Activity: Understanding a P-16 System Use slide 1 to introduce the concept of the P-16 system Use slide 2 to envision a p-16 system as a pipeline. Talk about where your school is in the pipeline Project how the early pipeline impacts your school Focus on the student experience as they move through the pipeline. Project how your actions impact students that intend to keep moving through the pipeline to post-secondary and employment. Use slide 3 to asses the extent to which your system is opening the pipeline. Tally the responses to the questions. How many answered ‘yes” to questions? 8-10? 6-8? Less than 6? What does this result tell you? For some questions, is answering ‘yes’ sufficient? Use slide 4 to stimulate some discussion on why we are so separate. What ‘next steps’ should this activity encourage? How will your system begin to open the pipeline and learn about your interconnections?

P-16 A coherent systems beginning with early education (pre- school and earlier) and ending with the attainment of a post-secondary credential. A system that is intentionally informed and responsive to realities in the system components that come before and after. A system that is focused on imparting the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary to succeed in the community and the economy. A system that is crafted for the benefit of the participants.

P-16: Envisioning a Pipeline “If people begin the see the educational system as a single entity through which people move, they may begin to behave as if all of education were related.” Harold Hodgkinson in “All One System’, 2000

Think/ Pair /Share To what extent can you facilitate an open pipeline? Y N Do you know how the elementary schools in your district are doing? Y N Do you know what happens at the transition from elementary tomiddle school? Y N Do you know how the middle schools in your district are doing? Y N Do you know what career education takes place in middle school? Y N Do you have opportunities to talk with middle school teachers about your respective work? Y NCan you describe your high school’s approach to support in the ninth grade? Y N Do you know how your high school/tech center is doing academically? Y N Do you know what career education and career assessment takes place in the HS years? Y N Do you have opportunities to talk with subject area teachers about your common goals and common responsibilities? Y N Do you know the drop out/non-completion rate for your school? Your program? Y N Do you know how your graduates are doing in post-secondary and employment?

What Keeps Us from Seeing the Pipeline? Focus on our own immediate issues and needs Fragmentation across levels and content areas Divisions across general, special and technical education Ineffective articulation between secondary, post-secondary and employment Lack of relationships that support communication Insufficient opportunities to learn about levels that precede and follow our own Infrequent opportunities to track a goal throughout the entire pipeline Lack of focused attention to how the student experiences the pipeline.

Activity: Common Messages in Breaking Ranks Using the Diagram and the Executive Summary, identify the elements of the Breaking Ranks that coincide with the elements that your school has undertaken. Use your list to share the stories of your progress. What groups would be interested in learning about your work? How can you gain support for your efforts by showcasing your progress on these nationally defined elements of school renewal? Use the Diagram and the Executive Summary to begin discussions between staff and administration about what should come next for your school.

Download the Executive Summary of Breaking Ranks. Just copy this web link and paste it into your browser.

Activity: Changing Role of Special Education Pose the statement on the following slide and ask the participants to think about the changes they have experienced. How can the message in the statement explains some of those changes. Ask the participants to think about who they must begin to engage, understand and influence if they are to help students achieve their goals.

Special Education: A Fundamental Shift From the early beginnings of special education services until recently, special education was focused almost exclusively on special educators and how the service they delivered directly could assist students in achieving their goals. To a great extent, special educators were responsible for the services that they delivered and directed. As more students spend greater parts of their day in general education, special education has transformed from services that are delivered directly to services that support and influence services that are delivered directly by others. To a greater extent, special educators are accountable for creating the conditions for others to be successful in educating students with disabilities.

A Scenario that You Know By regulation, general education, special education, career and tech education and relevant agencies are invited to the IEP meeting. To accomplish the goals of the IEP meeting is intended to promote, critical information for planning is to provided by all relevant practitioners and family members. React to this situation: In September an IEP invitation was created that listed all the required invitees, but the invitation was not circulated to all invites listed. An IEP meeting was held in February with the special education teacher, the family and the student present. Subsequently, the IEP form was circulated to all the invitees listed for signature. Noting that they were neither invited, nor able to share important information, several potential team members refused to sign. Feeling embarrassed and pressured to get signatures, the special education teacher complains to the supervisor and principal.

From the perspective of the required invitees, what are they feeling? Are they justified? What could be a changed to make the situation better? From the perspective of the special education teacher, what might they be feeling? Can you understand their dilemma? What could be a changed to make the situation better? From the perspective of the supervisor and administrator, what critical weaknesses in the system does this scenario expose? What are the obligations to make changes? What might be some potential approaches? From the perspective of the student and family, how does this situation compare to the ‘picture’ of IEP development that has been explained to them and is portrayed in the literature they get on the process?