Common Core Standards and Ieps

¶ … common core standards affect students with exceptionalities? Should we apply these standards to students with exceptionalities? Why or why not?

A lot of teachers and parents have shown great concerns related to the system of education presented for the students with special needs with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in different states (IDA, 2015 ). These Standards are challenging and tough for the general students alone and they are made that way, so it is a bit incomprehensible to provide the same standard to the children who require special attention. These children are already going through a tough time in learning as compared to the general students and applying the Common Core Standards would make it difficult for these students to go through the learning procedure (Smith, 2014). Many educators and parents argue that testing the students with special needs with the same learning standards as of the general students is unfair and unrealistic. They state that the children with special needs require focus on life skills rather than academics as the life skills would help them in the longer run in life, so restricting them to the same standard as of everyone is not fair to the disabled children (Smith, 2014).

Educators argue that forcing the students to go through the same standards does not give them a chance to optimize goals that are attainable and the learning opportunities that are of their level. A student in eighth grade, already going through difficulties in reading texts with sentence and vocabulary complexity that are above her or his level would find it easy to learn all that on his own level. Similarly an autistic student who finds it easy to learn through simple social situations would be able to learn much quicker than if he is forced into using the difficult standards that are fixed upon him. As research shows, restricting the students to the curriculum that is beyond their capacities lowers their level of achievement. The main goal of the Common Core Standards is to help provide success to every student, however that success can only be achieved if the cognitive diversity of every student is kept in mind when making the standards (Beals, 2014).

2. In what significant ways can the Common Core Standards be integrated into students' IEPs?

In order to meet the standards of achievement, the students require instructions that are aligned with the academic standards of the grade that they are in. The IEP is meant to specify the standards that the students will require in order to meet the standards of achievements. The Common Core Standards provided by the states are unfair for children with special needs, so the IEPs are used which help in highlighting the priorities that are required for CCSS. In order to align the skills, the IEP has to know the standards and understand them so that they can assign the grade level for the students. The grade level assigned by IEP is based on the chronological age of the students and varies for students with severe and moderate disabilities (Courtade & Bowder, 2011). A seven-year-old student would be admitted in second grade, however on the opposite side of things, her instructional level might still not be at the required level of that age. Keeping that in mind, the IEP team takes in consideration these points and creates the level accordingly. Some of the recommendations of integrating Common Core Standards with IEP are: creating IEPs that includes integrated or supplemental goals while still meeting the Common Core State Standards; taking into consideration the aligned CCSS and their translation into life skills for use in the longer run; promoting interaction between the special education and general teacher to help in assessing the level of academic skills and identifying their weaknesses and strengths; Developing lesson plans aligned with CCSS and providing methods and instructions that are diversified and identify the weaknesses and strengths of the students; Providing the teachers with professional networks, practices and resources so that they can help in meeting the needs of the students with special needs; Evaluating the challenges and issues that are met in the class and providing relevant opportunities (Best & Cohen, n.d.).