Hi everyone,
I work in an urban district that houses six elementary schools and one high school in South Jersey. Our district is small compared to others in our area. We may service approximately thirty-five hundred students. I have worked in this district for the last twenty-two years. I was a special education teacher for cognitive impaired students for over thirteen years. The grade levels were from second to fifth graders. I am still in the field of special educaiton. I am currently a learning disabilites teacher consultant at the elementary level. I am responsible for assessing students to determine their achievement levels in reading, mathematics, oral language and written language. My job is to report to Child Study Teammembers on the functioning and instructional levels of students I assess. The team can consist of a special or regular educaiton teacher, psychologist, social worker, speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist, and physical therapist.
The district currently has approximately eleven percent of its student population classified. The state is currently challenging our district to declassify students as needed and those we classify should go into inclusive classroom settings if at all possible. At this time I am having an issues with how we place students into inclusive classroom settings. In our district we have two teachers in the inclusive classroom settings. The number of special education students within a inclusive classroom is usually eight or less students. However, there is no limit to how many regular education students can be in the classroom. In our district the inclusive classroom may have twenty students; some may be even smaller. Here is the major problem. We are putting special education students in inclusive setting who are reading two or more years below grade level. For example, if you are teaching third grade you may get a student who is reading at the Kindergarten level. This student may not know letter sound associations. In a fifth grade classroom you may get a student who can read but comprehends nothing he or she has read. This student may be functioning at a third grade instructional level in reading. At times teachers know students will get frustrated and refuse to do work if it is to difficult for them. I would like to know from educators if you feel this is the least restrictive environment for the students? Can special and regular education teachers make the accommodations and modifications each student needs in order to experience success in reading? Which teacher should be responsible for teaching these students? How can the parent be more involved? Should these students be transferred to self-contained classrooms where they may be able to get more one-to-one attention? Do teachers feel they can really service these students effectively? Lastly, how does this relate to the No Child Left Behind Act? Please feel free to express your opinion about student placements in inclusive classroom settings.............
15 comments:
Alphefia,
I completely agree with you. We have the same difficulties in our school with special education placements and the general education classroom. I think it is extremely unfair in some situations to place a special education child with certain disabilities in a general education classroom for the sake of “inclusion”. EVERYONE suffers. The teachers try their best to modify the work, but then the students are overwhelmed as it is.
I am having the very same issues as we speak. I have two language arts classes that I teach with eight special ed students in one and 7 special ed in the other. The students are a mixture of in-class replacement and in-class support. The special education teacher I work with is absolutely amazing. She and I truly teach collaboratively. We don’t make one job only one person’s responsibility. Everything and everyone in the room is the responsibility of the both of us. However, no matter how well we work together or off of each other, it does not change the fact that I have over eight students reading on a second grade level in a 5th grade classroom. Although the special education teacher and I are there to help them, they still struggle. In turn, they sit and listen in confusion. I then slow my pace in hopes they will be able to catch up or follow. Meanwhile, the general education students are bored. Who wins? No one!
I understand that the idea of an inclusive classroom is to not discriminate against anyone, but it is also hindering the learning process. With such severe disabilities and reading deficiencies, we are truly doing the students a disservice by placing students in a classroom they don’t feel comfortable in. The work is modified and in many instances completely different from that of the other students. Therefore, we are not including them in what we do but rather only in the physical location of being with their peers. This is not teaching. It is creating further frustrations. Students with such severe disabilities should be placed in a pull-out classroom where the gap between their grade level and their abilities can be lessened. If all they are doing in the general ed class is struggle, then they will never improve. A pull-out class will help them to work in pace that is appropriate and at the same time promoting growth without frustration.
Sometimes I wonder who these rules really benefit, the students or the stuffed shirts in charge in the state. Perhaps if they could spend one day in the shoes of a special education child, the laws would be different. Perhaps they would be more tailored to the child’s needs instead of what sounds good on paper. It sounds so easy, but obviously it isn’t easy enough for some to understand.
Thanks for the blog. It really hits on some very major points.
Jenn
Alphefia, While I understand your frustration, my question is why has not your work environment sought to implement strategies to bridge the gap with programs like Response to Intervention (RtI)? In my work environment, RtI offers support to the general ed curriculum for those students who are not on grade level by using pullout supported staffing or volunteers while the enrolled grade level material is also being taught. For a student that is far behind in reading skills it will be hard to catch up those skills without intense remediation. This is not possible in the classroom without computer supported programs or circle supported skills by additonal staff or volunteers. Students need to have skills to advance in this world and if they are never exposed to those essential elements in the curriculum, they will never catch up. Also a critical point in this problem is administration and parental support. As partners everyone has to show patience and support to the teacher and the student who are being asked to perform above their abilities right now. As a society we went wrong in education when we separated learning deficit students from their peers and allowed lower expectaions for achievment. Now the time is near and NCLB is not willing to allow more students to graduate from school and be ill prepared to be productive adults. For now, it is going to take all policies and procedures to get on the same mindset and move the students from where they are to where we need them to be. Education has a way to travel long before it will be able to sleep and prove itself as effective. We must keep pushing for the students.
Ivyspecial (Janis)
Jam,
I am well aware of your struggle. It appears that the push for inclusion for most special education students is on the rise across the country. I think it has something to do with the No Child Left Behind Act because everyone is accountable for their students reading and doing math at grade level in a few more years. I do not comprehend how this will happen. Are we going to ignore those students who have cognitive disabilities??? This does not make sense!!! From what you are telling me the modifications and accommodations you make are still not enough strategies for these students to experience success because they are already so far behind. I think we need more small group settings for reading at an early age. The more students are expose to reading material at an early age the better they will do in the preschool programs and higher grades in school. The sad situation is that not all students receive free pre-school programs across the country. Hopefully, someone will eventually figure out what these special educaiton students need. Those students need to be expose to the regular curriculum; however, is inclusion the best placement when they are reading more than two or three years behind grade level?????.........Alphefia
ivyspecial,
Hi.............My district has be implementing different strategies to address these problems. We implemented the Response-to-Intervention (RTI) plan last year. This year we are implementing a Fountas and Pinnell assessment in reading and we uses an assessment called (DIBELS). Both of these assessment are used to identify student weaknesses in reading. Teachers are suppose to identify those weaknesses and teach those skills which most students need to know. This is implemented at the early grade levels (K-2) so that we can address these problems at an early age. We also have three year old and four year old early intervention programs in our school system along with some sites in the community. We are doig alot of interventions to improve the achievement gap across the board. However, we still have students who lag behind their peers. This is an small urban district and we have social issues that plague the community as well. Some of those problems often in up affecting the the students in the school environment as well. Parental involvement is very low and we also have programs addressing that issues as well. Oftentimes, we may see improvement one or two years at certain grade levels then we may see our scores drop in the next year. I no the No Child Left Behind Act sounds great but is it realistic for every student including special education students. Also, we just implemented some knew programs and we provide afterschool programs through the school as well as from organizations within the school community. We are tapping into our resources and collaboratively working together to improve the educaitonal experiences of all students.............Alphefia
Alpheia,
The entire premise of least restrictive environment rules out full inclusion. Inclusion itself is a misunderstood concept. When inclusion is correctly applied it absolutely supports least restrictive environment. Least restrictive environment requires that special ed. students be included in the general ed. curriculum to the point of their ability to profit from the curriculum either in an academic sense or a social sense. Since each special ed. student is unique and each has their own Individualized Education Plan, the law cannot absolutley say which classes they should be a part of and to what extent. That is left up to the professional judgement of the committee members who write their educational plan. For some significantly cognitvely impaired students this might be the opportunity to take part in non core classes for socialization purposes.
Over the course of decades the number of students identified for sp.ed. has grown to about 6 million students. This is far too many students to leave behind---hence their inclusion in NCLB. Students with adequate IQ's should be able to respond to intense intervention and not remain 2-3 years below grade level.In the past this gap was acceptable and students just moved through the system with the gap becoming even wider as they reached high school. We are now having to fix this problem that has been years in the making and I do agree that it is at the student's expense.However, we must now step up and work with these students to give the best we can----through three tiered intervention groups, tutorials,accelerated computer programs, differentiated instruction, adjusted grading, cooperative learning,extended school year, and whatever other programs our schools can come up with to help accelerate instruction.
In order for the future to be different then we will have to get better at early identification and intervention of reading difficulties before they become a disability. We are working on that, but let me say from experience I have had Kindergarten teachers as adamant as fifth grade teachers in telling me that a student did not belong in their class because they could not keep up. If you can't help out a Kindergartener then I have to wonder where teachers think the gap will be closed?
Donna
Alphefia,
I would venture to say that inclusion is definitely not the place for students who are struggling that much. We have to examine the students. As much as we say we use IEP's, we must return back to the original basis for them. They are individualized. In other words, the law is doing the students a disservice by grouping them with others. This is not individualized. Unfortunately, like you have mentioned, there is not much we can do. We are nothing more than bystanders witnessing our students slip further and further into frustration.
Thanks,
Jenn
Alphefia, I think our school setting are very similiar. I too am in a small community with numerous social issues that affect performance. We too have early intervention programs for 3-4 year olds to help jump start school learning. Our teachers also use the DIBELS program for reading and we also have a reading comprehension program (STAR) that determines comfort level and frustration level for reading fluency and comprehension. Our parent are sometimes involved but not constant and we too offer after school tutorials and even bus transportation home to help the students. Still our scores dip and this year we are unacceptable in our state performance rating. Last year we were acceptable in our state's performance. I guess NCLB was a great thought in the beginning but because it is not funded as it should be, school districts are often faced with issues of where to put the monies they have to get the most bang for their buck and let's face it; special education students get less. I am not sure if there are answers that will help but I know as an eductional system , we must do better or we will graduate students with limited skills and will end up supporting them through social service programs.
Ivyspecial (Janis)
Janis,
Funding is a huge issue with NCLB. It's intentions were good but in order to close the gap there needs to be so many programs implemented to help these students who have been left behind.
On my elementary campus they recieved a Reading First grant and implemented a three tier reading program. This has been a successful program that they have been implementing for the past four years, however this is the last year of the grant money and there will be no more funds next year. It is unlikely the district will be able to come up with the funds on their own so it looks like this program will be discontinued. It is a shame to finally get a program up and running only to lose it due to lack of funds.
Donna
Inclusion seems to be an issue everywhere! As administrator, it is essential for us to be sure and place the students in an environment where the regular education teacher is willing and has the ability to reach the children. I do believe that the special education should be responsible for assisting with grades, but the regular classroom teacher should be a part too.
Inclusion has its place, but the teachers MUST work closely together to get it done. The only ones who lose out is the students. I often think back to when the students were self contained (especially the EBD and MI students).I do know that my perspective is different because I work in a K-3 school setting where the students are taught reading according to their level, not whole group.
Alphefia,
Secondary placement is no different. My district is very good, but the assistant principals over the special education dept. has somethings to learn about the program. I teach geometry and in my 1st block class I have 3 student who are labeled as special needs, but actually their are more.
One of the students takes all of his test and quizzes in the resource room because the parents requested this. No I have to restructure everything for this class. If we go to the computer lab to work on a release test I have to ask what I should do with the student.
What is the most mindbothering aspect of this is that he receives help on each one of his test. The special ed. teacher says he is trained to help, so he helps. I know my other students are suffering from this because I can not go over tests or quizzes because of this student.
As a former special ed. teacher and now a regular ed. teacher, I truly believe that the interpretation of each person involved with any placement must know the law and comply, but must do what is best for all the students and not just one student. In the end everyone would win.
Mildred Calhoun
I believe there are several steps to follow in special education such as flashcards and labels and pens and crayons.
Method:
1. Teacher can take a few stickers and write on them names of different objects in the room and place where you happen to be (classroom, gym, hall, language lab, lecture, office, playground, staff-room, yard, etc.)
2. Stick the labels on the right places (e.g. bag, car, desk, door, headphones, lamp, locker, swings, table, tree, TV set, video, and window.)
3. Ask your students to describe the room, naming the different objects and saying where they are (The book is on the desk, the table is next to the window and son on.) You may also ask questions like "Where is the ashtray?" or "What color is the door?"
4. Kids like moving about, so you can ask them to "Stand in front of A", "Touch B!" "Bring me C!" etc.
5. Try a different room and place every time and watch your students' vocabulary range grow fast! If you'd like to tease your students a bit, just place some labels in the wrong places and see if they can set things right.
Jam,
I understand what you are saying about in-class support and pull-out repalcement. However, my director decided we no longer need pull-out replacement. Now, everyone is getting in-class support. To me that means no more individualized education plans. Students who are pull-out often have problmes in transitioning back into the classroom setting. Alos, the time element used in walking a student to the trailor outside and bring them back in was a problem as well. Our district pulled the pull-out program at least two years ago and no one is complaining we are just dealing with the situation. Our special education department was in major trouble for being out of compliance and last year we had to regroup and get ourselves together. Now most of the team members are on the same page and we are working well together. The teachers do not like alot of the decisions but we have to go along with what our director has instructed us to do. Our department just make the adjustments and keep working. Special education will always have controversial issues no matter what you do!!!
Rosnel,
Your plans or steps of educations were well taken. The steps you mentioned I used for cognitively impaired students at the first through third grade level when I was teaching eight years ago. Flashcards and labels worked. Today most students are being placed in inclusion where the teachers expect them to have more skills at whatever grade level they are in. Teachers want to use a fast pace and they expect most of the students whether they are special or regular students to keep up with the pace in which they are teaching. Teachers receive alot of pressure because they want students to past the state assessment. Some assessments have been moved from May to March in our district. Therefore, teachers have less time to teach the skills that students may see on the state assessment. This is just one of the problems with placing students inappropriately in the wrong special education placement. Self-contained classroom setting operate at a slower pace than regular education in our district. Therefore, teachers in those classes may tend to have more time to reteach a specific skill. However, students in self-contained programs are being assessed at grade level; so this presents another entire problem for special education students and how they learn.
Appolo,
You have a different perspective as an administrator. It is important for the teachers to work together in order to be successful in inclusive classroom settings. The students can feel when their is friction among the teachers in the classroom setting. Also, teachers should be team teaching in inclusive classrooms. Some regular education teachers will often use the special education teacher as an aide to escort students to the bathroom, office or send them to run off ditto sheets which should have been completed before the class started.
As a child study team member we have consistently as the director to teach the teachers in inclusive settings how to work collaboratively together or the program will not work. Also, at the younger grades their are sometimes three staff members in the inclusive settings and still some of the students are not handled correctly. I think it would be beneficial for all staff members to attend workshops are collaboratively working together to operate effectively inclusive classroom settings.
Mildred,
It sounds like you have been put between a rock and a hard place because of one student. I do not understand how his I.E.P. does not have him taking his test at the same time as his peers. In our district the special education students are pulled out and taken to a library and given their test. HOwever, this is at the elementary level and I can see how this would require you to do more work for the one student. I am surprised by word of mouth that more students are not getting the same services. In my district we get parents who talk to each other and let them know the services their child may be getting. The next thing you know is the parent with the new information is calling to let the office know the want the same services as the other student. It is my belief that this takes out the individuality of the educational plan for each student. Therefore, as you said it reverts back to who and how we interpret the special education laws. In our district it is how the director interprets the law. I am on my fifth director in almost nine years so do you know how many changes I have been through in providing services to students in the special education programs??? Words can not express the difference in interpretations of special education laws......
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