leadership in high schools

I and two other professional colleagues both retired school administrators and special ed. supervisors, have been invited to speak to a group of 10 graduate students in the School of Education, St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY by my friend and colleague, Dr. Paula Kenneson.  The time allotment is 2.5 hours and the lecture is outlined below.  My purpose is to elicit support for starting a bridging venture with St. Bona’s that will result in placing student teachers with teachers of Alternative and Special Education at the Hewes Center.  I believe that these teachers have a particular and specialized skills set that has been honed and perfected based on education, training and experience which is bar none the best that I have seen to date.  I say this because, these teachers take on students after all strategies have been tried, adopted and modified and then, when out of school district placement is sought for students at a BOCES or regional educational center, teachers are forced to debunk all past practice and start afresh with a new bag of behavioral knowledge tricks based on different incentives and teacher skills sets.   

Objectives The students will be able to:

·     Explain the major considerations in determining whether the school has met its obligation to provide a free and appropriate education.

·     Outline the requirements in conducting a nondiscriminatory evaluation to determine eligibility and related services.

·     List the components of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) required by the IDEA.

·     Discuss the major factors the courts consider in determining the least restrictive environment.

·     Describe the procedural due process protections afforded parents under the IDEA.

·     Compare the eligibility requirements of the IDEA with those of Section 504.

·     Distinguish between the requirements placed on school districts under the ADA and those under Section 504.

Guiding Principles

·     The IDEA mandates that school districts make a free and appropriate public education available to all children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21.

·     In order to receive services (i.e., special education programs and related services), a student must have a qualifying disability and the condition must have an impact on education to an extent that requires special education.

·     An Individualized Education Program (or plan) (IEP) is a written document that provides the plan for implementation of the special education program and related services.

·     The IEP meeting, at which the plan is developed, must include parents, teachers, special education specialists, a school representative, and the student, when appropriate.

·     To be appropriate the IEP must be reasonably calculated to confer educational benefits for the student.

·     The IDEA requires that the student receive the special education services in the least restrictive environment, based on his or her individual specialized needs.

·     Parents have a number of procedural rights under the IDEA including the right to notice, consent, and ability to challenge decisions through an administrative hearing process.

·     Section 504 prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. It is broader than IDEA and is intended to prevent discrimination rather than require the delivery of services.

·     The Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in services, programs, and activities.

I am looking for comments, suggestions and anecdotes to share in this session with the graduate class at St. Bonaventure.  I will be incorporating web 2.0 tools.  

Recently I was invited to view a web page developed by Physical Education teacher Chris Dole .  Chris teaches at our BOCES programs located within a component public school, Chautauqua Lake Central School (CLCS).  The web page developed by Chris was an outcrop of his training with the instructional technology team headed by Bob Spino, Director, Erie 2 CC BOCES. 

The Physical and Health Education teacher located at Hewes, Jamie Swanson, works alongside Chris one day a week at CLCS.  Having this web page up and running will be a great assett for Jamie and Mike Sayers the other full time Phys. Ed teacher at Hewes because together these three teachers will be able to align their teaching/instructional methods, assessment and collaborate jointly on lesson development and progression.  This is the beginnings of a great instructional partnership within the department of health and physical education.

Jamie Swanson wants to launch her own web page with the help of Chris and Bob Spino.  I think this is truly “up end”  and a feather in the cap for Alt. Ed in the South.  Best wishes Jamie – keep it up! 

3 teachers have opened up blogs at the Hewes Center.  Please check out the following

hewessocialstudies3@edublogs.org   This blog is devoted to high school grades 9-12 social studies.  Thea Kester hopes to inspire commentary from high school students at the Hewes Center and incorporate the ideas of two other social studies teachers, Cindy Jackson and Greg Guichard.  The first post is aimed at a broad audience of students and is focused on the upcoming elections. 

Lauriew@edublogs.org  is a blog hosted by Laurie Wilcox a special ed. high school math teacher.  I am having difficulty accessing this blog but will resolve this issue tomorrow and edit this line.

http://jamiem74.edublogs.org This blog is the brainchild of Jamie  Monaco, 6th grade teacher,  has also started a blog depicting her professional journey into this new sphere of writing and publishing. 

 I encourage all teachers at Hewes, CLCS and our BOCES to visit these blogs and post comments of encouragement.  We should like to see cross collaboration with our colleagues throughout the various centers and sites of BOCES aimed of increasing professional and student dialogue. 

The Highly Qualified Teacher Status, a result of NCLB has imposed high standards on the hiring process for teachers of special education grades 7-12.  A teacher either has to be certified or highly qualified in each of the four content areas/reading in order to ensure that Highly Qualified status can be determined for the purposes of reporting Basic Education Data System (BEDS)  to the state education department.  Luckily, the law has been extended and will not sunset until next Aug. 2009. 

School administrators have been under pressure these past few years to ensure that all classrooms grades 7-12 are taught by certified in content special education teachers or highly qualified teachers in a content area who by virtue of professional development, teaching experience and graduate hours can claim the status of a highly qualified teacher.  This is an important consideration for teachers who wish to pursue graduate studies in education and those who want to apply for additional special education certifications. 

The last round of teacher interviews and selection has narrowed down the field but not enough that I feel assured that the candidate being proposed for hire, with an Associates Degree in Horticulture and a minor in Botany might be accepted by Human Resources. 

In the meantime I am under pressure to fill this position because parents and students needs can no longer be ignored.  We are into our second week of school and we can wait no longer. 

6 copies of the novel Crazy by Peter Earley have been donated to the High School English Department.  These copies have been made available to our program taught by P. Calloren and J. Hedlund respectively as a result of my involvement in N.A.M.I  – National Association for the Mentally ill.  I joined NAMI as an advocate for students both classified and alternative who repeatedly face the court system for indiscretions they create because of their ignorance, intolerance, impatience and misunderstanding of their place in relation to others eg. people, school, organization etc. 

NAMI has been very vocal in Chautauqua County especially in advocating for the rights of the mentally ill in our court system.  Yesterday, the local press Post-Journal, Jamestown was replete with information about the formation and the mental health court system in Jamestown. 

It is my hope that the teachers of the High School will explore this book donation with students and encourage reading and dialogue about this memoir written by a father as he chronicles the journey of his son.