Special Education Resources

What resources are available for a teacher like me in Macon, Georgia, to address the needs of potential special education students in my classroom?  To answer this question I started by visiting the Bibb County School District website where I found helpful information.   Jennifer Mellor is listed as the executive director of the Special Education department or the Program for Exceptional Children as my school district calls it.  Additionally, the names, titles, and contact information are listed for 19 other staff members in this program.  Of particular interest to me were links to powerpoint presentations that offer differentiation ideas for teaching math and other subjects to special education students.

         Communicating the Language of Math through Adapted Literature gives various children’s book titles and explains the math concepts that can be taught through reading them.  It promotes learning math through literature as a practical and motivational avenue that creates positive attitudes toward math.  The list of books includes such titles as Alice in Wonderland, How to Eat Fried Worms, and Red Badge of Courage. (It says Lewis Carroll’s book is useful for teaching the concept of telling time!)

Another powerpoint link, Supporting Multiple Disabilities through Differentiation, states that differentiation is “providing interrelated activities that are based on student needs for the purpose of ensuring that all students come to a similar grasp of a skill or idea.”   It also indicates that differentiation not only allows the inclusion of special ed. students, but also gifted and culturally diverse students helping achieve classroom heterogeneity. Some differentiation strategies for teaching math are utilizing visual and graphic descriptions of math problems, demonstrating and encouraging thinking aloud in math, and giving peer-assisted learning activities.

There is even a link to elementary, middle school, and high school curriculum resources.  I downloaded the zip file for middle school and found the sections for science full of interesting pdf’s.  Unfortunately, the math resources were non-existent but the special education department’s website had already provided me with great math resources.

Bibb County School District’s website also provides a link to the Georgia Department of Education Special Education Services website.  This is the part of the GDOE that assists local school districts in serving students with disabilities. “These services focus on enhancing student achievement and post-secondary outcomes through implementation of regional and statewide activities for students, families, educators, administrators, and other stakeholders” says this website.  It had the following interesting graphic:

There is a section with answers to frequently asked questions which are divided into the following categories:

• General Questions
• Evaluation and Eligibility
• Individualized Education Program

If you are a new teacher like I am, you may wonder what the referral process is for special education.  On the Special Education Service section of the GDOE website, there is a link to the Special Education Rules Implementation Manual.  In Georgia, we have the Georgia Student Achievement Pyramid of Interventions.  All public school students start in Tier 1 but if a student is struggling with his or her studies he can be moved to Tier 2 where the student's need is addressed by proven strategies that help most struggling students.  If when the student's progress is evaluated it is found to be still lacking, the student advances to Tier 3 where a student support team does more in depth need analysis and application of scientifically proven strategies for improvement.  If after further evaluation the student is not showing adequate progress, the student will be referred to special education testing with parental approval.  If testing is approved and the student is determined to have a disability an individual education plan will be designed and implemented with parental approval.  This will place the student in Tier 4.  Public schools have the option but not the obligation to pursue the overturning of parental disapproval if they feel it is best.  Here's my impression of the pyramid.

As a private school teacher, I wrongly assumed that Tier 4 students in Georgia could only have their needs met in a public school.  However, after interviewing my private middle/high school registrar I learned otherwise.  I asked her if she had ever recommended that one of our students be evaluated by the local school district for a learning disability and if the parents had followed through with her recommendation.  She indicated that the school had made many such recommendations and parents almost always do get their child tested.  She responded to my question regarding what determines whether a student should be referred by saying that depends on the evaluation by the student's teacher in consultation with our school resource teacher who has specialized training in special education.  I assumed that once a student is diagnosed with a disability that the student would leave our school in order to implement the IEP he or she receives.  But the registrar said that if our school and resource teacher can implement the IEP, the child is able to stay.  At times the student only needs longer testing time, oral testing rather than written exams, or extra help with reading.   The registrar even volunteered that some Tier 4 public students can request a transfer to our school, and the Georgia Department of Education will assist with tuition costs.  However, students who are assessed with a disability after first attending our private school do not qualify for any state tuition assistance. I also spoke briefly with our school's resource teacher who confirmed that our school does not have the resources to serve the needs of many special education students and therefore is not able to enroll many.

My search for special education resources yielded me a number of interesting finds.  I hope they are helpful to you.  If you have some resources that you can share with me, please leave me a comment.  Thanks!

Looking at Technology and Education through the Eyes of National and International Organizations

Technology is Transforming Teaching

    I am a new educator who is almost fifty years old.  When I received my undergraduate degree, computers were only glorified typewriters.  When I received my graduate degree, the internet had become very useful for doing research for papers.  Decades later, I am taking a teaching certification course that has exposed me to the larger role technology now plays in education.  I will share some things I am learning as I come to terms with the impact that technology is having, can have, and should have on teaching.

    Technology is transforming how educational institutions around the world conduct business.  NAFSA (National Association for Foreign Student Affairs) surveyed hundreds of undergraduate and graduate schools and programs across the globe.  Sixty percent of those who responded are using technology to build a virtual community, fifty percent advise their students using technology, and forty percent communicate with their colleagues through technology (How Social Media Technology Being Used).  According to the National Education Association (NEA), in the U.S.  “great strides have been made in infusing technology into schools and into the instructional process. . . Yet, despite the overall progress, many schools are not making full use of technology as a component of comprehensive school reform” (Technology in Schools: The Ongoing Challenge of Access, Adequacy and Equity, p. 1 ) Do we need to do more than just provide computers to schools in order to experience the full benefit that technology has to offer education?  Yes, we need to do much more.

    The national ratio of U.S. students to computers in public schools is 3.8 to 1, but it is not known what percentage of those computers are actually available in classrooms rather than allocated to a computer room (Technology in Schools, p.1).  Also, the presence of computers and computer related technology does not mean that they have software for different grades, that technical support is readily available to troubleshoot issues when they arise, or that teachers are properly trained to use the technology that is available.  And what exactly do we want to accomplish with the wonders of information and communication technology? The NEA’s vision for technology and teaching is expressed in the following terms, “The technology environment of today's public schools should match the tools and approaches of the work and civic life that students will encounter after graduation.”  Towards that end, they have the following policy recommendations.

1. Improve access to technology

2. Increase Internet access, address software issues, and expand
technical support

3. Expand professional development in technology

4. Capitalize on teachers’ and students’ enthusiasm about technology  

5. Involve educators as advocates (Technology in Schools, p.3)

   Interestingly, studies show that when educators and students engage with technology their enthusiasm, motivation, and interest in what they are doing go up (Technology in Schools, p.2).  Therefore, the NEA supports incorporating in teacher training programs the use technology for instruction (Positions on Technology and Education).

    However, Austin Beck believes that technology has the ability to transform teaching in even greater ways.  On a blog post on the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) website, he states, “Often, when schools adopt technology in the classroom they implement a software that is extremely aligned with their standards and that takes students on a very linear path through the subject they are learning” (Beck, 2017)  My whole educational experience was “linear”. While such a traditional and narrow approach to learning is needed in some ways, Beck (and apparently the CCSSO) believes that technology can expand what we can accomplish through education.  He believes technology “. . . should not create an education model that focuses on a few cognitive outcomes while leaving behind other critical outcomes like exploration, collaboration, problem-solving, engagement, and self-regulation” (Beck).
The Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) released a report in 2014 called "Using Technology to Support At-Risk Students’ Learning". Research was reviewed regarding students who were likely to fail or drop out of school due to various reasons (e.g, pregnancy, necessary employment, lack of supports for learning English). When technology was used in a more linear way, presenting knowledge and then testing the comprehension, the results were not much more promising than non-technological approaches. "However, other approaches have been more productive. Research has indicated three important variables for success with at-risk students who are learning new skills: interactive learning; use of technology to explore and create rather than to 'drill and kill'; and the right blend of teachers and technology" (Using Technology, p.6).

As I reflect on the NAFSA survey of international schools and the NEA technology policies, I can see that they recognize that teachers and students need to know how to use technology. However, CCSSO’s vision of technology in education and SCOPE's report cause me to realize that we are still at the beginning of the technology in education revolution.  We are not talking about new ways of doing the same old thing.  Technology is transforming the way we learn and the outcome of learning, and today’s educators need to prepare learners to fully engage their world with the help of technology.

Reference List

Beck, Austin. (2017). The Future of Learning Technologies and Open Educational

      Resources. Retrieved from http://www.ccsso.org/Resourhttp://www.ccsso.org/

      Resources/Programs/OER_Home_/OER_Blog_-_January_2017.htmlces/

      Programs/OER_Home_/OER_Blog_-_January_2017.html

National Education Association. Positions on Technology and Education. Retrieved from

      http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/PB19_Technology08.pdf

National Association for Foreign Student Affairs. How Social Media Technology Being Used.

      Retrieved from https://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/ea_tech_report_how_used.pdf

National Education Association. Technology in Schools: The Ongoing Challenge of Access,

     Adequacy and Equity. Retrieved from  http://www.nea.org/home/58795.htm
The Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. (2014). Using Technology to
Support At-Risk Students’ Learning. Retrieved from
https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/scope-pub-using-technology-report.pdf