How teachers and the government are hurting our special needs children.

New possible topic: why all teachers need to be taught how to educate and motivate
special education children

Goal:​ To inform people about the struggle that people with special needs go through and how
they’re constantly being left behind. (Don't know what area I’ll focus on.)

Intended audience:​ school aged children. School district people. Government people.
Secondary audience: people with resources to put money into the special education system.

Context and background info:​ ​The declining share, now 38 percent, has coincided with a
sharp spike in the number of students identified with a disability. The 1.3 percent growth
in the total number of students in the state since 2005 has been sharply outpaced by
the 11 percent rise in the percentage of students with disabilities.

Links:
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1154&context=ejie
(differentiated instruction. Peer mediated teaching.) (educating students with learning disabilities
in an inclusive classroom)

https://edsource.org/2018/special-education-funding-is-a-morass-straightening-it-out-may-not-b
e-cheap-or-easy/594336​ (funding cut for special education schools and programs)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/hechingerreport.org/low-academic-expectations-poor-support-sp
ecial-education-students-hurting-future/amp/​ (given low expectations and set up to fail) (Low
Academic Expectations and Poor Support for Special Education Students are ‘Hurting our
Future’)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/cehdvision2020.umn.edu/blog/high-expectations-special-educati
on/amp/​ (how high expectations can better people with special needs.)

https://cehdvision2020.umn.edu/blog/high-expectations-special-education/​ (the power of high

expectations for african american students

https://hechingerreport.org/low-academic-expectations-poor-support-special-ed
ucation-students-hurting-future/​ “Now his teacher had so little faith in his ability
to learn that she was offering to help him cheat.”​ (Low academic expectations and
poor support for special education students are ‘hurting their future’)

Back up:
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/lad/article/download/20698/26752/​ (are academic
struggles the cause of a learning disability and laziness) (teacher expectations discourage
students)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/399455/​ (teachers trying to

keep them with the classroom. Having low expectations.)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797614538978?utm_source=summon&utm_
medium=discovery-provider&

Model:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/02/18/how-special-education-is-prime-exampl
e-our-unhealthy-obsession-with-conformity/​ (​How special education is a prime example of
our unhealthy ‘obsession with conformity)

“But after handing out the exams, Nelson’s teacher made a shocking announcement to the
class of students with disabilities: She would give them all the answers.”

Mark Nelson poses for a photo at Citrus College in Glendora, California.

This is a snippet of a journal about a special education student, Mark Nelson, who faces
nothing but low expectations from his teachers. And this is just one of the many ways that
teachers are hurting our students.

For years, I’ve grown up not even knowing exactly what special education was. I always thought
that it was just a group of kids who were struggling who were taken out of class a few days a
week for about an hour to get 1-on-1 tutoring. Or at least that’s what it has come to. But, what
are they supposed to do once they come back and are thrown back into the chaotic classroom
filled with teachers and students who don’t know how to meet their learning needs.

Personally, I’ve seen classmates and friends lose hope and motivation in themselves because
no one else believed in them. They usually just got reduced to class clowns or just being
incapable of learning and retaining information by their peers and teachers. When, in reality,
they just weren’t being taught the way they needed to be taught and they weren’t given the
same expectations their so called “more competent” peers were getting.

However, we can’t put all of the blame on degrading teachers, we have to also look at how or
why these teachers weren’t trained to educate and deal with these types of students in the first
place. Thus the reason why many of these children lose motivation, are often left behind or end
up dropping out, and have a hard time paying attention in class.

Some people may see nothing wrong with the fact that a teacher is giving them the answers to
make sure they succeed. But, teachers often times do this, not to make sure their students
succeed, but to ​make sure that they succeed as teachers​.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act , any school that didn’t test at least 95 percent of its
students and have a certain amount of students pass will face severe sanctions, such as staff
dismissals.

So, in order for them not to get fired and labeled as a bad teacher, they ENSURE that ALL
students (including the ones who don’t actually know what they’re doing) will pass without being
taught the material.

There are several ways a teacher could incorporate special education students and make them
feel like they are actually a part of the class:

Inclusive learning​:
Differential instruction​: Using other things such as videos, group work, lectures, 1 on 1 peer
teaching, etc to help meet the needs of all students who learn in different ways. Some students
can’t and won’t learn from just listening to a teacher talk all day. Some may need videos or
hands on examples in order to learn.
Peer mediated teaching​: Having students teach and learn from one another because students
are most times more willing to learn from another than from an adult figure.

As written in a study by Indiana University, labeling a student with disabilities can often alter the
teachers perceptions of the student. Students who require special education are often looked at
as lesser and teachers automatically have lower expectations for them. But, based on school
district goals and regulations, there shouldn’t be too many failing students in a class or if ruins
the bell curve and there should be no child left behind.