The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act

Introduction A couple of decades ago children with learning disabilities were rarely identified. As the years passed by, the number of children with learning disabilities has been increasing rapidly. At the moment almost half of the children with disabilities comprise of children with learning disabilities (Douglas Lynn, 2006, p. 93).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More That is why the United States came up with the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) which has been used for over thirty years to identify children with learning disabilities. According to this act, identification of children with learning disabilities was conducted by the use of IQ test. However, the gradual increase in the number of individuals with learning disabilities led to the disapproval of this method. It was necessary to modi fy this law and in the year 2004 President George Bush signed into law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, an improvement of the Individuals with Educational Disabilities Act (Douglas Lynn, 2006, p. 93). The main aim of this paper is to analyze this law and its application in response to interaction. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act This new act has got almost the same elements as the previous law apart from one thing; the use of response to intervention (RTI) in identifying students with learning disorder instead of IQ test. With this new method early identification of children with educational failure is achieved unlike in the previous method. According to Lynn (2007) RTI offers practical solutions to problems which IQ tests failed to address since it helps struggling students to recover faster (p.13). This is because RTI distinguishes those students who perform poorly because of disabilities from those students who perform poor ly as a result of inadequate action. As a result of this separation and early identification school performances tend to improve and the number of children with learning disabilities is minimized making this programme to be a successful tool in the process of learning disability identification. Response to Intervention (RTI) Response to intervention is the method that is used by the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act to detect students with learning disabilities. This method uses a variety of steps to identify the children with learning disabilities and has procedures which are necessary to help them academically. To identify children with learning disabilities, a subgroup of underperforming students is first identified. This is done in the first month of a new academic year by using the test scores of the previous year or by giving a test to all the students and use this results. From these results one can select underperforming students by either selecting the students who score below the 25% mark or those who score below the average mark. This procedure should be done in all grades.Advertising Looking for research paper on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Once this group has been identified then their responsiveness to education is monitored over a period of time. In order to find out whether there is progress in these students, periodical high stake tests are conducted. The students who score above a certain percentile mark (20% for example) exhibit sign of improvement while those who score below the expected mark should be subjected to a more vigorous training either inside or outside the classroom. The progress of these students can be assessed as done earlier during the first tier. According to Douglas and Lynn (2006) it is advisable to conduct the comparison of underperforming students at local and national levels. Weekly progress of these students should also be conducted (p .94). Intervention in RTI Intervention in RTI is achieved by several methods. The first form of interaction aims at detecting early problem of reading. This ensures that no child is lagging behind as others progress. As a result RTI is an essential aspect of the reading first policy in the current school curriculum in the United States. RTI has got different levels making it to be multitired. As a student moves from one level to another the training becomes more intense. This ensures that necessary intervention and attention is given to the students in a bid to help them improve academically. Another intervention conducted in RTI is problem solving. Practitioners prefer the use of standard protocols in problem solving. RTI has got up to four different levels of problem solving (Ikeda and Gustafson, 2002). In level one the teacher works hand in hand with the parents of the student to solve his/her academic problems. In the second level the teacher works together with his colleagues i n the school to identify the problem of the student and select which measures to implement. Failure of this leads to level three which involves professionals from Heartland staff who use behavioral strategies to solve the problems of the student. If this fails then level four commences and it entails special education assistance. All through this process the student responsiveness to the programme is the driving force that determines which method should be applied. Standard treatment protocol is also used in problem solving. However, unlike in problem solving where each student was subjected to a different method in standard treatment control all the students are subjected to similar methods for a specific period of time and then evaluated.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Those who respond positively to the trea tment are returned back to class while those who respond negatively move to the second tier to where more intense training is administered. Those who respond well to the second tier training are returned back to class. Those who respond poorly are suspected to have disabilities and further investigations commence. Reasons for RTI preference over IQ The incorporation of identification of students with learning disabilities started in the 1970 and IQ tests were used for the purpose of identification. During that time only 2% of the students were identified with learning disabilities. The number however increased to around 6% in 1999-2000 (Douglas Lynn, 2006, p. 96). Conducting this programme is quite expensive (about three times the cost of education a normal child). Therefore as a result the government ended up spending a lot of money running the programme. The increase in number of students with learning disabilities over time also made the IQ method not to be seen as productive. T he IQ method has been criticized since there is no standard procedure to compute it, its size and which tests are to be used to determine the IQ of an individual. Due to these inconsistencies the IQ failed to distinguish correctly students with learning disabilities from low academic achievers. That is why the government developed the new Act which uses RTI in identifying learning disabilities. RTI has managed to find solutions to the problems which came up as a result of using IQ. Conclusion Since the 1970`s the US government has been using IQ as a means of identifying students with learning disabilities. However, this programme has proved not to be effective since the number of students with disabilities increased with time. That is why the government introduced RTI to solve the shortcomings of the IQ method. References Douglas, F., Lynn, F. (2006). Introduction to Response to Intervention: What, why, and how valid is it? Reading Research Quartely, 93-99. Web. Ikeda, M., Gustafs on, J.K. (2002). Heartland AEA 11’s problem solving process: Impact on issues related to special education (Research Rep. No. 2002–01). Johnston, IA: Heartland Area Education Agency 11.Advertising Looking for research paper on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Lynn, F. (2007). Special education faculty pioneer Responsiveness to Intervention. Web. 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LOWER THAN SHIT! Professor Ramos Blog

LOWER THAN SHIT! The bus driver yells, â€Å"keep your heads down and close your eyes.† I can feel us getting closer to the chaos. I hear kids crying and shaking, because we are scared. We are scared of what is going to be on the other side of that bus door when it swings open. It is not the fact of where we are going, but the fact that the unknowing is what drives the stake to our hearts. The bus stops and in runs a drill instructor screaming, â€Å"GET THE FUCK OFF,† We all yell back, â€Å"I sir!† The drill instructor looks back at all of us and says, â€Å"do I look like a sir?† I thought to myself, oh great not even a minute into it and we have already messed up. â€Å"I rush off the bus and take my spot on the yellow foot prints, trying not to mess up again, and three drill instructors swarm a kid too slow to get there. I hear them yelling at the kid, spit flying, the kid has no idea how to respond so he yells, â€Å"I Sir† over and over again until the drill instructors are satisfied and finally gives the poor kid a break. I think to myself, â€Å"how am I goanna survive this? 0600 (6:00am) its time wake up get dressed and make our bed in the squad bay. The drill instructor yells at us to get on line and we all respond as fast as we can. I did not finish fast enough, and my rack (bed) is not properly made with no wrinkles and a 90-degree angle at the edges. The drill instructor comes over and yells at me and makes me stand there while he inspects the rack. In return to my rack not being made correctly in his ridiculous standards, the drill instructor flips my rack and destroys everything around it. He makes me look at the rack and yells at me to fix it, and while I fix it, everyone in my squad made up of 40 plus recruits has to do whatever ridiculous exercise the drill instructor comes up with. Keep in mind that these drill instructors and the rest of the marine corps believe in mass punishment. The reason this is because it singles out the one person that messed up by embarrassing him and making his fellow recruits hate him for making them go through this pain even though he was not the one that made them do it. Some of the creative exercises the drill instructors come up with are to hold out an object and I mean anything. I have held up my heavy foot locker to a rifle to even a little as just my hands with your elbows locked out as a punishment. You would be surprised how heavy your hands can get while holding your hands out for a long time. The drill instructors would get in your head telling you that you are weak because your arms start to drop, but if that happens he again singles you out and you have to start all over. If you find it hard to believe that holding something out with your elbows locked keeping it nipple-line-high try this. Hold a piece of paper with both hands out with your elbows locked at your nipple line for a long period of time. I tell you a piece of paper would never seem so heavy after awhile. The squad bay is not a place to be because that is when there is no witness to see what the drill instructors can d o to you. I remember late at night when I had to do fire watch (guard duty) you could hear the recruits yell out, â€Å"I SIR† in their sleep. There is no escape that even in your sleep there is a drill instructor in your face. What kept going through my head is, â€Å"I can’t give up,† even though the drill instructors tell you that you are lower than a piece of shit. In their words, â€Å"you are nothing, you should give up, get out of my marine corps you piece of nothing.† There was an obstacle course one day and the drill instructors tried to just do just that, and make me quit through their words, I came to the final obstacle not being able to feel my legs or arms, and I had to climb this rope. I get half way and slide down. The drill instructor yells out, â€Å"IS THAT ALL YOU CAN DO PUSSY?’ I try again and same result, and yet again the drill instructor yells at me, â€Å"GET UP THE FUCKING ROPE YOU WASTE OF AIR.† I’m mad now and attempt a third time. I get half way and my arms give out and fall all the way down and land on my back. My back hurts, I can’t feel anything on my body and the drill instructor is laughing at me. I want to give up maybe I can’t do this, and other recruits have already finished. â€Å"FUCK THAT†, I can’t give up, I have to do this for me, and I can do this. I rap my foot around the rope and place the other foot on top and start to go up. I get half way and my hands are slip ping. I think to myself, â€Å"am I goanna fall? NO! push more, keep going, and keep pushing.† I made it to the top. This was my turning point. I can do anything. All I have to do is push myself and not give up.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The hell never stops from day to night until final test day. We call the final test day â€Å"The Crucible† it is an extended period in the middle of nowhere were they test and teach you how to survive. You are hungry, exhausted, cold, hurt, and hate life at this point. It starts off with a 15-mile hike to the area where you feel like this might be the final nail on your coffin. Along the road of the 15 miles of water up to your knees, you hear your fellow recruit cry out that he can’t do this. The instructors sense the weakness and pounces on this recruit. Let’s just say he did not make it with my class. I think to myself, â€Å"don’t give up! You can do this.† During this walk, you think to yourself why you don’t want to give up. I thought of how I don’t want to disappoint my family. How I could not look myself in the eye if I quit now. I would rather drop down and pass out, or I would have to be physically stopped before I would giv e up. Every time I found myself on the verge to give up I thought this. The attitude of the need to succeed got me all the way through to the end. The day finally came, I was a Marine. You think that day was when you graduate, or when you are wearing your fancy uniform. No! That is when you are coved in mud, broken from a long crucible, tears in your eyes, heart lifted to the sky, prouder then you can ever be. Your drill instructor, jailer, hell bringer, the man you hated gives you your First EGA (Eagle Globe and Anker). I am done I am finally moved up from someone lower than shit. I kept my mental toughness and did not give up I am finally something, a Marine, and a Marine never gives up.