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Study On Special Education Finds Low Graduation Rate
Study On Special Education Finds Low Graduation Rate
Most students who are enrolled in special education classes in New York City are failing to earn regular high school diplomas, according to a study released yesterday by a nonprofit group that monitors the school system.
About 111,000 students who received special education services left the system from 1996 to 2004, and of those students, 13,672 - or 12.3 percent - graduated with Regents or local diplomas, according to Advocates for Children, the nonprofit group that issued the report, Leaving Empty-Handed. In addition, 12 percent received an alternative certificate, an Individualized Education Program diploma.
The graduation rates are grim and mean that most of the citys students receiving special education services are leaving school with no options for college, employment or independence, said Jill Chaifetz, the executive director of the group.
Ms. Chaifetz and Elisa Hyman, the groups deputy director, said the findings underscored what they saw every day: longstanding failures to serve vulnerable children.
This is a huge number of kids, Ms. Chaifetz said. They can have a future. But what we are providing is the opportunity to fail.
The report also found that the citys special education graduation rate lags dismally behind that of other parts of the state and across the nation. In the 2002-3 school year, for instance, the percentage of special education students receiving regular diplomas was 12.8 percent in New York City, 26 percent in New York State and 31 percent nationally.
The Department of Education vigorously disagreed with the groups conclusions, contending that its efforts to overhaul the special education system were beginning to produce measurable results.
For example, it cited test scores released on Wednesday for the third, fifth, sixth and seventh grades showing that the number of special education students scoring at Level 1, or not proficient, dropped in mathematics from 61.4 percent last year to 53.1 this year. In English, this year 43.2 percent of students were not proficient, compared with 58.1 percent last year.
No one has more aggressively tackled the long-neglected area of special education services for our children, a spokeswoman for Chancellor Joel I. Klein, Michele McManus Higgins, said in a statement. And yesterdays news about the remarkable gains in achievement by our special education students, in both math and English, strongly suggests that we are on our way to improved graduation rates for these students.
In fact, the study notes, the percentage of special education students graduating with Regents or local diplomas has increased over the last four years, to 15.96 percent from a low of 9.14 percent in 2000.
In addition, Ms. Higgins said, this year the department selected dozens of troubled schools to receive grants for improving their special education services. She also said that 58 high schools will begin accepting groups of special education students for the first time in September, and that they have received grants to develop services for these students and have arranged summertime professional development for staff members.
Special education students disabilities vary from depression, anxiety and mild impediments in speech and hearing to more severe learning disabilities and retardation.
Last June, the state set a goal of having 80 percent of special education students graduating with a local, Regents or high school equivalency diploma by 2010.
Slightly more than 12 percent of special education students who left school in the last eight years received an alternative certificate, an Individualized Education Program diploma. But that diploma is not equal to a Regents or a local diploma, and is not accepted in many cases by colleges, the armed forces or vocational training programs.
The report also found significant disproportions in graduation rates by race and sex. White and Asian special education students were, on average, twice as likely to graduate as black and Hispanic students. And girls were more likely than boys to finish school.
In a broader context, 12 percent is certainly shockingly low, said Christopher Swanson, a senior researcher for the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research organization based in Washington. Mr. Swanson has researched special education graduation rates nationally.
Its important not to jump to conclusions that just because a student has an I.E.P. that they are unable to take a normal course of study with modifications or to graduate, said Mr. Swanson, referring to the specialized curriculum for such students. Just because these are special education students, we shouldnt write them off as not being able to graduate.