Report: Special ed integration fails expectations

In the Montgomery County schools, phasing out of segregated classrooms for students with significant learning disabilities has been met with a districtwide report raising serious questions about its success.

The report showed that 100 percent of the students in transition out of the segregated classrooms scored at the lowest level on the Maryland state math exam, and 81 percent of them fared equally poorly on the reading portion.

It also found that only about 25 percent of teachers used “differentiated” instruction with the special-needs students, meaning different assignments and varied presentations of the information to best reach each learner. A mandatory training for teachers receiving special-needs students into regular classrooms saw little more than 50 percent attendance.

The 139,000-student district began closing down its learning centers, or schools within a school for special-needs students, in 2007. Parent outcries at the time have been renewed in response to the report, which covered the first full year of the initiative.

Kay Romero, president of the county’s PTA representing nearly 50,000 parents and teachers, testified before the school board earlier this week in an effort to re-evaluate the decision to phase out the learning centers.

“Our most complex students should have an educational path that is tailored to their needs, and not tailored to fit a square peg in a round hole,” Romero said.

Parents like Jeanne Taylor hope the board pays attention. Taylor, whose 10-year-old son was closed out of a learning center, was one of the most vocal opponents of their closings.

Now, she said, “being in large general education classes that aren’t as structured as his small group has created challenges for him and the staff.”

From the district’s perspective, students like Taylor’s son were the lucky ones. At too many schools, the centers were academically inferior dumping grounds for students — often racial minorities — who could have thrived in a regular classroom with proper support.

Ensuring that support is available, and re-thinking the best setting for the students, has become a goal for school board member Laura Berthiaume.

“What was the hope hasn’t materialized in terms of the teaching and the results that the transition was premised on,” Berthiaume said.

“We need to take a hard look at what happened with this group of kids, and we may be looking at providing a greater continuum of services.”