Boston Globe COMMENTARY

My disabled son deserves a diploma

By Sue Senator, 12/15/2002

Must high standards necessarily be about winners and losers? Or can we think
instead of high standards as what we aim for in public education but which
looks different in each child? A diploma that means something could be,
conceivably, a document that conveys specific information about the
individual graduate: information that a potential employer or college would
find very useful. If we were to allow towns control over graduation,the
flexibility to decide how to use tools such as the MCAS, we might then have
diplomas of value.

My two sons' experiences can provide insight into how this would work. My
fifth-grader is what most teachers would call bright, perhaps even gifted in
some areas. He is conversant in various subjects and stays on top of his
work. This child, as expected, tests well. He scored ''advanced'' in the
fourth-grade MCAS. He has mastered the standards set before him. If our town
stamped ''passed both English and Math MCAS'' on his diploma, this may prove
to be helpful information to a potential employer or college admissions
board as to this son's abilities, the way the SAT might help. In that case,
there is no reason not to use this information. But performance on MCAS
should be used only where it will help. Other indicators can be used for
different circumstances.

My seventh-grader, on the other hand, has autism, and his neurological
sensitivities and reduced language create such discomfort and confusion for
him that he frequently exhibits maladaptive behaviors. This son, who attends
a state-overseen private special education school, has an Individualized
Education Plan, or IEP, rather than following a generalized curriculum. But
the IEP uses the state curriculum as its basis. My son's IEP is a 30-page
document with goals not only in state-mandated subjects such as English,
social studies, science, and math (at his level), but also in behavior
strategies. All goals are measured by his teachers each quarter, and a
highly detailed progress report goes home quarterly. Once achieved, the
goals will help make my son appear and function more like a typical person,
so that he will eventually be able to hold a job.

The standards his school holds him to are every bit as exacting and
scrupulous as those of my other son. Thanks to Education Reform, both boys'
schools incorporate the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, set out a
complex set of goals and evaluate them carefully. Both schools demonstrate a
high sense of accountability, and high standards. Both schools are training
my sons for what lies beyond school. Yet only one boy will receive a diploma
at the end of it. At best, if the state has its way, my autistic son will
receive a certificate that merely tells an employer that this child is
limited in what he can do.

My autistic child is limited in some ways, but he has also learned many
valuable skills that will eventually make him a good worker. This society
would benefit more from his employment than his institutionalization. Kids
like him would have a better shot at getting a job worthy of him if they
felt that their diploma was not substandard like the certificate.

Furthermore, if the diploma could indicate my son's drive and progress, the
self-control he has learned by mastering his behavioral goal, for example,
that skill set may be of more value to a potential employer than the fact
that he could not perform 10th-grade mathematics. Tremendous improvement
like that is invisible on the current MCAS-driven diploma, and would only be
viewed as a failure by board policy.

If we are looking for ways to make children more marketable in this
demanding economy, then we must allow them to earn real diplomas, provided
they have been given by accountable schools like my sons'. Only then will we
have a comprehensive and just system of public school education worthy of
our children.

Sue Senator is a member of the Brookline School Committee and is working on
a book about parenting a child with autism.

This story ran on page B19 of the Boston Globe on 12/15/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.