Placing Children in Special Education A Strategy for Equity (1982) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 New Approaches to Assessment and Instruction
5 New Approaches to Assessment and Instruction
Pages 92-117
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From page 92... ...
The focus should be on fundamental educational problems underlying EMR placement on the valid assessment of educational needs and on the provision of appropriate, high-quality services. The panel's major recommendations emphasize improvements in as 92
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From page 93... ...
that ask participants at each major step in the placement process to demonstrate the educational utility and relevance of their actions before referring, placing, and maintaining children in special programs. Although these principles are consistent with current law and educational theory, to a large extent they are not followed in practice, nor do they underlie current systems of assessment, classification, and instruction.
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From page 94... ...
3. It is the responsibility of the placement team that labels and places a child in a special program to demonstrate that any differential label used is related to a distinctive prescription for educational practices and that these practices are likely to lead to improved outcomes not achievable in the regular classroom.
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From page 95... ...
It is the responsibility of school boards and administrators to ensure that needed alternative instructional resources are available. As it becomes apparent that a child is experiencing academic failure and after consultation with parents, the classroom teacher should use all available regular program resources remedial specialists, special education staff expertise, school psychologists, resource rooms, compensatory education programs, bilingual programs, and so forth to identify and implement promising alternative instructional strategies in an attempt to reverse the pattern of failure.
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From page 96... ...
While these provisions apply to children who have already been assessed and labeled, the approach is equally appropriate for the child who has not yet been labeled as mentally handicapped (see Chapter 3~. Implications for Implementation A number of school districts have implemented, with some reported success, programs to facilitate the strategy of alternative instructional practices within the regular program.
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From page 97... ...
On the Evaluation of Natural Experiments We recommend the investigation of existing districtwide programs in which alternative instructional strategies are being systematically implemented within the regular classroom for children experiencing academic failure. Monitoring of these programs should focus on such considerations as the administrative support systems needed to facilitate program implementation, the staff training required for implementation, the effects of the program on the functioning of the regular classroom (including major constraints imposed on the teacher's time and effects on other students)
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From page 98... ...
The state of Louisiana recently revised its special education regulations and guidelines to promote the use of alternative resources within the regular program; this may prove to be an interesting candidate for a case study once the state's revised regulations are implemented. In monitoring those sites that have implemented this "prereferral" phase of the assessment process, it would also be possible to investigate the extent to which improvement in the quality of regular instruction decreases total EMR placement in general and disproportionate placement rates by ethnicity and sex in particular.
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From page 99... ...
The panel strongly endorses such provisions. Implications for Implementation The focus on assessments that stress functional needs disarms the controversy over the use of IQ test scores in special education placement procedures.
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From page 100... ...
These assessments identify those needing special services and are the basis for prescribing an educational program for such a child within the regular classroom. The state of California, too, has banned the use of IQ tests for placement in EMR programs and is promoting the development and use of alternative methods of evaluation.
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From page 101... ...
We recommend study of school districts and demonstration programs in which adaptive behavior measures are being used widely and systematically, in order to assess their effects on the children who remain in special education as well as those who are excluded on the basis of their adaptive behavior test scores. Such studies could include a documentation of the educational experiences both academic and social of those children whose adaptive behavior test scores disqualify them from special education placement.
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From page 102... ...
Since the negative connotations of labels often increase as the separateness of a program from the regular classroom increases, it is imperative that the separation of children from their peers be justified by evidence demonstrating that a separate program does indeed provide a better educational environment for the child. The placement of handicapped children in the least restrictive appropriate environment is a central part of P.L.
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From page 103... ...
The Vermont Department of Education has certified a new staff role within special education: the consulting teacher. After a teacher has referred a child for special education and obtained parental permission for an assessment to be conducted, the consulting teacher, together with the regular classroom teacher, administers criterion-referenced tests to measure the child's level of achievement in the
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From page 104... ...
In addition, the effects on children and teachers should be studied, including the implications of revised classification systems for the individual children who are labeled, for interaction among children in various categories, for their peers in the regular classroom, for the regular-classroom teachers, and for the special education teachers. On the Impact of Revised Classification Systems At least three major statewide reorganizations of special education programs have been or are being implemented- in Massachusetts, Vermont, and California.
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From page 105... ...
EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION 4. It is the responsibility of special education and evaluation staff to demonstrate systematically that high-quality, effective special instruction is being provided and that the goals of the special education program could not be achieved as effectively within the regular classroom.
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From page 106... ...
For all children placed in special programs, especially those for whom regular placement is a realistic possibility, special placement must be continually justified. School personnel responsible for monitoring special programs, including teachers and perhaps also independent evaluators such as school psychologists or educational consultants, should be able to show that the instruction provided in special programs is significantly different from that ordinarily provided, that it embodies practices known to be effective for the problems or disabilities in question, and that it leads to more rapid progress in overcoming specific problems and improving academic performance than would occur in the regular classroom.
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From page 107... ...
Schools are not currently organized to keep relevant records and to feed back information to classroom teachers in a manner designed to shape their strategies for dealing with individual students. Suggested Research On Measurement Technologies Research is needed on the design and psychometric properties of classroom observation instruments and criterion-referenced tests.
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From page 108... ...
Although no systematic data are collected on the number of EMR students who exit the special education system each year, it is commonly believed that once placed in EMR programs, there is little chance of returning to the regular classroom. Because these programs are not often considered remedial (as opposed to compensatory education programs such as Title I)
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From page 109... ...
If the child has not met the objectives at the end of the school year, the special education staff must demonstrate that all efforts were put forth to help the child meet the assigned objectives and to prepare him or her to return to the regular classroom. If these criteria cannot be met, if the child fails to meet the program's goals because of inadequate implementation of instructional strategies, the child should not be retained in the special program but should return to the regular classroom.
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From page 110... ...
Finally, the progress of those children who move from special education to the regular classroom should be monitored. On Children Who Require Ongoing Services Not all children who have been placed in separate programs will improve significantly, even under the best of instructional strategies, so that they can reenter regular programs.
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From page 111... ...
Is there evidence that the programs are effective? Is it clear that different programs have demonstrably distinctive instructional features and that they produce outcomes that are less likely to occur in the regular classroom?
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From page 112... ...
DISCUSSION The panel's major recommendations emphasize improvements in special education referral, assessment, and placement procedures and instructional practices rather than direct mechanisms for the elimination of disproportionate special education placement rates. Because of the broad scope of recommended changes, with their concomitant complexities and unintended as well as intended consequences, research and demonstration programs are emphasized as a necessarily careful route to program implementation.
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From page 113... ...
Initial research efforts could include compilations and syntheses of current knowledge in the areas described, such as diagnostic tests that are linked to remediation programs, observational systems of learning environments, and alternative instructional practices that can be used within the regular program. These state-of-the-art documents would not only facilitate the design of additional needed research but could also encourage districts to adapt available practices to their own needs and to explore alternative strategies that go beyond the current knowledge base.
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From page 114... ...
THE OCR SURVEYS The Ouestionnaires Under the guidelines proposed by the panel, revised methods of reporting participation in special education programs and of targeting districts for investigation of possible civil rights violations would be required. The panel recommends that OCR, in consultation with educators formulating alternative assessment and service delivery methods, undertake a review of the data that will be required to identify districts in which some or all protected groups of students (those covered by civil rights laws)
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From page 115... ...
To identify the types of special programs in which students participate, this item could be restructured in terms of distinct instructional settings. For example, the amount of time a child receives instruction from an aide or tutor in the regular classroom, the amount of time a child participates in a resource room, or the amount of time a child is taught in a self-contained room with a class of special education students could be recorded.
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From page 116... ...
Some degree of fiscal control is often provided to the subdistricts and more often educational practices vary among subdistricts in a larger district. OCR should consider collecting subdistrict breakdowns for each large district and identifying each school by its subdistrict membership.
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From page 117... ...
RESEARCH ON SOUTHERN SCHOOL DISTRICTS The panel's analysis of OCR survey data reveals that EMR disproportions for black students were high throughout most of the Southeast. Further investigation of this phenomenon is warranted, including an examination of state criteria for special education placement, the referral and assessment process, and the quality of educational programs being offered in both the regular and special education classrooms.
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