Curriculum Development for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

Access to General Education Content Core Curriculum Standards, & IEPS

Denise Clark and Stacey Skoning

The Challenge for Teachers

• Universities haven’t always prepared teachers of students with Cognitive disabilities to develop academic programs.

• Many districts followed a traditional program with functional goals not related to general education curriculum

• There are several sources of pressure to Re-envision the educational programs of students with intellectual disabilities

Why are we considering more emphasis on academic programs now?• Research• Experience• Legislation

Increased Legislative Pressure for Access to General Education Curriculum

NCLB“when measuring Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), states, school districts and schools have the flexibility to count the "proficient" scores of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who take assessments based on alternate achievement standards.” (US DOE)

IDEA 2004“…having high expectations for such children and ensuring their access to the general education curriculum in the regular classroom, to the maximum extent possible, in order to meet the developmental goals and, to the maximum extent possible, the challenging expectations that have been established for all children; and be prepared to lead productive and independent adult lives, to the maximum extent possible." (Section 1400(c)(4)

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How do teachers face the challenge?

• Many teachers we work with have a set of questions first:– What is the point in aligning students’ programs

to academic standards?– Why is general education curricular content

relevant for this population?– Doesn’t this remove “individual” from their IEP?

Teachers need resources to understand and meet this challenge

• Many teachers lack experiences providing targeted general education curriculum to this population

• Often there are no available models of curricular development that are immersed in the general education curriculum and are individually focused

• Most districts lack a specific process to provide teachers of students with cognitive disabilities structure for curriculum development

What does academic participation look life for this population?

An Initial example

• Andy Changing the context of reading instruction

Some trucks have scoops for pushing.

Some trucks have buckets to pick things up.

The Lee Family’s Home

Robert and Ann’s favorite place

was the house where Ann

grew up.

General Lee

Robert E. Lee had made a very hard choice.

Moving toward math instruction that aligns to High School Standards

• Pat’s Class

Pat’s Class

• Pat’s class– High school class for students labeled as CDMS

(Students IQs range 24-67)– Math class always followed a functional

curriculum with an emphasis on counting, shopping, money, time…

2 years after changing to an academic focus…

• As you watch the video, think about how the teacher has shifted from a functional to academic focus?

• Are the students working on high school curricular goals?

The following school year…

• How has the students’ thinking changed from last spring to this fall?

Functional goal within academic context enhances the level of

achievement

• Melinda

Decrease Behavioral OutburstsUnderstand EmotionsIncrease Vocabulary

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•Mad •Hate

•Happy •Loving

Examples of academically based goals

• When given five word problems with whole numbers up to 20 requiring any of the four basic mathematical processes (+, -, x, /), the student will use manipulatives or pictures to solve four of the five problems correctly, write the equation for the problem, and explain/demonstrate how the solutions were determined.

In-depth case study

• Identify core standards for a specific student• Determine goals related to text• Align student’s goals to these academic

outcomes.• Ground students’ learning in a specific text

How can you support increased experience with General Education

Curriculum?

Experiences to Identify the Local Curriculum

• Visit general education classrooms• Talk to the colleagues about what they are

teaching• Attend grade level team meetings• Explain to their colleagues the need for access

to general education access, not just least restrictive environment

Models of Curriculum Development Process

• Michael McSheehan The Beyond Access Model

• Michael Giangreco COACH Edition 3

How can you support the curricular design process for this population in

your district?