Changes urged in special ed instruction
Too many students separated, city told
The Boston public schools are keeping too many students with disabilities out of regular classrooms and may be wrongfully identifying some students for special services because of shortcomings in teaching literacy or dealing with behavior problems, according to a report released last night at a School Committee meeting.
Nearly 41 percent of the district’s 11,000 special education students receive instruction in substantially separate settings than the district’s other students, a rate almost three times higher than the state recommends, according to the report by the Council of the Great City Schools, a research and policy group that represents the nation’s 67 largest urban districts.
The problem appears to worsen as students get older. In kindergarten, roughly 25 percent of special education students are taught in separate settings, a percentage that mostly climbs from one grade level to the next, topping more than 40 percent in the high school years. The percentage of students taught in more costly, out-of-district placements also notably rises in the middle and high school years.
The isolation, many special education specialists say, can greatly diminish the amount of learning that students with disabilities absorb because expectations in segregated settings can be lower than those in regular classrooms. The lack of opportunity to mingle with other students also can prevent special education students from feeling part of the basic fabric of a school, leading to apathy or depression, specialists say.
Boston has struggled teaching special education students, whose scores on the MCAS exam in English and math fall below state standards. Special education students also have the lowest high school graduation rate of any student group in Boston, a mere 37 percent for the 2007-08 school year, about 23 percentage points lower than the district average for all students.
“Boston isn’t alone in this,’’ Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, said in an interview before the meeting, in explaining the need to lessen reliance on separate classroom settings.
“School systems in big cities have tended to have more separate programs,’’ he said. “Only in the last several years have they tried to integrate services more holistically.’’
Tight finances have led many districts to try to reduce spending on special education, often seen as a budget buster because out-of-district placements for one student can costs tens of thousands of dollars annually.
Also, the federal No Child Left Behind Act holds schools responsible for the performance of various categories of students, such as those enrolled in special education, which has led many districts to restructure their programs to increase achievement.
Some 20 percent of Boston’s 56,000 students received special education services last year, about 3 percentage points higher than the state average and notably higher than other cities nationwide.
Superintendent Carol R. Johnson asked the city schools group last year to examine Boston’s special education programs and make recommendations for improvement. Johnson, who this month began chairing the group’s board of directors, has set an ambitious goal of increasing the graduation rate of special education students to 70 percent by 2012, as part of her overhaul of the district’s schools.
In an interview, Johnson said a number of principals have expressed interest in finding ways to include more special education students in regular classrooms. Those leaders will be able to look for guidance to a handful of schools that practice full inclusion, such as the Mary Lyon and the William Henderson schools.
“We want to make sure when a student has a need that we really target services so we can keep them in regular classrooms,’’ Johnson said.
The report recommended that the district find ways to reduce its special education enrollment by shoring up reading instruction. It said that some schools might be enrolling students in special education, not because of a disability, but from a lack of appropriate reading instruction in the regular classroom.
But the city is heading in the right direction, the report stated, by adopting a new districtwide literacy program. It also gave the district kudos for starting a program to more effectively deal with students who have chronic behavior problems.
Other recommendations included working more closely with parents, revamping the district’s leadership structure for special education and the use of its staff, and creating stronger guidelines that ensure that nonnative English-speaking students are being identified for special education because of a disability and not because of a language issue.
John Mudd of Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a nonprofit group working on behalf of disadvantaged students, expressed concern about reducing special education enrollment, noting that the district tried that a decade ago with mixed results. He said the district would be better off focusing its effort on boosting achievement of special education students.
“It’s an urgent issue that needs to be addressed as fast as possible,’’ Mudd said.
James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com. 
