leadership in high schools

A teacher call came via this blog. to examine the needs of two High School students in a 1:8:1 BOCES program located within a school district.  Visitation was set up for a center-based High School English teacher of Special Education, to meet the students and discuss the educational issues associated with the 1:8:1 placement.  In the one case, the young man’s behavior and current academic issues warrant more restrictive placement based on the fact that smaller class sizes with more concentrated doses of academic information can be tolerated by the student.  In the second case, a young girl, the issue is not behavior.  The girl is integrated into general education classes without support or very little, from her special ed. teacher/classroom.  Her attendance is suffering and there may be indications that she is beginning to slowly separate from her former definitions of success because she is in a mixed ability/classification classroom, where some like herself and the young man are tolerating gen. ed. but other students are unable to leave the classroom for any form of integration because of the large academic and social skills divide between spec. ed and gen ed. 

The question is, what should the class configuration be for these two students in order to fulfull their post-secondary outcomes?  The answer lies in the Transition Planning process.

 Within Special Education, the answer in my mind should be one involving  sorting and predicting.  Sorting and Predicting is a unique feature of Special Education which involves a student centered instructional team approach which includes the family.  On the IEP this section refers to the career planning portion:  anticipated post secondary outcomes.  This is the Transition Planning Process which begins at age 14 for every student with an IEP. 

The 1:6:1 high school model available at the Hewes Center is intended to meet the needs of students who display both educational and behavioral issues caused by stress imposed in larger classrooms which affects both behavior and academic output.  The students should typically be Regents diploma bound and have the opportunity to pursue a CTE  subect  eg. culinary arts, health assisting, auto body, graphic arts, instructional technology, small animal science etc.

The 1:8:1 high school model at the Hewes Center is intended  for the student who needs to be self-contained but can access a Career and Technical Education subject (CTE), can explore work experience in the community or on campus.  The student should be IEP diploma bound with full access to Regents level course material since all students in this model will take the Regents/RCT exams in the four core subject areas. 

The two students described above are both showing indications of being interested in a CTE vocational subject.   Therefore, planning involves examining what educational programs are available to them within the BOCES. 

As an aside, I believe that if a special education student is successfully (meaning he/she can tolerate integration with little to no evidence of disrupted learning/behavior that impacts self or others) integrated into gen. ed. classes for academic purposes, that student should require very little or no support from a special education teacher/support system eg. aides.  This thinking is supported and reinforced  particularly at 11th and 12th grade level where Special Ed. students are able to access CTE courses without consultant teacher services. 

 If the student is not able to function independent of the special ed. teacher/classroom supports, then this student should not be integrated.  With regard to BOCES students in district based programs, integration into gen. ed. should be considered (see earlier ref.) unsuccessful if the student cannot “stand alone without special classroom supports being provided by the self-contained teacher, and  in deference to the students needs, other BOCES options should be explored like Center Based programs which would fully expand the opportunities for individual student success based on their stated post-secondary objectives. 

I received a telephone call from a middle school Principal this week inquiring about the possibility of one of his 8th grade students visiting the program. He said that the student has friends that attend the BOCES program and that this is possibly why he is interested in it.  The Principal wanted to know what I thought of the idea.  Here is my thinking as discussed in the phone conversation.

1.  If the student tours the program he is likely to not want to return to the home school.  This is because he will find more kindred spirits attending in addition to his friends.

2.  Why is the district considering the tour?  The answer here is that the student is very bright, is regular ed, can do all the work but has an attendance problem.  On further quesitoning, I learn that  the student is suspected of hanging out with some anti-social characters and might be exposed to illegal drugs. 

In my opinion, this student should be referred for an out of district placement immediately because, I am confident that teachers, counselors and administration within the school district, have tried everything to show this student and the family the path of failure that is being pursued.  In addition, I believe that any student who is showing signs of marked failure in this case truancy, suspicious behavior that might be indicative of illegal drug usage, indifference to all home and school rules, is in crying out for a different approach to education and life skills training.   This student needs to be removed from the general school population because this student exhibits behaviors that will alienate him/her even more from his peers in the home school.  In my opinion, this type of student does not need a tour but an immediate referral to out of district placement.  We as educators need to try something different.  FAST.  To SAVE this student.  This student will join an 8th grade cluster within the Alt. ed program.  The cluster is currently made of two students, who receive daily mentoring and reality therapy from the full time counselor.  The level of intense supervision and daily exposure to a school wide positive behavior intervention program is crucial to the success to students within Alternative Education.  Their first cry for attention was the truancy, the negative peer group, the anti-social behavior patterns which immediately got the attention of school faculty and staff.  The sooner we intervene with this type of student the better the outcomes for graduation and that positive social-behavioral interventions will be internalized 

Kudos to the Principal and teachers in this school district for asking more questions from others in the field of education.