Being a Special Education teacher... what it means to me.

I am currently in my 23rd year as a special education teacher. For Twenty years I taught students with severe multiple disabilities who required full assistance for most all of their care and educational needs. The past three years I have been teaching Life Skills to students who have multiple disabilities including visual impairmants. During this past 3 years I have also been enrolled in classes at MTSU to obtain my vision endorsement.  I choose to continue and to complete a master's degree in vision disabilities. This is my 2nd masters in special education with my first being in severe/profound special education. I have devoted my life to working with and learning from the many students who I have had the priviledge of serving over the past 23 years. I have learned so much about life and how to appreciate everything I have, to not take things for granted, to appreciate every accomplishment (even the very small ones), to smile, to laugh, to cry. I truely believe I am where I am suppose to be in life and I am so grateful for all of the life lessons my students have taught me over the years. People say to me that I must be special to do this kind of work, but I feel that I am blessed by the work I have been led to do.

Pre-vocational goals and activities.

I have been looking for a checklist or assessment that outlines a good progression of activities to be addressed when it comes to pre-vocational skills.  After numerous searches, I have not been able to find any such thing. It seems weird to me that vocational goals must be addressed on IEPs yet there are no good resources for specific goals and activities involving vocational skills when it comes to students with severe disabilities. I have been working with students who have severe disabilities for years and have worked with them on the progression of skills that matched materials I had or could get and that made sense to me. I moved from basic pick up activities, to packaging them, to one to one correspondence, to 2 hand take apart activities, to 2 handed put together activities, to multi-step assembly activities. If anyone has a good source for such goals please let me know.  I have been reserching this issue for a co-worker.

Technology and special education.

Today I was working with a couple of my students who have vision impairments and they were helping to teach me more about the technology that assists them each day at school. One uses ZOOM text which is a magnification program which enlarges the print.  She needs the letters to be about an inch to 1 1/2 inches in size in order to read the print.  The other student has no functional vision and he uses the JAWS program on the computer which reads everything on the screen.  They both also use BRAILLE Plus devices which are small handheld braille devices that have recording systems.  These devices can be downloaded to the computer to print out their assignments.  I am amazed everyday with the abilities of my students to overcome their disabilities and to handle all of the challenges they face with using these devices and just simply with daily living activities.

Planning and collaboration...where does the time go?

Actually, when is there time to do proper planning and how do teachers with completely different schedules get together to colloborate?  Planning is such a crucial part of the teaching process yet all to often, teachers are provided with very limited time to work on planning especially when they are working with other teachers.
Communication is essential in all collaboration situations.  There needs to be a supportive environment, parity among those collaborating, a purpose, and common goals that are being addressed. When done right, collaboration can make a meeting or a lesson go smoothly and without conflict.  Support from administration by providing joint planning time is essential to a positive outcome for the students they are teaching.

Expaned Core Curriculum.

Expanded core curriculum (ECC) is a set a skills and knowledge that are needed by students with visual impairments but I believe there are many that would be good for all students.  The ECC includes 9 educational needs that are addressed above and beyond the core curriculum (english, math, science, etc.).  The areas of the ECC are:
1. Compensatory or functional academic skills, including comminication modes
2. orientation and mobility
3. social interaction skills
4. Independent living skills
5. recreation and leisure skills
6. career education
7. use of assistive technology
8. sensory efficiency skills
9. self-determination
These additional areas are essential to addressing the overall needs of students with visual impairments. They represent areas that are not traditionally covered in core curriculum courses. To me it sounds like a more well rounded approach to teaching students. I do think that several of these areas would benefit other students as well.  Many times students leave high school being very unprepared for adult life.  Teaching to the test doesn't always address the functional skills that our students need to function as independently as possible for the rest of their life. Food for thought.

Mini research project findings.

I completed the mini research project for our class and I found the results interesting.  Out of seven people interviewed, five individuals felt that the big issue in special education is about a real need to focus on the individual needs of each student.  Four out of seven brought up preparing students for their future. Three out of seven people talked about concerns surrounding the set curriculum standards. They said that they felt that the set standards did not address the needs of the students since they do not address functional skills. Two out of seven spoke about concerns with teachers and highly qualified. 
The over all view was that everyone was centered on the needs of the students. The fact that these individuals come from all sides of the special education issue (parent, teacher, administrator, SPED director, etc.) makes it even more interesting that everyone is wanting to directly focus on the students. I think they were pointing this out as an issue and a solution for special education.
Special education has come along ways but there is a great deal of room left for improvement.

Work Based Learning... creating opportunities to learn.

I recently attended a 2 day workshop on Work Based Learning (WBL).  I an currently working with students in our school's transition or vocational progam.  We offer our students a work based learning opportunity on campus with 4 training modules that include food service, facilities management, business and vending services.  The students spend 9 weeks in each module and learn safety, work skills and exposure to job related information and exploration as a part of each group. It is a wonderful program that is helping to offer our students a better understanding of different jobs and the skills needed to preform these jobs.  We are using this in the transition planning  and service part of the IEP process to better address transition goal planning for these students. Our next step is to take these skills and help these students move out into the community to work on generalization of these skills.   There remains to be some resistance from comunity businesses due to different disabilities and a lack of understanding about the WBL process and requirements. This is our school's 2nd year developing this program so I am excited that we continue to expand it and adjust it to better meet the needs of our students.

Teacher Tenure. Where do you stand?

When the issue of teacher tenure comes up I have mixed feelings.  I am in my 23rd year teaching but it is my 3rd year at my new school and therefore I am approaching tenure at the completion of this year.  I am a teacher that believes that every teacher should be evaluated to help improve the teaching that is going on in our classrooms.  I for one am open to suggestions that will improve my teaching and I think that we all can learn new approaches and techniques no matter how long we have been teaching.  I have concerns with tenure at times because I see a few teachers that seem to hide behind their tenure and feel that they can not be touched.  I think this view takes the focus off of teaching children. I believe that we as teachers should always strive to improve and reach for better ways to reach and teach our students. What do you think about tenure?

College Programs for Students with Intellectual disabilities.

In the past, college programs for students with intellectual disabilities were not a possibility for post secondary education and training. I read an article today from USA TODAY
 http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-10-16-disability-college_N.htm that talked about college programs for these students. It stated that 8 years ago there were 4 programs like this and last year there were more than 250 across the country. It stated that these programs are carrying out what college truely is for,  which is to offer a continuation of learning.
I am excited that colleges are beginning to offer opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities to participate with their peers.  I am aware of such a program at Vanderbilt and MTSU has a program run jointly with Rutherford County Schools.  I believe that these programs can help provide needed additional education and job training in an educational setting for these students. I also think that these programs can provide valuable opportunities for learning for students in special education programs as well as the general student body.   

Teaching... or Testing?

Many teachers today feel that they are no longer truely able to teach their classes but rather feel that they are simply preparing for the next test.  I know that there needs to be accountability in the classroom but I believe that all of the testing has left little to no room for the creative teaching and differentiated instruction that so many of our students so desperately need. I also am concerned that there is so much emphasis on math and reading that other subjects such as science and history are suffering. At some point I think that we need to stop and really take a look at the direction education is going in right now.  The current system is not working and students today seem to be leaving school very unprepared for life.  What's the next approach?  I think it is time to try something new.

TCAP-Alt Portfolios...Do they really measure up to the regular TCAP test?

There are some interesting questions that come up for me surrounding the TCAP-Alt portfolios.  These portfolios are suppose to be compared to the regular TCAP test. First, it seems a little strange to me that students who are unable to take the written TCAP tests are required to have proof in their portfolios that they had both peer interaction and that the data was taken in inclusive settings.  Students taking the regular TCAP would be ruled as having cheated if they had peer interaction while taking their test.  These students also take their TCAP tests in their regular classroom and are not required to take it in a variety of settings.   Also, general education students learn in the classes with activities that are teacher driven while portfolio students are required to do their activities ideally with people other than their teacher. Proof of choices are another odd part of the process of portfolios.  You have to offer at least 2 choices and must show what choice was made by the student yet some of these students do not really have an understanding of choices and therefore are not able to indicate a choice.  Do 4th grade students get to have a choice as to what they are learning or does the teacher and the curriculum make those decisions? Then there is the requirement of having to show a set amount of progress on each of the graphed sets of data.  Some of these students take months, even sometims years to really show some progress on goals.  Then there are the requirements to use alternative content standards in the core content areas of lang. arts, math, science and social studies (depanding on grade level). These altenative standards do not in any way address functional goals that many of these students are actually working on as a part of their IEPs. Then there is the scoring of the portfolios.  Our school had all proficient or advanced on our portfolios scores which on paper can show up as higher scores than the students in academic classes. Some of these requirements seem to be asking the TCAP-Alt students to do more than is required by the general education students. Also, where is the individualization in this process?
While I do believe that we need to have some type of test or assessment to indicate the abilities of these students and that it is difficult to have one tool that takes in to account the varied levels and educational needs of these students, I do not feel that the regular TCAP and the TCAP-alt portfolio should be compared. It is sort of like comparing apples and oranges but expecting them all to look like apples. Just saying!

Special education sustitutes.

There have always been questions for me surrounding the individuals who substitute in special education classes.  What type of training have these individuals received before being placed with students who have a wide variety of disabilities. Are they trained on how to lift, toilet, handle seizures, read braille, deal with behavior problems?  Where do the standards for "highly qualified" come into play when it comes to substitutes?  While most are very nice individuals, the substitutes I have encountered have been placed in situations in special education classes that really require specialization.  I also feel that schools sometimes simply have a "body" covering these classes which places the students at risk and the substitutes in sometimes dangerous situations.  Then there is the problem of not having enough substitutes. Often there just are not enough to cover the classes needing a sub. What happens then?  Anyway, there are many issues surrounding substitutes in special education.

A view on teacher training programs at colleges and universities.

I believe that teacher training programs need to be looked at to determine their effectiveness in preparing teachers for the demands of today's classroom and the diverse learners they will be serving. With a bigger push toward RTI, I believe that teacher training programs should take a more aligned approach when it comes to special education and general education college programs. Currently, most college programs only require a basic course in special education. 1 or 2 courses can hardly scatch the surface of what all is envolved with students with such a wide assortment of special needs. I feel that if they are going to demand special education teachers to get certified in a core content area, then they need to have general education teachers to become certified in special education or at least have them go through several courses to help them better meet the needs of their students.

Transition success requires community experiences and support.

A key component to successful transition for our students with differing abilities involves the businesses and agencies in the community.  Relationships must be established between the schools and the programs or jobs that these students will be moving to after they leave school. A great way to begin these relationships is through work based learning opportunities.  These experiences will vary greatly depending on the specific needs and interest of the student. The advantage to participation in work based learning is that it provides exposure to different jobs which may help a student to gain job skills and begin to determine job interest areas. Many community businesses and agencies are willing to participate in WBL but need more information on how the program works and who is responsible for aspects of the program such as supervision and liability issues. I believe that if we can get more students involved in some type of WBL that  the students will be more successful in finding potential placement in these programs. I think that our job in special education is to help our students work to be as independent as possible and to be active members of society. One of the first steps to this is providing opportunities to gain a better understanding of job skills and jobs that they can participate in.

Transition Planning... what do you do when the student has unrealistic post secondary goals?

Another issue that comes up when teachers are helping students to plan for life after school is that some of these students have very unrealistic and most likely unobtainable goals. At some point you will have the student that has the goal to be a Doctor or the next Taylor Swift.  It is not our place to tell this students how unrealistic these may be but we are obligated to assist them in looking at breaking these overall goals down to find something that is related directly to their goals.  For instance, I have some of those students who just know they are going to be the next big hit in the music industry.   I sit down with these students and do some job exploration including web searches to look at jobs related to the music industry. I talk to them about their ultimate goal and then I encourage them to have back up plans to work toward first.  Many of my students start to think about other jobs or ways that they can do things that have to do with music.  The other day I had one of these students say that they think maybe working in a music store might be a good backup plan. 
It is difficult at times to know exactly what direction to look in depending on the post secondary goals that our students have in mind. I think that a big part of the transition process needs to be exposing these students to many different job opportunities through work based experiences and instruction.  Many special education teachers could benefit from traning to help direct them in assisting students to plan for transitioning into post secondary schools, training, work and living situations.

Transition training... where is it?

As a special education teacher, I am responsible for helping to plan and implement transition plans and services that allow students to make gains toward reaching their post secondary goals. The interesting part of this is that during my 20+ years of teaching special education, I have had very little training or staff development in the area of developing, writing and implementing transition plans on IEPs for my students. I am a teacher that has sought out information in this area to better assist me but there are many teachers who have been in the field for a long time who have never really had any training in the area of transition. The transition part of the IEP is a huge focus for our students 14 and older yet the very teachers responsible for handling this part of the IEP have very scattered training in this area.  Most teacher training programs in collages and universities offer maybe 1 or 2 classes on transition but there are only a few programs that I have been able to find in the country that offer a degree in special education transition. Also, the state of Tennessee does not have an endorsement area for transition in special education.  With all of the talk of "highly qualified" how is it that there are so few programs and classes in such an important part of special education?  Transition affects every single one of our students as they move from school to post secondary education, training, employment and living. I think that there needs to be a much bigger focus on the area of transition in special education since our overall focus should be to provide programs and instruction to help these students reach their potential and to reach for their goals in life.

Transition from school to ...?

Transition services are an important part of IEPs for students who have disabilities and are 16 years of age and older. The word transition is defined by Webster's as " a passing from one condition, place, etc.  to another".  With this definition in mind, I am puzzled as to why this "passing" seems to be a one sided issue.  The school district is responsible for transition planning with the student on post secondary goals and is required to provide transition services that help the students to reach for these goals.  The problem with this is that rarely are there representatives from community agencies available during the transition pre- planning meetings nor do they usually attend the actual IEP meetings for these students. Where is the receiving side to this issue?  Our focus as teachers is to prepare these students to be as independent as possible and to become productive/active members in society. We are helping them to explore their post secondary options but we as teachers need the input from the actual agencies that will be serving these students when they leave the school system at 22. It seems to me that there needs to be a step in between schools and the communtiy. Maybe an interagency collaboration team that can truely represent the bussinesses, schools and programs that these students will be participating with in their communities. Where is the coordination between school and the community agencies? We seem to be dropping the baton at the handoff of these students during the "race" called transition.

Inclusion... We Still have a long way to go.

When it comes to inclusion, there are basically 2 models that are looked at.  First is the "push in" model which has the SPED teacher coming into a general education class to help in providing instruction and support to the student and perhaps the teacher. A key to this model is the differentiated learning approach to education that has the general education and the special education teacher providing a range of activities and the use of a variety of teaching strategies for children with different abilities. Students in the "push in" model may be included for part or all of the day. Many times students are included for certain classes.
The other inclusion model is called "full inclusion". This model has students with special needs included full time in the general education class and the general education teacher is the teacher of record for this child.  This approach has many challenges, first and foremost the challange of truely meeting the needs of all students. Some students with special needs will be able to benefit from inclusion in the general education class while others may not really gain from being placed in the general education classroom.
My big concern with inclusion is that we seem to be focusing on the physical placement of the student instead of what we need to be focusing on educationally for this student to reach his/her potential. With NCLB, we have lost functional curriculum approaches and have made a push for more of a one set of standards fits all approach to education. I just keep thinking about after school for these students and I can not help but think that them sitting in an Algebra class and not really benefitting from it is not going to help them if they can not understand even some of the basic concepts of math and money.  In the vision education world we have what is called expanded core curriculum which focuses on the life concepts that students with vision impairments will need to be more independent in life.  I feel that we need this for all students, especailly for those with special needs. What are your thoughts on inclusion?

Inclusion... We have come a long way.

While working on our group project, I stopped to reflect on how far education of students with disabilities ( or varied abilities as I like to refer to it) has come, I had to think about those that helped to path the way.  There were some early court cases that played such an important part in the development of the laws that have shaped special education as we know it today.  Cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvannia, and Mills v. Board of Education directly influenced the development of
PL 94-142 in 1975.  Free appropriate education for all students became an expectation in education but there have been many bumps in the road and changes along the way on the journey called education for all. In my twenty plus years of teaching students with special needs I have seen first hand how new laws have influenced such things as inclusion in the classroom.  I firmly believe all children have the potential to learn and I  feel that there continues to be a need for a continuum of placement options for students with varied abilities. I  feel that having one set of standards for all students is a step away from the individualized education approach to education that many of the laws have fought so hard to change.
Inclusion to me is not just placing students in the regular education classroom, but rather is including students with varied abilities at the level that will allow them to engage in learning that is meaningful and serves to help these students reach for the potential in life. I see the value in the education of ALL students.  Aren"t they all SPECIAL and don't they ALL deserve a great opportunity to learn?

Inclusion... What does IDEA say.

While researching for our groups Prezi presentation for class, I have looked at IDEA and many of the case laws and how they influence Inclsion.  First, IDEA 2004 does not require inclusion but does require that students with disabilities be served educationally in the "least restricted environment appropriate" to meet their "unique needs". (websearch: www.weac.org/Issues_Advocacy/Resource  ).  The article went on to discuss how the least restrictive environment begins with the regular classroom. It does state that the law knows that all students will not be appropriate for the regular classroom so it requires a "continuum of placements".  Inclusion should be driven by what best meets the needs of the student as determined by their IEP. The IEP team should first consider whether the regular classroom is  appropriate and if not, then look at the next least restrictive environment until the team feels they have placed the student in the best environment to meet that student's needs.
Over the years there have been many who feel that there is no place for self-contained classes or seperate school facilities.  But IDEA states that there should be a continuum of placements. After working for twenty years in a seperate school facility, I truely can see the benefits for some students who truely need a placement such as that. I diffinantly believe that one size does not fit all when it comes to special education placement for students with disabilities. What are your thoughts?

RTI...A new thought on the tiers of RTI

Kelly had a blog entry about the need for more attention for those students who fall in the gifted area which got me thinking.  Why can't there be a 4th tier. This tier (1+, just a suggestion), would function something like tier 2 for those students who are needing more intervention. If students do significantly above average on the 1st tier, then they are moved to this 1+ tier which will provide them with a more  challenging curriculum.  It seems like this would better address the needs of these students and would hopefully offer them more than most of the current once a week gifted programs do now.  Just a thought.  What are your thoughts on this?

Conitnued thoughts on RTI

The more I hear about RTI (response to intervention) the more I want to hear about how it will be implemented.  I am curious to see how this model will be trained to all teachers since it will involve general education and special education teachers. I really like that the first tier of RTI involves all students.  I think this will help in earlier identification of students having trouble and I believe that it could finally put the issue of overrepresentation of certain racial groups in special ed. to rest since all students are addressed equally in tier 1.  I do think that there needs to be extensive staff development across the board way before this model becomes mandated in the next special education law reauthorization.  This model will totally restructure how schools set up classes, teacher schedules and how they allow for space and time for interventions to take place, especially at tier 2.  Knowledge of the process and intervention methods as well as Collaboration will be key in the implementation of this model. I look forward to finding out more information on RTI.

Responding to RTI

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an area of education that I am not very familiar with since I have always taught special education for  students with severe multiple disabilities.  I decided to research it so that I would have more information to form a personal response to it for my class paper. I do find the teired system to be more of a collaborative approach to identifying and addressing students who are not performing well in the regular class.  I think it is at least a different way of looking at learning disabilities rather than the traditional IQ method used for years.  The IQ method has been viewed as biased toward certain racial and socioeconomic groups. I still have many questions about as soon this RTI process begins since often identification of students with learning disabilities has been a system of wait to fail so to speak. I will continue to gather more information on the who and how this will be implemented and I will be interested to see if it will be a bigger part of the next update to the law. I found that the CEC website  http://www.cec.sped.org/ has a good bit of information on RTI and many more topics. There is a National Center on Response to Intervention which can be found at http://rti4success.org/  Check out these sites and see how you respond to RTI.

SpecialEducation...Parenting some parents

Just as there are many parenting styles there are also many diverse approaches to promoting parental involvement in special education. Tyrell shared in the comments that his school has held several events to open and include the parents. His experience was that the parents of typical learners attened while the parents of students in special education were noticable absent. My experiences over a twenty year period of teaching special education at a school that only serves special education students were that when we held PTA meetings we would have every teacher there and an average of 3-5 parents for a student body of close to 150 students. I don't think that people outside of special education realize just how big of a problem there is when it comes to parent involvement.  I believe that so much of society including a majority of parents who have a child in special education think that it is the teachers and the school district's job and that they don't need to be a part of the process.  I sometimes found it hard to even get the parents to respond to notes about the needs for even basic things for their students such as lunch money or diapers. When goals were discussed at IEP meetings that needed to be cared over into the home environment, many parents expressed that they felt that people in the school district were trying to tell them how to parent their child. They wanted us to work on everything at school but did not feel that it was important or found it easier and quicker to just do things for the child at home.
I think that some parents forget that this is my job and that I do my best to meet the needs of each student in the best possible ways, but it is their child and this child will be with them for a lifetime.  I try to get to know the parents of my students to get a feel for where they stand on understanding their childs needs and for planning for their child's future needs and desires. At times I feel that I am a parent to some of these parents.

Promoting Parent involvement in Special Education

Today I had a discussion with the Special Education Director for my school about her frustration with the difficulty in getting parent involvement.  After that brief conversation, I decided to do a search on parental involvement in special education. Several things popped up but 2 web sites that I found interesting are: http://www.ideapartnership.org/   and  http://www.ncpie.org/  The Natioanal Coalition for Parent Involvment in Education site offers several hot links to many of the big topics in special education.

I believe we must find creative ways to reach out to parents and to develop partnerships in the education of their child.  Instead of a view that it is the teachers job to educate these students, I feel that the job of educating students is up to the school, the parents, and the community.  It should be based on a mutual desire to meet the needs of all students. Even though the laws in special education talk about parents being more involved, I don't believe that there are specific reguirements in how to engage parents or how to determine the current levels of parent involvement. Therfore, if we don't really have a good idea how involved parents are now then how can we truely begin to reach out to and work with the parents to become more involved? 

Parent Involvement in Special Education

One of the big areas that stands out in the IDEA 2004 law is that it puts more emphasis on parent involvement in the IEP process and requires them to take a bigger role in collaborating with teachers in the development of the educational program for their child. Unfortunately, my experiences in special education over the past twenty years have included very few parents willing to collaborate on the development of their student's IEP. Parents that are involved sometimes are viewed as "problematic parents" because they do have the knowledge about the law and the IEP process. I welcome these active parents because my experieince has been that they truely are wanting what they feel is best for their child even when their views may differ from the views of the team. Most often, the team comes to an agreement on what meets the needs of the students. On the other hand, at times it has proven difficult to get some parents to even show up for an IEP meeting one time a year.  In an ideal situation, collaboration on an IEP would have all of those involved (including the parent/s ) in the IEP  coming together to gather information, determine goals and when appropriate, plan for the future by developing a transition plan. This should take place prior to the actual annual IEP meeting in order for the team to assess the students needs and to align the students needs with appropriate curriculum standards. Some parents have limited understanding of their child's disability and may be unfamiliar with many of the terms and the lingo involved in special education. These constraints can lead to added stress and intemidation for the parents leaving some to just agree and sign anything on the IEP document without really understanding what they are signing. I feel that we in the field of education need to figure out ways to provide better information to parents and to create a collaborative situation that encourages the parents to become more interested and involved in the process for their child. I found an interesting website that talks about collaboration between parents and education personel. The website is called On The Same Team Building collaborative special education relationships between home and school. This site can be found at http://www.specialedmoms.com/IDEA.html   Check it out and see what you think.

NCLB...Needing a fix.

I read an interesting article in the recent issue of TEACH magizine which I receive from the Tennessee Education Association. The article is an adaptation from a book titled The Death and Life of the Great American School System:How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch (Basic Books, 2010).  In this article, several issues and concerns about NCLB are brought up. She addressed the issue of the 2014 deadline for all students to be proficient in math and reading. She also bought up the issue of teaching to the test and how the demands of the testng process have taken away from what teachers address in areas/subjects other than math and reading. 
I am concerned that we are not addressing all of the areas that our students will need to be successful in life. Yes reading and math are extremely important but so are knowing the history of how we got to where we are and how science affects our lifes each day. The creative nature of students is not being addressed since in many school districts the arts are the first thing to go to make more room for the aspects of meeting the requirements of NCLB. We are still seeing to high of a dropout rate among high school students and many students that continue to post secondary education find that they must take several remedial classes when they first get to college to help to catch them up to what is required for some of their college coursework. Again I ask, Are we really leaving no child behind with how we are currently teaching and with the requirements of NCLB? Only Time will tell but the current outlook is not completely clear.

NCLB...The Portfolio alternative assessment debate.

I am very familiar with the TCAP-ALT portfolio assessment and have been using this assessment every year with my students who have severe multiple disabilities. I first want to say that testing these students poses a huge challenge for the special education teachers across the country. I applaud Tennessee's appraoch to the assessment problem. My former school was a pilot school and helped in making some of the many changes that have taken place with the portfolio over the years that it has been mandated. While I have had feelings on both sides of the potfolio issue, I do feel that there is a need to try and capture and document the abilities of our students.  But, much like the Inclusion issue, I feel that one assessment tool does not truely work with all of this very diverse group of students.  Even though the curriculum standards have been broken down into pre-requiste or alternative performance indicators, I feel that it does not take into account the demand for functional skills that are so crucial for these students with severe disabilities, especially as they move into the middle and high school years of their education. Our overall goal for these students is to help them realize their highest potential and be as independent as possible. Since a majority of these students are unable to actually interact with the assessment/data sheets, it can easily be argued as being a tool to test how well the special education teacher can present their data.  Let me say that I am a HUGE believer in data. My view is that if it is not documented, then it didn't happen. I do feel that the current forms used by the state of Tennessee do a good job of documenting data in a user friendly format.  My concern continues to be surrounding whether we are truely meeting the individualied needs of these students by forcing them to fit into the required subject areas of reading, math, science and social studies without looking at vocational and independent skills that are so important for these students. I also feel  for the special education teachers who teach students with severe disabilities in grades 3-8 since they must capture information in all 4 subjects every year( this aligns with the regular TCAP testing schedule). If they perform the portfolio assessment to the fullest then they must have 3 different areas under each subject. That totals 12 graphs and 12 evidence sheets per student which really adds up if you teach 8-10 students. And, if done correctly, the teacher will have hard data to back up this assessment data as well as hard data on all of the IEP goals for each student. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet?   These teachers are.

NCLB... continued thoughts.

As I continue to think about NCLB and students with severe disabilities, I can't help but to think about whether  the assessments really are truely standardized if the individual states are able to have some flexibility in the actual assessments given. It is my understanding that not every state uses the portfolio type of assessment for these students.  I am going to try to gather more information on what some of the other states use. If you know of what other states are using, let me know.
 I did find a good education brief on NCLB from the Center For Evaluation & Education Policy entitled
Closing the Achievement Gap Series: Part III   What is the Impact of NCLB on the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities? The CEEP web site is http://ceep.indiana.edu/    This brief provides good information an several aspects of NCLB so you may want to check it out.

NCLB... Are we truely leaving no child behind?

Welcome to my blog! I am using this blog to think out loud about some of the issues I encounter in the field of Special Education.  I welcome your comments.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ushered in the beliefs that setting high standards would raise the overall outcomes for all students.  In order to recieve funding through this act, states most develop assessments in the basic curriculum areas for all students.  The goal is to have all students (including students in special education) performing at the proficient level in reading and math by 2014. Is this obtainable? Does it work against the main principle in special education of individualized education plans?  
 One of my first thoughts on this law is that there are no considerations for the varied educational levels of the students being served in public schools. States can develop alternative assessments for these students, but do these alternative assessments really address all that the law is pushing for?  What are your thoughts?