We are spending literally tens of millions of dollars on special education annually, yet little progress has been made in returning better test scores or showing an improvement in learning for students receiving special education services. Teachers, we would like to hear your suggestions from the classroom - what could be done to improve the education of our special education students? Parents, we would like to hear input from you regarding what you find works and what doesn't really help your child receiving special education services.
Some data:
According to the most recent state Salary and Travel report, DCSS employs 1,369 Special Education teachers out of 6,500 total teachers. 21% of our teachers are Special Education teachers. At an average salary and benefits figure of $65,000 (source: Ms. Tyson's budget figure), DCSS spends a mind boggling $90,000,000 annually on personnel cost for Special Education teachers.
DCSS has around 9,000 special education students so this is $10,000 per Special Education student we spend annually in addition to their regular classroom experience and per pupil expenditure.
Looking at the Made AYP status of DCSS, it would appear that the student achievement of Special Education students (see category entitled SWD - Students With Disabilities) is the most critical area that DCSS needs to improve. Not once has DCSS managed to enable this group to make adequate yearly progress. This seems to be an area in which DCSS could really use some progress. Yet here is the report DCSS sent to the U.S. Governmental Accountability office (GAO) regarding an additional $19,669,324 of Stimulus money spent primarily on Students with Disabilities. According to this report submitted September 6, 2010, you would think we are making great progress in this area. However, looking at the percent of Students With Disabilities who "meet or exceed" when tested on the standards (see years below 2003 - 2010), there is no appreciable percentage increase in student achievement.
GAO report
Monday, September 6, 2010
DeKalb County School System
Decatur, GA 30032
Award amount: $19,669,324
DeKalb County School System reported that it used its Recovery Act IDEA award to increase the achievement of students with disabilities. These funds affected roughly 20 high schools and 20 middle schools. Specifically, the funds were used to retain staff, hire additional board certified behavior analysts to support schools as needed, fund special education paraprofessionals, and hire lead teachers for special education to provide support to elementary schools. The funds were also used to provide professional development, provide personnel to supply ongoing coaching and support to school staff, and purchase equipment. As a result of these funds, officials reported that the district was able to improve the achievement of students with disabilities and provide elementary schools with more time with their existing lead teachers for special education. In addition, they said that the district was able to fund special education paraprofessionals who were previously paid through local dollars. Officials indicated that their Recovery Act IDEA award activities were less than 50 percent completed.
Go to these websites and click on Academic Performance:
2003-2004
2004-2005
2005-2006
2006-2007
2007-2008
2008-2009
2009-2010
(source for approximate number of students in special education in DCSS - click here.)
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Many thanks to DeKalb Parent for providing this research.
43 comments:
Maybe if the district wasn't making kids reading on a Pre-K level take the CRCT on the 3rd grade level (and read it to themselves) the kids would score better.
It isn't the district, it is the state. This is a national issue that is one of the great unfunded mandates of the federal government.
@ Anonymous 12:14
"t isn't the district, it is the state. This is a national issue that is one of the great unfunded mandates of the federal government."
The figures don't support that statement. Last year in DCSS $90,000,000 went into salaries for Special Education teachers (this figure does not include Special Education paraprofessionals which is millions more in salary and benefits or the many Instructional Coaches and Central office personnel who are hired to address this concern). In addition, close to another $20,000,000 went into Special Education via the stimulus program. Altogether, the funding for Special Education over and above their regular education classroom funding was probably closer to $120,000,000 to $130,000,000.
We are spending enormous sums of money to staff this program (21% of all teachers are Special Education teachers in DCSS), and there are many gradients of disabilities. In other words, many students with disabilities can make substantial academic progress - most are not severely disabled). Why is there so little progress?
This is very personal to me, as I have a child who received special education support services. We chose to send that child to a private school for as long as we could afford to - that specialized in learning disabilities - and what a difference! NOTHING in DCSS is done the way it's done in the private setting for learning disabled students. In fact, during those years, I attended many national conferences on LD - right here in Atlanta - and there were very, very few public school teachers or administrators present. I even offered to pay the fee to send my child's interrelated teacher and she declined the offer. This teacher, although she sported a master's degree from UGA in special education, had never heard of the Orton-Gillingham method of reading instruction - a program successfully used in many private settings. DCSS teachers also were very uneducated as to how physical activities like "Floortime" and occupational therapy "play" can increase learning. (I will say that they are starting to employ these practices for the 200 lucky children at Coralwood.) It was shocking to me to see my child's interrelated teacher supplying my child with worksheet after worksheet and then pushing to get them done. All the while, I watched a child with autism squeezed between a cabinet and the wall rocking himself unattended. Of course, this was about 12 years ago - so hopefully things have changed.
I don't want to insult anyone but -- I lay a lot of the blame for this on our universities. I don't think they are producing cutting-edge, innovative teachers. All teachers should be taught special education practices (they are ironically very similar to "gifted" teaching methods). I did meet one interrelated teacher who was very much on top of the game - and she had a degree from Vanderbilt. Maybe UGA needs to find out what they're teaching teachers at Vanderbilt.
Bad data see
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=105&PID=38&PTID=51&CTID=58&Source=Pre-School%20Placement&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2010
Georgia has mandated that special education children be mainstreamed at least for 80% of their classes. As DCSS has moved to comply the numbers of special students tested has increased. Over three years DCSS moved from 41% to 60% of its special Ed students mainstreamed for K-12 (students ages 6 to 2). Sixty two per cent (62%) of early childhood students are mainstreamed. However, neither the 60% of K-12-or the 62% of early childhood meets the state goals of 63% for K-12 and 67.5% for early childhood. Most of the extra money for special Ed has either gone into early childhood or into hiring special Ed teachers to work in the mainstreamed classrooms with the regular Ed teachers who are not able to provide what is needed for special Ed students by themselves. The truth is that we do not have enough to do the job-nor can we find enough qualified teachers. Last year we had 8390 special Ed students total. This year it will be closer to 9000. Test data shows over three years improvement in middle and high school math and in high school science and social studies for students with disabilities. Since the number of students with disabilites who must pass the standardized test wil go up each year for AYP (as it will for students in every category) there is no realistic expectation that once we get to 100% passing that fewer schools will make AYP anywhere.Except in Lake Woebegone where all the students are above average.
Cere, you are correct, many special ed teachers do not know how to help or teach their students.
This is true though of teaching how teachers teach children to read, though. As most teachers in kindergarten, first and second grade, do not understand how students learn how to read and what they need to know and how to give them what they need to know in order to succeed.
The other problem is that children labeled learning disabled, are not taught how to "deal" or overcome their disability. Few kids with dyslexia are actually given help to learn how to read better. Instead work is modified and material read to them. How is this helping the child? It's not.
Children with many learning disabilities including dyslexia can be taught, so that their disability is no longer an issue or a much smaller issue. This takes work and knowledge on the part of the teacher.
My experience is that many, not all, teachers do not want to get this knowledge. It's readily available via internet, books, seminars, but not in college course work.
The other issue that I have is special ed paras "teaching" our kids. Very few of our included kids, see/experience an actual teacher. If they do, the teacher is usually sitting in the back of the classroom or with the child and working very little with the classroom teacher.
I blame the changes-poor changes- that I have seen in Special Ed over the past 16 years on a number of factors:
1. The government and it's lack of desire to truly educate our children.
2. The poor quality of instruction that most teachers receive in their education courses.
3. Teachers not speaking up about the poor instruction our special ed students are receiving-could be because they don't know, but come on now.
4. Teachers not wanting to improve the amount or quality of instruction that they don't know. Teachers have stopped learning.
I am thankful every day that I, a dyslexic, went to school in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, as I received instruction that has enabled me to be a voracious reader and learner.
There is a reason why many special ed parents flock to Charter Schools, both brick and mortar and cyber. They want their children to learn and realize that it's not happening in many public schools.
But other groups of students are meeting and exceeding adequate yearly progress. Click on the links for all 7 years in the main article and then click on Academic Performance. This is the group that consistently fails to make Adequate Yearly progress when other groups do. They consistently hit the 40+% mark year after year but cannot come beyond that mark.
The purpose of this article was not to say we spend too much on these students. The purpose is to say we want to ensure that the funds are targeted in such a way that Special Education students see real progress.
Isn't it time we asked if the current way we are serving Special Education students is the most effective way for them?
IT'S PRIMARILY THE SCHOOL SYSTEM!!! Per pupil funding is graduated with more money allocated based on a special needs student being placed in a general education setting. Therefore, Dekalb Schools has made a conscious decision to do away with 'resource' or small classes for students with disabilities for teaching Science and Social Studies. The parents, unfortunately, are delighted to hear that their disabled children are being placed with General Education students for these classes. Sometimes it works, but often the students are failing, even with 2 teachers or a para in the room. Guess what??? A student who needs a resource class for Reading, Language Arts and/or Math cannot possibly perform at grade level and in a General Education setting but there is no choice and these student are merely passed along. How can you perform well in these classes if you are so low in Reading or Math that you are placed a resource classroom? ANOTHER ISSUE, when co-teaching is used, it is NOT designed to give individualized attention to disabled students. It is just the latest popular theory that Dekalb embraces to keep costs down. The Special Education teacher is ordered to teach half the class with a mix of fully-abled and disabled students with no distinction as to individual need. Only the official roll assigns disabled students to the Special Education teacher. THIRD POINT: Students with varying disabilities from very specific learning problems to ADHD to EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR DISORDERS are all taught together. Other systems build classes to facilitate centralizing proven approaches to learning based on type of Disability. Don't fault the state or universities. Dekalb is doing the bare minimum to get by regulations while maximizing budget. Parents of disabled students are being fooled. Special Education teachers are doing the best they can and are fearful for their careers if they speak out or voice their concerns. Imagine successfully teaching a large class of differently-abled and regular students while keeping students with behavior disorders under control (the students who WANT to learn may be overlooked); and don't forget splitting a large class of students into 2 groups and expecting learning to be maximized, when many of the students read below grade level. The point should be to support disabled students in an appropriate classroom setting so that they successfully build the skill levels they need. But the focus in Dekalb has been to do away with resource classes and push students into the General Education setting as much as possible. And its 'data-driven. Dekalb Schools looks only at what percentage of disabled students are being served in General Education classes and they have a goal to reach. It has nothing to do with individual needs and real students.
SPECIAL EDUCATION 'PLANNING' is data-driven in Dekalb Schools. It is based solely on raising the percentage of disabled students served in a General Education setting. It has NOTHING TO DO with ability, disability or individual needs. Every school is forced into the same model.
Well this is an interesting post.
The government is requiring that each school have at least 80% of its students with special needs to be mainstreamed. This is not always realistic but it is what is being required by all school systems. If they do not comply then they will get cited.
This is an area most school system could improve in. With two teachers in a classroom this gives teachers an opportunity to do many creative things to ensure students have mastered the curriculum. I was actually discussing this with an Area Superintendent from another school system other than Dekalb.
This is an area that has always bothered me greatly as in many situations. There is not normally enough training in this area for the regular education teacher or the special education teacher. There is no doubt that 100% of all school systems could probable do better in this area.
What's worse (I know..it's hard to imagine worse than teachers being undereducated and a system forcing 80% of children with disabilities to cope with a reg. ed. classroom -like one size fits all!) - is that LTSEs are pulling Interrelated teachers OUT OF THE CLASSROOM to complete paperwork and the children are NOT BEING SERVICED! And IEP amendments are being made with no meetings and parents discouraged from asking questions. This is ethically wrong. DCSS should focus on children being served as they need to be served. Paperwork should not come before children. A majority of these children can learn academic concepts, and they should be afforded EVERY opportunity to do so. Teachers should not have to lie to parents about how often their children are served. I know a principal who got extremely angry with a teacher (in DCSS) for telling the parents that their child's interrelated teacher showed up 3 days out of 5. This after the teacher had complained to the principal about the lack of service. I can't think but that our children would make better progress if we would 1) improve our teaching methods, 2) concentrate sustained efforts on the classroom, and 3) recognize that each child is an individual with individual needs - and we can't do inclusion with every child. Isn't education supposed to be about the children and learning?
If a child needs his/her own para, that costs the taxpayers AT LEAST $20,000/year, and it takes away resources from other students. What if we could put that kind of money into our TRULY gifted students?
BTW- thanks, Cere, for the thread. We can do better. I'm hoping that the attention this blog receives will translate into DCSS doing something helpful (no matter how late or begrudgingly). I saw the action at Dresden - and we still have toilet paper! This blog and the readers made that happen. Maybe enough outrage and DCSS will change its philosophy from paperwork, paperwork, to learning, learning.
Special Education Teachers should be in the classroom except on rare situations.
I get pulled for the Georgia High School Graduation Test and on rare instances the IST might set-up a meeting I have to attend but this is really rare. I am in my classes daily. I put notes on each of my classes blogs daily.
There is no excuse for special education teachers to be out of the classroom this much.
DCSS has 762 Special Education Paraprofessionals accounting for over $22,000,000 in salary and benefits so I guess the poster that calculated $130,000,000 for 9000 Special Education students over and above the per pupil regular ed classroom expenditures. I think the question of why our Students with Disabilities have not improved in student achievement is a very valid question.
(source: state Salary and Travel audit 2009)
@Ella,
I agree completely - there is no excuse that Special Ed. teachers should be out of the classroom. Ours are out at least once a week - lately two and three times a week. And when teachers ask, the response is, "paperwork." Many children in DCSS are in this situation - and parents who are deliberately kept ignorant (DCSS LTSEs and Interrelated Teachers ignoring meeting notice requirements, backdating paperwork, etc.) - and therefore cannot be advocates for their children.
What are the laws about changing IEPs? I thought parents, reg. ed. teachers, Interrelated teachers, and an admin person had to be at meetings. Has this changed? Our parents are being left out constantly - just being notified over the phone that the IEP has changed. Is this allowable?
I have a child in Special Ed and after 2 years of mainstreaming, no one has ever observed him to see if this is truly the best fit for him. I keep being told mainstreaming is the way to go despite what I believe is right. I can not afford a private school, therefore, I am depending on the county to do the right thing, which is not happening.
My son has an IEP and is one of the lucky ones that qualified for Coralwood--but only becuase his preschool teachers at his first preschool had experience with the IEP process and helped me fight for it. It is against the law for IEP goals to be changed without the parents involvement. It is also against the law for them to hold an IEP review meeting without parental notification. Now, a parent can choose not to participate although I can't imagine why. Based on my experience I can't see how it would be possible for goals to be changed without the parent having an opportunity to discuss it. Now, do I think the system is flawed? ABSOLUTELY. But to say that parents are left out of the IEP process is misleading. They might not agree with the IEP, and there are things they can do about that. But they have to be part of the process.
About 50 percent of parents don't participate in the IEP process. It might be because they can't get off work,but it also might be because they just don't care.
Or, very likely, that they believe that the teachers have their child's best interest at heart and they overly trust the system.
I am a very strong advocate for Special Education and 504 rights. 504 rights are basically the accommodations in the regular education classroom.
IF a parent agrees to an IEP being done without their presence then this is probable fine. However, there still by law has to be a regular educator involved in the process.
If it is a minor change and the parent agrees it can be done over the phone and the paperwork can be sent home. However, this is never the best practice. However, at the beginning of the year in high school there sometimes is a need to make minor changed to the classes students take. An IEP amendment can be done at that point.
I am seldom out of class unless I get pulled to read the Georgia High School Graduation Test. There is no excuse for this. Special education teachers do have a great deal of paperwork. I understand this. Mine is never done. I have been working on special education paperwork since I got home tonight. However, the teacher has a legal responsibility to be in the classroom. I would love to take a few periods off and do paperwork. However, in my opinion this would be a violation of student's IEP if the students are not receiving the service that is written into the IEP.
I was never invited to my special ed students' IEP meetings in DeKalb and the children sat in my classroom all day long. I never had input into their IEP.
I know that this is wrong, but just because something is a law, doesn't necessarily mean that it is being followed, especially in DCSS. It's all about what you can get away with.
By law meetings must be scheduled for parents at convenient times. I know that this is not always done.
Teachers are constantly not in the classrooms because of paper work. If you have one teacher and 2 paras for the number of special ed students in a school, how often will each child see the teacher? Not enough and maybe never.
I do not believe in the DCSS rule of having to give special ed students a 71, even when they have done no or very little work and a teacher is able to show that they have made modification after modification. If any child is not willing to put forth effort, their grades should reflect this.
3:48--cotaught classrooms are not divided in half. The two teachers--at least theoretically--work together to prepare and present lessons and to assist all students as one group. Both teachers are more than aware who the special ed kids are, and they offer specialized support as needed--both to special ed and other students.
6:43--Is your statement supposed to be tongue in cheek? Please say yes.
When I worked in Gwinnett we had a Ph.D. reading specialist on our school staff who was a dyslexia expert. She identified and taught many dyslexic students how to read. She showed a Title I teacher some strategies that she could use with students who were not officially dyslexic, but were not reading at grade level. Those students' reading ability improved as well. You can be very bright and be dyslexic.
DCSS needs to hire some people who understand dyslexia and know how to teach reading to dyslexic students. Identifying these children at the beginning of their school careers and using appropriate interventions will make a significant difference in their lives.
MOST children with their own para get them because they could not function otherwise, and neither could the teacher. If a child is wheelchair bound or has severe behavior problems they need constant support to participate in the educational process. Most of these kids have to attend the gen ed classes.
In our school we have children with emotional behavior problems associated with autism and other disabilities who throw chairs, hit, run away, bite and scream out during class (and no it is not a classroom management issue, it's a disability issue). It is so hard to get a one on one para that one of our students is just now getting one after 4 years of documentation...
If you are a parent of a gen ed student you might be thankful that support is in place to allow your child's teacher to continue giving instruction while a para supports the disabled student.
I personally think that there needs to be some movement back to offering self-contained classes for some students with inclusion based on ability to benefit. The word APPROPRIATE in Free and Appropriate Education should carry just as much weight as Least Restrictive...
The figures show around 9 Special Ed teachers per school. That seems to be more than the lone Special Ed teacher some bloggers mention.
My school has 3 Special Ed. teachers and 1 Special Ed. Para, and the LTSE pulls all three teachers out to do paperwork during the day without any hesitation. Children's IEPs are modified without parental notification (the parents want to be involved, but are not told) and then a phone call is made to tell the parents that a "slight" change has been made. I cannot believe that this is only happening at my school. Our LTSE serves more than one school. DCSS has a special ed problem. The new superintendent needs to look into it.
Our school has 3 sp ed teachers and 3 para's. We rarely get pulled from our rooms for paperwork LTSE comes to us). Meeting are usually held after school during iep review. Amendments are only held after notification but some parents prefer not to come if it's to correct a typographical error. IEPs can't be changed by teachers, except to update data, once they are finalized. The LTSE is the only one.
I think we do need to make some changes in Dekalb Special Ed, though.
The law is NOT always being followed regarding IEPs depending on what school you work in, and Special Education teachers are FREQUENTLY pulled out of classes to do paperwork. The IEP is supposed to be developed by the TEAM, HOWEVER it is completed in advance under guise of a 'draft' to be sure only certain services are offered. The parents may or may not participate or be called, but the IEP may be 'amended' after the meeting and significant changes made in order to fit a prescribed 'mold.' Parents with foreign accents are at risk of being mislead and their conversations cut short. There is a drive to get all IEPs done by the due date set by Dekalb, which does not necessarily correspond with the annual meeting required by law. Therefore many meetings are held well before the IEP year is up so it can be processed by Dekalb's preferred date. And contrary to the previuos comment, the desirable co-teaching model in Dekalb IS to split the class and teach 2 groups simultaneously without regard to ability. The pressure is from the top down and teachers who really want to do what is best for disabled students can't. Also, in the mainstream classroom, it is the General Education teacher who may need help and training on children with Disabilities.
@11:42 THANK YOU! APPROPRIATE should be the essential factor in the education of the disabled, not school system schedules or mandates. Also, much appreciation to special education paras who have a thankless job and whose ranks have been cut.
Where should I begin with Special Education services in the High School? I'll just use the example of a team taught Math 123 class. The lead teacher is not familar with Math LDs. The special education teacher is not familar with the Math concepts being taught. How is this supposed to work?
I withdrew my student at the end of the school year last year. He now attends a private special education school. Math is now being taught in a logical sequence, in a small classroom, with a teacher knowledgable in both Math and LDs.
I'm not alone. I know students who have transferred to other counties, moved to other states, or have begun on-line high school.
Amazing.
None of these candidates mention the students, teachers first? which is a concern for me. All I have read in these blogs are complaints about upper management and how they are spending $$$ and what they would do.
None of these candidates have children with special needs,which is another concern for me. I feel that there are two other area's that needs to be looked at, that is the Exceptional Ed dept, how much money do they get to educate this population, what services are currently being covered? How will the candidates support the parents of students that are differently abled?
DCSS needs to hired quaified teachers that can really educate all levels of special needs students. Area's of interest are: Learning Dis, Autism, students that are able to learn but learn differently, All levels of Dev delay.
I've noticed that the strong Special Ed folk are in upper management, special needs administrators,are working in other area's in the Central office, East Dekalb Campus. All staff that have prvious experience in Special ed need to be manidated to come out of there comfort zones and help these teachers and prinicpals with little to no experience in truly teaching special needs students.
The parents want to know what is the budget for special needs and where is that money being allocated. I need for the new candidates to speak on what will they do to ensure the DCSS provide a quailty of education for Students of Exceptionalities.
The second area of concern is the large poplulation of ESL students, and how the state is requiring them to make standards, when they don't know and understand the english language, candidates what are you thoughts on this subject? what is the budget for ESL population, is that money being allocated correctly? I undertand we need to look at how the current board is spending $$$ however we need to look at how every dept is spending $$$,
My view of regarding the Title 1 funding, it seems to me that the ones that are complaining about Dr. A Berry aren't really aware of the high quailty of work she and those who work under her is doing for the students that are functing at lower levels than others. Nor do I feel that the folk that are complaining understand the ,WORD AT RISK POPULATION" You may not be aware of this but there are children that suffer with different ways of learning AND COME FROM DIVERSE BACKGROUND THAT IS NOT AS PERFECT AS YOURS, and the title one funds suppports these types of students well. I must admitt that I feel that allot of these student could benifit in receiving service from special ed. But it remains a great deal of concern that our teachers aren't truly experience with dealing with the large mass of students with Autism and other types of cognitve issues, check out the elementary schools, middle schools of DCSS they are full of students with some kind of undetected from of cognitve delay from a quailfied doctor. Candidates can you look into these issues and explain how you would support DCSS Special Ed, ESL Depts? My goal is to see how the new DOE will support the teachers? NO MORE CUTS, GIVE BACK ALL THE FURLOUGH PAY, RESTORE ALL THE LOSS OF BENIFITS THAT DCSS TOOK FROM THE SPECIAL ED TEACHERS,
BRING IN QUAITY PROFESSIONALS TO DCSS THATS EXPERIENCE IN LEARNING DIS, ALL TYPE OF VISION ISSUES, AUTISM SPECIALIST,DEV DELAY SPECIALIST.
DCSS NEEDS SUPPORT FROM THE BOE AND COMMUNITY, WE MUST STOP ALL THE BLAMING,POINTING OF FINGERS WE ALL ARE AWARE OF THE POOR JOB IN SOME AREA'S WITH DCSS, BUT HOW CAN WE MOVE FORWARD NOW, WITH WHAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE.
REMEMBER THAT TEACHERS CAN ONLY BRING TO THE STUDENT WHAT THEY'VE BEEN TRAIN TO DO. LET THE TEACHERS TEACH AND GIVE THEM ALL THE SUPPLIES TO BE SUCCESSFUL.
@ anonymous 10:13
"My view of regarding the Title 1 funding, it seems to me that the ones that are complaining about Dr. A Berry aren't really aware of the high quailty of work she and those who work under her is doing for the students that are functing at lower levels than others. "
If Dr. Berry were managing the Title 1 funding correctly, she would not be spending $8,000,000 for America's Choice and another $9,000,000 for 90 Instructional and Literacy coaches to support this program. $17,000,000 a year means that our Title 1 students, many of them classified as Students with Disabilities, forgo over 300 experienced teachers with Masters degrees ($56,000 is the salary and benefits for a teacher with 3 years of experience) who would directly work with small groups of struggling students.
Nothing impacts Special Education students like direct instruction from highly qualified teachers.
Students with Disabilities is the area in DCSS that has experienced the least progress although these students as you pointed out are very capable of progress. I really can't see how Dr. Berry has done a quality job in this area even though she has had control of the monetary means to do so.
As the poster above who has dyslexia pointed out,
"Children with many learning disabilities including dyslexia can be taught, so that their disability is no longer an issue or a much smaller issue. This takes work and knowledge on the part of the teacher."
Helping students earn techniques to overcome their learning disability takes a considerable amount of face to face teacher and student time. We need "boots on the ground" to help these students, not more scripted learning programs and non-teaching instructional coaches.
BTW - ESOL students comprise around 7% of DCSS students or approximately 7,000 students. According to the latest state Salary and Travel audit, DCSS employs 154 ESOL teachers for a personnel expenditure of $10,000,000 annually. ESOL students would also benefit from many of the same small math and reading groups that Special Education students do. In times past, when Title 1 teachers were all in the schools teaching in classrooms, ESOL and Special Education students saw much benefit from this direct instruction.
Anon 1013am and all who have blogged on this thread,
I have read your comments with great interest. I appreciate you sharing your concerns and experiences with Special Education in DeKalb. It concerns me to hear about the obstacles parents and teachers face as they work to give their children and students the education they deserve. As a parent with children currently in the system, I witness and see your experiences daily.
Anon 1013, you indicated your concern about candidates not speaking about students and teachers. I speak and blog often about the need to demonstrate our commitment to our students and teachers through reforming our budget process. We won’t have meaningful reforms in DCSS until we change the way we develop our budget and implement our spending. We routinely hear how much we appreciate our teachers and how devoted we are to the children in our system. Sadly, those words have not translated into the way we value them from a budgetary and operational standpoint. As a board member, I intend to work diligently to remedy this incongruence.
If you visit my website and the blog on it, you’ll see that I advocate for a “bottom-up” budget process as well as a “zero-based” budget. These two techniques will help push the resources to the schools. This is about putting students and teachers first in our actions. Let’s make sure our first dollars are spent in the schools; what’s leftover can be used for administration/overhead. Secondarily, we should review programs for efficacy and necessity. Programs outlive their usefulness or are not producing the results we had hoped. We need to end spending on these programs and a zero-based budget calls for each department/program to justify itself; thus helping to identify and eliminate underperforming programs and departments.
My position is that teachers and principals should be the best paid employees in the district. Education happens in the classroom and we need for the career path in education to be INTO the classroom not up and out. Teachers, specifically those Special Ed and ESOL teachers, with extensive and demonstrable expertise in teaching and cognition should be paid for their talent. This will mean that students will have teachers who are honing their craft and remaining in the classroom where their utility to students is greatest. With a “bottom-up” budget, our dollars will be pushed to the people who know the challenges they are facing and have ideas for solutions – the teachers and principals in schools. These professionals should be let loose to innovate and find the solutions that work for their schools and each child – no fussing with extra paperwork. When we see successes, let’s study them. Let’s grow them. The best techniques and methods will not come from a “top down” approach. Children aren’t taught by paperwork. No matter how well meaning the intended forms, data collection and bureaucrats are (or are not); we will only improve the student and teacher experience by innovations and cross-pollination at the classroom level. Our budget must support this reality.
I would welcome the opportunity to hear more from you about your concerns and experiences. Please feel free to email (nancyjester@gmail.com) or call me (678.360.1148).
Appreciatively,
--Nancy Jester
Anon 1013am and all who have blogged on this thread,
I have read your comments with great interest. I appreciate you sharing your concerns and experiences with Special Education in DeKalb. It concerns me to hear about the obstacles parents and teachers face as they work to give their children and students the education they deserve. As a parent with children currently in the system, I witness and see your experiences daily.
Anon 1013, you indicated your concern about candidates not speaking about students and teachers. I speak and blog often about the need to demonstrate our commitment to our students and teachers through reforming our budget process. We won’t have meaningful reforms in DCSS until we change the way we develop our budget and implement our spending. We routinely hear how much we appreciate our teachers and how devoted we are to the children in our system. Sadly, those words have not translated into the way we value them from a budgetary and operational standpoint. As a board member, I intend to work diligently to remedy this incongruence.
If you visit my website and the blog on it, you’ll see that I advocate for a “bottom-up” budget process as well as a “zero-based” budget. These two techniques will help push the resources to the schools. This is about putting students and teachers first in our actions. Let’s make sure our first dollars are spent in the schools; what’s leftover can be used for administration/overhead. Secondarily, we should review programs for efficacy and necessity. Programs outlive their usefulness or are not producing the results we had hoped. We need to end spending on these programs and a zero-based budget calls for each department/program to justify itself; thus helping to identify and eliminate underperforming programs and departments.
My position is that teachers and principals should be the best paid employees in the district. Education happens in the classroom and we need for the career path in education to be INTO the classroom not up and out. Teachers, specifically those Special Ed and ESOL teachers, with extensive and demonstrable expertise in teaching and cognition should be paid for their talent. This will mean that students will have teachers who are honing their craft and remaining in the classroom where their utility to students is greatest. With a “bottom-up” budget, our dollars will be pushed to the people who know the challenges they are facing and have ideas for solutions – the teachers and principals in schools. These professionals should be let loose to innovate and find the solutions that work for their schools and each child – no fussing with extra paperwork. When we see successes, let’s study them. Let’s grow them. The best techniques and methods will not come from a “top down” approach. Children aren’t taught by paperwork. No matter how well meaning the intended forms, data collection and bureaucrats are (or are not); we will only improve the student and teacher experience by innovations and cross-pollination at the classroom level. Our budget must support this reality.
I would welcome the opportunity to hear more from you about your concerns and experiences. Please feel free to email (nancyjester@gmail.com) or call me (678.360.1148).
Appreciatively,
--Nancy Jester
The proof is in the indivduals not the dollars. Many teachers do an excellent job with less. I have 3 children the oldest was labeled gifted through cognitve testing. I still road DCSS high achiever and magnet programs to insure my child was challenged. She/he also has ADD and the high school teahers supported her in her spacey days. She is a senior at a private school on a full ride. Another one is a special education autism/aspergers indivdual. The road has been very rockie from one year to the next. When we've had good years was a direct correlation with the teachers desire and passion to educate. A great teacher teaches and doesn't let the outside her classroom issues come inside. The good ones are often clueless about school politics. Also the GAA standards is running the quality teachers out the door. As stated to me today by my sons teacher "it's making where you don't have time to teach". Someone needs to tell the state to modify the GAA. So we don't loose veteran teachers to testing. My last child is between the other 2 in academic ability with some ADD as well. What happened with this kid is that he got to high school to discover that middle school didn't teach him algebra. However, he got a B and high school credit. He also graduated with a 3.01 GPA and a college Pre diploma. So why is he taking remedial class at the community college, before he can take regular college courses? I know! I saw first hand the types of papers he was allowed to turn in for english class. All he had to do was turn something in and behave to get a B from any class. This issue of poorly educating American children isn't a new issue regardless of whether their special ed, regular ed. or Gift.
The best way for a parent to get through the educational system is one day, one teacher, one student at a time. Lastly pray and wait for Superman.
As an individual who is disabled, a parent of students who are disabled and a teacher of disabled students we can always do better. We can do better by working together in a collaborative manner to improve our schools and the programs in the schools.
Administrators need to make team teaching a priority. Regular teachers need to learn to respect the knowledge that special education teachers have coming into the classroom and not feel like the classroom is just their classroom and the special education teacher needs to be as involved as possible in the day-to-day planning and teaching. However, it not as easy as it would appear. It takes time to build a good team teaching situation.
I fully believe there is a disparity between schools with regard to IEPs - scheduling, pre-writing ("drafts"), parental involvement, etc.
I believe DCSS will try to get away with whatever they can; if a school has a majority of well-informed parents, they will hesitate to pull a fast one with IEPs. If a school does not have well-informed parents (and DCSS does nothing to educate parents, believe me), then we will see IEPs scheduled at inconvenient times (because the parents don't know they can ask that it be re-scheduled), very complete "drafts" brought to the table (leaving the parent to assume all is already decided and this is the best they can have), and "minor changes" made to the IEP, notifying parents after the fact.
DCSS also has a policy (mentioned by a previous poster) of modifying work and modifying it again until it is dumbed down to the point where the child cannot fail it, then reporting on the success of their strategies. Only an assertive parent will demand that the child be presented with appropriate work and given the supports she/he needs to accomplish it.
This is why most parent of special needs kids either accept less than their child deserves or gird their loins for a 12 - 15 year battle of constant vigilance with DCSS.
I have been there, and it ain't pretty at all. My child (a high-potential student with severe dyslexia and physical disabilities) was lucky enough to have a LTSE and a School Psychologist (one for the end of elementary and one for high school) who had special needs children of their own. This support for all of us made all the difference in my child's success.
In response to Ms. Smith, true collaboration and teamwork would go a long way to improve Spec.Ed. in DCSS and maybe your situation is ideal. However, in many schools, the SE teacher is an after-thought when space planning is done and most classes are set up with the GE teacher only in mind, not the co-teacher. There has been little thought given to where the co-teacher sits, works, or stores records and supplies. In some schools, Special Ed teachers don't even have a work station (computer) in the GE classroom and must either wait and ask to use the GE teacher's unit or share student computers with students, but they are on the same time schedule as everyone else for getting reports done. There is no consideration given to the need for privacy and securing records or the work samples of SE students. There is no budget to purchase locking, rolling files. The system culture, in many schools, treats the SE teacher in the collaboration/co-teaching model as a second class citizen...but they want great results.
Of course we could do much better. Look at the state report card for special ed in DCSS for 2008-09 (2009-10 is not posted yet):
http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=105&PTID=77&CTID=78&Source=Profile%20Summary&PID=38&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2009
I am a regular ed teacher with several SWD students in my class. A Special Ed teacher comes into my room to work with the students. We rarely get to plan together, because of the excessive meetings during our planning periods. When she doesn't come to my classroom the SWD students do very little work because they are expected to do grade-level work with modifications. One of them functions on a Pre-K level and the other refuses to do work unless someone sits with him guiding him step by step. It's very frustrating for me, the SWD students, and the regular ed students. The LTSS told the factulty that "research has shown that SWD students do better and make more gains when they are in a regular ed classroom." I question that research, and I truly believe it's all about the alimighty dollar..apparently the school system gets more money when the SWD students are in a regular class!! The children will suffer because the people in charge are too far removed from what goes on in the classroom.
@9:31pm...It does take a long time to build rapport, but GE teachers are definitely open to the concept of co-teaching and have a strong desire to partner with SE teacher for success, but the system itself does not really support co-teaching and collaboration. It is an after-thought. Funding increases with each SE student placed in GE. You "hit the nail on the head' with planning. That time is set aside for meeting with coaches and whatever else comes up, plus IEPs and conferences which are scheduled during that time, along with grade-level meetings, etc. Most teachers spend their personal time, off-the-clock, in planning. There is very little planning going on and no time really alloted for it. DCSS essentially drops an extra certified body in a slot and you two must do the best you can. And so what if multiple students, with multiple disabilities including several students with ADHD and Emotional Behavior Disorder, are all lumped together in an over-crowded room? You are still judged on test scores and when chaos breaks out, you two must not have good classroom management skills. Right???
You are not correct. I totally have an understanding of the lack some regular education teachers and the system sometimes give to Co-Teaching.
However, this is lack of leadership from the top. With the right type of leadership from the principals and assistant superintendents to provide the necessary changes this could change.
An important point has totally been missed here. Co-Teaching is not jut for the special needs students. Many students in class who are not meeting standards could use additional help.
There must be more training and more support. This year my school is a pilot and we are being evaluated as Co-Teachers. The Regular Education Teachers are not happy as many of them do not want to give up their hold on their classroom. However, it is not their classroom in Co-Teaching. This is a problem in itself.
The two teachers must learn to collaborate and this takes time. This is not an easy fix. Most times the administration does just throw Co-Teachers together. When they have a couple who work well together it is important to keep this team going.
Administratively we can do better and help many students and not just special needs students. This has been totally overlooked as a means to help bring up all students' achievement.
The government is requiring schools to have students in the mainstreamed setting at least 63% of the time I believe. They have a certain number. I thought it was 80% but I think this was wrong.
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