I do not know if this is true or not, but it has been pointed out to me by a friend that schools have no exemptions for special needs children. She said that she has been stuck with having special needs kids having to take that TAKS test, thus affecting the overall score. Its really bad for young teachers that tend to get placed with more special needs children because often the tenured teachers don't want to mess with them and are buddies with the administration. So this year, for example, she had a special needs child who can barely write his own name, have to sit for the TAKS. They did it on the computer, but he is unable to communicate properly, form sentences, or think logically. He of course failed. I do not know how common this is, but I would be upset if my career was on the line because I had severely handicapped children.
IIRC, the TAKS ALT,TAKS M, and TAKS Accomodated are what special needs kids take and all are counted towards AYP and accountabilty.
I forgot to include the link to show that' it will be over a 3-4 year period. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6808536.html Is HISD the first school district to fire teachers based on standardized testing? I would like to see past performance of other school districts to see if it was effective or ineffective.
