ESEA Flexibility: Addressing Students with Disabilities AND English Learners

1. ESEA Flexibility: Addressing Students with Disabilities AND English Learners January 11, 2012

2. Consultation SEAs Must: Describe how they meaningfully engaged and solicited input from diverse communities and appropriate stakeholders Ways SEAs May Strengthen Requests: • Actively engage stakeholders at the outset • Flexibility work groups • Consultation action plan • Clearly articulate and elicit feedback on proposed changes • Note specific changes to request based on feedback

3. ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

4. SPECIAL EDUCATION SUPPORT • Melody Musgrove, Director, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) • Larry Wexler, Director, Research to Practice Division, OSEP

5. Ta Support related to swd • Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network (http://www.tadnet.org) • National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) (http://www.cehd.umn.edu/nceo) • IDEA Partnerships (http://ideapartnerships.org) • The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements (http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu ) • National Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (http://pbis.org)

6. College and Career-ready expectations for all students

7. Principles: Interconnected and interdependent • College and Career ready expectations for all students • State developed systems of differentiated recognition, accountability and support • Supporting effective instruction and leadership

8. HOW ARE Students with Disabilities PERFORMING? • 33% of students with disabilities vs. 65% of students without disabilities scored at or above Basic (NAEP) • In 24 States, the gap in percent proficient between students with disabilities and “all students” was at least 30 percentage points • Only 3 states reported at least 70% of students with disabilities were proficient on the 4th grade reading assessment • Only 12 states reported graduation rates at least 80% for students with disabilities

9. In what environment are students with disabilities educated? • 60% spend at least 80% of day in general education • 80% spend at least 40% of day in general education

10. Response to Intervention (RTI) • There are multiple approaches to RTI • The Department does not support one particular approach • Solely for the purpose of this presentation, the following slides establish common terms regarding the components of RTI

11. Response to Intervention (RTI) RTI is a multi-level framework to maximize student achievement by providing support to students at risk for poor learning outcomes. The approach* includes: • Core instruction for all students; • Universal screening; • Increasingly intensive instructional interventions for students who need extra help; and, • Progress monitoring. *RTI can be used to improve academic achievement and improve classroom behavior.

12. Core Instruction for All Students • All students receive high-quality, research-based core instruction in their regular classroom • Core instruction includes whole-group and small-group instruction (such as reading groups) provided to all students

13. Universal design for learning • Information presentation • Reduces barriers to instruction • Meets individual needs: One size does NOT fit all

14. Universal design for learning • Multiple means of representation • Multiple means of action and expression • Multiple means of engagement

15. Universal Screening: Early warning system • School staff screen students by assessing the academic performance of all students during the school year. This screening is used to identify students who are struggling and who may need specific interventions.

16. Increasingly Intensive Instructional Interventions for Students Who Need Extra Help • When results of screening or other data indicate that a student is struggling, an intervention to help with the specific problem is implemented. These research-based interventions are provided for a specific duration and increase the intensity of instruction in order to improve the student’s achievement.

17. Progress Monitoring: serves as early warning system • Progress monitoring is a scientifically based practice that is used to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction and instructional interventions.

18. Conclusion Strong plans to address the needs of students with disabilities include: • High quality, responsive instruction • Aligned assessments • Evidence-based interventions

19. ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS

20. ENGLISH LEARNER SUPPORT • Joanne Urrutia, Deputy Director, Office of English Language Acquisition • Supreet Anand, Supervisor, Title III Group, SASA, OESE

21. Principle 1: college-and career-Ready expectations for all students Strong transition plans include clearly articulated strategies to: • Build capacity • Provide professional development to teachers of English learners (ELs) (teachers in language instruction educational programs, elementary classroom teachers, and secondary content teachers) on how to support ELs in acquiring content knowledge as they develop English language proficiency

22. POSITIVE Approaches • Identify the linguistic demands of the SEA’s new content standards • Provide instructional support materials for reading/language arts, mathematics, and science that help teachers address the academic language that ELs need to access the content • Use formative assessments that measure the progress of ELs

23. PRINCIPLE 2: State-DEVELOPED SYSTEMS OF DIFFERENTIATED RECOGNITION, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND SUPPORT • Develop accountability systems that create incentives and provide support to close achievement gaps for all subgroups of students, including ELs • Provide interventions that specifically address the needs of ELs and articulate how these will help to reduce the achievement gap

24. Positive Approaches • Explicitly analyze the factors contributing to the varying levels of academic achievement among ELs • Identify and implement effective practices that accelerate content learning as opposed to offering only remedial and/or English language development instruction in isolation

25. Positive Approaches • Intervention plans that provide for the delivery of research-based interventions tied to the specific needs of ELs • Explain the relevance of specific interventions and resources for improving achievement for ELs and how their progress will be tracked and evaluated. • Create a single resource that describes available interventions, including research-based interventions for ELs, and how the SEA expects LEAs to apply those interventions in priority, focus, and other Title I schools

26. PRINCIPLE 3: supporting effective instruction and leadership Strong proposals to develop and implement teacher and principal evaluation and support systems include: • Systematic process to solicit input on the guidelines for evaluating teachers of ELs • Rubrics for training and evaluating teachers and principals that address the education of ELs • Details on how to include teachers of ELs in the performance rating system in a meaningful way, when they may teach those students part of the time, teach multiple classes, or serve as resource teachers

27. Positive Approaches • Ensure teachers and principals have input and are engaged in a meaningful way in the piloting of an evaluation system. Teachers who teach ELs, in particular, should be included in this effort • Develop evaluation guidelines for teachers who share responsibility for the instructional outcomes of ELs (e.g., co-teaching or pull-out programs) • Develop rubrics and evaluator training activities that include pedagogically effective practices for ELs

28. Resources: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition Principle 1: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/uploads/44/collegecareer.pdf Principle 2: • http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/uploads/44/differentiatedaccountability.pdf Principle 3: • http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/uploads/44/effectiveinstruction.pdf

29. Questions from SEA teams • Department staff are hosting office hours for all interested SEAs to answer questions and provide feedback and problem-solve areas of concern • Email box for questions: ESEAflexibility@ed.gov