). Lots of these kids are actually pretty smart, but they can't learn anything for cursing out and threatening teachers all the time, having constant fits of temper, and generally disrupting the entire learning process for themselves and everybody around them. A real barrel of fun these kids are. Think it ever occurred to anyone to put these kids in a structured environment where they don't destroy everyone around them's learning experience? Nah, too expensive. Put them in the regular classroom with everybody else and expect teachers to deal with it. A real barrel of monkeys.

At one time special education students were segregated in small classrooms and teachers who specialized in certain kinds of disabilities taught them, based on their abilities and lack thereof. Then lawsuits from parents who didn't like having their children ostracized changed all of that. Along came "total inclusion" in the classroom. So as not to discriminate against any student, no matter the ability, every student of every level began to be included in the regular classroom. Teachers now had to balance their time between students who are gifted and learn at a rapid pace, students who are average, students who learn at a very slow pace and have difficulty with academics, and the odd kid in the corner swearing at the top of his or her lungs and trying to start a fight. As a result, the teachers are torn every which way and often no one's needs are met.

There are a great many people who think that because a child is labeled Special Ed they cannot be failed, no matter what. So many people believe this that a great many special education students are passed along year after year with no effort whatsoever. They learn that they cannot be failed so they fail to attempt to pass. Doesn't matter. They'll pass anyway. What I have learned over the years is that this is a false assumption. All students must show up for class. All students must attempt the work that is being assigned. Certain accommodations must be made for Special Education students, but they still have to try. Document the lack thereof and they can be failed.

I was one of a group of teachers who were chosen to go to a meeting with the Assistant Secretary of Education (from Washington D.C.) last week. One special education teacher mentioned in passing that special education students cannot be failed, and the Asst. Secretary of Education was thoroughly baffled. "Why would you do that? You're certainly not preparing them for the future. You're sending entirely the wrong message." Well of course you are. When you do that, you graduate kids from high school with no skills, or ability to cope with the realities of the adult world. After school, there are no special ed labels, no accommodations, no IEPs. Do the job or fail and get fired.

Let's face it. A lot of these kids are not going to graduate from a 4 year college. A lot of these kids need basic math and reading skills, not British Literature and Advanced Algebra. A lot of these kids need vocational training for a job that will pay the bills, not an unrealistic belief that they are going to become a degreed professional. Our schools need serious revamping. Do we have to wait for the parents of the advanced students to get litigious because their kids' needs are not being met while they are sharing classrooms with kids who do not have the ability or are unmotivated or both?

There are a lot of do-gooders out there who think it is a disservice to track kids according to ability. Based on a lot of years spent in real classrooms where kids of all levels are mixed in, I think we are doing all of them a disservice by expecting them to suffer through "total inclusion." Get real people. A teacher cannot give a gifted child what they need while at the same time providing for the needs of a child who can barely read, and while trying to control the negative and disruptive behaviors of an emotionally disabled child. This is not "no child left behind." This is all children lagging behind except those who get lucky and are removed to a school that actually segregates by ability. This is the result of a lot of well-intentioned, but pretty ill-informed adults trying their best to do right by every child, and in the process doing right by none of them.

So who passes this semester anyway? What are my criteria? For whom should I fudge that criteria? How far should I fudge it? Awww heck, pass them all, right? Wrong!