| 11/21/2008 9:40:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Special ed plan works for Monroe school district
Significantly fewer kids being tracked into program
Mary Jane Grenzow
MONROE - Seven years ago, 19 percent of students in the Monroe school district were considered special education.
Today, as the district hits the halfway mark in its five- to six-year initiative to keep more students out of special education, that number is at 14 percent.
The District Intervention System plan is a way to implement Response to Intervention, a national educational movement that tries to prevent kids from failing academically by providing effective, early intervention.
And it's working, according to Director of Pupil Services Joe Monroe. The number of special ed referrals last school year was just 24, down from 82 in the 2004-2005 school year.
The philosophy of the intervention plan is that regular education curriculum will work for most children, but some students may need additional time to be successful, Monroe said. In order to determine which children need more time, and which children truly require special education services, the district has a four-tier system of intervention in place.
The first tier is core instruction. All students get this core instruction, which is sufficient to effectively serve 80 percent of children, Monroe said. All students are screened to see which children may need additional help. These students, which account for about 20 percent of children, are referred to as Level 2.
This level provides additional instructional time for students in math and reading. The extra instruction does come at the expense of instruction time in other classes such as science or social studies, Monroe said. But because reading and math skills are fundamental to other subject areas, science and social studies teachers agree the extra time spent on reading and math is critical to ensure academic success across the board.
Children who still struggle at Tier 2 move to Tier 3, where more intensive instruction is provided. This could involve one-on-one instruction, he said. Tier 3 accounts for between 5 and 10 percent of students.
After that, a child who needs more help may be referred for special education, where "there's many more resources," Monroe said.
Frequent assessment is necessary to determine if children are getting the instruction needed or if they should need a higher level of intervention. But teachers frequently worry about the time allocated to constant testing because it can take away from instructional time, Monroe said.
The key to doing the assessments without interfering with instructional time is DIBBLES, a series of one- to three-minutes tests. "They're quick, efficient, valid tests ... that collect a lot of data without overwhelming teachers or interfering with instruction," Monroe said.
The testing incorporates a benchmark where students are expected to be. Through frequent assessments, staff can determine if the child is on target or if more help is needed. "If they're not at the benchmark, we provide more support," Monroe said.
While frequent assessments are key, they aren't the only criteria. Information from a child's classroom teacher is compared with data to see if more support makes sense, Monroe said.
Under the previous special ed model, children who were struggling were referred and such things as their IQ and behavior were evaluated. "Then they may or may not get services," Monroe said.
When he was a school psychologist, for example, Monroe spent 95 percent of his time conducting assessments and IQ tests. "It was me saying (children) either do or do not qualify for special education," he said.
Monroe said the intervention plan really is a shift from paperwork to services. It's a "more proactive and positive approach rather than waiting for kids to fail."
The district is about halfway through implementation of the plan. "We need to continue on with this," he said, adding RTI is part of the federal No Child Left Behind federal mandate and modifications are in the works to bring state law in accordance. The focus currently is on the elementary grades, but the district is expanding it to middle and high school grades.
The district, while not a leader in implementing an intervention plan, is ahead of many districts in addressing RTI. "Monroe is in very good shape," he said.
And that bodes well for helping the district reach the plan's primary goals.
"We want to make sure every kid is getting an appropriate education," Monroe said, and "not just referring kids to special ed because they weren't doing well in math class."
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