July 2009 Archives

Secondary school students with mental retardation are significantly more likely to take their courses in a special education setting, with a curriculum that is modified to some degree, according a recent fact sheet based on a long-running federal study.

In 2000, the federal government started a 10-year study of 12,000 teenagers receiving special education services, following them as they moved into adult roles in society.That study, called the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (the first NLTS ran from 1985 through 1993) has yielded more than two dozen fact sheets and reports, including the most recent one, on students with mental retardation and their experiences in secondary school.

The fact sheet makes no conclusions, it just offers a snapshot of different pieces of information, including how often students with mental retardation experience modified curricula (about 72 percent of them do); how many take vocational courses (about 78 percent in a given year), and their test scores and grades (about 45 percent reported receiving mostly C's and D's, but 99 percent scored below the norm in standardized academic tests.)

Similar reports exist for students with autism, learning disabilities, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

There are more than a few pockets of excellence within the field of special education; I know, because I've had a chance to cover them. But within the profession, there's frustration: If we have all these evidence-based, successful programs that help develop literacy or promote good behavior in schools, why isn't everyone using them?

Growing successful programs offers some special challenges, says Dean L. Fixsen, a principal director of State Implementation and Scaling-Up of Evidence Based Practices. In a conversation, he likened it to a medical vaccine: Without the equipment to inoculate children, and a medical establishment that can inoculate lots of children all over the country, a vaccine does little good.

Fixsen also gave a presentation of his work at the 2009 OSEP Project Directors' Conference. His center, which has been working with Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, and Oregon since September 2008, is trying to help develop that establishment that can incubate and spread good ideas. The center intentionally picked states that have already made an investment in evidence-based practices; starting from scratch offers a different set of challenges.

Among the practices states are trying to spread are the use of positive behavior supports and interventions, dropout-prevention programs, literacy and response to intervention.

It's important to create teams of engaged, "overqualified" people, Fixsen said, so that a promising practice doesn't die on the vine when its primary cheerleader leaves a school or district. And school teams also have to push past the awkwardness of trying a new practice while still working within the old system. "It's very easy to slip back into the old ways," he said.

The states that Fixsen and the SISEP team is working with are eager to get started, because they've already had some experience trying to grow their own programs. "They know the cost of going down the wrong path," he said.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

When I wrote about restraints and seclusion several weeks ago, it raised a kerfuffle with one reader who thought disability advocates are drawing undue attention to the issue. Read the original post, and a follow-up. The implication was that sometimes, teachers just have to restrain or seclude children; the techniques have to remain a tool in their arsenal.

So when my editor sent me information about a documentary following a school in England for young children with severe behavior problems, my interest was definitely piqued. How do they do it, I wonder?

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go is premiering July 28. For those who don't have access to PBS or who miss the broadcast, the documentary will also be online.

Filmmakers visited the Mulberry Bush School to document its work with emotionally disturbed students aged 5 to 12. I read through the Web site trying to glean insights into this school's therapeutic methods. One of the first figures that popped out is that it has an adult-to-child ratio of 108 to 40, which is extraordinary. It's also extraordinarily expensive, at 123,000 pounds a year per child, according to one news report, or more than $203,000 a year. The money comes from the agencies that place students there. It's a residential school, which allows for a great deal of trust and relationship-building between the children and the adults who care for them.

The Web site says the school does use "gentle restraint." But, judging from this article in the London-based Times (this documentary aired a year ago there), nothing beats time and unceasing effort to care for these children, most of whom have been victims of horrific abuse.

The staff are hit, spat at, kicked and head-butted on a daily basis. The worst excesses are dealt with by a period of restraint. To be spinning out of control is not only a danger to others: it’s also a very frightening state for a child to be in. For all their stomping and swaggering, these children are desperate for someone to look after them. Holding them on a huge beanbag outside the classroom gives them a chance to take control of their feelings. But most importantly for children who have been serially let down by those who are supposed to care for them, the adults here don’t go away. Staff talk about “an unconditional regard for the child.” Privately they admit they are often pushed to their limits, but they get up the next day and do it all again.

I don't blame teachers for saying that headbutting and kicking is not what they signed up for. But not all children exhibit behavior this severe, and yet we still cannot seem to find a place for them. Is there something that we can learn from the Mulberry Bush School, as unique as that program may be? I know I'll be watching to find out.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 4:08 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

• Station teaching: Teachers divide content and students. Each teacher then teaches the content to one group and subsequently repeats the instruction for the other group.
• Parallel teaching: The teachers are both teaching the same information, but they divide the class group and do so simultaneously. This approach alows for increased supervision as well as increasing the opportunity for students to respond to teacher-led instruction.
• Alternative teaching: One teacher takes responsibility for the large group, while the other works with a smaller group for a specific instructional purpose. Maryland recommends that this approach be used sparingly to avoid the perception of a special education "pullout" program within the classroom.
• Team teaching: Both teachers share the delivery and have equally active roles in leading the classroom. This strikes me as a powerful method, but possibly one of the most difficult to deliver. It would seem to require teachers to be very much in sync, both in their instructional methods and in their lesson planning.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

It's time to rethink the way colleges and universities train special education teachers, says Paul Sindelar, a professor of special education at the University of Florida. He argues for training all of them in a general education program first, giving extra training in response to intervention instructional and assessment techniques to who are interested in special education, and paying them more because of their specialized knowledge.

Sindelar offered these suggestions during a Monday panel that was part of a three-day conference in Washington this week. The 2009 OSEP Project Directors' Conference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's office of special education programs, brings together federal officials, researchers, and many of the people who are charged with providing technical assistance to states, districts, and schools on how to improve their special education programs.

Sindelar's recommendations on this panel were just a snapshot from a paper that he says is soon to appear in Exceptional Children, a publication of the Council for Exceptional Children in Arlington, Va. So he didn't have a copy of the paper available for me to read. But some of his co-panelists, like Utah State professor Benjamin Lignugaris/Kraft questioned whether a general education foundation should be a prerequite to a special education career.

"Is it only special education teacher prep that needs to be fixed and not teacher education in general?" he said, to a smattering of applause in the room. He suggested that teacher preparation in general is in need of rethinking, and that model schools that already have successful programs, particularly in response to intervention, should take the lead in preparing special education teachers.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 10:05 AM | Permalink | 27 Comments | Recommend

Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., prolific blogger, and gourmand, has a written a thoughtful essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education stating that autism should be seen as an academic benefit in many cases, not a handicap:

The relevance of the autism spectrum for higher education isn't just about particular individuals on the autistic spectrum. The very nature of higher education shows how much we, often without knowing it, hold up autistic cognitive profiles as a partial educational ideal. In "special needs" education, there is plenty of effort to teach the skills of the nonautistic to the autistic, but in the regular classroom we are often doing the opposite.

I view higher (and lower) education as teaching people to be more autistic in many of their basic cognitive skills. Again, some key cognitive features of autism are the ability, and desire, to process lots of information across widely different scales, from tiny details to overarching structures; focus and the mental ordering of that information; a relatively high degree of scientific objectivity; and the presence of some highly specialized cognitive strengths, even if they are accompanied by some areas of poor performance. To an educator a lot of that list ought to sound pretty good.

Another way of putting it is to note that all students are special-needs students requiring lots of help. The nonautistic students do not represent some ideal point that everyone is striving to attain, but rather both autistic and nonautistic students are trying to learn the specialized skills of the other group, as well as perfecting their own skills.

Thanks to Boing-Boing for the tip.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 4:17 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

A few days ago, the Kansas City Star published this article about a Wichita district school for students with emotional and mental disabilities enrolling a new category of students—those who face suspension or expulsion but will be given a second choice at graduating.

Instead of its own school mascot, the gym wall at Sowers Alternative High School has the mascots from all seven of the Wichita district's comprehensive high schools painted on it.

Sowers students, most of whom are diagnosed with emotional and mental disabilities, ideally will make the transition into one of those high schools.

But in reality, principal Jackie Hultman said, only about 10 percent of its students ever transfer out of the school's concentrated special-education environment.

"It's better if we maintain it for kids who need it," said Neil Guthrie, director of special education for the school district.

But to keep up with federal guidelines, the Wichita district will have to move more special-education students out of Sowers and bring regular-education students into the special school.

The school board has already taken the first step by voting to change the way it categorizes Sowers High School, along with Wells Middle School and Griffenstein Elementary School. Formerly called "special education centers," they will now be known as "alternative schools."

The first change at Sowers will be this school year, when the school accepts students who have faced suspension or expulsion for unintentional battery of school employees but have a second chance at graduating.

I recommend reading the entire story, if for no other reason than it includes a brief comment from Alexa Posny, the nominee for the office of special education and rehabilitative services, who has been the subject of a lot of chatter in my blog post here.

I understand what's going on here; the district is under some pressure to provide students with disabilities education in a more inclusive environment. But the early implementation of this program suggests that there won't be that much inclusiveness to start with. The new students, who are facing expulsion, will be using their own bathrooms and entrances.

The administrators say they envision more interaction, but the story goes on to say that hasn't really been the case in the Olathe district. However, the combined program has led to money saved through staffing efficiencies, which I would imagine might be more important to some school officials during these money-strapped times.

I'm curious to know if there are many other combined programs like this, and if others have seen them serve the stated purpose of providing more inclusion opportunities for students with disabilities. It seems to me like it will take some real imagination and effort on the part of all the educators involved to make sure that these students are really learning with each other, and not just near each other.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 2:29 PM | Permalink | 10 Comments | Recommend

I can't say that this move surprises me: Milwaukee has challenged a recent court ruling that says the district has to find and provide compensatory education to special education students who were in the district from 2000 to 2005.

The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Aaron Goodstein required MPS to launch a wide search for former and current students - including regular education students - it failed to serve under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act from 2000 to 2005. The judge ordered that those students should be compensated but left the details on how to do that up to the plaintiff and defendants.

MPS officials said the costs of carrying out such a search with so many students would burden the district and taxpayers. The appeal also challenges several previous court rulings in the case, including an order that the district take remedial action on a class-wide basis, and a ruling that obligated the district to evaluate kids for special needs who have been retained a grade or received multiple suspensions.

I blogged about this a few days ago, and I wondered then about cost issues, which apparently the district's attorneys have also brought up as an issue. But a lawyer for a disability advocacy organization that brought the lawsuit against the district notes in the article, "what they've chosen to do throughout this case, and what they're doing now, is making a decision to pay attorneys rather than compensate kids whose rights have been violated."

Posted by Christina Samuels at 5:06 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

Today I was pleased to moderate a web chat on postsecondary transition that featured two experts: Stacie Dojonovic, a transition coordinator at Fox Chapel High School in Pittsburgh, and Larry Kortering, the co-principal investigator for the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center, which provides assistance to states in developing transition plans for their students.

Click here to read the transcript!

Posted by Christina Samuels at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Alexa E. Posny, the Kansas commissioner of education, has been nominated to serve as the assistant secretary for the office of special education and rehabilitative services, known as OSERS.

If confirmed by the Senate, Posny would be making a return trip to the department: In April 2006, she was appointed to serve as the director of the office of special education programs, which is part of OSERS. She left the department in May 2007 to return to Kansas to lead that state's education department. She has also served as Kansas state director of special education, the director of special education for the Shawnee Mission district, and as a Title I technical advisor for other districts around the country.

I wrote a profile of Posny in 2007, and the people I interviewed then praised her for her ability to break down complicated subjects, as well as for her experience with special education, Title I, and state education department governance.

“She’s very down to earth and very concrete in the things she puts together for families,” said Connie Zienkewicz, the executive director of Families Together Inc., a federally funded center for parent training and information, based in Wichita.

Former Kansas Commissioner of Education Andy Tompkins, now a professor at the University of Kansas school of education, said in an e-mail message that Ms. Posny “knows the [special education] law and its regulations as well as anyone.”

Nancy Reder, the director of governmental affairs for the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, offered similar praise when I spoke to her today. "We're delighted, we think she's a great choice," Reder told me. Posny's Title I and special education experience are great foundations for the new role, Reder added.

File photo above: Alexa Posny, director of the office of special education programs at the Department of Education, Center, during a staff meeting in December of 2006.
Christopher Powers/Education Week

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:26 PM | Permalink | 15 Comments | Recommend

The Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., has released a resource to help teachers trying to adapt science lessons for students who are blind or visually impaired.

At www.perkins.org/accessiblescience, the school has gathered video Webcasts, illustrated classroom activities, product suggestions, and links to online and hard-copy resource materials that "all aim to help teachers bring science to life for students with impaired vision," the school said in a press release.

I've watched the Webcast called "Making Life Sciences Accessible to Students with Visual Impairments,” with secondary school science teacher Kate Fraser, and it demonstrates some useful practical changes to a science curriculum. For example, using a three-dimension model of a cell that allows students to feel various cellular structures can be useful for an entire class, not just students who are visually impaired.

More Webcasts are to come to the site, Perkins says.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:42 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

Dr. Eric London, who served on the scientific-affairs committee of the advocacy organization Autism Speaks, announced yesterday he plans to resign from that position because of the organization's stance on vaccines as a possible cause of autism.

London was a co-founder of the National Alliance for Autism Research, which merged with Autism Speaks in 2006. In his resignation letter, London said he was stepping away from the New York-based Autism Speaks because it continues to push for research into an autism-vaccine link, and that his continued participation would lend support to an organization "whose scientific agenda and positions I can no longer ethically support."

The arguments which Dr. Dawson and others assert—that the parents need even further assurances and there might be rare cases of “biologically plausible” vaccine involvement—are misleading and disingenuous. Through its website and other communications, Autism Speaks has been influential and contributory in encouraging parents’ doubts. By preferentially investing and advocating for the use of limited financial resources on the “biological plausibility” argument, the organization is adversely impacting the advancement of autism research.

The "Dr. Dawson" London refers to above is Dr. Geraldine Dawson, the chief science officer for Autism Speaks.

Parents and some scientists assert that the rise in autism identification in recent years is connected either to a mercury-derived preservative in vaccines, or certain types of vaccine, like the one for measles, mumps, and rubella. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta say there are no proven links between preservatives, measles vaccines, and autism, though cases are clearly on the rise.

This is the second major defection from Autism Speaks, which has grown to become a major player in autism advocacy. Alison Tepper Singer announced in January that she also was leaving the organization for the same reasons London cites—the organization's inappropriate, in her opinion, focus on vaccines as a cause of autism.

Tepper has created her own advocacy group, the Autism Science Foundation. London serves on the ASF's scientific advisory board.

Edited 1:43 p.m. I contacted Autism Speaks for a statement and got this response:

Autism Speaks is currently pursuing a broad program of research, including studies on both genetic and environmental risk factors and the development of new treatments. We believe that our broad agenda will ultimately provide answers to the cause and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. We wish Dr. London well in his new endeavor.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 12:11 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend