The House is on Fire. Whom do you call?

 The House is on fire.  Whom do you call?

The reading scores of US high school seniors are the lowest they have been in three decades according to the results of new federal testing.  Math scores aren’t that much better; they are the lowest they have been since 2005.  These are the results of the National Assessment of Education Progress or the NAEP.  These assessments are generally considered to be harder than the various state assessments and are the gold standard for reliability.

Based on the results, about one-third of the kids tested did not have basic reading skills. Basic reading is considered 5th grade.  These are HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS!  It was no better in math.  Nearly HALF of the kids scored below the basic level so that means they have not mastered skills like using percentages.

These results are a stark decline from recent years.  So, who or what is to blame?  As in most questions, depends on whom you ask.   Experts say that the year(s) of online teaching during COVID is at fault.  Yet the percentage of kids in the 90^th percentile (meaning they scored better than 90% of the kids taking the test) has not changed.  So why weren’t they impacted by online instruction? 

One explanation is that over the last decade, kids and adults just aren’t reading because faces are in screens.   Yet companies like Barnes & Noble are doing well and expanding.  For 2025, the sale of print books has gone down .9%, so less than 1%.  Other reasons offered are that red states are putting money into private school vouchers and public schools are losing out.  Blue states are focused on social supports like nutrition and counseling and not on academic improvement.  Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, says the scores are terrible and are the result of the Dept. of Education spending money that should be going to the states.  But, the Department of Education is sending its money to the states.

The achievement declines cut across all demographic divides of race, class and gender.  Our kids aren’t achieving at basic levels in math or reading.  What does that promise for the country’s workforce and the ability of citizen to make informed decisions?

Margaret Spelling, who served as education secretary under President George W. Bush and now leads the Bipartisan Policy Center, said declining achievement is “an economic emergency that threatens our work force and national competitiveness”.  She believes they are a reflection of Trump’s priorities.  “This is not the right moment to talks about closing the Department of Education.  When your house is on fire, you don’t talk about making renovations.”

 

Who is writing that INDIVIDUAL IEP

Who is Writing That Individual IEP?

Children receiving special education services are entitled to an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP).  These plans are individual to the student are supposedly written by the student’s teacher.  However, that “ain’t necessarily so”.  In 2024-25, 57% of special education teachers acknowledged they used AI to write IEP’s.

It is not clear if the use of AI to write an IEP is legal under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).  The statute requires that IEP’s be unique and individual to the child.   Additionally, there are issues with the Family Educational  Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), particularly if freely available tools like ChatGPT are used.  The Center for Democracy & Technology raises concerns about accuracy, bias and other issues with information generated through AI.

Advocates acknowledge the tools save time which is always crucial for teachers.  But on the negative side, the use easily leads to the denial of individual needs of the student.  Most experts believe the use of AI in writing IEP’s is much greater than teachers are admitting to in surveys.

There are two values at the very center of IDEA.  The first is requirement that every child with a disability receives a free and appropriate education. The second fundamental value is that the education be individual to that child’s special needs. That appropriate education is defined by the IEP and is a contract for service to the child.  If the “I” in IEP is lost to technology, where does that leave the fundamental value of an individualized program.   The anniversary of the first Ford Motor Company assembly line recently occurred.  Is AI taking us to assembly line “individualized” instruction?  Who is writing that IEP, a teacher who knows the child or a machine that knows the programmer? 

What's Going on in Public Schools

 What’s Going on in Public Schools?

Remember the great idea to have kids with disabilities placed in classes with general ed kids and with general ed teachers who were not trained to teach learners with challenges?  Well, all does not seem to be going well.  Two families in Prince George’s County are suing the County, claiming that their 1^stgraders, nonverbal with autism were bound to chairs with bungee cords.  One might begin by asking why non-verbal 1^st graders with autism were in a general ed class even with a dedicated 1:1 but that is a different story.   The school principal called the parents to inform them of the situation.  Child Protective Services was involved and the teacher was placed on paid administrative leave until the situation is resolved.  Parents aren’t satisfied with that solution and have filed suit.

The Individual Education Plan (IEP), required by State and federal law, is a contract for services between the family and the school district.  Some children require a 1:1 aide to access the general ed curriculum.

In Prince George’s County 434 children required such an aid.  But only 354 students actually had one.  That meant 80 children who required these services didn’t have them.  Prince George’s County says it has raised salaries (from the minimum wage) and even offered benefits in an attempt to fill vacancies.  These folks often have no higher education, yet alone training in managing kids with disabilities.  When better paying opportunities come along, they leave.  Can't blame them. 

In much praised Howard County, a special education paraeducator (read aide) has been arrested for having sex in his car with a 15-year old.  They met through a dating app.  The activities did not occur within the school.  The staff member has been placed on paid administrative leave while allegations are investigated.  Before being hired as a full-time aide, the staff member substituted at a number of Howard County schools.  Detectives are asking for information from the community of any other victims.

Public school systems in Maryland, by their very nature, are big and difficult to manage.  Looks like administrators need to work harder to keep track of wayward staff.

 

Taking Advice from Fools

 Taking Advice from Fools

Lately we have been advised by fools on both the causes of autism and ways to cure it once it has been diagnosed.

First Secretary of Health and Human Services and the President of the United States have advised that the cause of autism is acetaminophen, marketed mostly as Tylenol.  They advised that women who are pregnant should not take this fever and pain reducing drug.   Perhaps, instead, the women should bear the infection and the fever and let the fetus struggle along.  The there are the troublesome facts which these fools chose to ignore.  Autism was first identified in 1903 by Jean Pierre in France.  He noted certain behaviors in some children.  In 1943, psychiatrist Leo Kanner noted behaviors of babies that he defined as infantile autism.  One of the causes he cited, was what he called “refrigerator mothers”, mothers who were “cold” and didn’t give their babies enough affection.  Never mind that one of his own children had these characteristics.  (Got to be glad you weren’t married to this guy.).   However, Tylenol did not come along until 1955, a full 12 years AFTER, autism was identified in the U.S.  No, the folks touting Tylenol as the cause of autism offered no explanation.  AND, research has NOT linked Tylenol to autism.

Now that we have advanced the wrong reason for what causes autism, let’s move on to the wrong ways to treat it.  The American Academy of Pediatrics said that it does NOT recommend the use of leucovorin with kids on the autism spectrum because there is very limited research evidence to support its use.   How quaint is that?  Using solid research before making a recommendation.  But that hurdle doesn’t stop Health and Human services from making its recommendations.  It is their intent to authorize the use of the drug for kids on the autism spectrum.  Oddly, the Academy of Pediatrics believes that the use of a drug for, any condition, be thoroughly examined and researched before recommending its use and proper dosage.

The people making these recommendations that are not backed by research are neither physicians nor medical researchers.  They are just folks with opinions that happen to be foolish.  But not as foolish as the people who would believe them. 

Good bye Office of Special Ed

 The Prez decimates the Office of Special Ed

Fifty years ago, President Ford signed the Education of All Handicapped Children Act.   In 2004, that became the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) signed by George W. Bush.  Twenty-one years after that, Donald Trump gutted the office at the federal level that was set up to enforce that federal law.  For five decades, OSERS (Office of Special Education and Rehab Services) has protected the rights of kids with disabilities under the 50-year old law.   Now, no more.

There are 7.5 million kids in our country who have disabilities.   If you begin to chip away at their rights, if you begin to turn back the clock FIFTY YEARS, you are hurting all of us.  When you chip away our rights, you also chip away at our moral obligations to those children.  

The federal law is implemented by the individual states.  States voluntarily signed on to participating in the law.  Every state has.  In turn, they receive funds to implement the law.  It’s not a great deal of money, roughly 7% of the cost of educating a child with a disability.  The other major role of the OSERS is to monitor the implementation of the law by the states.  Each state is required to set up a due process system so that families who feel their local school district is not acting with fidelity in providing that free and appropriate education have a venue to appeal.  The role of the feds has been to make sure that the states are doing their job in an unbiased manner.  Now there is no one watching the hen house.  

We are told the money will still be distributed.  So far there has been no notice of how or when.  Who will monitor how that money is used after if it is  distributed?   And right now we don't know if or when.  Who will care about the 7.5 million kids whose President seems to have forgotten all about them?

Kids really don't count

 Kids don’t count

A few weeks ago, a teenaged girl who was in protective care with the Baltimore City department of Child Protective Services (CPS) was found dead in a hotel room.   She was in what has been called 1:1 foster care.  Supposedly there was a caregiver with her in the private hotel room.  The Coroner declared her death a suicide.   Her previous foster parents are suing the City for failure to provide care for her.  She was in this so-called specialized care because the foster parents couldn’t provide the care she needed.  Previous to going into foster care she lived with her mother and grandmother.  In discussing the child’s death, no mention was made of why she was taken from her mother and grandmother and placed in foster care.  There was also no mention of why the girl was taken away from the foster parents.  Who now seek to profit financially from her death.

There is a great deal we do not know.  What we can easily surmise is that this child had significant problems that led her to being taken from her family members, placed in foster care and then taken from those people and housed in a hotel room all alone.  Basic psychology tells us that every child needs someone to give them unconditional love.  One cannot help but wonder, did this child ever have any love at all.

As a society we treat children very poorly.  We talk a good game about how important children are and how we need to protect them.  But when it comes right down to it – we just don’t!   Teachers are among the people who are mandated reporters under the law.  What that means is that if a teacher hears of a child’s mistreatment in any way, that teacher is required by law to report the issue to CPS.  Anyone who has ever tried to make a report knows what a farce this is.  Routinely, when  reports are made the person taking the call does not even ask for the basic information required to make a further inquiry.   At our school, this happens so frequently that staff are now expected to take the name of the person receiving the call and the time the call was made.  There have been repeated instances of staff having to threaten to call a newspaper if there is not some investigation into what is happening to this child.

As a society we don’t even compensate people who deliver professional services to children.  We all know that teachers are not particularly well paid. And child care workers are the least well paid, even as we entrust our most vulnerable little people to them.  Physicians are generally a well-paid profession, but pediatricians are the least well-paid of all physicians.  Ditto child psychologists and child psychiatrists.  If you serve kids even in a generally lucrative profession, your income will be lower.   

The sound bites are great when we talk about children but actions make it clear, kids count for very little.

Where have all the children gone?

 Where have all the children gone?

The number of children who are not in public or private schools has exploded since the end of the pandemic.  The missing kids are not being home schooled, not in public schools, not in private schools and not to be found in the few online schools that have popped up since the pandemic.

In 2023-24, well after the pandemic, school census reports were still missing 2.1 million children or 4% of school age population.  This is roughly five times the number since the before the pandemic.  

Where are these kids and what is the loss to them and the country?   What we do know is that if they are not in school, they are not learning basic academic skills.  The loss to them and to our economy is huge.   Where are they?  What has happened to them?

At first blush the explanation was the students had gone to private schools.  But that isn’t proving to be true.  Private school enrollment has stayed steady at about 9% of school age population.  The steadiness is even true in states like Arizona and Florida who award state taxpayer tuition assistance for private schools.  

The scary thing is that a much larger share of the kids not in school is from high-poverty, Black majority districts.  In fact, 1 in 4 of these children ages 5-17 are NOT in school.  This compares to 1 in 6 students in higher income school districts.  The steepest enrollment losses are concentrated in predominantly Black school districts.  A third of students in predominantly Black districts are not in traditional public schools.  This is double the share of white and Hispanic children.  Funding for traditional public schools is often determined by enrollment.  So when these students do not come to school, the funding for these schools goes down.   It’s vicious circle.   

We were already expecting a huge contraction rate of school age kids.  American women are averaging 1.7 children over their lifetimes.  Not enough to replace the population, that requires a fertility rate of 2.1%.  More immigrants coming into the country would help, but instead or encouraging immigrants we are sending them away.

Buckle up folks, we are missing children and opportunity.  What is most frightening is that we DON’T KNOW where the missing kids are!