What makes schools work for ALL learners

1. What makes schools work for ALL learners Pat Folland Betty Hendrickson Illinois State Board of Education and Ruth Henning Project CHOICES

2. What makes schoolswork for students? • Instruction that is aligned with and provides access to the age/grade appropriate general education curriculum. • Intervention techniques used regularly to assist all students in the general education environment. • The same high expectations for all students. • Appropriate modifications/accommodations/ supports in the classroom for all students. • Tasks that are related to real world problems connected to purposes that students can explain.

3. What makes schools work for teachers? • Specialized personnel supporting all students in the general education classroom with limited pull-out service. • Shared responsibility/collaboration between general and special education staff, including administrative support for; • differentiating instruction • assessment • IEPs • Adequate training for staff including follow-up

4. Here’s the challenge • A child with a disability should not be removed from education in an age-appropriate general education classroom solely because of needed modifications in the general curriculum. • Illinois rated 60th of 60 states and territories in a ranking on education of students with disabilities in general education classrooms.

5. Improving our outcomes in Illinois is about building capacity for students with disabilities through changing/unifying our systems www.projectchoices.org

6. Support for training and technical assistance from the ISBE collaborates within ISTAC • The District is the entity of focus • Identified district level and building level coaches are supported to build capacity within the district and schools

7. What do we know about change? • It happens… faster all the time • Top down and bottom up can work • Teachers are critical to the process • Administrative support is critical if change is to sustain • Efforts must be continuous • It is a journey, not a destination…. • Change will not sustain, only continuous learning will…

8. School Improvement occurred when: • Teachers engaged in frequent, continuous, and increasingly concrete talk about teaching practice • Teachers and administrators frequently observed and provided feedback to each other, developing a “shared language” for teaching strategies and needs • Teachers and administrators planned, designed, and evaluated teaching materials and practices together. From: Norms of collegiality and experimentation: workplace conditions of school success (1982). American Educational Research journal

9. Initiative can come from different sources, but when it comes to implementation “power sharing” is crucial. • Leaders in successful schools support and stimulate initiative taking by others, set up steering committees, and delegate authority to the committees. • Louis and Miles (1990)

10. Leadership matters, it correlates positively with student achievement. The average effect size/correlation between principal leadership behavior and school achievement is .25 which means…. a one standard deviation improvement in principal leadership practices is associated with a 10 percentile increase in average student achievement. Marzano& McNulty (2003) Balanced Leadership: What 30 Years of Research Tells Us About the Effect of Leadership on Student Achievement http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/5031RR_BalancedLeadership.pdf

11. What does it look like in the classroom? Classroom Instruction that works Identifying similarities and differences Summarizing and note taking Reinforcing effort and providing recognition Homework and practice Nonlinguistic Representations Cooperative Learning Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Generating and Testing Hypotheses Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers Marzano, R. (2004). Classroom instruction that works: Research based instructional strategies. Baltimore: ASCD.

13. What does it look like in the classroom? • Students with disabilities are using the same curriculum as their non-disabled peers. • Students with disabilities are not “clustered” within the classroom – a class within a class. • Students with disabilities receive supplemental instruction in a resource room not supplanting general education instruction. • Students with disabilities receive the appropriate modifications/ accommodations/supports necessary to achieve.

14. What equitable access is not… • Students with disabilities are all in one row. • Students with disabilities are taught in the same classroom but in the back by a special education teacher using an alternate curriculum. • Students with disabilities are “clustered” within the classroom – a class within a class. • A student with an individual aide receives instruction primarily from the aide – seldom the teacher. • Students with disabilities receive accommodations/ modifications/supports only in the special education room. • Students are placed in a classroom based on their eligibility category.

15. Teaming & Relationship Building Effective Instructional Strategies Accommodations & Support Systems Vision And Attitude What Makes Schools Work for ALL Learners Family Involvement Professional Development Administrative Support Common Planning Time

16. Defined Goals of the LRE Monitoring Process • Systematic changes within each school that will result in consistent LRE practices which comply with federal and state LRE requirements • Systemic changes will result in improved student outcomes

17. Methods of Collecting LRE Data • Examine practices being undertaken in the schools and probe the knowledge of the persons responsible for putting these practices into effect. • Quantitative and Qualitative measures OBSERVE REVIEW INTERVIEW

18. Vision & Attitude • Begin with the end in mind – What do you want your school to look like? • Celebrate all types of diversity • There's no SUCCESS without U!!!! Hmmm…What do I want my school to look like???

19. Professional Development • Professional Development should support your school vision • Whole building training and follow-through • Needs Assessments • Administrative observations and walk-through

20. Administrative Support • Principal philosophy and action must support LRE • Principal understanding and follow-through on implementation • Master schedule supports: • common planning time • instruction in high school • Staff assignments support co-teaching models • Paraprofessional assignments support increased LRE

21. Effective Instructional Strategies • Functional Analysis/BIPs are in place • Appropriate interventions are utilized • Scientifically based instruction • Materials are age appropriate • Goals are aligned with the appropriate ILS

22. Accommodations and Support Systems • Accommodations and modifications are SUFFICIENT to access the general education curriculum • Accommodations and modifications are age appropriate • Access to all program options (curricular and extracurricular) with necessary supports • Access to assistive technology

23. Teaming and Relationship Building • Attitudinal changes have been addressed • General and special education teachers plan curriculum in collaborative teams • School teams include special education staff • Co-Teaching

24. Common Planning Time • Regularly scheduled time • Maintain meeting minutes • Addresses special education involvement for EACH grade level serviced

25. Family Involvement • Equal opportunity for participation • Communication occurs regularly • Procedural Safeguards