leadership in high schools

The High School classes at Hewes Center are reaching capacity within the 1:8:1 and 1:6:1 model.  This is a beautiful thing because we are finally turning the corner in Special Education.  We are attempting to provide a quality education that is demanding, relevant and connected to the world of work.  Within this model exist students whose outcome will be either the IEP or Regents Diploma.  Both populations are being exposed to content material and curriculum that will allow them to challenge the Regents/RCT exams.  As the journey began, so does it continue.  More students currently work toward the IEP diploma than do those pursuing the Regents Diploma.  Two things are occurring simultaneously.  One is that by challenging special needs students with more demanding curriculum, we can improve overall skills and thus allow students to work toward improved outcomes eg.  whereas students who at middle school level 4 years ago were only working toward an IEP diploma, they are now being slated for Regents exams.  Second, by planning and preparing more demanding instructional activities teachers who are certified in content,  are now ready for the challenge of taking on special education students who hitherto sat in Alternative Education programs because they could not receive a Regents diploma any place else.    This student population made up the “lost people” - lost in Alt. Ed and lost from Special Ed.    These students were lost because no high school special ed. program existed at the Hewes Center BOCES.  This was a clear example of how low cost ( Alt. Ed. has a lower co-Ser) and no relevant program written with the needs of special ed. students in mind, drove decisions around what entry point was the most appropriate for this population. 

Four years into the running (September 2004) and population sifting within Special Education will mean that the IEP and Regents Diploma students will have their educational needs met within a paradigm based on research and data, a model that works for kids and a model that will assist schools in Southern Chautauqua County raise graduation rates for all students.  With the classes at capacity, planning has to occur around decision making that informs instructional planning - who is a 1:6:1 or a 1:8:1 student and why?  Should 1:6:1 classes be for those students who can challenge higher order academics that lead to a Regents Diploma?  Should 1:8:1 classes be reserved for 11th and 12th  grade students who have the ability to survive the greatest amount of integration in Gen. Ed.  Should we plan to have one life skills class attached to the high school - should this class be a 1:6:1 or a 1:8:1?  Suffice it to say we are encroaching on territory that has never been traversed before.  This is our time of adventure.  Collective thinking and reasoning will drive the school we are creating for students. 

Where is this student?  Percentages of students dropping out without an IEP/504 are the students that typically should be referred two or more years to Alternative Education before the actual registration for a the GED exam or formally dropping out from High School.  The statistics for this population lies embedded in individual school report cards showing factors like poverty indicators, graduation cohort data, drop out data and  student incarceration.  The beginning of 2008 will involve the identification of school district data and conversations with district personnell aimed at identifying and flushing out the true Alt. Ed. student -  who is crying out for help, needs a small specialized school program aimed at meeting both academic and future work skills.  Study teams comprising of teachers and administration will attempt to draw hypotheses from NYS school data available to the public via Internet access.  This research driven work will form the basis of discussion with Alternative Education’s regional council members who comprise of counselors, principals and CSE chairs.   I continue to question the numbers of students we are not serving within a population that I believe is grossly under represented within general education.   This year within Southern Chautauqua County only 30 odd students have been referred from  the 8/9 High Schools that Erie 2 BOCES serves (in this region,) who meet the criteria of Alternative Education student markers.  The rest of the student population 20+ is comprised of Special Ed classified and 504 Plan students who have Alt. Ed. as their entry point because this is the least restricted educational program. 

This is an example of a young man, a senior student who has had several weeks of success working within special education.  His enrolled program, his entry point is Alternative Education but within this setting his social interactions and behavioral outcomes have been disasterous.  He has had one major and one minor referral to the court system for incidents that have occurred within the school in unsupervised settings;  his name has constantly been linked to harassment of other students as well as a case of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.  This young man whom I shall call Rich, is classified OHI.  He is severely hearing impaired but does not wear any hearing devices and I believe has become an expert lip reader.  His grades in classes have not been shabby but his behavior has had a very negative impact on his programming at BOCES. He was asked to leave his CTE program in his junior year, for fear of the huge danger and safety risk he poses to himself and others.  Hence we have no ready work skills training for him once he graduates.  Other avenues have to be, and are being explored. 

Earlier this year, the child study team within Alternative Education challenged me to examine a different approach for Rich.  Lets give him smaller classes, more supervision and more direct special education instruction and then examine the impact of learning on social/emotional behavior.  I insisted that gen. ed participation with P.E. and lunch not be affected because this would be the constant.  This occurred with some base resentment from Rich but a willingness to try because he wants to graduate.  His mother at her wits end, was ready for anything.  The school district asked only for parental support that this idea be tried.  Now 10 weeks have passed, there is evidence of stability in terms of behavior and positive social interaction with other students.  The Special Education High team at the Hewes Center has seen the impact of their work with this student and the energies they are expending on this student now deserve recognition.  In order to salvage a graduation diploma, the experiment was undertaken, it was either this or a school dropout.  This case is about special education students swimming in the “right waters” for them.  The right water here was always Special Education, but since the entry point was Alternative Education, the student had to go through much growing pain in order to be placed in the right educational setting.  The key to this students success is very small, structured, personal classes in a quiet, tension free school environment.  Once this student got the taste of success - fewer disciplinary referrals and no references to the court system, he has begun to trust in his own ability to succeed in school and graduate with his cohort.  Now the school district will have to acknowledge that the placement has to change, move from Alt. ed. to Special Ed. placement, in order for this student’s success to be guaranteed because the energies of the special education teachers have got to be rewarded and the work of this department validated.  To this end the conversation has occurred with the district and the appropriate paperwork has been completed last week.  It is examples of collaboration like this based on data and research that will allow the Alternative and Special Education programs at BOCES to refine the student identification process for both programs.  There will always be those students who are classified that will do well in an integrated general ed. structure but there will always be those classified students who need a special ed program not because they are failing academically alone but because they need the structural supports and modifications that special classes provide for them.  The challenge for teachers and administrators is to provide challenging classes with demands that students can meet and structure that provides support for positive behavior/educational success.   This is the challenge of Special Education leading up to a Regents Diploma outcome.  Rich is another student example of reinforcing the concept that Special Education students within a specialized setting, can tolerate more demanding student instructional activities and more challenging curriculum in order to reduce social/behavioral dysfunction.