Reply #31: I tracked some of the info down for DC

[suffragette]

The links are in my post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8864132#8865388

D.C. Schools Cutting Back On 'Read-Aloud'
More than 2,000 students in D.C. public and public charter schools with reading difficulties have questions and passages in the English Language Arts portion of the annual DC-CAS standardized test read to them. But federal and state officials have ordered D.C. schools to sharply reduce the number of "read-aloud" accommodations, contending they have been overused.

Under an agreement between the U.S. Department of Education and the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), the District must cut by half the number of read-loud arrangements before next month's DC-CAS exams. By 2010, it can be used "only for students with particularly severe dyslexia or other decoding disabilities," according to a recent letter to parents from Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.

Rhee said the accommodation "can hide the extent to which your child may be struggling to read. Therefore, changing the use of this accommodation will allow us to see more clearly the kind of help your child may need." Officials said they have reviewed the IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) of students with the accommodation to see who meets the more stringent criteria.

Federal law says that no changes in a student's IEP can be made before parents have a chance to meet with the team of educators that devised the plan. But DCPS is asking parents to waive that requirement.



From that, it looks like they are imposing an arbitrary 50% reduction in this accommodation. Do read the rest of the article. A parent noted that the accommodation is being removed without testing to see if his child still needs it or not and he is planning action. I hope more do.
The reasoning itself is absurd since diagnostic testing to diagnose a disability would reveal "the extent to which your child may be struggling to read."

The other link in my previous post is to a PDF I found from the DOE to the DC State Superintendent for Education thanking them for submitting their plan for the reduction, so that's an acknowledgement of the change instead of the initial request/demand.

I haven't found anything similar for Delaware yet. I am wondering how extensive this is.

You're right - none of this is pro-active to the child. I went to the link you posted and noticed a glaring omission there - not once do they use the word "learn" in connection to a student (they use "learned" once in regard to funding). That omission says it all.