In article , Banty says...

In article , Ericka Kammerer says...

Banty wrote:


What I see today, though, is that while there are
still some teachers/administrations willing to be flexible
and make these accommodations, much of the flexibility has
disappeared. I'm not sure why that is. Some is due to
these accountability and standardization programs. Some
may well be due to other factors. And, of course, I'm
sure there are many people who *do* find acceptable
accommodations and are reasonably happy with the results.
I do seem to hear from more people now, however, that
they've tried to find reasonable accommodations and
haven't been successful.

I agree with your post, and I think it's a matter of balance.

Why the increasing inflexibility? Well, I think it's two things. One is - yes
- that focus on high-stakes test scores and other inappropriate measures.

The other, though, is social deterioration. A generation ago - it *was* a big
deal to ask for extra teacher prep for a child pulled out of school for an
unusual situation or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for travel. It happened,
but not so often, and the situations brought up would be compelling. Now, it's
any damn thing, cheaper ski trips, cheaper Disney, whatever, such that the sheer
volume of such instances are unmanageable, and there's the snowballing effect of
parents, tired of buying expensive airline tickets for an August vacation whilst
hearing of their neighbors grabbing last-minute deals and pulling the kids out
of school and getting accomodated, start doing the same thing. So the pendulum
swings the other way, and the parents who *would* be very judicious about this
matter are shut out, too. Old story of abuse of privelege.

Following up on my own post - I can see you were more talking about accomodation
of educational needs of bright kids and I went off on taking kids out of school
:*)

I think, as far as programs for bright kids, again yes it's the high stakes
testing and the need to pull up as many kids as possible as far as what's on the
test. And the tests being geared toward mastery of a set of requried skills
rather than being challenging such that the brighter kids really would perform
to their max.

I think though that the thinking concerning bright kids 'gifted and talented'
has been so much along the lines of specialized programs that simpler options,
but which require flexibility, aren't considered as much or as carefully. If
there isn't a GT or pullout or 'magnet' program, that's pretty much that. In my
district, there's always the *intention* to do something, and that acutally gets
in the way of anything effective that can be set up more short-term.

The other thing is the need for higher efficiency and lack of attention and
energy to specialized needs outside these programs becuase of fiscal pressures.

Banty