Increasing Access to the Core in TTSD “Reset” on LRE Increasing Access to the Core in TTSD 7:50: Welcome; RBT (silent line up by day of birth; turn to partner and share hardest class ever)

In partners, discuss: Why does IDEA assume students are in the general education setting 100% of the time and actually require justification for time the student is not? What is available in the general education setting that isn’t available in a special education setting? 7:55 - 8:00 Why does IDEA emphasize LRE so much? Discuss for 3 minutes; share out;

With a new partner discuss: Why do we use pull out? Advantages for students? Advantages for adults? 8:00 - 8:05 Why do we pull kids out? Discuss for 3 minutes; report out

Students in Regular Classroom <80% of the Day 8:05 – 8:08 Data for the past 9 years – Federal Target, State Average, and TTSD. Since 2008, we’ve seen a drop from ~70% to the low 50%.

Students in Regular Classroom >80% of the Day 8:08- 8:10 Grouped by years as the Federal Target was changed; . We have corrected for this at MS – unless a team has explicitly determined that a child will get a modified diploma, the students are in core ELA and math. We have work to do at elementary. Decisions to pull kids out of the core, in particular, have implications for the future.

Access to Core = Better Academic Progress “For students with high incidence disabilities, a higher percentage make academic progress in general education classes compared to students in traditional, resource settings.” - Inclusive Education: Research & Practice, Bui, Quirk, Almazan, Valenti. 2010 8:10-8:15 Quote from paper to be handed out; emphasizes good quality co-teaching, Universal Design, peer assisted learning, and strategies instruction; bottom line is that student outcomes in math improve when students have more access to the core;

SBAC Results: Scoring 3 or 4 on Mathematics 8:15-8:18: SBAC results for the past couple of years; % students

SBAC Results: Scoring 3 or 4 on Mathematics 8:18-8:23: This shows the gap between kids with disabilities and all students at grades 3-5;

Our Goal To increase access to core instruction in math for elementary students with disabilities in TTSD by December 2017. 8:23 - 8:25 Goal in TTSD is to increase the amount of time students with disabilities have access to core instruction, especially in reading and math. Make note of 6th grade math;

Our goal is NOT 8:25 - 8:30 Don’t panic! This is not saying to immediately change all IEPs and schedules. Our goal is evolutionary.

Changing Our Thinking About How We Organize SDI in Math Instead of 30 minutes of pull out per day…imagine what other options we could create Time? Location? Focus? Group size? 8:30 - 8:50 In groups of four, brainstorm possible approaches; report out; highlight work of SLPs;

10 Minute Break 8:50 - 9:00

Changing Our Thinking About What We Teach in Math Build foundational skills - what students need in order to access grade level content Focus on whole numbers (number sense, operations) and problem solving extensively in kindergarten through grade 4 Focus on rational numbers (fractions, decimals) and problem solving extensively in grades 5 through 8 BREAK 8:50- 9:00 9:9:10 IES (Institution of Education Sciences) Recommendations - teaching skills to access core NOT teaching grade level content Specific content of interventions is centered on building the student’s foundational principles. SDI in math is aligned with CCSS as reflected in TTSD Priority/Reporting Standards a. Example: Going deeper into fewer areas of instruction that have broader application. b. Non-example: Addressing every CCSS or unit of study in math.

Core & SDI SDI is provided in addition to the core Alignment with core curriculum is not as critical as ensuring that the intervention builds foundational proficiencies 9:10-9:20 K-2 core is more focused on foundational skills than later grades, therefore, interventions in primary grades will be more closely aligned with core. In teams of four discuss how this differs or does not differ from your current practice; share out (3 minutes to talk, couple to share out). Want to get a sense of where we are.

IEP Goals IEP teams will determine which goals and specific objectives (just a few) are most critical each year Students in higher grades may need continued work on whole numbers. Include these skills, but, not at the expense of instruction and practice with rational numbers 9:20-9:25 A shift in thinking, Learning Specialists will need to bring teams along if the practice has been to have a list of all the CCSS

Components of Instruction Explicit and systematic Models of proficient problem solving Verbalization of thought processes Guided practice Corrective feedback Frequent cumulative review 9:25-9:30 Explicit instruction strategies: I do, We do, You do students should have opportunities to solve problems in a group and communicate problem-solving strategies; include easy and difficult problems, teacher think-alouds

Example/Non-example Example: Teaching students the “guess and check” problem solving strategy in order to see it applied appropriately in 8 out of 10 opportunities. Non-Example: Teaching students the content of Unit 7 in order to get at least 70% on the final test. 9:30-9:35 How does this differ from current practice? Query group.

Components of Instruction Instruction on solving word problems is based on common underlying structures Teach students about the structure of problem types and how to determine solutions Teach students to recognize common underlying structures of problem types 9:35 How to transfer known solution methods from familiar to unfamiliar problems; SLP

Example/Non-example Example: Teaching students to apply formulas and/or use matrices (arrays of numbers) to solve real-world problems. Non-example: Teaching students to apply the Pythagorean Theorem in order to pass Geometry. 9:35-9:40 Goal: Focus on a narrow set of foundational skills and strategies that current research indicates are most critical to overall mathematical competence (high leverage) and can be applied to a wide range of instructional contexts (portable).

Components of Instruction Use visuals! May start with concrete manipulatives, but, the goal for older students is to move towards understanding of - and facility with - visual representations, and finally, the abstract 9:45

Components of Instruction Accurate and fluent arithmetic with whole numbers is necessary before understanding fractions 5-10 minutes in each session to build fluent retrieval of basic math facts 9:45-9:50 Math facts practice should include instruction and carefully scaffolded practice (not timed fact tests); technology, flash cards, etc for extensive practice NOT JUST TIMED TESTS K-grade 2 - teach strategies for efficient counting to improve retrieval of facts grade 2-8 - teach how to use knowledge of properties (commutative, associative, and distributive) to derive facts in their heads

Review and Discuss: Review Math SDI goals and objectives and discuss in groups of four Different from current practice? 9:50-10:05 Have people look at goals on the portal and discuss. How do these goals/objectives address the needs of students in your buildings? Helpful? Discuss in groups of 4.

True Believers Words we don’t want to hear: (plants in the audience read these) “The district said….”, “We can’t do pull out anymore”, “Joyce is making us do this”, “We’re supposed to do it that way, but she’s not the boss of me”

Let’s Discuss What do your teams need to begin to make these changes?

Our first step What is one agreement we could make today to move us toward our December 2017 goal?