They see the students as data points and dollar signs. They spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on consulting from a for-profit business called the DMC (district management council). This is a nationwide thing, most states have at least some districts with contracts. It's all about how to boost state reading and math (esp. reading) scores on the state tests. So that means focusing on the "bubble kids" who are close to passing, not on sped and not on gifted. In terms of gifted ed, the DMC states that those kids are already meeting expectations so there is no need to make any investment in them.
This is the incentive system of the "No child left behind" system. If 95% of the class meets the standards the goal still remains on the 5% who do not. There is no incentive to deal with anyone else. That being said local schools do try, but the incentives are stacked against them. What we need are revamped incentives from the center.
Also I draw no fault towards the consultants. They are providing a product to the districts to what the districts want. There is no deceit. What is the problem? Also I consider my kid a "Product" of the school. I am not sure why that is a bad label.
They don't have any experience or training in education or best practices. They are a business. So virtually everything they recommend is geared to finances, like schools are a factory churning out "products"...cookie cutter systems for cookie cutter kids. They are all about increasing class sizes so they are as big as possible and having general ed teachers do as much as possible rather than specialists. G/T teachers? GT coordinators? We can kiss them goodbye because they are not needed, they are not worth the investment. The consultants aren't truly interested in improving education, it's all about increasing their profit margin. They couldn't care less about gifted kids, or best practices for gifted kids, and I think everyone here is looking for what is best for their gifted kid, even if it means a little more money must be spent by the school to educate them. Gifted kids and kids with disabilities are seen as a liability because they have special needs and don't fit into the factory model of education. Let's say the cut-off for proficient is a score of 80. They are going to focus on the kids who are at a 75-79 to get them right over the mark and the school's percentage of proficient kids will go up dramatically. The goal is to make the school look good on paper, and schools eat it up. Everything about it is deceitful because they sell this as something that boosts student achievement, when they are really only focused on reading test scores (and sometimes math), and only certain kids. Groups like the DMC actually recommend taking services away from special education students and shifting the money to large group general ed interventions, which aren't going to help kids with disabilities at all. In the end, two groups of students with the highest needs end up suffering the most--sp.ed and gifted, because funding is being shifted away from them.
