Special education performance in Texas public schools and writing skill gaps

Education has become a very contentious issue within the United States. Particularly among many of the more populous states, calls for higher standards, smaller classrooms, and better testing have all become very combative. Texas is not immune to this issue. As one of the larger states in the Union, it too must content with massive calls for schooling reform. To assess student performance however, one needs to have proper data. The Texas Academic Performance reports is comprehensive way to better assess student performance. It provides a wide array of information on performance by student and by distinct. In particular, the TAPR segments the information by ethnicity and income status, providing further insights into the overall progress of educational techniques in Texas. The TAPR therefore provides ample information in regards to comparison of demographic groups. Particular emphasis will be placed on the special education programs and population for this document. Concerns and recommendation will follow compassion between special education students to their Texas counterparts. This discussion will occur from a principles perspective.

To begin, within the Houston district, special education has performed below the overall satisfaction standard. Of 169 total tests, only 72 scored at or above the satisfaction standard. At a passing rate of 43%, special education learners scored well below every other demographic. Chart 1 presents the information.

Chart 1

Demographic

% At satisfactory standard

All Student

60%

African-Americans

52%

Hispanic

64%

White

60%

ELL

61%

Econ Disadvantaged

60%

Special Education

43%

Particularly in writing, special education students performed nearly 30 percentage points below the Houston average. This is of particular concern, as writing skills are paramount to communication. This concern is primarily grounded in the overall economic performance of students that are in the special education segment. Undoubtedly, many of these individuals will attempt to join the workforce once they become older. Houston, and the United States overall, is transitioning into a service oriented economy. According to the World Bank, nearly 75% of the United States GDP comes from services. Writing is a critical skill within the services industry. Communication skills overall in regards to applications, emails, memos, documents, and other forms of correspondence is critical to preforming well in a series economy. Special Education students are currently at a 38% satisfaction standard for writing, well below the average of all students at 65%. Even more surprising is that students who are leaning English as a second language scored higher than the Houston average at 67%. This indicates that techniques and best practices are available to properly teach writing skills to students who are initially not familiar with its concepts. As principle, I would look to adopting many of the practices used within the English Language Learning segments and alter them to help impact the special education segment (Wilmshurst, 2011).

A very positive outcome is that special education students performed the best among all demographics in the science category. This statistic however is biased as only 9 students actually took the test. However, it does indicate that these students do have the capacity and ability to learn complex science applications at a very high level.

As principle, may recommendation would be to improve both math and writing scores among the special education population. My initial target would be to get these scores above the 45% satisfaction standard. Assuming that the special education population remains stagnant and does not grow next year, that would translate into having just 3 more students pass the writing portion of the test and having 4 more students passing the mathematics portion. Chart 2 show the mathematics involved in the calculation