Learning Life Skills in a Jiffy

My fourth-grader brought home a field trip permission slip yesterday and I could not be more miffed. It’s not that I have anything against field trips - I remember fondly my excursions with classmates to the Milwaukee Zoo, to Baraboo, to the marsh. (Then there was that Spanish class field trip to Chi Chi’s, but I digress.) We learned about wildlife, the big city and our state. My problem with this particular trip is that this journey takes her somewhere I have never been.

Jiffy Lube.

Yes. My ten-year-old daughter is traveling on a bus on Thursday morning…to Jiffy Lube.

Oh, did I mention she has an intellectual disability?

I am sorry folks, but that one page permission slip details all that is wrong with our special education investment. The fact that the system has already given up on teaching my daughter academics in the classroom, and they feel that at age 10 she can learn valuable, practical “life skills” at a B-list oil change shop should anger you just about as much as it does me.

Here is why you should care: We all pay for low expectations set by others for our children.

For those of you not personally familiar with where the science is at in terms of students with disabilities, let me briefly paint a picture. According to the National Center on Educational Outcomes, most students with disabilities (75 percent) have learning disabilities, speech/language impairments and emotional behavioral disabilities. These students, along with those who have physical, visual, hearing and other health impairments (another 4-5 percent), are all students without intellectual impairments. (In other words, these are students who very likely would score at or above normal IQ.) That means that with appropriate accommodations, services, supports and instruction (which our additional federal special education dollars are intended to provide) these 80 percent of special education students can learn grade level content in the general education curriculum and achieve proficiency on assessments.

In addition, research suggests that many of the small percent of students who do have intellectual impairments, like my daughter, (a group totaling less than 2 percent of the entire student population) can also achieve proficiency when they receive high quality instruction in the grade level content, appropriate services and supports and appropriate accommodations.

According to Dr. Kevin McGrew, the author of one of the most widely used instruments for assessing the cognitive abilities and achievement of children (Woodcock-Johnson III), “For most children with cognitive disabilities (those with below average IQ scores), it is not possible to predict individual levels of expected achievement with the degree of accuracy that would be required to deny a child the right to high standards/expectations.”

It is not possible to predict.

So when looking at the Jiffy Lube field trip permission slip, I ask myself, “Is my daughter being held to high expectations?” I know that the intent of “life skills lessons” for students with disabilities is to teach practical, applicable lessons. The irony here is that even I know that Erika will never own or drive a car. She will never need a tune up. But while Erika and her other elementary age special education friends observe oil changes for the benefit of “life skills” on Thursday, her peers will be back at school taking the Virginia Standards of Learning exams.

Now, I am not suggesting Erika should participate in the SOLs. The exam is not even close to being designed in a way which would demonstrate what a non-verbal child with autism knows. (That is a topic for another blog.) But I cannot predict whether or not Erika will go to college. I refuse to think it is out of the realm of possibility.

While I remain frustrated at the molasses pace of special education reform and teacher preparation programs which insist on turning out instructors who seem to think children like my daughter are destined for a life of emptying garbage cans, my work in the Department of Education provides a glimmer of hope.

One exciting part of my role in the Office of the Under Secretary involves the roll-out of new Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. In 2008, Congress, recognizing that this set of students has the highest unemployment and poverty rates of any subgroup, asked the Department of Education to support the development of programs which would allow students like my daughter who may not achieve a regular high school diploma the opportunity to attend college. The investment on the part of the Department is relatively small, but model demonstration projects will tell us how to support these students so they can succeed and move beyond currently dismal projections.

According to the Institute for Community Inclusion, “Of all students with disabilities, those with intellectual disabilities have the poorest post-school outcomes. Until recently, the option of attending college, especially the opportunity to participate in typical coursework, has not been available to high school students with intellectual disabilities. The usual options for these students, especially those past the age of 18, have been limited to segregated life skills or community-based transition programs. Inclusive PSE options are beginning to replace such programs and have great potential to improve student outcomes.”

We have known for some time that postsecondary training of any kind and for any individual is associated with better odds at employment, higher pay and higher overall quality of life. That is why the President and this administration are implementing an ambitious education agenda that will require our educational institutions to produce eight million new graduates with two-year and four-year degrees by 2020. We are aiming to once again be the world’s leader in percentage of college graduates.

The Secretary of Education recently told the Council for Exceptional Children:

“We simply cannot achieve that goal without Americans of all ages and abilities going to college and getting degrees in far greater numbers than they are today…President Obama and I believe that every child deserves a world-class education. When the president says every child, it is not just rhetoric--he means every child, regardless of his or her skin color, nationality, ethnicity, or ability.”


These goals and newly opened doors for students with disabilities create a new frontier for 10-year-olds like my daughter. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicate that students with disabilities who do manage to graduate from college exhibit similar labor market outcomes as their peers without disabilities.

Additional findings reveal that “students with intellectual disabilities who had some type of postsecondary education experience were much more likely to obtain competitive employment, required fewer supports, and earned higher wages. Additionally, students had increased self-esteem and expanded social networks that included students without disabilities, and all involved had overall higher expectations for these students.”

That is why we all need to care about that permission slip.

I am not sure what to do with that piece of paper. Do I sign it? What am I giving permission for? If nothing else, it is a reminder to keep asking for evidence. If the same-old, same-old practice of self-contained, segregated life skills instruction is so good, why aren’t we seeing better outcomes? Clearly something needs to change. First on my list - expectations.

Lisa Pugh is the 2009 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation Public Policy Fellow. She will work on disability policy for the House Committee on Education and Labor during the 111th Congress and in the Office of the Under Secretary in the Department of Education. She is being sponsored by The Arc Wisconsin. She will live for one year with her family in Washington, D.C. and return to her home in Madison, Wisconsin to share what she’s learned in June 2010.