Sinclair Coffer, Georgia Student With Autism, Denied Graduation By Board Of Education

Sinclaire Coffer, a 17-year-old high school student with autism, is fighting to be allowed to graduate from North Springs Charter High School in Sandy Springs, Ga., after the state Board of Education ruled against it, WSB-TV reports.

While Coffer has passed every other portion of the state's graduation exam, he has failed the math portion five times.

"We’ve gotten a private tutor," his mother Linda Coffer told WSB-TV. "He’s taken classes that are offered by the school in summer and throughout the school year.”

According to Fox 5 Atlanta, Coffer applied for a waiver which would have allowed him to graduate despite failing the exam. The state Board of Education, however, voted to deny his request.

Still, the student's family maintains that he is unable to pass the math portion of the exam due to his diagnosis, rather than a lack of hard work.

"Once he starts it, and he learns it, he can do it. But when you walk away, he forgets the steps," Coffer's mother told Fox 5 Atlanta.

Newscore reports that Georgia recently changed a law to require all students pass the math exam in order to graduate. However, those changes will not go into effect until next year. Meanwhile, Coffer's family has not been given a reason for the board's decision.

Quick Poll

Should he be allowed to graduate?

Yes!

No!

VOTE

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[proteusdecision]

02:00 PM on 05/21/2012

Oh, those good ole Christian values are really alive in the south!

[frankcaprafan]

08:28 PM on 05/20/2012

It would be interesting to require the BOE to take the test, for membership.

[drjanebarclay]

01:35 PM on 05/21/2012

They couldn't pass it!! When I was doing special admibnnistrations of the test at the high school where I worked, there were many academic teachers who commented that if they had to take the test they could not pass all five segments.

[NickaRay]

11:03 AM on 05/20/2012

Why don't they reteach him the math and then right after doing so give him the math portion of the exam so he doesn't have to take the math portion again. I'm sure some changes to that effect can be easily implemented for him. For the school not to at least try that shows that they don't really even care enough when they don't try that. The parents are doing their part, but they can only do so much..the school/school board has to do their part too. Kids with autism learn things differently and are better at somethings than others, the school should do all in their power to see him succeed. To think that just making him retake the test over and over again is going to somehow help him or make him feel good is so idiotic of them.

[drjanebarclay]

01:33 PM on 05/21/2012

You are right on about the testing technique which you suggest. As an expert in the field of special education, I would recommend just that. As to the re-taking, it is futile because that must be his area of disability. He perhaps has dyscalulia along with the autism.

[xUSAT]

09:17 PM on 05/19/2012

If the Georgia BoE is as moronic as some of the other red states, Coffer is likely more intelligent than the board members. He is, at a minimum, entitled to an explanation of their ruling. The Board will eventually realize this when they get the court order that is surely coming soon.

[drjanebarclay]

01:45 PM on 05/21/2012

I hope all of the parents around Georgia in this situation will ban together agains the board. I am volunteering to spearhead the organizing agaisnt the BOE and hopefully a civic minded attorney will take the case pro bono for us.
Dr. Jane Barclay, Special Education & Disability Advocates (SEDA)

[Summer77]

10:46 PM on 05/17/2012

Get rid of all the stupid testing! This test are all useless the only people who make out in these tests are the testing companies who make all the money!!!

[chriswilis]

07:12 PM on 05/17/2012

Standardized tests do not measure anything except how well a person takes a test. These tests should never be used to determine whether a student will graduate, pass to the next grade or be rewarded in any way nor should they determine a teacher's (or administrator's) worth through salary or "incentives". When the No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law in 2002 it made standardized tests the basis to measure all school performance - (look at Wikipedia for NCLB and further in-depth explanation)

[granolagoddess]

08:45 PM on 05/19/2012

If the student does the work, they should graduate. Exit exams are unfair and not indicative of a student's performance in a certain subject. Jeez...what a lame system.

[AlwaysTheStudent]

03:56 PM on 05/17/2012

I wouldn't expect anyone here to understand something they weren't familiar with. So I'll try my best to explain it.

http://www.viu.ca/cap/docs/Science-Prep-1.pdf

If I asked you to check out this PDF and tell me which table is longer, you're brain would tell you one thing, even though they are the same. I tell you they are the same, you can measure it with a ruler if you like, but as soon as you stare at the picture, you're brain thinks one table is longer than the other. No matter how hard you try, it's almost as if you haven't learned anything. You measured and now know they're the same length, but everytime you take the ruler away you can't help but seeing something different.

Imagine if you were faced with this sort of problem and complexity every time you attempted to do something and you might understand the frustration for the student and his parents here. It's not his fault it's the way things are for him.

You can see by his other good grades he is not a slouch by any means. He is a highly functional autistic person and he seems like a great guy to boot. It's ever more important to put resources into kids like these as we need and want them to be happy and independent.

[Ed Drone]

04:33 PM on 05/17/2012

My problem is, from the drawings, the tables are NOT the same length. Assuming the drawings are perspective drawings, the feet of one table span the length of the other (the front feet of the left (top, as the drawings are on their side) table are in front of the feet of the other, and the back legs are behind the back legs of the other. Now, in perspective, this makes one longer than the other. Simply because you can measure the lines and they're the same does NOT make the table the same length. It makes the DRAWING the same length. We live in a three-dimensional world, and table are three-dimensional "things," so a perspective drawing that shows one "thing" longer than another "thing" makes that one "thing" LONGER than the other. It matters not that the drawing's line representing the top of one "thing" is the same length as the line representing the top of the other "thing." The two "things" are of different lengths.

Has the question been, "Which table's line is longer?" then the "They're the same" is the right answer. As stated, though, the one table is longer than the other. The drawing, not so much.

[Libby Nunyabusiness]

03:53 PM on 05/19/2012

you are completely missing the point.

[SteelTrapMind]

08:10 AM on 05/17/2012

A student with diagnosed Autism who fails the test five times is not lazy or stupid, he's incapable for reasons beyond his control, and he's tried more times than most students would, showing the dedication and commitment to education that many others lack entirely. To deny this student something, when he's fundamentally incapable of succeeding, comes of as petty and harsh, if not outright discriminatory, when they have the power to waive it.

[eceresa]

06:45 PM on 05/17/2012

Why stop at the high school diploma, then? If we're going to give him degrees he didn't earn because we feel sorry for him, why not go all the way and give him a PhD?

[SteelTrapMind]

12:47 AM on 05/18/2012

There's a world of difference there, so you go nuts on those strawmen,  building them up and breaking them down. This student worked as hard as he's capable of on this, so the effort and the attempt is there. I fail to see what the problem is here when so many students in Georgia were probably shuffled through into diplomas by schools looking to massage their numbers. In fact, one of the big NCLB issues happened.. in Georgia. Look it up. So if cheating to get diplomas goes on widely and is apparently acceptable in GA, why isn't recognizing the efforts of a student far better than many others? A diploma will allow him to get some menial job somewhere trough a half-way house style system.
Beyond all that, test-taking is in itself a separate skill, so whether or not it's his mathematic ability or his test-taking which is in question is a problem left unanswered. IF it's his ability to test well, who cares? why are we judging that? Based on his apparent other grades, hes' fine in math. Why don't the reviewers examine THAT metric? It's entirely arbitrary and capricious for them to say 'who cares if he can get the grades and know the material, if he cannot demonstrate that knowledge in our one approved venue, then he fails.' That's NOT teaching, it's not measuring success, it's dog and pony shows.
Bluntly, you come off as though you'd rather stand on some bizarre principle that mentally handicapped

[Rationality4all]

09:58 PM on 05/16/2012

At some point emotion needs to be seperated from this situation.

He didn't meet the requirements, he doesn't graduate. I fail to see why this is so hard for people to wrap their heads around.

These tests are pathetic standards to begin with (based off my experience with the Ohio Graduation Test), and we wonder why America is falling behind. Raise the bar, don't lower it further.

[SteelTrapMind]

08:13 AM on 05/17/2012

IF emotion needs to be separated, then logic alone shows that the student will NEVER meet that particular requirement. He has Autism, his form prevents the learning of the advanced maths required. He has tried five times. The data there predicts he will either never pass, or eventually may skim by on enough easy questions, assuming the test questions are randomly generated, or perhaps we could wait until he's memorized enough questions and answers to generate a winning score without demonstrating full comprehension. As seen all over the world, many jobs require minimal mathematics. I see no logical reason to prevent the board from issuing a waiver. Mindless adherence to rules is no more valuable than doing everything on emotional impulse.

[eceresa]

06:44 PM on 05/17/2012

This is a test that all high school students in Georgia are required to pass before they graduate. It's a sure bet that it doesn't have advanced math on it. It's got basic math. And this kid can't do it.

I'm absolutely willing to agree that it's not his fault that he can't. I'll take it on faith that he put in a full effort, and he's just incapable. That would make any reasonable person feel sorry for him. That wouldn't make any reasonable person pretend that he actually succeeded, which is what happens if he gets a diploma.

[Beckel411]

05:18 PM on 05/16/2012

The fact is, he might have answered more questions correctly on the state tests than many of his classmates. He might have gotten 90 out of 100 questions right on the History part; 95 right on the Science part; 95 of them right on the English part and only 60 right on the Math part. Some of his classmates might have scored 70 right on each section and will walk at graduation with big smiles all around while this young man and his family sit home, devastated.

I'm not sure what this proves.

[noahmarder]

06:00 PM on 05/16/2012

He failed five times. It is statistically unlikely that he was averaging scores that were only 10 points below the passing threshold. I would certainly allow his passing scores to stand, and award him the diploma if he can pass the math section on a future test.

[Beckel411]

06:57 PM on 05/16/2012

There was a girl in our town who failed the math section of the state test 5 times with a score of 199 each time. Passing grade was 200.

She was not allowed to be on school grounds during graduation.

Sure taught her a lesson, eh? She was the President of the Natl Honor Society, had a 3.6 GPA, passed the other 4 sections with very high scores, scored a 28 in Math on the ACT (passing is 19, average is 22) and was going to college on a scholarship.

[Beckel411]

06:52 PM on 05/19/2012

We've used our allotted "reply" chances so I can't reply directly to your last comment. I guess we have to let this die at some point but again you refer to the child not learning the required information and again I say that when other factors show the test to be an inaccurate indicator (and in thousands of cases in Ohio, were scored incorrectly), the child should be allowed to walk. Give him a blank diploma. Whatever you want. But there is nothing to be served by denying that child the right to be in the building and go through the ceremony with his/her classmates. That test does not necessarily measure competence. Few states have such stringest requirements and even the young man in this article would be able to graduate if he was a year younger because Georgia is changing their policy.

[lcr999]

05:11 PM on 05/16/2012

I am a scientist, a Ph.D. even, so I obviously value math and science. However, demanding that all students complete some advanced math sequence (algebra / geometry, etc) is just dumb and gernerally not productive. It just pushes kids out of school. No Child left Behind is a failed concept. The only way you can NCLB is to lower the bar, holding everyone back . In the real world, everyone is not equal.

[drjanebarclay]

01:54 PM on 05/21/2012

You are so correct!! If all people had the same academic strenghts in all areas, we would not have geniuses in art, music, science, etc. It is an accepted fact that people are individuals who use their brain and thinking skills in unique ways, we are all different. AND if the kid is not going into a field of education and employment where math is critical, what does it matter in the long run anyway?

[Beckel411]

05:06 PM on 05/16/2012

Why do we bother with giving the kids grades in their coursework? Just offer them some coursework and have them take the state tests. If they pass, they graduate.

Get rid of everything else. No sports, no clubs, no anything because, in the end, the only thing anyone cares about is if you can pass the state's test.

Even if your score on the college entrance exams is above average, it doesn't mean anything if you can't pass the state's test.

[Endersdragon]

03:39 PM on 05/16/2012

Since I know some people are wondering where I got my facts and figures from about the fact that people must take pre-calc here in Arizona, here it is http://www.azed.gov/state-board-education/high-school-graduation-requirements/. 4 years, at least to advanced algebra, and another higher level class, which would have to be pre-calc or calc. Brave new world...

[noahmarder]

04:40 PM on 05/16/2012

The next class after advanced algebra is usually trigonometry (although in some places trig is combined with pre-calc). Your link said that it was up to the individual school districts or charter schools to decide what fourth courses would be acceptable. Statistics and Computer Science would both be likely to qualify.

[Endersdragon]

04:45 PM on 05/16/2012

From what I have heard from math teachers nearby (I work in elementary not high school) they don't.  It is important to note, that nearby accounts for most of the population of Arizona, as we are talking about pretty much the entire valley of the sun.

[Randy Cullar]

10:02 AM on 05/16/2012

He's probably just as, or maybe even MORE prepared for life after school than the average HS graduate. With all the social promotion filling the world with ill-prepared people, he should probably graduate with honors of some kind acknowleging his progress. But then, I'm speaking of a less Fascist society than our failed education system.

[eceresa]

03:09 PM on 05/16/2012

"He's probably just as, or maybe even MORE prepared for life after school than the average HS graduate."

...and we know this because he can't do arithmetic.

"With all the social promotion filling the world with ill-prepared people, he should probably graduate with honors of some kind acknowleging his progress."

So there's too much social promotion, and that's your support for socially promoting him?

[noahmarder]

04:08 PM on 05/16/2012

Looks like I agree with you on this one.

[lcr999]

05:07 PM on 05/16/2012

We are not talking about Arithmetic. We are talking about HS math, which is some combination of Algebra, geometry, and maybe even calculus.

[Therealkarmabug]

09:35 AM on 05/16/2012

Students with learning disabilities, especially those in the ASD spectrum, have a difficult time finding jobs - by not coming up with some balance to help this student recieve his diploma the school is only setting this young man up for failure.

[eceresa]

03:11 PM on 05/16/2012

...because it's the school's fault that he can't do math, right?

Heck, why not give him a Ph.D? His job prospects would be much better then.

[Endersdragon]

03:30 PM on 05/16/2012

I guess you like the idea of supporting this boy throughout the rest of his life. The simple fact is yes, he couldn't pass the test, but he could pass every class, some with exceptional high grades, and I am guessing you never had to take a test to exit high school. It isn't like he will be going to a 4 year college right away, SATs will see to that, but give him some credit for passing every class he has to, many with flying colors.

[Endersdragon]

03:31 PM on 05/16/2012

P.S. What was the highest math course you took. I am pretty sure incoming freshman now have to go up through pre-calc. I am a bit of a wiz with math (I did my mom's college algebra homework when I was 8), but I hated pre-calc. I can't imagine an even average person making it that far.