Parents of Montgomery County special education students say they are worried secondary learning centers are being phased out of county schools because minorities are over-represented in the learning centers, not because the centers aren’t working.
The learning centers will operate during the 2007-2008 school year, but they will not accept new classes of students. School officials have said they are concerned about disproportionate representation of blacks and Hispanics in special education programs, but they have maintained poor academic performance is the main reason for phasing out the learning centers.
“Disproportionality is a factor,” associate superintendent for special education Carey Wright said. “But if you look at the student academic outcome, that is the primary factor here. This is being done because the learning centers weren’t producing positive academic outcomes for children.”
Superintendent Jerry Weast said in a recent memo: “Currently, students with disabilities are not meeting high academic expectations. As a result, there is a need for all educators to share the responsibility of providing educational services to all students.”
Some parents don’t buy it. Bob and Lyda Astrove, whose son spent seven years in Montgomery County secondary learning centers before graduating with a regular diploma from Walter Johnson High School, say they were very pleased with the education in the learning centers.
“My son had a fabulous freshman year because he got his individual learning needs met in those centers, got a regular diploma and was really prepared for the next level,” Lyda Astrove said.
Kay Romero, vice president of the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations, said in an e-mail, “MCPS appears to be fixing the disproportionality issue by dismantling a program that never was at fault. The fault lies in children being misidentified for special
education when they should not have been … mainly blacks and Hispanics.”
Gwen Mason, director of the department of special education services, said the issue of over-representation of minorities in special education is a national problem.
