Tri-Towns Bureau

Area administrators said they agreed with overall findings on the state report card on special education students issued Monday by the state Education Department.

Among other things, they said it showed improved student test scores but that more work was needed to bring results up to state standards.

"I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of (special education) students taking and passing Regents exams," Unatego Central School Superintendent Rex Hurlburt said.

When the Education Department began requiring both general and special education students to pass certain requirements about five years ago, he said, "I was one of the naysayers."

But thanks to the requirements, he said, there are more students taking and passing the various tests.

The report card measures performance on math and English tests in fourth and eighth grades, as well as Regents exams, state officials said.

Achievement among students with disabilities is improving in elementary school English and middle school English and math, state officials said. However, middle school achievement remains unacceptably low, they said.

Schools have adapted a variety of strategies to help special education students meet the challenges posed by the tests, administrators said.

At Walton Middle School, for example, Principal Jim Hoover said extra instruction is provided in subjects such as math and English.

"We are identifying the needs of anybody struggling," Hoover said. Special labs in English and math are provided to students, he said, whether they are in general or special education.

Teachers have found class time needs to be extended sometimes for a subject to be learned, he said.

"A lot more kids can be successful," he said, "but they need more time to learn."

For now, he said, this can lead to scheduling problems. But in the future, the finding may lead to more students graduating one or two years later than they do now, he said.

At Unatego, Hurlburt said teachers have analyzed where students need more assistance in hopes of helping special education students achieve higher scores.

"We do a lot more test analysis (on all levels)," he said.

One of the biggest problems found, he said, is special education students sometimes can't read the questions. To meet this challenge, the school has developed classes that help the students prepare to take tests, he said.

Lynn Gallo, director of special education at Unatego, said, since the 1990s, the school has had a philosophy of placing students in general curriculum classes wherever possible.

Only about 5 percent of special education students are in separate classrooms, she said.

Strategies developed to help keep all students together include having regular and special education teachers co-teach in the classroom.

"Closing the achievement gap is something we are all struggling with," she said.

This is one of the Regents' highest priorities, Regents Chancellor Robert M. Bennett said.

"This report card shows many students have made great progress," he said. "But many others still need extra help to reach the standards. We have to keep our focus on ways to help them this year and for the future."

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Mark Boshnack can be reached at starsidney@stny.rr.com or at (607) 563-1493.