supporting students with disabilities in the classroom inclusive practices – an overview! laspdg...
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Supporting Students with Supporting Students with Disabilities in the ClassroomDisabilities in the Classroom
Inclusive Practices – An Inclusive Practices – An Overview!Overview!
LASPDG Presented by Kathy Kilgore
January 22, 2015
IDEA Mission Statement {Purposes IDEA Mission Statement {Purposes 1400(d)}1400(d)}…to ensure that all children with
disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment and independent living and to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected…
IDEA Tenets IDEA Tenets
FAPELREIEP
Least Restrictive Environment Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)(LRE)Schools must educate CWD with
children without disabilities “to the maximum extent appropriate”.
A CWD may only be removed from the regular educational setting if the nature or severity of the disability is such that the child cannot be educated in regular classes, even with the use of supplementary aids and services.
History of Interpretation of LRE…
In 1975, schools generally interpreted the law to mean they should mainstream students with mild disabilities into classes where these students could keep up with other learners, supposedly with minimal support and few or no modifications to either curriculum or instruction.
From Making Inclusive Education Work, Richard A. Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand
In the early 1980s, interpretation evolved to include the concept of integrating students with more intensive needs into regular classrooms (even if just for social reasons).
From Making Inclusive Education Work, Richard A. Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand
• In the 1990s, interpretation evolved into the approach now known as inclusion. The 1997 reauthorization of IDEA did not use the term inclusion, but it effectively codified the principle and practice of inclusion by requiring that students’ IEPs ensure access to the general education curriculum. This reauthorization broadened the concept of inclusion to include academic as well as physical and social access to general education instruction and experiences.
From Kluth, Villa, & Thousand, 2002
National Center for Education Statistics 2011-2012:
6.4 million children, ages 3-21, received special education services in public schools
This represents about 13% of all public school students
LRE Settings • Technical Assistance Coordination
Center (TACC) in 2011:
–94.9% of SWD, ages 6 – 21, received their instruction in general education classrooms for some portion of the day.
–61% of students in SpEd spent 80% or more of their time in general education classrooms.
IDEA: LA Educational Environments 2012Disability >80% (LA) >80%
(Nation)40-79% (LA)
40-79% (Nation)
<40% (LA) <40% (Nation)
All Disabilities
60.6 61.5 21.1 19.5 13.4 13.7
Autism 27.9 39.5 22 18.1 46.4 33.2
ED 48.3 44.1 23.8 17.8 21.8 20.3
Intellectual Disability
18.2 17.1 32.2 26.6 45.8 48.7
OI 58.1 54.8 21.1 16.2 16.4 21.6
OHI 59.6 64 25.6 22.2 11.1 9.7
SLD 64.9 67.2 28.9 24.6 4.6 6.3
Speech/Language
88.8 86.6 1.3 5.5 0.3 4.3
LRE Requirement….means….Majority of SWD are receiving their
instruction in general education classes from general education teachers.
We have to figure out how to best support SWD so they may be successful.
‘Inclusive Practices’ provides the pathway.
• GenEd teacher is most often the teacher of records for SWD and may be solely responsible for the instruction of all students in the classroom.
• Research indicates the quality of the teacher is the most important school-based factor for improving student outcomes. (CEC Issue Brief June 2014)
• Economist Eric Hanushek:–“The most important factor in student
performance is the quality of the teacher. Not class size. Not spending per pupil. Not even curriculum.”
Special Education Support
• Support Teachers (i.e., SpEd) perform these functions:–Co-teach with general educators–Provide direct instruction to SWD via
‘pull out’–Consult with general educators–Combination of the above
• Special Educators are needed to support General Educators in meeting the needs of SWD either through:–Consulting with the General Educator to
inform, help adapt lessons, design accommodations, modify activities, etc. –Co-teaching with a General Educator to
provide direct instructional support to SWD and other students while jointly delivering instruction.
But…..• 49 states continue to report a shortage of
special educators• 90% of high-poverty schools report difficulty in
attracting highly-qualified sped teachers• Special educators leave the profession at nearly
twice the rate of general educators• Cost of teacher turnover estimated at more
than $4 billion per year to districts
CEC Issue Brief June 2014
• MetLife Foundation found in 2013 that GenEd teachers report feeling challenged or very challenged in addressing the needs of the diversity of students in their classrooms.
• “…our education schools do not teach the mechanics of teaching: how to control a classroom, how to engage students’ imaginations, how to check for understanding. They’ve been sidetracked by educational psychology and fads at the expense of teaching how to teach.”
Elizabeth Green (Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach it to Everyone)
“Make sure all teachers (not just special ed) learn the latest in dealing with special education learning delay recovery. Most kids can be brought back into regular ed classes, but not with inclusion-only strategies. It takes consistent hour-a-day skill building or the student won’t change. Learn the right skills and go to it 3-5 days a week.”
Eric Jensen: TOP 10 Brain-Based Teaching Strategies
What’s not Working!
Not having the correct ‘tools’ or not using them appropriately/effectively
Assuming staff knows how to collaborate and how to implement inclusive practices A lot of PD is ‘drive-by’ PD Little follow-up support/feedback
Using only a ‘deficits’ or ‘numbers’ model instead of a ‘support needs’ model to determine what support SWD need and how it will be provided
Common Mistakes…
Underutilization of support staff in general education settings
Lack of intense, targeted instruction for skill recovery in ‘pull out’ or intervention settings
Success of inclusive practices measured in an ineffective general education environment
What will Work!
• Placing more emphasis on general educators (e.g., training and support)
• Designing effective and fluid RtI systems that address learning gaps
• Balancing the need for high levels of accountability via structured curriculum with the need to individualize instruction and address learning gaps of SWD on their current level
• More effectively utilizing SpEd co-teachers
Co-teaching!!
• Is the teaching and learning process different in the co-taught class?
• Should you readily be able to identify which teacher is general and which special?
Co-teaching: Seamless but Not Interchangeable (Elizabeth Stein, 12/8/14 as reported in CEC Smart Brief 12/9/14)
Effectiveness of inclusive practices is being demonstrated…
• Valley View Elementary in Minnesota– Invested in co-teaching in a big way– Ranks among top schools in the state that have
highest levels of student poverty and the best scores on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments
– Ranked second highest score in math and fourth highest score in reading on the Star Tribune’s annual “Beating the Odds’ list which ranks schools based on poverty and MCA scores.(86% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch and 40% are just learning to speak English)
From the Chronicle of Higher Education November 10, 2014
• Edgewood College in Madison Wisconsin– Cutting Edge program aims to provide college
experience to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
– 80% of its graduates work in jobs outside of “sheltered workshops”
– Program responds to the ‘falling off the cliff’ concern
– Students take courses both within their own group and within the broader Edgewood curriculum; they live on campus; they work with peer mentors.
– Similar to project Think College: College Options for People with Intellectual Disabilities run out of the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
– In 2007, there were 39 four-year colleges with inclusive programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Now there are over 200.
Cherry Ridge Elementary – Morehouse Parish
• Focused on co-teaching in grade 3 during the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school year.
• 3rd grade was the only grade to evidence an increase in LEAP scores (improvement ranged from 17 to 27 percentage points).
• Principal attributes gain to effective co-teaching.
Not so easy (but doable) fixes……
• Concretize the process of inclusive practices, making it the foundation for providing support to all students.
• Habituate ‘inclusive practices’ through on-going follow-up and specific accountability measures.
• Accept no excuses.
Visible Teaching – Visible Learning (by John Hattie)
12.1% have a disability…
• Many of us (in this room) have a disability; but, we have learned to compensate or use an accommodation.
• A disability does not define a person, it is merely an aspect of who they are.
• People with disabilities are capable of great things…
