Hearing the teachers share today touched my heart and made me miss being a special education teacher. I am glad there are places out there that allow these kids to learn in ways that will help prepare them for day-to-day life, rather than prepare them to take a standardized test. I loved being a public school teacher, and I felt like our school district had a great program for students on the autism spectrum. However, the state and federal testing requirements do not properly measure any standard of learning for many of the special education students. Some of those students are still working on daily living skills and basic educational skills, even into 5th grade, middle school, and often high school. Many of those students are still required to take a test that is challenging for even their "regular" education peers, meaning it is like looking at something in a foreign language to them. I don't know how anyone can look at those situations and consider that test any type of measure of success for those students. To truly measure their success would to be to design an assessment of the individualized goals that are researched and established for each particualr child. That is what they work on every day, so that is how you should measure their educational growth.

Now I am off my soapbox. :)Thank you Avondale House for a wonderful luncheon at the Houston Junior League with inspiring presentations by the teachers that help these students every day.

For more information about The Avondale House, visit their website, www.avondalehouse.org. If you are interested, they can always use volunteers or monetary donations that go toward school supplies and community based instruction lessons and field trips for the students.