Principal Interview 2

Decisions with Exceptional Children and/or 504

Exceptional Children

Decision 1:

 In Ms.S. first year as a principal she made a decision to change the makeup of classrooms. They were made up of students with disabilities who needed services and support of an EC teacher as well.  She observed classrooms and found that the students were in a regular standard classroom.  Students were having some difficulties in the classroom with no support from an EC teacher.  The EC teachers were in other classrooms. As a result she decided to make some changes to the master schedule.  Based on the data from the previous year’s EOG scores, she decided to make inclusion classrooms which included a general education teacher and an EC teacher.   She obtained research on this practice from Dr. Friend who is a strong advocate for co-teaching in the school environment.  Also Ms. S was a teacher in California over a course of 15 years.  Through her experience she found this type of classroom to be most effective.

When asked about the impact of this decision on students, parents, and teachers?

Students:   She stated that the students had some difficulties in the beginning adjusting to the change but later found it to be most helpful.  As a result, there was significant growth in their academics and on the EOG standardized test for language arts and math. She also stated that those students who were in resource classes did not show mark improvements.

 Parents:   Initially, they were upset and concerned with the changes.  They felt that their child would not adapt to the change very well because of their previous placement and the change in teachers.  But as the school year progressed and students were moved to their appropriate places, parents viewed this as a positive change for some students.

Teachers:  Initially were upset with this decision because they were placed in a position to adapt to having another teacher in the classroom and sharing teaching responsibilities.  Some invited the help and others were territorial.

Decision 2

This decision was based on the guidelines to have students with a disability to receive instruction from highly qualified teacher in their core subjects of reading, math, social studies, and science.  This current school year the EC teachers serve as co-teachers in classes that have students who have are eligible for EC services.  However they are amongst students who are not receiving services who may be at grade level or slightly below as well.  These students receive the benefit of a co-taught environment as well.  The weakness with this is that there is such a spectrum of students who may not get their needs met because they need more an additional instruction.  To help counteract this, a learning lab was put into place to address some academic needs for those students who need additional help other than the classroom. Along with this, the learning community of our school system  sent some additional support to define useful strategies for the general education and EC teacher,

I

504

In regards to students with a 504 plan, Ms. Stated a student was hit by a car and a decision was made to place the child on a temporary 504 until she was able to perform her duties as a student.  She was on medical leave for a period of time.  Therefore she needed additional accommodations and modifications to help her due to the number of absences due to illness.