Special Education Inclusion in PVUSD

Dr. John Weimer
April 2005

INCLUSION:  This term is used to refer to the commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent possible, in the school and classroom he or she would otherwise attend.  It involves bringing the support services to the child (ratherthan moving the child to the services) and requires only that the child will benefit from being in the class (rather than having to keep up with the other students).

Joy Rogers, Third Party Billing for Special Education:
Panacea and Mirage

In the fall of 2004, Superintendent John Kriekard released a position paper on inclusionary practices entitled “A Rising Tide Raises All Boats.”  The treatise established expectations for schools to provide the best possible instruction for all students regardless of their innate abilities.  Dr. Kriekard was publicly recognizing a legal expectation for special education students and an area of need within our district.  In fact, work had already begun with regard to this issue. 

Attention was drawn to the academic performance of special education students when the district failed to demonstrate Adequate Yearly Progress at certain grade levels on the 2004 AIMS exams.  The two areas where the district failed to meet AYP were the performance of English Language Learners and Special Education students at the secondary level.  The district was required to develop an Improvement Plan with specific strategies to remedy the situation.  It quickly became apparent that both groups of students were working toward lower standards in the classes to which they had been assigned.  At the middle schools learning disabled students were separated from other students for most of their instruction.  After those two years the students were so far behind academically that the high schools had little choice but to continue to assign the students to classes taught by special educators rather than the content specialists.  During the fall of 2004, 65% of all learning disabled students were receiving two or more hours of instruction each day in special learning centers and many of those students left the center only for electives.  It is unrealistic to expect special education teachers, although expert in delivery of instruction, to be “highly qualified” in every subject area and to ensure that their students achieve at the same level as their counterparts in regular education classes.  The assignment of students to “resource” classes had become routine and the unforeseen result was a gradual lowering of expectations for students with learning disabilities.  Further, the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) requires that students with disabilities be educated in the “least restrictive environment.”  Although with the best of intentions, in essence, an artificial ceiling had been placed on the performance of these youngsters.

It is important to note at this point that students with learning disabilities differ from other students in a variety of ways.  The most common category for students identified as learning disabled is a deficit in reading.  Specific testing reveals that some students are unable to capture meaning from their reading and, as a result, encounter difficulty learning in the classrooms where reading is an important part of learning.  It should be noted that this disability is not a function of intelligence.  Often these students are bright and learn very rapidly in other ways.  As a result, this disability often goes undetected.  Appropriate accommodations for this disability include the teacher giving the information orally, highlighting or explaining key words or passages, identifying underlying concepts, and allowing the student more time or additional avenues for acquiring the information.  Special educators know how to address individual student needs but so, too, do most classroom teachers.  In fact, teachers must vary their instruction in these same ways to help the wide variety of learners without identified disabilities.  Students with this disability are often successful in school, with proper instruction and support, and should be provided every opportunity to stay on track for high school graduation, college, and/or a successful career.

Most learning disabilities can be addressed by teachers who focus on identified standards, vary their instructional approaches, and recognize the specific accommodations that enable the student to learn.  The students will generally need support outside the classroom.  That support will often relate to additional time on assigned tasks or tests, further explanation of concepts, and opportunity for remediation.  Dr. Kriekard recognized that and offered this recommendation:

The practice that I would like to see implemented by individual schools would be to place as many special education students as possible in the mainstream classes. Most of those students would need resource support during the day, and the special education teacher would provide that for small groups of students. Even though some students would require accommodations in the regular classroom, many would not and they would benefit from the higher expectations. The Special Education teacher would monitor the progress of the students and determine changes in placement or other accommodations as necessary.

The middle and high schools in PVUSD have responded to that recommendation and are currently identifying the students who could succeed in mainstream classes.  As Individual Educational Plans are developed, conferences are held with parents to discuss the specific disabilities, the proposed schedule of classes, and the appropriate accommodations to be made by each teacher.  Subsequent to those conferences, the school will schedule students into mainstream and resource classes appropriate to the recommendations.  If students assigned to mainstream classes are unable to find success, even with support classes in place, the schools will reconvene their teams to consider other options.  Special Education teachers will have the ability to modify schedules to meet the needs of the students.

As with most educational practices the success of this approach to inclusion will depend upon the expertise and commitment of the educators.  To that end, administrators and teachers have been meeting to plan strategies, schedule staff development opportunities, and set timelines for implementation.  Every school has developed a plan for the inclusion of special education students and training for all teachers has already begun.  Specific dates and topics have been identified for preparing the teachers for their roles in this educational undertaking.  Training will focus on the nature of learning disabilities, proven instructional strategies, appropriate accommodations, and communication among the educators.  Much of the training that is already in place at the schools, specifically those workshops that focus on brain-based learning and differentiating instruction, relate directly to these topics. 

From the district perspective, the special education department will be providing training on these topics to both special educators and regular classroom teachers, as scheduled by the individual schools.  Staffing is being adjusted to ensure that adequate support will be provided at every school.  Assistive technology will be provided in the form of additional computers and skill-specific software, along with a myriad of other learning aides such as reading pens, voice recorders, portable word processors, and hand-held computers.  These devices will be available based upon individual student needs.

District officials are monitoring the plans of the schools and offering guidance where appropriate.  Schools are able to utilize a variety of scheduling options for the students ranging from full inclusion in all regular education courses to complete resource assignment with all content delivered by special education teachers.  Between these extremes are a variety of options including resource classes in the specific disability area, team-taught courses with both regular education and special education students in relatively equal numbers, and the utilization of instructional aides from special education to support the instruction of the content teacher.  The most prevalent model will involve small numbers of special education students (2-5) in regular education courses with each having a support class with a special education teacher each day.  The Special Educator’s role will involve support for the students and their content teachers.  It is expected that the teachers will meet regularly to discuss appropriate instruction, assessment, the level of academic expectations, and to adjust the accommodations for each student.  The educators involved should be knowledgeable of learning disabilities and flexible in their approach to these, and all, learners. 

The last comment explains why district officials are unable to design a delivery model that will meet the needs of all the students.  The learning needs of students vary from school to school and from year to year.  The programs must be developed under a guiding philosophy, which is articulated from the district level, but must be flexible at the point of impact.  Students and teachers’ schedules will vary according to the number of students who need a particular service and their instructional grade level.  The system must also be flexible during the school year in order to adjust to the successes and failures that will inevitably occur.  This situation is not peculiar to the initial years of implementation.  Flexible scheduling will always be a part of an inclusion model.

Principals have been asked to meet with parents, individually and in small groups, to discuss the schools’ plans for addressing inclusion.  They will be able to answer questions about student schedules and the ways in which teachers will address all aspects of the Individual Educational Plans.  It is expected that this will be the beginning of long-term relationships among the administrators, teachers, and parents.  All parties have the best interests of the students at heart and each point of view is valuable in the development of the educational program.

This system-wide approach to addressing the needs of students with learning disabilities is a part of a larger philosophy to raise expectations for all students.  We believe we must provide the opportunities for all students to achieve at their highest level.  To that end, we have supported a more rigorous standards-based curriculum, open enrollment in Honors courses, more attention to participation and success on Advanced Placement exams, and earlier identification of high performing students including the district-wide administration of the PSAT exam.  On the other hand, we must eliminate all barriers to high achievement. In every way possible, we want to be able to meet the needs and expectations of special education, gifted, ELL, and all other students in Paradise Valley schools.  We have a mission “to lead students to high achievement and individual excellence through a system of professional expertise and positive collaboration.”  These are steps toward the accomplishment of that mission.