Haven’t done one of these in a while. I’ve just been thinking a lot about this lately and wanted to vent out my frustrations and seek some advice from other educators.
I’m new to the field. I haven’t been around to experience much, but I feel like I’m pretty well connected (thank you Twitter and my PLN) and hear situations like this happening all around the country.
Is special education your dumping grounds for difficult students?
Does your district have an RTI or intervention model in place to support students that need a little extra help? Or do teachers just head straight to special ed with their complaints that the student “just can’t handle the level of class work.”
I would seriously love to hear how your particular school/district handles situations like this. Please e-mail at eatteachblog@gmail.com or share in the comments.
I am lucky to work in a district with an excellent reputation when it comes to special needs students. I have a lot of special needs students in my various choirs, so I have a good relationship with that department. It is FAR from a dumping ground–they try to help students be as independent as possible. For students whose issues are more behavioral than true “disability,” we have a program called “Pathways,” where teacher mentors come to a special classroom and team teach with special ed teachers so that kids who have trouble with motivation and focus can be in an environment that sets the bar high, but still within their reach. Once they start to get back on their feet, they take more & more classes outside of the Pathways program until they are fully acclimated back into the “regular” classroom. The best part is that subject teachers work with the special ed teachers to create an environment that teaches kids how to thrive!
I LOVE THAT! I think so many of my students are more behavioral/unmotivated more than anything else!
This program sounds amazing.
I work in a very difficult school where a large number of the students lack motivation to learn at all. As a result, behavior problems are a common occurrence. I’m lucky enough to have better students than most, but it is still taxing. I’d say that in my district special ed is not the dumping ground, because if it was most students would be there! However, I can’t say I feel very supported by the special ed teachers either.
Yes – give me behavior problems ANY day over unmotivated students! I’d rather deal with behavior.
I went to school in Boston and did my practicums in the city and in the surrounding suburbs and cannot even express how different those experiences were from the school that I taught in last year. Boston focused on an inclusion model so there were no sped classrooms only classrooms – some students were pulled-out for specific therapies – and supposedly so is the county I live in, yet the students are separated from their gen ed peers in their own classroom and are included in… Fire drills? A *few* school-wide activities?
I had a handful of gen ed teachers approach me and ask if they thought their students should be receiving sped services because they “just weren’t getting it”… Oye!
Our K-5 MTSS (RTI) has helped greatly with Individualizing instruction in both reading and math. We have noticed a decrease in special education referrals and I believe we are seeing a change in teacher attitude and outlook when it comes to “whose problem is it”. When classroom teachers (Tier 1) take ownership, great things can be accomplished. Our Tier 2 supports are making a huge difference for students before we look at Tier 3 or in many cases special ed. Referrals.
Here are a few good resources on MTSS:
http://www.swartzcreek.org/SCMTSS.aspx
http://www.swartzcreek.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=4O2lgdlnVx4%3d&tabid=176&mid=847
http://www.kansasmtss.org/
Thanks for these resources – looks great!