Will national standards fail autistic students?
The act requiring the new educational standards regime was passed through all its stages in Parliament in 24 hours just before Christmas 2008. It did not go to a select committee where the public, autism advocates, and those with lived experience, could make submissions. This was unfortunate as some of us could have pointed out the negative implications for our autistic students, most of whom do not fit this ‘one size all’ approach.
My concerns were, firstly, that our autistic students typically have strong strengths and weaknesses across curriculum areas, and limiting assessment to only two areas would give a negative and limited view of our children’s abilities. Secondly, we know that some schools only grudgingly accept our children, and they are quick to find an excuse to ask them to limit their attendance, or even leave. If these standards are to be translated into league tables, schools will not be keen on our ASD students who may not excel in the narrow curriculum areas to be reported on.
Under the new system, children from early in primary school will be assessed against some very narrow requirements. Temple Grandin has already warned of the negative effects on autistic children of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ regime in the US, which our new regime is based on. In her recent book As I see it (2008), she describes a parent’s frustration that in order to pass the standard, the child was denied playtimes or anything that interested her, as she did repetitive drills to learn the required material.
English autistic savant, Daniel Tammet, has written about his own education and describes the autistic student’s typically uneven learning profile in his books Born on a Blue Day and Embracing the Wide Sky. He personally found the physical process of writing very difficult from a coordination point of view, progressing slowly and with frequent errors. Although brilliant with pure numbers, when letters or symbols were introduced into maths, as in algebra, he became confused. An additional requirement of our numeracy testing will be that students show their workings. In Embracing the Wide Sky which includes discussion on intelligence and how the mind works, Daniel describes the visual and aural patterns by which he does his mathematical and linguistic learning, and such pattern thinking is typical of autistic thinking. But it does not fit the standards-required-template. Daniel also shows that knowledge is culturally constructed and what has significance for one culture (such as the strawberries used for counting in our numerical standards requirements) may be incomprehensible to other cultures.
Reporting of these standards to parents will be on Plunket type graph, showing parents and students in a clear visual way that those below the line are already educational failures from 5 years old. How many will be on the autistic spectrum and already finding school a negative experience? That is not the way to increase engagement, participation or achievement.
Unfortunately, this focus on such a limited view of literacy and numeracy in our standards has also meant cuts in other school support. School advisors in areas such as science, art and music have been made redundant, as have many early childhood advisors. Yet these are the experts who teach the teachers about teaching and learning. We also know that libraries can be a safe place at school for our children – but now school library advisors in the National Library have been cut. And these come on top of cuts to educational lifelines for our autistic adults such as night school classes (and large areas of New Zealand will have no night classes at all from next year) and cuts to the Training Incentive Allowance whereby our autistic adults on benefits can improve their lives by access to tertiary study.
The autism sector is right to be alarmed at the cumulative effects of all these negative political changes on the ability of autistic students to achieve their acadenic potential. The standards regime will be implementated from the beginning of the 2010 school year. For the sake of our autistic students, we must pay attention and report what happens.
Hilary wrote on December 10th, 2009 at 6:57 pm:
I would like to confirm that this post is my own opinion as a parent, a former school board member, and primarily as a researcher on autism. I have come to the conclusions mentioned after assessing the evidence as I see it. I am not writing as a member of any organisation.
Autism NZ was offered a meeting with the select committee after some lobbying, but that privilege was not given to others in the sector who had concerns. It is a now exactly a year since the Education Standards Act was passed through all its stages under urgency. Rather than dying down as an issue, it has remained controversial and the subject of much media comment, since then.
I repeat that parents and others need to remain vigilant about its implementation, which is due to start in the new school term.
Martin Sullivan wrote on December 10th, 2009 at 8:10 pm:
Thanks for your “born out of your parental experience” comments Hilary. My view is that the proposed national standards are going to be damaging for the majority of disabled students especially those who have impaired motor skills or are slower learners. As you point out they, as with autistics, will be labeled failures from the get go because they will be so narrowly tested on a limited range of skills.
I think the politicians need to listen to the experts on this. And the experts are not the psychologists, reading recovery experts and so on, but those with autism you quote who have spoken out on the dangers of such a narrowly focused testing regimes.
So thanks Hilary for sharing your thoughts on the vexed question of national standards and for drawing our attention to what those with the lived expertise have to say about the damaging effects such ’standards’ had on them and their pals.
I think its a real shame that our educators have been forced back into the business of labelling and failing students by their political masters (or mistresses) for ideological reasons rather than sound, scientific ones.
Kia kaha Hilary – keep up the good fight!
Giovanni wrote on December 10th, 2009 at 8:13 pm:
Thank you for this Hilary, and I think a big hear, hear is in order.
Joanna Curzon wrote on December 11th, 2009 at 10:47 am:
Here is a response to Hilary’s comments from Mary Chamberlain, Group Manager in the Ministry of Education:
I would like to address several concerns raised in this post regarding National Standards.
National Standards are descriptions of what students should know and be able to do in reading, writing and maths to be able to succeed in all areas of the New Zealand Curriculum.
Children will not be denied playtime or other interesting subjects and teachers will not be asked to narrow the curriculum. Progress against the standards will be assessed by teachers in a variety of ways, throughout the year. That assessment will show parents, teachers and students what they need to do next to support and extend the student’s learning.
Most students, including those with autism, will be able to show progress against, and achieve within, these standards. There is a very small group of students who are likely to learn long term within Level One of the New Zealand Curriculum whose progress will be assessed against the standards as part of their Individual Education Programme (IEP) processes.
National Standards are about supporting all children to make progress in reading, writing and maths. Research is clear that if standards are used to set clear goals with students; if students know what they need to do to achieve the goal; and, if their parents and teachers support them and provide useful feedback, then all students will achieve more.
Mary Chamberlain
Group Manager
Ministry of Education
Special Education: this one is for George. « Red Alert wrote on December 17th, 2009 at 7:02 pm:
[...] development, including in the virtual world. In the meantime, have a read of Hilary Stace’s comments on the possible impact on the national standards on children with autism. Interesting and worrying [...]
Hilary wrote on March 4th, 2010 at 4:25 pm:
An architect of No Child Left Behind and an advocate of charter (private voucher-type) schools now has major doubts. The data shows (as critics suggested it would) that NCLB narrows the taught curriculum and doesn’t raise standards and that charter schools take resources from the public system but aren’t any better quality.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/education/03ravitch.html?hp=&pagewanted=all%3Cbr%20/%3E
Katelynn Frey wrote on May 18th, 2011 at 2:37 am:
I really hope that this new national standard system would enable these autistic students have a better treatment, benefits and future by proving them quality education that everybody truly deserves.
Sue Ellen wrote on May 22nd, 2011 at 4:25 pm:
~~in order to pass the standard, the child was denied playtimes or anything that interested her, as she did repetitive drills to learn the required material.~~
Surely this is counterproductive in the task of getting the best from an autistic child? It seems that finding a way to relate to a child when doing something they enjoyed would be much better than denying them what they enjoy.
~Sue Ellen
Casey Miller wrote on May 25th, 2011 at 1:31 am:
I do believe that autistic children should be treated like any other normal child. What I usually dislike in our society is the stigma that it attaches to these kids. I know of an autistic child who was loved and cared for too much by his parents. The end result is, eventhough the child seems normal, he grew up to be unsure of himself and though he’s 13 years old, he still goes out with his briefs on. I don’t think this is how autistic children should be brought up. Yes, love and care is important, and teaching these children about “the rules” is quite difficult. But for me, there is a thin line between being too overly protective and doing just the right thing. I hope that more institutions for special children will teach parents about the right way to raise an autistic child. – Casey
Debbie wrote on June 4th, 2011 at 6:59 pm:
I think autistic students deserve equal treatments. They need love and care. I hope more institutions will improve their way of handling autistic students. It’s important for the parents to get involved too to make this work.
Scott Rago wrote on June 5th, 2011 at 11:46 am:
This is such an important topic. We are friends with a family that has an 11 year old autistic girl. They have really battled “not” babying her to much and working on just simply treating her equal to their other children and giving her the freedom to make her own mistakes. I know as a father it’s hard enough just raising healthy children without autism. Great article by the way!
Hilary wrote on June 7th, 2011 at 10:00 am:
Thank you for all your comments. The National Standards regime is still happening in NZ and meeting a lot of resistance from parents and schools generally as there is no evidence internationally that it works to increase student achievement (good relationships are much more effective). We already have a compulsory and centralised school system in NZ which provides pretty much the same education wherever students live so need more student centred support to help those who are struggling, not a testing regime.
It seems that now schools with autistic students can decide whether they need to be part of the testing regime or not.
Dave wrote on June 9th, 2011 at 12:28 pm:
I have a niece who is diagnosed to be autistic. I’m worried for her. But really, not only children with this predicament is affected by the new curriculum. Even regular students are not really at par with the standard. Nonetheless, it is important, too, to raise the level of our education.
I think it’s not the academic value that our students need to be shaped, but their character. The change that the world needs is the change of heart. Our educational leaders must focus on that.
tito wrote on June 17th, 2011 at 12:29 am:
hello,
I am 25 year old and im having my autism course, reason is i wanted something, people i know use to ask me why do i choose to have this course? well they dont know behind the door in our house is a brother of me who has autism, i wanted to teach my brother, i wanted him to be smart, i wanted him to learn something, i choose this because i love him, i really wanted to take care of him personally, well after reading your article? i was thinking, can i handle my brother, can i give all that he needs? all i wanted is to give him something, special attention and will not hurt him, that’s why i wanted my course to personally teach my brother and take care of him.. I hope for more post from here, maybe i can get something for my brother.
Best and warm regards,
Tito
Mary wrote on June 18th, 2011 at 2:12 am:
I can’t believe that a child would be denied playtimes or things that interested her, in order to make her do repetitive drills. That’s just outrageous!
juries wrote on June 20th, 2011 at 3:52 pm:
Very disappointed with the way some people deal with autism. Its a two way process for the parents and other people upon its implementation. This national standard will surely help to deal on autism.
Louis wrote on June 26th, 2011 at 2:23 am:
As if education for the children wasn’t narrow enough. I think national standards are not only failing autistic students but every student in general.
When has learning stopped being interesting?
Xavier Sunde wrote on July 4th, 2011 at 6:42 am:
Thank you for spending some time to line all of this out for all of us. This particular blog post was really helpful to me.
Noelle wrote on July 9th, 2011 at 9:53 am:
I’m going through a RN to BSN degree program right now with hopes of working in pediatrics. This post kind of made me sad thinking about all the children that could potentially be left behind, despite educational standards. I think a tailored approach for autistic children will help to keep them on track.
Robert Voltaire wrote on August 17th, 2011 at 5:04 pm:
I hope that the new national standards do not fail autistic students and rise to their benefit. There is a huge hole in the way autistic students are being cared for in our school systems as it is. To think that autistic children are neglected by educators because of the problems they pose is awful. Please national standards come to their aide!