Annual Report on Condition of Education Released (US)

June 4, 2010

On May 27th, the Institute for Education Sciences – the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education – released the Condition of Education, its annual report to Congress and the White House which reviews 49 indicators of important trends in U.S. education, including a special section dedicated to analyzing high-poverty schools.

The report – which looks at many facets of education in America – highlighted the following characteristics of special education:
•    The number and percentage of students with disabilities has declined from 2004-05 to 2007-08
•    In 2007-08, there were 6.6 million students with disabilities/13% of the public school enrollment
•    39% of students with disabilities have specific learning disabilities; 22% have speech language impairments
•    57% of students with disabilities spend more than 80% of the school day in the general education classroom
As students with disabilities are increasingly served in the general education classroom, CEC believes that it is critical that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, and better known as No Child Left Behind) be revised to better align with IDEA.  To this end, CEC has developed comprehensive recommendations which focus on numerous key areas such as: supporting a well prepared, successful workforce; and strengthening assessment and accountability for all students.
Additionally, the report addressed additional areas of interest to CEC members including:
•    Declining student to teacher ratio from 1990-91 to 2007-08
•    Increase in number of charter schools from 1,500 in 1999-2000 to 4,400 in 2007-2008, representing 5% of all public schools.  Enrollment has tripled over this time as charter schools now serve 1.3 million students.
•    Fewer teachers with masters degrees work in high poverty schools as compared to low-poverty schools; students from high poverty schools – on average – do not perform as well on the National Assessment of Educational Progress