Special Education: Programs, Services, and Resources

Assignment One 

Multi-tiered systems of support involve the procedures by which learning institutions use data to ascertain the behavioral and academic provisions that every single student requires to be prosperous in school and graduate with skills necessary for life. These processes will ensure that evidence-based strategies and procedures used in providing education to the students are in line with their needs and want so as to improve their educational outcomes. So as to ensure that the MTSS is successful, it must involve targeted, intensive and universal levels of instruction. The data that is used in the MTSS is collected through a comprehensive screening procedure. According to Jenkins et al. (2007), through universal screening, the students who are at risk are identified in relation to any learning difficulties they possess. As such, systematic, evidence –based general education is provided to the students.

Despite the fact that MTSS is a general education-driven prrogram, it is an important aspect in relation to the provision of special education to students with disabilities for it forms the basis upon which instructional and support strategies are made. As such, it is the duty of the special educators to ensure that during the determination process of MTSS and universal screening, assessment of student data in relation to general education procedures is one of the obligatory components that need to be scrutinized in advance of the special education verdict. The special educator has to ensure that each student's educational requirements surpass the aptitude and requirement of the general education scenery using the MTSS data evaluation. Therefore, special educators must first evaluate the general education intervention data if they are to determine the needs of the student. In developing an IEP, the special educator must adhere to various elements of the MTSS process such as Progress monitoring, Robust Universal tier instruction, and Data-based decision making so as to come up with future special education decisions. As such, the MTSS and universal screening process are necessary for special educators when they are coming up with useful instructional strategies that will meet the needs of a student.

It is the duty of special education teachers to ensure that all students with disabilities and those who are culturally and linguistically diverse get good education juts like the non-disabled students. As such, these educators can come up with various strategies to which they will contribute to school-wide Multi-tiered systems of supports and Universal Screening on behalf of such students (Greenwood et al., 2011). The educators can use the response to instruction and intervention strategies so as to ensure they contribute to school-wide Multi-tiered systems of supports and Universal Screening that will meet the needs of children with disabilities.

The universal instruction strategies involve all the instructional strategies that all student including those who English language learners receive (Hughes and Dexter, 2011). Through this plan, the special education teachers can ensure that the school environment is one that is culturally responsive and has quality instructional strategies that meet the student with disabilities needs. The teachers should ensure that they have knowledge on the process of acquiring a second language and be able to deliver instruction made up of culturally relevant content. By using a targeted intervention tactic, a special educator will be able to group students into small groups as per how they receive the universal instructions (Hughes and Dexter, 2011). In this strategy, the students will receive specific content upon which they are lagging behind whether it is behavioral, academic or both. The teachers will use data that is gathered from common assessments and progress reports so as to know which students require more instructional strategies than the others. By using the intensive intervention approach, the special educator will develop individualized support systems that will meet the needs of the students who did not make it through the other two strategies (Hughes and Dexter, 2011). The instructional strategies at this level will be more intense.

Assignment Two 

Long ago, about a decade, most paraprofessionals were seen as administrative assistants by most teachers. However, this has come to change over the years for they are now dedicated to supporting teacher-directed instruction as well as supervising students. Still, most teachers have come to assume that the paraprofessionals operate from procedures laid down by the special educators of which this is a wrong perception (Giangreco, 2003). As such, the general education teachers should ensure that they have a collaborative relationship with the paraprofessionals so as to ensure they meet the needs and wants of the students. As a teacher, they should not leave out the paraprofessionals to make the instructional decisions and curriculum strategies on their own. This is due to the fact that they do not have the required training thus are not sufficiently knowledgeable on the student's individualized plan (Giangreco, 2003). It is because, as the teacher, it gives you the role the manager in the classroom thus being legally responsible for the children. As such, one is required to instead, guide the paraprofessional on how the classroom is going to become managed so as to create a professional and collegial environment. It is important for the teacher to build a trustful and respectful relationship with the paraprofessional. It is through ensuring that one holds a meeting with the paraprofessional before being assigned to a classroom so as to ensure that he/she organizes the responsibilities and duties that will be followed on a daily basis (Giangreco, 2003).

According to FAPE, the best education that can be offered to persons with disabilities should be a priority for all educators. So as to meet such requirements, the instructional strategies used should have the ability to come together and fully satisfy the academic requirement of individual children with disabilities similar to those of non-disabled children. However, for most teachers, they get relieved when they learn that paraprofessionals will become assigned to their classrooms which should not be the case. On the other hand, a huge number of the paraprofessionals are undertrained thus they might end up not meeting FAPE's requirement if left alone to handle the children. Nevertheless, through teacher engagement, which is a collaborative interaction between the teacher and the paraprofessional, the FAPE requirements will become met. Educators who are instructional engaged with the paraprofessionals in educating the children will have positive learning outcomes. This can be through planning lessons for the paraprofessionals which go in-line with their skill levels and mentoring them.

Teachers should correspondingly become engaged with students who are assigned to the paraprofessionals as earlier indicated; the paraprofessional does not have the skills that will see the students receiving the entire instructional strategies packages designed to meet their needs. According to Giangreco and Doyle, (2002), the teacher should also ensure that they do not separate the students with disabilities from the rest and having them sit at the periphery of the classroom with a paraprofessional. This will isolate the student from the rest which may end up causing insular relationships not only among the students but as well with the paraprofessional. The student will become too dependent on the paraprofessional who will end up affecting not only their social but academic achievement. The student will feel stigmatized for they are receiving paraprofessional support which will affect the latter thus he/she will not have the ability to offer the student the best educational care required as per FAPE.

Assignment Three 

Part 1: Introduction 

A huge number of children who might have various learning requirements should become educated within the regular classroom setting. Nevertheless, in such a setting, it can work for some student but not all especially if they have learning disabilities. In the case of such children, they might end up requiring special instructional strategies that will see them achieve academic excellence and also develop proper social skills that they will need in the future life ahead. The only ways these students can become successful is by focusing on each student's individual attainment, progress, and teach (Lucan, 2016). These entire factors should become considered regardless of whether the student is in a general education or special education classroom setting.

As such, special education teachers should ensure that they have in place the best instructional strategies that will meet each student's needs as per their learning disabilities. For most special education educators, they have varied roles and responsibilities. They have to adhere to various federal regulations such as FAPE and IDEA in relation to the treatment of persons with disabilities (Russo ad Osbourne, 2009). There is a huge difference between how a special education and general education teacher will perform their duties. For the former, they are required to undertake all their duties with and for the children who have different levels of disabilities of which not all of the responsibilities are related to teaching. For a special education educator, he/she must come up with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), for every student in their classroom. This will help them in the accommodation of each student's need and wants. The special education teacher can work with a classroom educator in one classroom setting or work separately depending on the level of disabilities that the children might have. Therefore, it is essential for special education teachers to understand that their roles are different from normal classroom teachers. They should have it in mind that they are serving students who have varied disabilities thus there is a need to ensure that they come up with instructional strategies that will meet each student's needs and wants (Lucan,2016).

Part 2: Lesson Plan Portfolio 

Special education was developed so that students with disabilities could also get a chance to get academic provision similar to the non-disabled children. In order to ensure that all person with disabilities receives the best education that can become offered to them, different federal laws have been set up such as FAPE and IDEA (Zirkel & McGuire, 2010).As such, it is the duty of special education educators to ensure that they have in place instructional strategies that have been formulated as per the IEP of each student so as to fulfill what has been set by the laws.

Students with learning disabilities might range from those with mild to moderate cognitive impairment disabilities in the classroom to those with a mild/moderate disability that will and use English as their second language. Therefore, a special education educator must ensure that they accommodate all these students in a manner that their instructional strategies will not just work on one group of the children but all the children.

For an educator to ensure that their instructional programs are effective, the educator must have a performance measure stratagem in place. According to Goo et al, (2012), an educator can employee the use of a Web Curriculum –based measurement strategy in assessing the proficiency of their instructional strategies. However, the CBM has its own fair share of setbacks despite being in use for more than two decades. For most educators, they do not know how they are going to implement the CBM so as to get the results they require while others have cited it as being time-consuming. Despite these setbacks, the CBM will allow an educator to plot a performance graph for each student even when they show the slightest improvement in their work (Goo et al, 2012).Without having any progress chart for the students, an educator might end up using instructional strategies that only meet the needs of a few or none of the students in the classroom which is against what the federal laws have set. The CBM will also allow the children, administrators and their guardians to see tangible evidence of their progression which might end up motivating the latter to continue supporting their kids and coming up with informed decisions( Christ et al, 2010).

When dealing with students who have learning disabilities, it important for one to know which strategy will work on which students in relation to what is being taught. It is therefore important for the educator to not just pick any educational strategy and implement it in his/her classroom but rather, it should be a scientific, evidence –based approach. In the case of a student who might have difficulties in reading and one uses English as their second language, an educator should ensure that the instructional content will focus on reading and they should be able to understand whatever they are reading. Depending on the learning disability, the educator has to come up with other modifications to the instructional procedures as seen in the case of a child who has ADD, a guide finger will have to be employed to help them move along the words they are reading. The instructional strategies that will become used include whole language and literature based procedures.

Other strategies that can be used in helping students when it comes to reading, spelling, and writing is the use of phonological awareness which will allow them to form words through manipulation of various sounds. The various types of phonological awareness strategies include onset-rime, syllable, rhyme, word, and phoneme. Students with learning disabilities also have mathematically related problems in relation to problem-solving, computation and following instructions. As such, the educator should make sure that whatever strategy they will use does not just teach them how to solve mathematical problems but rather, it equips them and prepares for future life engagements such as making the change, paying bills and grocery shopping. This can see an educator using strategies such as the Next Dollar Strategy which will not only equip the students with mathematical knowledge but also how they can use currency (Figliole, 2013).

When teaching students with disabilities, the academic achievement should not just be the main focus for the educators, rather, they should also ensure that they help them in the development of social skills. Most of the persons with disabilities are known for having low self-esteem and other poor social skills which affect their interaction with their peers. An educator can employ the use of strategies such as "Turn and Talk", the head, knees, shoulders and knees game and group discussions among the students that will see them becoming socially active as they help each other in the classroom to solve different problems assigned to them. Allington (2004) states that the use of cross-age tutoring in helping the students who are struggling English language learner does not just assist in enhancing their English proficiency but also develops their social skills.

With the ever changing demographics and policies, most special and general education educators are forced to diversify their teaching methods. The laws that are set by the federal government so as to ensure that persons with disabilities also get an education have led to an increasing number of the persons in learning institutions. Some of these persons with disabilities have needs that make it hard for the educators to meet through normal means. As such, there has been a massive development of assistive technologies that are aimed at ensuring that the people with disabilities are not left out in education acquirement. These technologies if used by educators remove barriers thus create an environment that will see the students getting what they need. The assistive technologies are able to fulfill the Universal Design Learning frameworks principles (Hall et al, 2012).

The educator must ensure that they come up with an effective Individualized Education Plan for every student which their instructional strategies should meet after the set time period. In case an educator assesses his/her students' performance in relation to the program set and finds out that they have not met the required IEP goals, there is need to re-adjust the current procedures or come up with better one from the start. An educator who does not assess their program is bound not to offer the students what meets their needs and wants thus it amounts to not just a waste of time but indicates that the educator is not following the FAPE and IDEA laws requirements. In developing the IEP, the educator must first ensure that he/she determines each student's educational needs. This will help one in coming up with the goals that need to become met as per each student due to the fact that, the students in a particular classroom setting might have different learning disabilities. Therefore, it is not right to generalize the students using one IEP goal and claim that it has been attained after the set time period for each instructional strategy has passed.

The federal government has come to make it clear that persons with disabilities have a right to get an education just like the non-disabled children. It is evident that from the different federal laws that have been passed over the years of which every learning institution which offer special and general education has to follow. An educator who does not follow the rules and still continues to offer education to students with learning disabilities is bound to have poor instructional strategies that will not yield any fruits.

References

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Christ, T. J., Silberglitt, B., Yeo, S., & Cormier, D. (2010).Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading: an evaluation of growth rates and seasonal effects among students served in general and special education. School Psychology Review , 39(3), 447.

Figliole, D. M. (2013). Evidence-based practices for teaching mathematics to students with disabilities. State University of New York: Education and Human Development Master's Theses. Paper 199.

Giangreco, M. F. (2003). Working with paraprofessionals. Educational Leadership , 61(2), 50-54

Giangreco, M. F., & Doyle, M. B. (2002). Students with disabilities and paraprofessional supports: Benefits, balance, and band-aids. Focus on Exceptional Children , 34(7), 1–12.

Goo, M., Watt, S., Park, Y., & Hosp, J. (2012). A guide to choosing web-based curriculum-based measurements for the classroom. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45 (2), 34-40.

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Hall, T. E., Meyer, A., & Rose, D. H. (Eds.). (2012). Universal design for learning in the classroom: Practical applications . New York: Guilford Press.

Hughes, C. A., & Dexter, D. D. (2011). Response to intervention: A research-based summary. Theory into Practice , 50 (1), 4-11.

Jenkins, J. R., Hudson, R. F., & Johnson, E. S. (2007). Screening for at-risk readers in a response to intervention framework. School Psychology Review, 36, 582–600.

Lucan, D. A. W. N. (2016). Practical developmental disabilities manual second edition . ‎Raleigh, North Carolina: lulu com.

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Zirkel, P. A., & McGuire, B. L (2010). A Roadmap to legal dispute resolution for students with Disabilities. Journal of Special Education Leadership , 23(2).