I don't want to leave yesterday's post about the declining rate of mental retardation among African American students hanging out there with out some comment. First of all, I think the fact that the rate is declining, especially among misdiagnosed students, is of course a very good trend. But I admit to being very surprised that this was an identified problem at all. I know that I can be naive, even at my age ;), but after watching the School Board debate grade weighting, it's easy to think that our highly rated school system has to only make some minor adjustments to provide ALL of our children a world class education. Clearly, I wouldn't spend so much time here talking about special education if there weren't serious improvements that need to be made for this group of students. There is another advocacy group for minority student achievement, the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee. I am not a part of this committee, but support their efforts to improve achievement among the students that they are working with. But now I wonder if the SEAC (special ed advisory committee) and the MSAAC might not both benefit from a joint sub-committee. I know I want more data about the mental retardation rates stated in the goals. How old are these students? What were the conditions they did have if they were misdiagnosed? Is there data that also relates the rate to income level? Are the MR rates of white students from the same planning zones also increased? How did the rates come down? Have they identified nutrition, lead paint, lack of appropriate medical screening or some other potential cause? We need more information about this.
Principals
We are getting a new principal who is currently an assistant principal at a Leesburg school. Our current assistant principal is also leaving to become the principal at a small school in the county. So, we will have all new administrators when school begins in the fall. Will be interesting to see what changes are made.
Summer Programs
Talked to the OT this morning about summer activities for Little Dude - more cursive writing. Actually, I'm going to start with capital letters this summer as this is a specific area that needs practice. Bought a copy of the Type to Learn program that the resource teacher is using for keyboarding and we will continue this also. Going to sign him up for "math camp," which pretty much leaves writing content. Need a variety of methods for this to continue to be interesting over the summer. Most of all, I need to set up a schedule to accomplish this work that starts soon after school is out!
Principals
We are getting a new principal who is currently an assistant principal at a Leesburg school. Our current assistant principal is also leaving to become the principal at a small school in the county. So, we will have all new administrators when school begins in the fall. Will be interesting to see what changes are made.
Summer Programs
Talked to the OT this morning about summer activities for Little Dude - more cursive writing. Actually, I'm going to start with capital letters this summer as this is a specific area that needs practice. Bought a copy of the Type to Learn program that the resource teacher is using for keyboarding and we will continue this also. Going to sign him up for "math camp," which pretty much leaves writing content. Need a variety of methods for this to continue to be interesting over the summer. Most of all, I need to set up a schedule to accomplish this work that starts soon after school is out!
