Students with Special Needs

1. Students with Special Needs EDUC 4580/MEDUC 6580 Dr. Fran Butler

2. Topic Outline • Student characteristics • Cultural Diversity • Effective Teaching Strategies • Continuum of Services • National Education Reform • The Regular Education Initiative • Inclusion • Professional Commitment

3. Did you know? • Recent reports on the quality of education in the United States do not mention special education? • There are overlapping themes in legislation addressing special and vocational education? • Of the secondary students receiving special education, 29% graduate or receive a certificate of completion? • Employment rates of persons with mild disabilities leaving secondary schools range from 50 to 75%?

4. Did you know? • Only a minority of individuals with disabilities will enter skilled occupations? • Students with severe disabilities are less likely than those with mild disabilities to drop out of school? • Most teachers of secondary students with special needs ere trained at the elementary level? • Many special educators are certified but not trained to teach at the secondary level?

5. Can you • Identify the court cases that contributed to the provisions of IDEA? • List the provisions of IDEA? • Define FAPE, LRE, and IEP? • List the components of an IEP? • Identify the instructional settings included in Deno’s Cascade? • State the purpose of Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973?

6. Can you • Describe the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990? • Describe the efforts by OSERS to remedy the deficiency in current educational services to persons with disabilities? • Describe steps to ensure that learning is retained and skills are transferred to life situations beyond the school setting? • Discuss 6 factors that hinder the development of secondary special education programs? • Identify the goals of secondary special education?

7. Service Alternatives More General Education (Collaborative Consultation Co-teaching) Resource Classroom Self-Contained Class Physical Integration Special Day School Hospital or Homebound Instruction Residential School Less

8. Factors Undermining the Success of Secondary Special Education • Limited recognition of the need for services at this level, • The inflexible structure of regular secondary special education, • Curricular emphasis of regular secondary education, • Inadequate teacher preparation, • Lack of theoretical and empirical support, • Lack of appropriate materials.

9. Goals of Secondary Special Education • Students should be provided an opportunity to maximize their potential; • To the greatest extent possible, students should receive their education in close approximation of their peers; • Students should become independent thinkers; • Students should possess the skills necessary to locate and maintain suitable employment and to meet the challenges of community living.

10. Important Terms • Normalization--both the means and the ends of education for students with disabilities should be as much like those for nondisabled students as possible • Deinstitutionalization--a systematic drive to move people out of institutions and back into closer contact with the community • Full Inclusion--all students with disabilities should attend general education classes in their neighborhood schools and general education should assume primary responsibility for all students

11. Student Characteristics • Inadequate academic achievement • Inappropriate school behaviors • Poor attending behaviors • Poor memory • Inadequate organizational skills • Poor self-concept • Inadequate social skills

12. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Academic • Social • Motivational • Executive

13. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Academically • reach an achievement plateau during the secondary school years • do not use effective or efficient study routines • have difficulty completing assignments • have difficulty distinguishing the important from the unimportant • do not organize information appropriately for study

14. Achievement Performance Achievement Performance across the Grades on the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery

15. Mean Grade Equivalent Scores Mean Grade Equivalent Scores on the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery Reading Math Writing Cluster Cluster Cluster 7 3.3 LD 5.2 LD 3.7 LD 4.4 LA 6.0 LA 5.1 LA 8 4.2 LD 5.5 LD 4.2 LD 4.4 LA 6.5 LA 4.7 LA 9 3.9 LD 6.3 LD 4.7 LD 5.6 LA 6.7 LA 5.6 LA 10 4.6 LD 6.9 LD 4.7 LD 6.6 LA 8.3 LA 7.0 LA 11 4.8 LD 6.5 LD 4.7 LD 6.6 LA 7.6 LA 6.8 LA 12 4.1 LD 6.4 LD 4.8 LD 6.6 LA 7.8 LA 6.7 LA N = 424 (24-41 in each group at each level) LD: Learning Disabled; LA: Low Achieving

16. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Socially • scored the same as juvenile delinquents on a test of social skills • do not participate in discussions • often demonstrate rule-breaking behavior • are less active in school and out-of-school activities • do not recognize opportunities for social skill use

17. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Motivationally • do not see the relationship between appropriate effort and success • often do not see the benefits of staying in school • have difficulty making a commitment to learn or perform • have few goals or plans for the future • have trouble setting and attaining goals

18. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Executively • often do not invent appropriate strategies to complete tasks • have difficulty learning how to solve problems • often do not generalize • often fail to take advantage of prior knowledge when facing new problems

19. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Academically, low achievers plateau in basic skill areas and have difficulty studying, completing assignments, and organizing information. • Socially, low achievers have difficulty interacting with peers and adults and are likely to engage in rule-breaking behaviors.

20. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Motivationally, low achievers do not see the benefits of their efforts and have difficulty setting and attaining goals. • Executively, low achievers often do not generalize new learning and have difficulty with the problem-solving process.

21. Demands and Expectations In school and out-of-school settings • Academic • Social • Motivational • Executive

22. Demands and Expectations • Key academic demands: • gain information from materials written at the secondary level • gain information from lectures • demonstrate knowledge through tests • express information in writing --(correct spelling, short answers, descriptive prose with long sentences)

23. Demands and Expectations Key social demands • follow rules and instructions in and out of school • participate in social activities • participate in discussions and conversations with peers and adults • accept criticism and help • recruit assistance • resist inappropriate peer pressure • be pleasant across social interactions

24. Demands and Expectations Key motivational demands • plan for timely task completion • demonstrate a proactive approach to life • set short-, intermediate-, and long-term goals • put forth maximum and appropriate effort to achieve goals • complete educational programs

25. Demands and Expectations Key executive demands: • work independently with little feedback • apply knowledge across content areas • solve problems • organize information and resources

26. Demands and Expectations • Academically, students must gain information from books and lectures and demonstrate this information in writing and on tests. • Socially, students must follow rules and interact appropriately with peers and adults.

27. Demands and Expectations • Motivationally, students must set, plan for, and carry out short- and long-term goals. • Executively, students must independently solve problems and generalize learning across situations.

28. Cultural Diversity • Minority students comprise 34% of the total school population. • Minority students comprise 42% of students with mental disabilities. • School culture generally mirrors our dominant culture.

30. Can You Pass This Test? • What is a blue tick? • What’s the most successful method of catching catfish? • What is a Hanna-butta? • If someone told you to get “da kine,” what would they mean? • What is a gee-haw-whinny-diddle? • Is this a culturally biased test or do you have a low IQ?

31. Multiculturally Aware Teachers • Take the time to learn about students’ backgrounds and cultural characteristics of their families and communities. • Respect and accommodate students’ individual and culture-based learning styles. • Provide accurate and age-appropriate multicultural information and instructional materials. • Challenge and avoid the use of stereotypes. • Use culture-fair and gender-fair language and examples. • Integrate multicultural perspectives throughout the curriculum.

32. Eight Essentials for Successful Teaching in a Diverse Society • The ability to communicate with students who are different from you. • Skills in diagnosing the knowledge and abilities of culturally diverse students. • Knowledge about the psychology, dynamics, and impact of prejudice. • The ability to discover differences among value systems relating to cultural and class differences. • Knowledge of one’s own and other cultures leading to the realization that people are more alike than they are different.

33. Eight Essentials for Successful Teaching in a Diverse Society • An increased capacity for humane, sensitive, and critical inquiry into multicultural issues as they relate to curriculum and instruction. • An increased willingness and openness to examine and to reassess one’s own cultural attitudes, beliefs, and values. • An increased ability to respond positively and sensitively to the diversity of behavior present in multicultural settings.

34. Effective Teaching Strategies • Reductionist paradigm • Constructivist paradigm • Combining paradigms

35. The Instructional Cycle Planning Evaluation Presentation Independent Practice

36. Service Delivery • Least Restrictive Environment-- • In General, to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily (20 USC S1412(a)(5)(A))

37. Premises of Full Inclusion Labeling is harmful. Pull-out programs are ineffective. People with disabilities as a minority. Ethics over empiricism.

38. Arguments against Full Inclusion • Satisfaction with continuum of placements • General educators unwilling and/or unable to cope • People with disabilities are a minority argument is flawed • Not to consider empirical evidence is professionally irresponsible • Available evidence does not support full inclusion • Preserving the continuum of placements

39. Summary • What are the major arguments pro and con concerning inclusion? • How do Goals 2000 and the reforms in education affect students with disabilities? • Describe effective instructional techniques for students with disabilities. • What are the some of the characteristics of students with disabilities?