States' End Run Dilutes Burden for Special Ed
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

SILVER SPRING, Md., June 6 — Every afternoon, a half-dozen fourth and fifth graders with learning disabilities gather in Julie Grant's classroom at Broad Acres Elementary. Some struggle to turn the words they see and hear into coherent thoughts, others to concentrate.

For now, the future of Broad Acres could depend on how well Ms. Grant's tiny class does on the state's achievement tests. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, every category of student at Broad Acres — including special education — must show improvement or the entire school can face penalties.

But like a dozen other states, Maryland is hoping to circumvent those rules, asking to count students like Ms. Grant's only as children of poverty, a big group that would hide any lack of academic growth.

Maryland officials say their proposals would avoid large numbers of schools being labeled "in need of improvement" when only small numbers of students are doing poorly. If changes are not made, said Nancy Grasmick, Maryland's superintendent of schools, "there'll be a lot of anger on the part of the community," some of it possibly directed at the special education students.

So far, the federal government seems receptive to the states' concerns. It is already allowing four states, in addition to Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, to require schools to have larger numbers of disabled or non-English-speaking children in order to be judged by their performance, and it is expected to approve similar proposals from at least five more.

But many parents of children with disabilities, who embraced No Child Left Behind because of its pledge to rate schools by the performance of all kinds of students, say they are outraged by the special allowances. "The purpose of the law is to see what's what," said Ricki Sabia, associate director of the National Policy Center at the National Down Syndrome Society. "It's not to make schools look good."