The politics of dyslexia
Those who manage resources in education have a duty to ensure that these are fairly distributed amongst all those who need additional help. There are different levels of support which can be provided in school as outlined in the SEN Code of Practice. The highest level of support is provided through a Statement of Special Educational Needs, which is a legally binding document outlining the level of additional support which a pupil is entitled to. In most local authorities a statement does not bring additional resources to the school as these have already been delegated, but indicates the level of existing resource which the school should commit to supporting the individual.
Local Authorities will normally set a cut-off point for each of the stages in the Code of Practice including a Statement of Special Needs. This will normally be based on the pupil's response to additional help which has already been given, together with a measure of their reading ability against the school population as a whole.
Typically, only pupils falling in the bottom 1% of readers will be entitled to a statement, and then only when they have had support at earlier stages for a reasonable period of time, and failed to make progress.
This can lead to conflict with parents who want the best for their child, and may not understand the need for local authorities to be even handed to all. 16% of appeals to the SEN Tribunal, through which parents can challenge the decision of the local authority, were made by parents of dyslexic children in 2008-9.
Forum discussion – Peter is a very bright pupil with an IQ of 140, more than 2 standard deviations above the average, but his word reading puts him at the 10th centile (i.e. better than 10% of his peers, but worse than the remaining 90%), less than 2 standard deviations below the mean, in the low average range. His poor reading is badly affecting his progress in school.
Thomas is a pupil with generalised learning difficulties scoring at the 10th centile on intelligence tests and at the 2nd centile on word reading, placing him more than 2 standard deviations below the mean in reading. His academic progress is slow.
There are only enough additional resources available to assist one of these two pupils. Who should receive this extra help?
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