Tougher TAKS on tap in special ed

Students across state are taking exams today as Texas awaits feds' OK of revisions
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

www.tea.state.tx.us/.

Thousands of special-education students will be asked to take a tougher version of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills when testing season begins statewide today.
The modified test, which could be taken by as many as 100,000 students, will feature simpler vocabulary, fewer answer choices and larger print.
It will, however, cover grade-level curriculum. In past years, some special-education students took TAKS tests several grade levels below the grade to which they were assigned.
"It raises the bar for our children with special needs," said Nadine Fidler, assistant superintendent of educational support services in the Cypress-Fairbanks school district. "Our children need to be challenged with everyone else, and they need to be part of the whole system."
A concern that Fidler and other educators share is the short turnaround time in Texas' introduction of the TAKS-modified test, which was created hurriedly after the federal government decided the previous exam, the State-Determined Alternative Assessment, didn't comply with the No Child Left Behind law.
Even as students sit for the test today, the U.S. Department of Education has yet to sign off on it.
Texas officials are optimistic that they will receive approval.
Results will count in the federal accountability system, but not yet in the state system.
Many school districts' federal ratings may take a hit this year because of the harder test, said Cari Wieland, director of special education assessment for the Texas Education Agency.
"What's hard is, right now, the assessment expectations are established and the instruction expectations haven't quite caught up," she said.
"No one's denying that we're in a learning curve."
The test was approved in such a hurry that state officials haven't yet set the passing standard.
Educators will decide those this summer, Wieland said.
But districts aren't just measured on student performance on this exam.
The number of students who take the test also is capped at 2 percent of their district's test-takers, a limit designed to make sure schools don't assign low-performing regular-education students to the exam.
Another 1 percent of the students can be assigned to an alternative test designed for the most severe special-education students. That exam, field-tested last year, will count in federal ratings for the first time this year.
Beyond the percentage caps, any students who pass the test will be counted as having failed.
"The principle behind having higher standards for special-needs students is sound," said Retta Cook, director of special programs for the Pearland school district. "However, the expectation that 97 percent of the students take and pass the 'on-grade level assessments' may be somewhat unrealistic for those students with disabilities who perform significantly below their assigned grade level."
A matter of ratingsThe tests are not considered high-stakes for special-education students, but they count in school and district ratings.
Some educators worry that special-ed students may be demoralized by being asked to pass a test that's too hard.
Katy parent Dawn Resch said she's glad Texas offers an array of tests — including more grade-level measures — for special-education students. She said she didn't know the modified test was an option for her 18-year-old son Stephen, who has Asperger syndrome, until she stumbled on the information on the TEA Web site.
She's worried that some districts aren't telling parents that the tests are an option because they're worried about exceeding the caps.
"I think it's great, if the schools will let the parents know about it," she said. "They have to think out of the box, and there's going to have to be changes, I'm sure, to help meet some of the individual needs."
jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com