Member Meetings>Spring 2006 Member Meeting
Spring Meeting
Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities in Urban Schools Through Partnerships
May 10-13, 2006
Doral Golf Resort and Spa
Miami, FL
The primary topic for our Spring Meeting was Improving Outcomes
for Students with Disabilities in Urban Schools Through Partnerships. At
this meeting, we learned more about those
external organizational relationships Collaborative Member School Districts
have forged
that have
had a positive impact on the academic, social, emotional, vocational, and post-school
growth and accomplishment of children and youth with disabilities. Examples
of such partnerships are teacher training programs; parent advocacy and information
centers; teachers unions; after-school programs; charitable foundations;
early
childhood intervention and education programs; university or non-profit organization
research initiatives; local businesses and corporations; and/or cultural
and civic organizations. Dr. David Lawrence,
University Scholar for Early Childhood Development & Readiness at the University
of Florida, and Dr. Batya Elbaum, Associate Professor of Education and Psychology
at the University
of Miami, served as keynote speakers.
Keynote Presentations:
Dr. David Lawrence Jr. retired in 1999 as publisher of The Miami Herald to
work in the area of early childhood development and readiness. He is president
of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and “University Scholar
for Early Childhood Development and Readiness” at the University of Florida.
In 2002 he led the campaign for The Children’s Trust, a dedicated source
of early intervention and prevention funding for children in Miami-Dade;
he now is its chair. He is also a board member and former chair of the Miami-Dade
Early Learning Coalition. The David Lawrence Jr. K-8 School, a Miami-Dade
Public
School for 1,600 students, opens in August 2006 adjacent to the Biscayne
Bay campus of Florida International University. And a fully endowed chair
in early
childhood studies has been established in his name at the University of
Florida College of Education.
Dr. Batya Elbaum has collaborated with
the State of Florida
to increase family involvement in special education monitoring and program
improvement. For the past four years, she has been head of the Parent/Family
Involvement Workgroup of the National Center for Special Education Accountability
Monitoring. In that role, she has been responsible for developing a set
of rigorous measures of parent perceptions and involvement in early intervention
and special education that will be used nationally to address federal
accountability indicators.
Partnering with Parents:
Motives, Myths, and
Measuring What Matters
Download Dr. Elbaum's presentation
- Actively Building Capacity for Diversity
- Calgary Board of Education
The Calgary Board of Education partnered with the University of Alberta research team and the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre (DDRC) of Calgary to promote best inclusive practices in school communities. This three year partnership project supported the continued development of learning environments of authentic belonging; where all students learn together, diversity is valued, personal growth enhanced, and equity is experienced as a result of employing practices that effectively meet the needs of individually diverse learners within the broader context of the whole school community. This project – Actively Building Capacity for Diversity (ABCD) – received the Canadian Association for Community Living and Alberta Association for Community Living Partnership awards. A site-based core team, including the school administrator, representative staff and other stakeholders who were seen to be important voices in the process drove the project in the school and directed the activities of the DDRC inclusion facilitators. Together they supported professional development that modeled pedagogy appropriate for educating diverse learners. That all students should experience in some way the richness of the Alberta Program of Studies underpinned the fundamental concept of a merger between special education and regular education. The development of curriculum experiences were linked to the educational outcomes of the provincial curriculum framework including learning and teaching about diversity. ABCD was evaluated using the Diversity, Individual Development and Differentiation (DIDDs) survey. The surveys are organized around five themes including; Learning and Teaching; Student Entitlement; Safety and Security; School Culture; School Development. Survey results found a high level of correspondence between Janet Johnstone Elementary School and the performance indicators proposed in the surveys.
Wherefore Art Thou, Intervention Specialist? An LEA/University Partnership- Dayton Public Schools
Transition to Teaching Project is an alternative licensure program begun in 2003 as a collaborative effort among the School Study Council of Ohio, the University of Dayton, and two diverse urban districts, through funding provided by the Federal Department of Education. As many as one third of all new special education teachers employed in areas of poverty in 1991 were non-licensed, forcing districts to hire substitutes and non-licensed personnel as special education teachers for their classrooms. The Transition to Teaching Project was designed to successfully remediate the shortage of professional intervention specialists by allowing non-licensed and other interested mid-career professionals to earn their teaching licensure while teaching in a special education classroom. The program design emphasizes and highlights techniques of teaching and challenges integral to larger, urban school district student populations. Because of the cohort design of this program, intervention specialists receive higher levels of support from each other regarding academic and behavioral issues. These individuals have been integral in developing partnerships that enhance the implementation of inclusion and generally broaden the options outside the self-contained environment. Students within the district are receiving a wider range of educational options more suited to their specific learning needs, whether they be identified as students with special education needs or those not currently receiving any funded services. -
Dekalb County's Bridges . . . from School to Work Program - Dekalb County Schools
One of the most successful partnerships in the Atlanta area is with the Marriott Foundation's Bridges program and the Special Education Department of Dekalb County School System. Bridges staff members work closely with Dekalb County school-based personnel to develop successful job placements for special education students aged 17 to 22. Since launching Bridges in Atlanta in 1996, 1095 students with disabilities have been placed in competitive, unsubsidized employment. Of those, 264 are from Dekalb County Schools. This presentation will describe the Dekalb County School District's collaboration with the Marriott Foundation and how they work together to accomplish the following: identifying students for the program; preparing them for employment; engaging parents/guardians in the enterprise; serving at-risk youth with multiple employment barriers; and offering long-term intervention to students to promote a smooth transition from school to work.
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Yes It Can Work . . .A Positive Preschool Partnership- Memphis City Schools
Because of the partnership with Head Start, our students with disabilities made many strides. Those students identified with disabilities and placed in inclusive Head Start settings were able to function appropriately along side their typical peers. Upon observation, students with disabilities were non-distinguishable from other classroom members. Academically, the eligible students were prepared to enter a general education kindergarten setting at the age of five (5) with limited or no supports. As progress was compared, the findings indicated that a greater percentage of preschool students in the inclusive setting were functioning at age appropriate levels in the areas of social and emotional development as they exited the program.
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Restructuring for Student Success: Achieving Positive Learning Outcomes for Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Settings- Miami-Dade County Public Schools
What supports are necessary to achieve lasting educational change and have positive impact on student achievement? What steps are necessary to build a foundation of support for districts, schools, teachers and students? Join the team from Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the Florida Inclusion Network (FIN), and Florida International University (FIU) as they share the path that this large urban district took in restructuring services for students with disabilities that, among other things, resulted in
- Data on AYP achievement that correlated with inclusion
- Learning gains on high stake testing and general education placement (correlation)
- Increased percentage of students with disabilities spending 80% of time in general education
- Increased equity for student success.
The team from M-DCPS, FIN, and FIU represent a sampling of the support system that has had positive impact in the ongoing restructuring of special education services within this large district. This collaborative partnership has benefited not only pre-service and in-service teachers but the achievement of students with disabilities. Participants will leave this session with resources to assist them in achieving positive learning outcomes for students with disabilities in inclusive settings.
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A Community Collaborative Art and Service-Learning Program for Disabled and High Risk Youth- Miami-Dade County Public Schools
This presentation will show how the combination of Art and Service-Learning has a profound impact on Special Education students and their underserved community. This program is an award-winning collaborative partnership between Miami Dade County Public Schools, Division of Special Education and ArtSouth, a community art center based in hurricane-devastated, Homestead, Florida. While at ArtSouth, disabled "at risk" high school students learn the skills to revive vanishing ethnic art traditions. In addition to promoting community cultural revitalization, students expand their ArtSouth training to subsequently teach other underserved populations their newly-acquired skills. The "at risk" students provide workshops for profoundly handicapped, severely emotionally and mentally handicapped children. The incredible resulting artwork embellishes offices, businesses, restaurants, galleries, universities and homes throughout the county. After a three-year successful trial, the resulting data indicates a 71% reduction in behavioral conduct referrals, a 100% increase in average GPA, and a substantial rise in school attendance and student self-esteem . In addition to Florida Learn & Serve, additional awards come from local, state and national grants as well as matching funds from the district Office of Special Education
Interdepartmental and Interagency Collaboration- Miami-Dade County Public Schools
The District Office of the Division of Psychological Services of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) strongly believes that the collaboration among and between departments and local community agencies is essential in meeting and servicing the needs of all children and their families. One of the goals of the department has been to address the critical shortage of school psychologists that is impacting the profession both locally and nationally and which could impact the quality of psychological services available in our schools. The department has successfully addressed this issue by a strong and close collaboration with area universities. The following initiatives will be discussed in the presentation:
- Program where area school psychology students are offered the opportunity to work in select M-DCPS schools. The student's role as interventionists and their training in the Response to Intervention model will be discussed.
- The M-DCPS school psychology internship program. The close collaboration
with the local university programs that the district has forged
to determine how best to augment the university training, while
providing the interns with the unique opportunities that, because
of its size and diversity of culture, race, ethnicity and language,
M-DCPS can provide will be discussed.
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Collaboration for Preparation and Support of Special Education Teachers- Milwaukee Public Schools
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has been experiencing severe and chronic shortages of certified special education teachers. In this presentation, we will describe an on-going partnership between MPS and two alternative route to certification (ARC) programs to address the shortages in a systematic and proactive manner. The partnership works to provide a steady and predictable pipeline of special education teachers. Additionally, we have worked to jointly address the conditions of teaching faced by the ARC teachers. One outcome, supported by a Transition to Teaching grant received by MPS, has been a week-long summer workshop that complements the programs' summer preparation and is tailored to the ARC teachers' fall placements. A second outcome is the provision of on-site support teachers in the schools. This support is in addition to full-time program mentor teachers. Finally, the partnership has provided an opportunity for two preparation programs who are technically "competing for students" to collaborate with each other to meet the needs of students with disabilities in MPS. The presentation will provide the history of the partnership, describe the two ARC programs, detail how we work together, describe our accomplishments and challenges to date, discuss outcome data we are collecting and that are needed, and talk about our goals for the future.
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Newark's Three Way Synergy: A Partnership With Schools, Teachers' Union & Parent Advocate- Newark Public Schools
As a prototypical Urban School District, the Newark Public Schools' Office of Special Education has forged a viable working relationship with its two vital partners, the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) and the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN), the federally-funded Parent Training & Information Center for New Jersey, with its main office in Newark, New Jersey's largest city. Both of these organizations are permanent members of the Oversight Committee for the Office of Special Education which reviews OSE progress in improving special education programs and services, as well as meeting its Compliance Plans. The NTU has provided insight in the development of OSE's goals and objectives and is developing a series of training modules which are critical to the improvement of services. SPAN also gives direct input and review in creation and presentation of these critical instructional educational practices and curriculum initiatives. SPAN also presents to NPS's parents on a variety of parent issues, including parental rights, IEP issues, transition and surrogate parenting. Some of the programs that will be discussed in this session include:
- Access to the General Education Curriculum – a Roadmap for Inclusion N.P.S.
- Integration of Aides into Teacher Lesson Plans
- How to Prevent and Address Challenging Behavior
- Identifying and Addressing Academic Difficulties
- Special education staff development modules, which integrate state standards and research supported strategies
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New York City Region PBIS and Parent Partnerships- New York City District 75
We will share the success of the parent engagement aspect of the PBIS Initiative (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) in the NYC DOE, under the leadership of District 75 Citywide Special Education Programs. We are partnered with the Office of Parent Support in D75; Alliance for Mental Health, Long Island Jewish Medical Center; and the Parent Empowerment Project, Office of Mental Health, Columbia University/NYSPI. We are using the SWIS Data System and the NYCDOE OORS(Online Occurrence Reporting System),and a variety of research tools to track and analyze data and recommend interventions based on the analyses. The initiative is funded through a grant from the NYSED and by the NYCDOE. New York City PBIS is a school-family-community partnership. It has given the NYC DOE Regions and District 75 an opportunity to collaborate on joint initiatives for the first time. We will identify the role of Parent Coordinators in each building in D75 through the Parent Support Office, the training and support offered to the parents by PEP and Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and how it has impacted improvements in our schools, and share the data collected by us and our partners to measure different aspects of the success of these partnerships. These systems and practices promote: effective schools; positive school climates and safe, nurturing environments, academic and social success, and staff, student and family satisfaction.
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The Keys to Success: Building Cross-System Partnerships- School District of Philadelphia
For more than ten years, the School District of Philadelphia has required that all schools implement a multi-tiered support process that focuses on prevention and timely intervention for students experiencing barriers to learning. This process emphasizes a home–school-community connection in planning for academic success. To further strengthen the intervention process, the District has developed partnerships with several of the city's child-serving systems. These efforts have resulted in a unique school-linked behavioral health initiative that provides schools and families with additional support in their efforts to proactively address behavioral issues. This model prevents over-identification of students with social and emotional challenges and provides those students who are identified with more effective emotional support programming. In spite of the multiple challenges faced by a large, urban district such as Philadelphia, the percentage of students enrolled in special education remains approximately 2% lower than the state average. In addition, the District's percentage of children diagnosed with an emotional disturbance is less than 1% higher than the state's average. We believe that these data are in part the result of innovative programs which provide a continuum of support to students with emerging behavioral health issues before they become entrenched. The District's behavioral health initiative, designed in partnership with two of the City's other child-serving systems, currently impacts over 5 % of the overall student population. Interfacing with these programs results in students' ability to transition to less intensive services for the first time in their academic history. An overview of these programs and specific outcome data will be shared at this presentation.
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A Partnership Becomes the Tipping Point for Improved Outcomes for Students with Disabilities and District Change- Waukegan Public Schools
Having difficulty getting general educators to collaborate with special educators? Are paradigms in your district preventing children with disabilities from achieving? This case study describes how Waukegan's leadership used a partnership to change attitudes and leverage change for students with disabilities. In 2004, Waukegan served 46% of its students with disabilities in self contained settings compared to 24% on average in Illinois. Students were segregated by disability and often kept in separate wings of schools. Middle school students have now been returned to their home schools and a plan is in place to move elementary students with disabilities to home schools. Students have been moved out of wings and integrated with regular peers. An evaluation by a nationally recognized team was the catalyst for collaborative meetings and action planning with key stakeholders. Next, curriculum allowed special education to provide the keynote speaker for opening day, using the theme, One System, One Goal: Achievement; Alone We Can't, Together We Can! Training for school teams followed, providing RIDE, a resource bank of strategies to help students with learning and behavior difficulties. Training and support for inclusion has opened doors for students with disabilities. Recently, students from Webster Middle School read essays to our School Board about the difference they felt about themselves and their abilities since moving from self-contained to included settings. This partnership has continued to push change for students with disabilities and most recently became the catalyst for a new strategic planning process for the entire district. Yes, the tail can wag the dog!
Moving from Performance Indicators to Student Outcomes- National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities
During this presentation, Dr. Loujeania Bost and Dr. Sandra Smith discussed the importance of building connections across indicators and factors related keeping students with disabilities in school.
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