Supporting Students With Disabilities Across Educational Settings

1. Supporting Students With Disabilities Across Educational Settings TEAMS Pedagogical Seminar National University - LAX Presented by Dr. Tess Reid November 4, 2006

2. Workshop Objectives • Define various levels of including students with disabilities in general education settings. • Constructivism: One approach of including students with disabilities in general education

3. Inclusion: More Than Location • What is Inclusion? • Inclusion is part of a much larger picture than just placement in the regular class within school. • Inclusion is being included in life and participating using one's abilities in day to day activities as a member of the community.

4. Inclusion: More Than Location • Inclusion is being a part of what everyone else is, and being welcomed and embraced as a member who belongs. • Inclusion can occur in schools, churches, playgrounds, work and in recreation.

5. Inclusion: More Than Location • The fundamental principle of inclusive education is the valuing of diversity within the human community.... • When inclusive education is fully embraced, we abandon the idea that children have to become "normal" in order to contribute to the world....

6. Inclusion: More Than Location • When inclusive education is fully embraced, we begin to look beyond typical ways of becoming valued members of the community, and in doing so, begin to realize the achievable goal of providing all children with an authentic sense of belonging. (Kunc 1992, pp. 38-39).

7. Inclusion: More Than Location • Think, Pair, Share: Based on the definition of inclusion just presented, in what ways can you “include” students with disabilities in your every day practices? • Find a partner to share your ideas with. • When the music stops, Let’s Share!

8. Inclusion: More Than Location • Human beings, regardless if they happen to have a disability or not, have basic needs that must be met in order to feel fulfilled. • The basic needs of food, water and shelter are necessary for us to exist.

9. Inclusion: More Than Location • It's also easy to see that when you don't eat right or exercise it can adversely effect your health and capacity to function in other areas of your life. • What happens when children with disabilities don’t receive the right education?

10. Inclusion: More Than Location • Having meaning and purpose to what you do and who you are, provides inspiration. • Conversely, feeling useless or doing things that are meaningless, decreases motivation and self-esteem.

11. Inclusion: More Than Location • What are some ways that students with disabilities can find purpose in what they do in general and special education settings?

12. Inclusion: More Than Location • What can teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, and other educational practitioners do to inspire students with disabilities in and out of the classroom?

13. Inclusion Summarized • Inclusion is more than a location; • Inclusion is about valuing the diversity in each student and their respective communities; a philosophy; • Inclusion is more about teachers’ daily practices than it is about a specific location • Students can be included in many ways

14. Inclusion and the Law • The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) & Placement • The starting point for ALL students with disabilities is the general education setting • Justification and research-based intervention(s) with documentation of NO PROGESS MUST be provided to remove a student with a suspected disability from the general education setting

15. Response to Intervention: Definition • Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA; P.L. 108-446) permits educators to use responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) as a substitute for, or supplement to, IQ- achievement discrepancy to identify students with suspected learning disabilities (LD) (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2001)

16. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Step 1: Screening • Responsibility: General Education • In the first month of the school year, students are screened to identify those "at risk" for school failure.

17. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Acceptable Practices: • To identify at-risk students: (1) the previous year's state assessment scores are reviewed to identify any student scoring below the 25th percentile in reading or math; OR (2) an achievement test is administered to all children in a given grade, with at-risk children designated as those scoring below the 25th percentile. (NOTE: At-risk students can also be identified by teachers or parents).

18. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Step 2a: Implementing Classroom Instruction - Tier 1 • Responsibility: General Education) • Students receive instruction in general education, in conjunction with No Child Left Behind and the Adequate Yearly Progress provision.

19. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Acceptable Practice: Teachers implement classroom instruction that reflects sound instructional design principles. • This requires understanding the cultural, linguistic, and ability levels within the CORE content for the student who is suspected to have a disability

20. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Step 2b: Monitoring Responsiveness to Classroom Instruction -Tier 1 • Responsibility: General Education: At-risk students are monitored for 8 weeks to identify a subset that responds inadequately to general education.

21. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Step 3a: Implementing a Supplementary, Diagnostic Instructional Trial - Tier 2 • Responsibility: General and Special Education • Tier 1 nonresponders receive an 8-week supplementary, diagnostic instructional trial. This trial is explained to parents in a letter or face-to-face meeting. Written parental consent is required for the trial to proceed.

22. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Step 3b: Monitoring Responsiveness to a Supplementary, Diagnostic Instructional Trial - Tier 2 • Responsibility: General Education and Special Education

23. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Response to the 8-week Tier 2 supplementary, diagnostic trial is monitored to identify the subset of students who respond inadequately (i.e., Tier 2 nonresponders). Parental feedback is provided in a written report, a telephone call, or a face-to-face meeting.

24. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Step 4: Designation of LD and Special Education Placement • Responsibility: General and Special Education • The Tier 2 nonresponders receive an individualized, comprehensive evaluation that addresses all eligibility determination, evaluation, and procedural safeguards specified in IDEA.

25. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities • Written parental con- sent is obtained. The evaluation team (including the special education teacher and other qualified professionals) designs an evaluation that rules out mental retardation as an alternative diagnosis using a brief intellectual assessment and eliminates other diagnostic possibilities such as emotional disturbance or visual disabilities.

26. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities

27. Response to Intervention: Roles and Responsibilities

28. CONSTRUCTIVISM: One Approach to Inclusive Teaching Practices • Structuralist Philosophy, constructivist theory, and holistic beliefs define the learning enterprise in opposition to reductionist behavioral learning theory and suggest that the task of schools is to help students develop new experiences rather than to learn the meaning others have created (Poplin, 2001)

29. CONSTRUCTIVISM: One Approach to Inclusive Teaching Practices • Under ideal conditions, all students work toward the same overall educational outcomes. What differs is the level at which these outcomes are achieved, the additional support that is needed by some students and the degree of emphasis placed on various outcomes (Schultz, 2001).

30. Constructivist Pedagogy(Brooks & Brooks) • Constructivist teachers encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative. • Constructivist teachers use raw data and primary sources, along with manipulatives, interactive, and physical materials.

31. Constructivist Pedagogy • When framing tasks, constructivist teachers use cognitive terminology such as ‘classify,’ ‘analyze.’ ‘predict,’ and ‘create.’ • Constructivist teachers allow students responses to drive lessons, shift instructional strategies, and alter content.

32. Constructivist Pedagogy • Constructivist teachers inquire about students’ understandings of concepts before sharing their own understanding of those concepts. • Constructivist teachers encourage students to engage in dialogue both with the teacher and with one another.

33. Constuctivist Pedagogy • Constructivist teachers encourage student inquiry by asking thoughtful, open-ended questions and encouraging students to ask questions of each other. • Constructivist teachers seek elaboration of students initial responses.

34. Constructivist Pedagogy • Constructivist teachers engage students in experiences that might engender contradictions to their initial hypothesis and then encourage discussion. • Constructivist teachers allow wait time after posing questions.

35. Constructivist Pedagogy • Constructivist Teachers provide time for students to construct relationships and create metaphors. • Constructivist teachers nurture students natural curiosity through frequent use of the learning cycle model.

36. A Restructured System • That merges special and regular education must also employ practices that focus on high expectations for all and rejects the prescriptive teaching, remedial approach that leads to lower achievement • (Schultz, 2001; Guess, & Thompson, 1989; Heshusius, 1989)

37. General Education Placements for Students with Disabilities • Mainstreaming: The selective placement of students with disabilities in one or more general education classes. • Many people assume that the student must “earn” his/her opportunity to be placed in the general education classroom by demonstrating an ability to “keep up” with the assigned work.

38. General Education Placements for Students with Disabilities • Inclusion: A term that expresses commitment to educate each child to the maximum extent appropriate, in the school and classroom he or she would otherwise attend. • Support services are brought to the child rather than moving the child to the services and requires ONLY that the child will benefit from being in the class

39. General Education Placements for Students with Disabilities • Full Inclusion: All students, regardless of handicapping condition or severity are in a general education classroom/program full time • All services must be taken to the student in the general education setting

40. Final Thoughts: Placement Recommendations • Every students first placement is in general or “regular” education • All placement decisions should be based on a well-developed IEP by the IEP team • Both general and special education teachers must collaborate on ways to best educate the student with a disability

41. Top-down mandated full inclusion is inappropriate and can be detrimental to morale of the entire school staff School staff must agree on a clearly articulated philosophy of education (an education ethic) Final Thoughts and Recommendations

42. Final Thoughts and Recommendations • Extensive staff development must be made available as a part of every teacher’s and paraprofessionals workday. • Work toward unifying the special education and regular education departments

43. Sufficient licensed practitioners are needed to address the social, emotional, and cognitive needs of all students When developing programs, consider multiple teaching/learning approaches Final Thoughts and Recommendations

44. Final Thoughts and Recommendations • Allow teachers a civil forum to challenge the implementation of IEP’s and placements that they determine to inappropriate for a child • Involve parents, paraprofessionals, and students as partners in the decision-making process

45. Resources • The Council for Exceptional Children http://www.cec.sped.org/ • Rethinking Schools • http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ • Learning Disabilities On Line • http://www.ldonline.org/ • Dr. Tess Reid, • Assistant Professor, Dept. Of Special Education • California State University, Northridge • ctessgo@gmail.com