May 11, 2005
U.S. Provides Rules to States for Testing Special Pupils
By SUSAN SAULNY, NY TIMES

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Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced guidelines yesterday for states that plan to take advantage of new, short-term flexibility in the way special-education students are tested under the federal education law, No Child Left Behind.

To gain the extra flexibility, Ms. Spellings said, states must show that they are in compliance with other facets of the law and that their efforts to raise the achievement of students with disabilities are working.

Some state education officials and advocates for special-education students quickly criticized the requirements as too stringent.

Until now, the Bush administration has allowed only 1 percent of all students, those most severely handicapped, to be given special tests to assess whether they are comprehending material at grade level. All other disabled students have been required to take the same tests as the general student body.

Last month, Ms. Spellings said the Department of Education would give some states increased flexibility, allowing them to administer alternative tests to an additional 2 percent of students, those who have extreme difficulties with standard instruction and assessment.

Officials confirmed the offer yesterday, but only on a short-term basis, which was left unspecified. They also set a deadline of June 1 for states to apply for the concessions and said they would take effect next school year. In addition, Ms. Spellings restated the department's commitment to allocate $14 million in technical assistance and other help to eligible states.

"I believe this is a smarter, better way to educate special-education children," Ms. Spellings said at a news conference at her Washington office.

Later, she added: "In the past, we simply ignored special-education kids as 'over there.' That's not the case now."

Some policy analysts and state education administrators said they were pleased that the administration was offering more flexibility but said they doubted that many states could fulfill the eligibility requirements to take advantage of the change.

"The flexibility that they put out there is something that every state needs - it's not like those students are concentrated in one state or another," said Patty Sullivan, the director of the Center on Education Policy, a research group based in Washington. "I'm concerned that not many states are going to be able to meet the guidelines. It says 'eligible states,' and the guidelines set a pretty high bar."

Betty J. Sternberg, the education commissioner in Connecticut, said, similarly: "The percentages are fine. They help us. The problem may be in the details of what they are requiring us to do to have access to the flexibility."

Connecticut officials announced plans last month to sue the federal government for forcing the state to conduct more testing without providing the money to pay for it. The department has repeatedly said it is unwilling to waive or weaken that part of the law.

When asked how children would benefit from the changes, one official at the news conference, Reid Lyon, branch chief for child development and behavior at the National Institute for Child Health Development, said it would be in the area of instruction.

By using alternative testing for the most challenged children, Mr. Lyon said, teachers will be better equipped to deal with the specific needs of each child.

"There is a much clearer focus on how the children are progressing as a function of instruction," he said. "That attention has not been there in the past. That attention has been on whether someone met a bar."