Teach Effectively!

Graduation stories are all over the news. I’ve just pulled a couple of headlines here to illustrate. One of the interesting issues is whether individuals with disabilities who have not completed requirements should participate.

Tardy senior owed chance to march
Policy wrongly excludes grads from high school commencement
High school graduation is an important milestone. Commencement is a rite of passage – for the graduating student and his or her family. As such, more, not fewer, provisions ought to be taken to ensure graduating students get to march.

White House supports Hanover Park student
Bush aide: Allow teen with Down syndrome to walk at graduation
BY LAURA BRUNO DAILY RECORD EAST HANOVER –
The White House has jumped into the debate over whether Alicia Vitiello, a Hanover Park High School student with Down syndrome, should be allowed to walk with the Class of 2007 when it graduates next spring.

I know that these are only two of the several of these I’ve seen. I can’t chase them right now, so I welcome comments identifying other examples of how disability, graduation requirements, and equal treatment interact.

The Commonwealth of Virginia (US) will have a committee devoted to improving literacy among its residents. How much do you think the committee will devote to a dispassionate examination of teaching literacy effectively? Cast your guess using the comments on this post.

Virginia Board of Education President Mark E. Emblidge today announced the formation of a special committee on literacy to develop strategies to raise the level of literacy of children, adolescents, and adults in the Commonwealth. The committee includes Board members Isis Castro, who will serve as chair, and Dr. Thomas Brewster. Other Board members also will participate. The committee will consider ways to:

• Increase the number of students reading on grade level by the third grade;
• Sustain literacy and a love of reading among students as they move from the elementary-school environment to middle school and high school;
• Assist limited English proficient (LEP) students in obtaining an education; and
• Strengthen literacy programs and policies for adult learners.

Link to the full press release from the Virginia Department of Education.

Have you ever read or listened to Education911? It’s the Web presence of someone who identifies himself as Ed Ripple (?) and reports that he is an experienced elementary-school teacher. He’s got a few pages and podcasts presenting his views on the problems of education and how the education system should be reformed. From one of the podcasts, I got the idea that he was a special educator.

He expresses opinions about a lot of topics. His presentation is direct, so you can learn his views on

• Tenure for teachers;
• Educational accountability;
• Gifted children being overlooked while students with problems get too much attention;
• The critical importance of teachers and teacher-student relationships;
• Inclusion;
• Learning styles.

There are comments about a host of other topics, too many to list. It’s fasctinating. I had concerns about some of the content. There’s a testimonial about the benefits of giving a child words printed with sandpaper; he recommends that parents see whether teachers have lesson plans differentiated by learning styles; and he embraces inclusion pretty much unconditionally.

The presentation is a little choppy (some layers or CSS items are out of sync; be prepared for animated GIFs) and the message is a bit short on evidence. But, it has a nice, avuncular tone to it and the author clearly wants education in the US improved. It’s worth a tour to learn what someone else thinks about some of these matters.

Link to Education911.

Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in south-central Pennsylvania (US) are achieving savings by withdrawing students from a multi-LEA consortium, according to a story entitled “The great takeback” by Tatiana Zarnowski and Linda Franz. Let’s hope that (a) the students’ unique educational needs are being met in their local schools and (b) the savings are being used well

In five years, the annual price tag of educating an autistic child through Capital Area Intermediate Unit has shot up from $30,307 to $48,500.

Five local school districts — Big Spring, Carlisle, South Middleton, Mechanicsburg and Northern York — that have formed a consortium will circumvent that 60 percent hike next year by hiring a private company to teach its elementary autistic students for $22,000 each. That’s less than half of what Capital Area Intermediate Unit (CAIU) charges.

Skyrocketing CAIU costs for autism and other disabilities have prompted the local school districts — which 10 years ago depended on the intermediate unit for special education — to hire more of their own staffers.

Collectively, the officials for the local schools say the districts have knocked millions of dollars a year off their budgets by educating and transporting special-needs students themselves.

Link to the story by Ms. Zarnowski and Ms. Franz.

The behavior analysis folks in psychology at Athabasca University, Canada’s Open University, provide an on-line tutorial about Siegfried Engelmann’s Direct Instruction approach to teaching. If you’re wondering what DI (that’s “big DI,” as many say; [note to me: create a entry about big DI and little di]) is about, this is a good introduction. For those who want to gain an even more substantial understanding of Ziggy’s view of the world, follow the link for Ziggy’s site under “web resources” at the right.

Over on Special Education Teacher in Washington DC, Teacher SOL has a nice post about using positive reinforcement in classroom teaching.

National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Sunday included a story by Beth Fertig about special education shortcomings in New York City. It’s got much of the same content as the series of stories that Ms. Fertig prepared for WNYC and to which I referred a few days ago here and here. NPR will make audio of the story available here after 1 PM (Eastern Starndard Time; -5 GMT) 18 June.

Over on EdWize (the United Federation of Teachers’ blog), Cheryl M. Richardson has a post about purported changes in the IEP procedures that sound at least alarming if not illegal to me. She explains that IEPs could be conducted without teachers. How could NY do this?

The New York State Education Department has proposed that IEP meetings be conducted without the participation of the special and general education teachers or members of the IEP team, – the social worker, psychologist, and related service providers. This change, if voted on, would mean that a child’s IEP could be changed without the knowledge of the participants stated previously. As a special education teacher, as well as, a parent of a child with an IEP, this is an outrage!

Could NY be seeking some special exemption from IDEA? I think the law is pretty explicit about the composition of the IEP team. Here’s the US Department of Education’s description of the changes in description of the team based on the 2004 reauthorization:

1. Revises language regarding members of the IEP team.
The term “IEP team” means a group of individuals composed of:
• The parents of a child with a disability;
• Not less than one regular education teacher of such child (if the child is, or may be,
participating in the regular education environment);
• Not less than one special education teacher, or where appropriate, not less than one
special education provider of such child;
…[more]….

There are two situations where the team can differ: when the (a) topic of the meeting is not relevant to that person’s expertise (curriculum area or such) and (b) when the person submits written input. Both conditions require the parents and local education agency to concur about the team member not attending.

I searched the New York State Deparment of Education for a policy document on this change, but didn’t find one. If someone has further information about the proposed change, please let me know.

Link to Ms. Richardson’s post. Download a PDF of the US ED document from which I quoted.