February 16, 2010

At the September 2009 Special Education Leadership Conference we discussed the May 2009 WESTEST 2 results for students with disabilities as a group and a number of initiatives that could assist students in gaining mastery of grade level standards, learning skills and technology tools.  I want to share with you work being done on several of those initiatives.  Many of you are involved in one or more of them.  For those of you who are not able at this time to be involved, my intention is to inform you of these efforts and their results so that you can modify them for your own efforts or plan for them to be included in your next LEA application for federal and state funds. 

Strategic Reading and Language Arts Instruction for Middle School Students 

Ellen Oderman, Terry Reale, Mary Ann Triplett, Denise White

33 two-person teams – a special educator and a general educator in a middle school – have just completed their third  (2) day workshop focusing on  literacy achievement, including writing, for all students but especially those with IEPs in middle schools. 

This professional development is intended to build the capacity of the educators to provide strategic instruction in reading and writing that is relevant, engaging and supported by consistent, intentional use of effective strategies and tools. The performance of all students engaged in this work will be expected to increase in the area of reading/language arts as measured by an increase of mean scale scores on WESTEST2 2010 - 2012. 

Each teacher is developing a lesson plan that includes the three elements of strategic teaching and a video of the plan being taught.  During the (2) day workshop in April, there will be a peer review of all the videos.  Seventeen teachers have volunteered to have their videos reviewed by a WVDE/RESA team for professional taping with the best being posted on Teach 21 during Summer 2010.

This initiative will continue next year.  The Office of Assessment, Accountability and Research is conducting the evaluation of the initiative so its design and content for next year will be determined after the evaluation is completed in June.

Alternate Identification and Reporting (AIR)   http://wvde.state.wv.us/osp/AIR.html

Lynn Boyer, Linda Palenchar, Francie Clark + 6 county special education directors and 26 principals of elementary schools

The AIR project expanded this year from 14 to 26 schools.  Schools continue to grow in the use of this process that considers the continuation of services beyond Tier III by selecting students for IEP services without assigning a label of disability.  Extensive professional development for principals, teachers, and psychologists has occurred in the areas of AIR selection committee processes, response to intervention, research based reading instruction and interventions, research based mathematics instruction and interventions, and positive behavior support systems.  The project is now being evaluated by Interactive, Inc., for the changes in language and expectations, instructional planning, differences in IEPs, student achievement, and student perspectives. 

Linda Palenchar and/or I have attended four selection committee meetings which varied in their facility with the processes.   What was striking, though, is the degree to which the participants are talking about student needs without mention of a disability or belaboring test scores. At the conclusion of the third year of the project in 2010-2011, all involved will take a hard look at what the evaluation and experience have told us and whether we want to ask OSEP to extend its agreement for us to continue in a broader range of schools.

 The 26 schools are in Tyler, Hampshire, Putnam, Kanawha, Wood, and Harrison Counties.  The stated purposes of this project are

• To establish and reinforce the communality of instructional needs for students

• To transition parents, administrators, and teachers to a model of support that is based on the student’s instructional and behavioral needs and not a defined area of disability

• To diminish the burden that a label appears to place on a student emotionally and the associated low expectations

• To contribute to the national dialogue associated with research and practice related to early intervention, Response to Intervention and appropriate instruction and support for students who demonstrate the need for the protections of IDEA.  This research and practice includes the distinction between intensive interventions for an unidentified student and the specially designed instruction that is the right of an entitled student.

Standards based Online IEPhttp://wvde.state.wv.us/teachiep/

Allen Sexton, Ellen Oderman,  Office of Information Management Systems + many, many reviewers, respondents, and users!

The work to build West Virginia’s standards based online IEP has been framed, across all the months (and years!) of its development, in the knowledge that students can only progress when instruction is intentionally planned for mastery of grade level standards through the integration of a teacher’s teaching to the standards and the student’s knowledge and skills as revealed through balanced and continuing assessment.  Through the exceptional collaboration among Department, RESA and county leadership, and teachers, we feel confident that we can move to statewide required use of the SB:IEP this September.  The transfer of technical knowledge and capacity from the WVDE to Core Teams in each county will begin within weeks and is vital for counties and teachers to begin owning this incredible instructional resource. 

During the February Special Education Regional Seminars, Linda Palenchar, Karen Ruddle and Allen Sexton began the next crucial phase of learning to use this resource – modeling the derivation of IEP goals with the standards as guides and research based practices to ensure success.  If you were not present for this professional development, click on   https://sites.google.com/a/wvde.k12.wv.us/leadership-conference/ to find all materials.

Finally:  status of the Special Education Teacher Leadership Academy

Lynn Boyer, Val Wilson, OSP and RESA staff

Since November 2007, we have thought of the Special Education Teacher Leadership Academy as the vehicle for bringing 21st c teaching and learning to teachers of students with IEPs and to the students themselves.  The days of the Academy were committed to instruction primarily in reading, writing, and math and to the technology that allows that instruction to be effective, efficient and in sync with the culture in which today’s teachers and students live and communicate. 

At this time, planning for the Special Education Teacher Leadership Academy and other large scale summer professional development events is on hold. State Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Paine, is assessing the various means of providing PD to schools so that teacher teams in schools have an opportunity to design the professional development the school needs to improve student achievement.  He is receiving input from multiple stakeholder groups.  On February 25, he is convening the Advisory Council for Collaborative Teams; and I am pleased to tell you that we have two SETLA lead teachers from 2008 and 2009 on that Council.  It is unclear at this time when a decision will be made regarding the kinds of professional development that will be provided this summer to teacher teams.

Regardless of the format in which professional development is provided to schools, through counties or regionally, your commitment to improving the achievement of students with IEPs and to eliminating inappropriate referrals and placements will be vital to the instructional preparation done in your county.