Common Core’s Implications for Special Ed Students (US)

January 25, 2011

Forty one states, to date, have jumped on t he Common CoreState Standards bandwagon, adopting common curriculum benchmarks for generaleducation courses in language arts and mathematics. The standards, created bythe National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State SchoolOfficers, are raising the bar for special education students as well. Accordingto the standards, students with disabilities— defined as students eligibleunder the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA )—“must be challengedto excel within the general curriculum.”

“We have to provide all students with an education to beready to have a career when they leave their K12 experience,” says ChrisMinnich, senior membership director at the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Special education students will be held to the same both inthe classroom and on the assessments. Two consortiums— Partnership for theAssessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PAR CC) and SMARTER BalancedAssessment—were granted Race to the Top funds to develop assessments for thenew standards by 2014. The assessments apply to what’s known as two percentspecial education students, which are special education students without severecognitive disabilities.

According to Minnich, states are in various stages ofadopting the standards, with some states and districts farther along thanothers. Florida began modifying its special education curriculum nearly sixyears ago. As of 2011, Florida will no longer approve modified courses, inwhich special education students aren’t expected to master as much material asin general education courses.

“It’s about having higher expectations for all of ourstudents,” says Bambi Lockman, chief of the Bureau of Exceptional Education andStudent Services with the Florida Department of Education. According toLockman, since the state beg an its alignment of standards, special educationstudents have improved 3 to 5 percent annually on both language arts andmathematics.

“The transition to the Common Core will be challenging, butit’s not going to be extremely difficult because we’ve already had highstandards in Florida,” she says. “I think we are going to see students havingaccess to the general curriculum.”

Lockman notes that this change doesn’t come without interventionas specified in each student’s individualized education plan (IEP). Extraclassroom support, variation in the instructional approach, small groupdiscussions and assisted technology are just some examples of intervention thatwill be needed for the students to excel in a general education classroom.

According to Minnich, states that have adopted the standardswill implement them between 2012 and 2014. He expects a few more states to beon board by the end of 2011.