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Some Doubt Exam's Value
Disabled Children Take Alternate Test
Sunday, April 14, 2002
By: FORD TURNER
The girl lies silent and motionless on a bed, oxygen from a tube gushing past her sagged-open mouth.
But she still takes a Pennsylvania assessment test. On one question -- shown in a videotape distributed statewide -- an adult drags the girl's unresponsive hand through two trays of clothespins, tells the girl which tray contains more, then says to the girl, "Good job!"
The girl is taking the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment, or PASA, a new test being given to severely disabled children. The videotape of several test situations is being used to train teachers.
The state says annual testing of disabled children -- even some who cannot move, speak or understand the questions -- is a matter of fairness and is prompted by federal laws that call for all students to be treated equally.
But some midstate educators believe leading a nearly helpless child through a test he or she cannot understand is degrading.
"It comes back to the concept that you try to treat all the kids the same ... Sometimes you think common sense ought to prevail, but in this world, it doesn't," said James Warnock, a Capital Area Intermediate Unit administrator.
Federal education laws, including President Bush's recent "No Child Left Behind" initiative, call for all students to be included in annual assessments.
In Pennsylvania, most public school students, and many less severely disabled special education students, periodically take Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.
For more severely disabled students, the state Department of Education contracted the University of Pittsburgh to develop and manage an assessment program.
Naomi Zigmond, a Pitt professor for 32 years and head of the PASA team, said the university will be paid about $1 million a year over six years.
The first round of tests were given to 3,047 students statewide last school year, Zigmond said. About 3,600 are expected to take the PASA by Friday this year.
"Do I think it is a good idea? Yes, I do. It has been amazing to watch both teachers and children rise to the challenge of being part of the accountability system," Zigmond said.
In PASA, children are videotaped as they are led through "tasks" by a teacher. The tapes are watched and the children are graded by teachers from another part of the state. Scores are sent to parents.
Many children who take PASA can talk and move and respond in test situations. They take PASA, rather than PSSA, because a team of adults has determined the alternate test is more appropriate.
But assessment testing of the most profoundly disabled children disturbs teachers and administrators.
"It is a waste of time ... doing it hand-over-hand, doing the test for them, and then grading them," said Cumberland Valley special education teacher Amy Morneau.
There has been talk of excluding such completely dependent children, Zigmond said, but that talk has been countered by the message of the federal legislation.
"We could exempt that kind of child from the test, and in some ways that would be the humane thing to do ... but to do that would dismiss that child," Zigmond said.
To meet the federal requirements, 45 other states are assessing children by taking snippets of their work throughout the year to create "portfolios," Zigmond said. But portfolios, she said, are hard to score and would be difficult to fit into Pennsylvania's accountability system.
Teacher Cindy Lees, who has given the PASA test at Lower Dauphin High School, said it may be better to give some children PASA rather than PSSA.
But she said she didn't see a benefit in giving PASA "when you have to do everything for them."
Morneau, the Cumberland Valley teacher, said, "Hopefully, legislation will be changed and we won't have to do this."
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