Teleconference Transcript

Transcript of NCSET teleconference call held on January 22, 2002

Below is the portion of my conversation with Dr. Pasternack.  You may find the entire transcript here.  http://www.ncset.org/teleconferences/transcripts/2002_01.asp

MS. POTTS: Hi, my name is Kathy Potts, and I am originally from Mississippi and moved to Iowa. I have a child that's 13 and has dyslexia, and we have just put him into a school here in Cedar Rapids. And he is in the eighth grade, and he is on third grade reading level. And our school is telling us that it's too late to teach him to read.

DR. PASTERNACK: Well, I think that first of all, I am sorry that a school would be telling you that. I, quite frankly, am an optimist at heart, and I believe that the challenge for us is to figure out the way the kid learns and teach the way the child learns. And that's a real challenge for us in special ed., to provide that specially designed instruction. I think that I would just hate to give up on any kid, and certainly the President is saying that we are not going to leave any kid behind.

Now, can your child learn? Yes. You know, there may be a need to emphasize functional academic skills as opposed to some of the other kinds of approaches to teaching your child to read at that age. You know, the challenge is getting the information to your child in a way that your child can use the information, and I think that requires expert teaching. But to say just flatly that your kid can't learn to read, I would hate to be that flippant about it. I think all people can learn if the information is provided in the right way if we really spend the time with the child.

Assessment comes from the Latin word "to sit with," and I think that the whole notion of people sitting with your child to do the kind of functional assessment to really find out how is it that your child might learn and then deliver instruction in that way. You know, is your child going to become a fluent reader with the kind of automaticity that your child may have acquired had he or she been taught earlier, probably not. But clearly, just to give up, that's one of the criticisms that has been leveled against special education.

We should not have low expectations for kids with disabilities. We should have high standards and high expectations and demand excellence in what we do in special education. And from what you have just told me, I am saddened to hear that. And that gets to that earlier question about why then parents would want to have due process protection to basically be able to go to the table and say the law requires that you teach my child and you are not going to give up.

And I think that's one of the reasons why you as a mom need to know as much as you can to get the school district to do their job because it's their job to teach your kid, not your job to go home at night and teach your kid. And I know there's way too many parents spending way too much time every night at home trying to teach their kids because their kids are not getting the kind of high quality instruction that they should be getting in school.