Gary Young, the superintendent of the 100-student Peckham district in Newkirk, Okla., prides himself on his school being a welcoming place for students with disabilities, many of whom attend the K-8 district under the state鈥檚 open-enrollment policy.
But that openness has had a cost, he said; . That鈥檚 down from an. Young says that鈥檚 because he has 30 students in special education, many of whom have severe cognitive disabilities that should qualify them to take the state鈥檚 alternate assessment. But only 10 percent of a district鈥檚 students can take the alternate assessment and be counted as proficient for accountability purposes. Half of an Oklahoma school district鈥檚 letter grade is determined by student tests scores.
鈥淚 really don鈥檛 care what they do to me,鈥� Young said in an interview with Education Week. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to discriminate against these little children and their parents.鈥�
At the same time, he said, it鈥檚 not fair that the state doesn鈥檛 account for his small district鈥檚 special circumstances. The district has had a higher-than-average enrollment of special education students for some time, he said. Oklahoma allows parents to transfer with the permission of the receving district. 鈥淎 lot of schools and superintendents won鈥檛 accept transfers of special education kids,鈥� he said, but Peckham does. 鈥淭he parents didn鈥檛 feel like they were receiving what they needed鈥� in their home districts, Young said.
In prior years, some of those students might have taken the state鈥檚 modified assessments. They differed from alternate assessments in that they were intended for students who did not have severe cognitive disabilities but were still having trouble meeting grade-level standards. . (Oklahoma received No Child Left Behind flexibility waivers from the U.S. Department of Education, and all of the states with those waivers had to commit to eliminating the modified tests by 2014-15. The U.S. Education Department argued that .)
From the state鈥檚 perspective, Young didn鈥檛 ask for the waiver that would have allowed him to give more students the alternate assessment. Information about that waiver was sent out last May, said Todd Loftin, the state鈥檚 executive director of assessment and instruction. It鈥檚 also not clear if all of Peckham鈥檚 special education students would have qualified for the state鈥檚 alternate assessment for students with severe disabilities, Loftin said.
In an interview, Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the state department of education, said that the A through F program 鈥渋s purely for informational purposes. There鈥檚 no punitive aspect.鈥�
That鈥檚 not the way Young feels. He said that when the district learned about a possible waiver, it was told by a state official that it was too late to ask for one. Parents of students with disabilities at the school have also been left feeling like they鈥檙e the cause of the district鈥檚 poor showing on the accountability system.
鈥淚t is inappropriate...no, it is disgraceful to expect special needs students to be successful on a grade-level placement test when they have not been taught and likely cannot be taught at that level,鈥� parent Wendy Bond wrote in a letter to state superintendent Janet Barresi. Bond鈥檚 daughter is a transfer student.
Mr. Young said that he will continue lobbying for a change in grade. He was unsuccessful at trying to get the situation heard by the state board of education at a recent meeting.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a legitimate appeal, I think it should be granted,鈥� Young said. 鈥淚 think they鈥檙e hoping it will go away.鈥�
KFOR, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City, also did a story on the situation, which is embedded below.