Special Education Must Result in Learning
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why special education must stay focused on actual learning, not just procedures, supports, and exceptions.
Key Takeaways
- Education Is The Point - Special education exists to ensure students receive an education, not simply a set of services or protections.
- Accommodations Should Support Learning - Supports are only helpful if they help students access and complete the learning that matters.
- Beware Of Adult Overhelping - When adults do the key thinking or work for students, the accommodation can undermine the lesson's purpose.
- Special Treatment Isn't The Goal - If modifications and exceptions don't lead to learning, schools need to ask why they're doing them.
- Keep The Purpose Clear - School leaders should evaluate special education practices by whether they actually result in education.
Full Transcript
Yesterday I said special education is special. Today I'm going to continue playing Captain Obvious and say that special education is education. And I think a lot of where special education is going wrong these days is in forgetting that the purpose is education. We seem to have all of these other goals that we're rolling in that are not educational, that are putting adults
and students through all these procedures, all these processes, all these accommodations, all these exceptions, all of these supports, all of these modifications that don't result in learning. And learning is supposed to be the point of special education, right? It is special education.
That second word matters. And if the point of what we're doing is not education, I have to ask, why are we doing it, right? The reason we have laws around special education is to ensure that all students get an education. Not ensure whatever other nice things we might have in mind for the student,
but to specifically ensure that they receive an education. And I hear from a lot of teachers who are frustrated by the accommodations that their students are receiving that undermine the intention of the lesson, right? If the student doesn't have to do the work, if the student doesn't have to do the important part of the work, if an adult is helping with the part of the work that is supposed to result in the learning
so that the student doesn't do the learning because of some accommodation that they receive, What are we doing here?
What is the point of that? If the point is education, we have to make sure that special education actually results in education and doesn't just result in special treatment that undermines education. And I hesitate any time I mention special education because, you know, this is not my field.
There are lots of people who have strong feelings about special education. But I'm pretty sure this part is uncontroversial, that the point is education. Let me know what you think.