-> The resource page in the guide lists the major players or "National
-> Standards Developers" none of which overtly mention standards for LD
-> students.  Of course the resources are arranged by discipline--it
-> *may* be possible that within each discipline, the needs of these
-> students are being considered.  From the little that I've read to
-> date however, my guess is that that's not happening...or if it is,
-> it's spotty at best.  I looked over the resource list in _Improving
-> America's School: A Newsletter on Issues in School Reform - Spring
-> 1996_
-> (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/IASA/newsletters/standards/pt5.html) and they
-> provide a very similar list of discipline based resources -- again,
-> nothing specifically aimed at LD students.
The reason I asked, is that I had seen some articles objecting to
standards in the past year or two, and usually it had something to do
with the LD issue. Either schools were expecting ALL students to meet
certain standards, and making no provision for the LD students (which is
pretty silly) or else the standards were not very challenging or
difficult in order that all students would have a chance at meeting
them. (In this latter case, why even bother with standards at all?)
-> You teach math correct?  Would you know if National Council of
-> Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has addressed standards for LD
-> students in their work on math standards?  I don't know, they seem to
-> be *the* source for info on math standards -- it would interesting to
-> see how they approach the process. Next time I'm on the web I'll do
-> some searching to see.
The NCTM Standards for Curriculum, are not standards in the sense we
have been discussing in this thread (at least, not the way I've been
understanding this discussion).
In this discussion, I thought that the use of the word "Standards"
referred to what we expected students to accomplish and be able to do.
Certain benchmarks that we would expect them to achieve. NCTM's
Standards are more of a curriculum document for teachers to decide what
they should be teaching in their math classes. It doesn't really discuss
student achievement or proficiency. If anything, it assumes that because
a topic was taught, students are capable in it, which is not necessarily
true. (It has been over a year since I seriously looked at my copy of
the NCTM standards, so I suppose it's possible that I'm off here.)
I don't recall that the Standards mention anything about LD students
specifically. However, they do discuss meeting the needs of different
ability students, and offering appropriate courework for them. They even
suggest taking kids as far as they are able. Kids who have difficulty
with arithmetic, for example, after years of working on it, may as well
just be given a calculator and introduced to algebra. Something along
these lines.
Sheila
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