At the last meeting of the Student Services, Curriculum & Instruction Committee, staff gave a presentation about how students will be identified for Advanced Learning and Hi-Cap services. The Department will not hold any in person or remote testing this year, but instead will rely on historical data and additional parent/teacher information. According to the Advanced Learning website, testing by private evaluators will only be accepted on appeals; however, according to School Beat, no private testing will be allowed at all, including for appeals. This conflicting information on the District website needs to be clarified for families.
At the committee meeting, Director Harris asked about 2e, or twice exceptional, students, and how the new identification process will affect them. 2e students are eligible for advanced learning and also have a learning disability. The learning disability often masks the student’s ability to learn at an advanced level — making 2e students difficult to identify and serve.
Ms. Berry, the Director of Advanced Learning, responded to Director Harris, but I didn’t hear a direct answer to the question. And, that concerns me and the Special Education PTSA. 2e students are known to fly under the radar. They are difficult to identify and many teachers have not received the training needed to recognize their potential. Sometimes testing administered by an individual trained to accommodate for the disability needs is necessary to demonstrate that the student is capable of performing at a high academic level. Often, the 2e student’s disability or boredom might cause the student to tune out and perform at a lower level during class as well as have behavior issues. We are concerned that under the District’s new procedures, which appear to disallow any testing, many 2e students will not be identified and offered access to advanced learning or hi-cap services.
We hope the School Board will follow up on this issue and ask for a more clear explanation of how the District is going to ensure that 2e students are identified and not passed over for advanced learning.
