Here and Now: Education Issues

SPECIAL EDUCATION QUESTION
Would you please ask Superintendent Horne the following question:
The only school in AZ exclusively for the special education K-12 population is New Way Learning Academy in Scottsdale. Is Superintendent Horne aware that the school is in crisis and may not be operating next school year? Is there anything he can do to intervene?
Thank you.

Is Mr. Horne aware of the situation that has arisen over the past month at the New Way Learning Academy in Scottsdale, which is nationally renown for educating children with learning differences and disabilities? Is Mr. Horne aware that, due to recent decisions by the New Way Board of Directors, it appears that substantially all of the school's 120+ students and 30+ faculty will not be returning next year and that one of Arizona's premier educational institutions will apparently be destroyed? Has Mr. Horne heard from our spoken with any New Way faculty, parents, or supporters about all of this? Thanks.

The only school in AZ exclusively for the special education K-12 population is New Way Learning Academy in Scottsdale. Is Superintendent Horne aware that the school is in crisis and may not be operating next school year? Is there anything he can do to intervene?

There have been strong efforts to put in place a competency - type testing, in particular tests such as the AIMS test. That being said, what is the evidence that testing such as this is either a direct or indirect measure of academic ability?

How did this movement begin, and what are the factors continue driving this effor?

Thank you,

Paul Blackburn
Ahwatukee

I recently read that the Department of Education pays a felon convicted of embezzelemt and who never went to college over $140,000 a year for information technology services and is one of the highest paid employees of the Department. Can you please ask Tom Horne how he can justify such a high salary for this person when this money could be going to imrpoving our schools?

HI

I would like you to discuss were do you rank Public Education for childrend with disabilities. I have a 7 year old boy who is Autistic , I moved my son 4 times this year because of poor public education. Whats worst we ended up in Roosevelt district which is the worst of all. It is extremely hard to be a single parent and educate an autistic child and public schools dont help much i defenetly cant afford a private school. Is there any help for us? What is your intake on Public Special Ed.

Could you please ask Tom Horne if the Dept. of Ed. has ever considered making the lower grade AIMS tests high stakes as they are at the High School level? Wouldn't it make sense for students to pass at each step of the way and to remain in that grade if they cannot meet the standards on the AIMS? I have never understood why the high school is high stakes and the others are not. If a student cannot pass the 8th grade AIMS why should they be allowed to continue into high school. This puts undue pressure on high schools to play catch up in a very short amount of time. Retaining students is often the right thing to do, but is rarely done.

What is the admin to teacher ratio for Arizona?
I live in Tempe and there seems too many chiefs and not enough working teachers here.

I am a special education teacher and work also in regular education classrooms to support special education students. I like to teach but believe that the there are too many forces lined up against teachers to make it a career choice for anyone who is remotely concerned with their own self interests. The pay is poor; too many students are basically feral without any self control or parental regulation; and there is a general culture of ignorance that is accepted in the community.

I am curious on how the Spanish speaking students will be accommodated next year or the years to come. How will that effect the English speaking students, in the same classes?
Hearing about teaching children for 4 hours per day to speak English, how will that effect the other children in the classroom?

Please ask Superintendent Horne what sort of leadership he can offer to support teaching a wide variety of subjects to students. With NCLB and emphasis on testing, many school districts are decreasing time on everything that is not math, English or science. While this emphasis on testing is fantastic to help students who were not succeeding in academics, teaching only math, English & science is not the answer.

So I would not want to remove the testing, but we need funding and anything else leaders can provide to bring back the breadth of knowledge we will need for the future. We need students who can excel in music, world languages, art, etcetera.

2 comments, when I moved into the Roosevelt District as a child from California in the 70s the reading books where way behind and as a 3rd grader I was told that in California I was reading what was a 7th grade reading book here.

Last comment, my mother is a teacher in the Roosevelt district. When she has tried to keep underperforming children behind a grade, she was fought by parents and forced by her principal to advance them to the next grade. Those teachers in the next grade then had to deal with severely deficient children.

I appreciate the discussion of the role of librarians in learning. Arizona schools have experienced a gradual decrease in the number of qualified librarians who are available to work with children. This is an issue that the P-20 Commission should investigate. A recent article in the Republic cited research indicating that schools that have librarians have students who perform better!

We simply ran out of time, but I appreciate the excellent comments and questions.

Thanks!
Paul