Test scores not enough to measure success at Wings

Alan Borsuk:

The 10-year flight of Wings Academy will end Tuesday. The closing of the small school on the south side where the vast majority of students qualify for special education leaves me thinking that nationwide we haven't worked hard enough on figuring out what to aim for with special ed kids and how to figure out if we're achieving it.

To what degree should we set the same goals for at least a large portion of special ed kids as for other kids, largely measured by test scores? Is success on less measurable fronts - personal development and preparation for adulthood - good enough? Better? Settling for too little?

Wings was an independent charter school, authorized to operate by the Milwaukee School Board. It had the atmosphere of a friendly, energetic, but, as one staff member put it, squirrelly family. Its program included phonics-oriented reading instruction, individualized and project-based work in many classes, tae kwon as its physical education focus, and a lot of relationship building among staff, students and families.

Test scores at Wings were, as Nicola Ciurro, co-founder and head of the school, put it, terrible. "We always knew that," she said. Among 10th-graders in last fall's testing, 34% were proficient in reading, 6% in math.

About 80% of the 150 students, who ranged from first- to 12th-graders, had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders, autism, Asperger's syndrome, dyslexia or other special circumstances. Many of the other 20% were "gray area" kids when it came to special needs, Ciurro said.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 11, 2012 2:16 AM
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