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Friday, June 26, 2009 12:09 PM Goals set for improving special ed Results should affect all students By Stephanie Creech | Times Senior Writer Starting next school year, all children entering kindergarten in Wilson County Schools will take a skills test to determine what extra help or interventions are needed to help them be successful in a regular class. Exactly what standardized test will be used hasn't been determined yet. The new test is one way school officials say they plan to reduce the number of referrals its exceptional children's division receives each year from concerned parents and teachers who want to find out if a child has a learning disability or other special needs. The new test is also one example, officials hope, of how improving the district's exceptional children's program will eventually affect all students, both general education and those with special needs. The changes will start at the elementary level and move to the middle and high schools over the course of the next few years, said Vivian Roach, who directs the district's exceptional children's program. Roach said they don't know the potential cost of the proposed changes at this point. However, the cost issue is being discussed. In April, Lawrence Gloeckler of the Special Education Institute of the International Center for Leadership in New York issued a report indicating several areas the district should address to improve its exceptional children's program. Reducing the number of referrals was one area. During the 2008-09 academic year, the district received approximately 50 official referrals from school assistance teams or from parents for new evaluations. That number does not include all of the re-evaluations done of students who were already qualified for services through the program. Roach said she did not know who many total evaluations were done last school year. The district's goal is to keep the number of referrals to no more than 5 to 10 percent of the student population, Roach said. Wilson currently has about 12,200 students. Roach said most of the requests come at the end of the school year mainly from parents who fear their child is going to fail a grade or who already know their child will be retained. Most of the referrals involve elementary school students. Other issues the report highlighted will be addressed by committee that's developing a strategic plan for improving the exceptional children's program.
* Increasing the graduation rate of special education students from 24.5 percent to at least 60 percent. * Reducing the dropout rate of special education students from 13.2 percent to no more than 5 percent. * Reducing the number of special education students who spend more than 60 percent of their time in self-contained classes from 24.9 percent to 15 percent. * Reducing the performance gap between general education and special education students to no more than 10 percent. According to the State Performance Plan for the academic year 2007-08, the latest available figures, North Carolina's average graduation rate for students with individualized education plans is 56.3 percent, which means the state met its target of 55 percent. North Carolina's average dropout rate for students with IEPs for that same time period was 8 percent, which means the state did not meet its target of 6.5 percent. When it comes to inclusion, the state average for children removed from their regular classroom more than 60 percent of the school day is 15.8 percent, which means the state met its target of 16.5 percent. Wilson fell short of matching either of the three goals. But several surrounding school districts -- Nash-Rocky Mount Schools, Edgecombe County Schools or Wayne County Schools -- didn't meet the goals either. For example, Edgecombe County had 35.8 percent of its special education students graduate from high school. Nash-Rocky Mount Schools had 11.82 percent of its special education students to dropout of school and in Wayne County Schools, 26.12 percent of its special education students spend more than 60 percent of their time in self-contained classes. Gloeckler and another consultant who works with Gloeckler, Patty Laney, have been helping Wilson County with its strategic planning process, which started in May. Earlier this month, the strategic planning committee decided to create action teams at each school that will be charged with making sure the ideas and goals coming from the strategic planning process are carried out at the school level. Starting next school year, the action team members will be trained in the areas the strategic plan addresses. Action team members will, in turn, train the staff at their school. The action teams should help ensure more consistency in the types of intervention and instruction students receive. One of the key things the action teams will do is work on building stronger relationships between general education and special education teachers. Forging stronger relationships between those groups of teachers should help when it comes to inclusion and keeping more special needs students in regular classrooms. Roach said training on inclusion will start next school year. It will be the 2010-2011 school year before any inclusion changes are implemented. School leaders are looking at creating situations where classes could have both a general education teacher and a special education teacher doing team or co-teaching. Roach said they are also looking at ways general education and special education teachers can have common planning time. The action teams will consider staffing needs and determine if enough staff is available to make inclusion work. Action teams will also determine what schedule changes need to be made. Finding ways to let special needs children have more time in a regular classroom doesn't mean all self-contained classrooms in the district will be eliminated. Roach said they will still have some separate classes. The strategic planning group will meet again in late July or early August. Action teams will also work on ways to involve parents in the changes happening. Roach said she feels good about the work done thus far, but wishes they were further along. In December, Wilson County Schools Superintendent Larry Price outlined a three-pronged plan for a complete review of the district's exceptional children's program. The plan included hiring Gloeckler at a rate of $3,000 per day. The district has paid him $21,175.15 as of this week. The money was paid from Federal Title I funding. The district receives Title I funding based on the number of low income students. The second part of the plan included a review of the laws and regulations governing services for special needs children. The third part of the plan was the series of classroom tours conducted by the Wilson County Board of Education's Instructional Services Committee. creech@wilsontimes.com | 265-7822 |
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take notice said...
There is no mention of a parent committee in this article either. One specific issue identified in Mr. Gloeckler's report was: "A concern is that the district needs to have a better strategy for communicating with parents and providing proactive information about district programs and services and promoting a more frequent dialog with the community." Evidently some people in CO are not taking these suggestions seriously. Communication with parents is still lacking.
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 2:28 PM
Over Taxed In Wilson said...There is no mention of a parent committee in this article either. One specific issue identified in Mr. Gloeckler's report was: "A concern is that the district needs to have a better strategy for communicating with parents and providing proactive information about district programs and services and promoting a more frequent dialog with the community." Evidently some people in CO are not taking these suggestions seriously. Communication with parents is still lacking.
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 2:28 PM
After reading this article, I would like to make a few comments so please bare with me. I find by reading we have three people from CO on this committee 2 more specialist and one principle before they get to any teachers who serve on it. Not counting any teachers, that is six people. I am quite sure you can throw in DLP and the school system attorney when reviewing these processes. The people I have spoken of, I am sure, all have advanced degrees (except Lawyer) in the education field. Point is why are we in this shape to start with? Why are the CO personnel not doing this? More red tape, smoke and mirrors. Why does it take training of (action team members who in turn will train the staff)? Well who is training the action teams? I am sure that the teachers in the classrooms see the kids everyday know (by looking at grades and individual personalities) who at the very least might be a person of interest for services. Why are we spending money on outside consultants with the budget as it is? Laws have been on the state books for years. IEP’s have set guidelines. CO is again dropping the ball on education. This is something that should have been addressed years ago. People call your school board reps. and tell them not to renew DLP’s contract. This county needs better for its children. It also can do better. One more thing I did not see the names of the school psychologists who will be evaluating the children/applications. What are their names? CO, did you even consider using them?
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Tell it all... I think you forgot to mention that parents/guardians still have NOT be notified IN WRITING about their child's Extended School Year (ESY) schooling & services. If I'm not mistaken, I am sure that some of these parents will be contacting the Office of Civil Rights to fix this situation, after all, OCR is the one that has jurisdiction over discrimination due to disabilities.
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:33 AM
There are many comments to be made about the way the EC program has been run in Wison, unfortunately, this paper chooses not to print them. The damage has been done and those who were responsible need to be fired.
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 8:37 AM
Fixing parent involvement is easy AND REQUIRED BY FEDERAL/STATE LAW! PARENT ENVOLVEMENT MEETINGS SHOULD HAPPEN REGULARLY, IN MOST DISTRICTS IT HAPPENS ONCE A YEAR. IT IS NOT ONLY REQUIRED ON THE DISTRICT LEVEL, BUT ON THE INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL LEVELS AS WELL!!! This is done simply by making this an ANNUAL MEETING FOR ALL PARENTS. IN ADDITION, LAW REQUIRES that a portion of the Title I funding be spent on WHAT THE PARENTS DECIDE TO SPEND IT ON (i.e., transportation/child care (to & from schools for IEPs, PTO meetings, etc., parent AND teacher education/workshops, any of thing that HELPS PARENTS BECOME MORE ENVOLVED WITH THEIR CHILDS EDUCATION)!!! I have yet to find any parent that has voted on how ANY FUNDING HAS BEEN SPENT. If it has happened, no one seems to know which parents have decided on what the money SHOULD HAVE BEEN SPENT ON. In addition, MORE TEACHERS ARE REQUIRED to fulfill the education gaps that are there. How that can happen is hard to figure since this district is disposing of one of our most valuable assets, experienced teachers!!! They are not a through away commodity!!! Their experience & expertise is far superior to anything else that this district has to offer. Quit wasting funding on central office and put it where it belongs, in the classroom. That is why FEDERAL GRANTS are available to ALL DISTRICTS & SCHOOLS, they just need to apply for them. They cover the salaries for TEACHERS (NOT ADMINISTRATION), BOOKS, UP KEEP OF SCHOOL BUILDING, PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT, EQUIPMENT TO MAKE SCHOOLS HADICAPP ACCESSIBLE TO ALL PEOPLE, etc. The funding is there, they just need to apply for it. Additionally, the review by Mr. Gloeckler is done, yet the final report was NOT given to all that took part in the process AS REQUESTED BY MR. GLOECKLER HIMSELF. The Superintendent was told several times to give copies of the reports to ALL THAT PARTICIPATED in it. Not only that, but the LEGAL REVIEW BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT ATTORNEYS HAS NEVER BEEN PRESENTED TO ANYONE OUTSIDE OF CENTRAL OFFICE, IF IT IS EVEN DONE YET (to the best of my knowledge). Again WCS is not being completely open with ALL PARTIES like it should be. Also, trying to LIMIT THE NUMBER of evaluations into the Exceptional Children's program is not an option. Statistics clearly show that developmental disabilities are on the rise (refer to the CDC for stats). Autism is on a steep incline & continues to grow. If a limit is but on the number entering a program, then once again, STUDENTS WILL BE EXCLUDED AGAIN! The only thing to do is to treat ALL STUDENTS EQUALLY & EVALUATE EVERYONE EQUALLY. I know equality has been none existent in this school district, but it's time for a change. Learn the lessons from your past (HISTORY), see what it going on around you and others (SOCIAL STUDIES), and learn to gracefully move forward navigating the way to a new beginning (PERFORMING ARTS). Then again, maybe this is why the district is having such a hard time with it...they only teach the test, not life or reality. JMO
Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 10:34 AM
