In February, PEER Project staff and focus group members headed home from PEAK's Inclusive Education Conference in Colorado with lots of good ideas on how to provide inclusive educational options for all students and with initial steps for how to use this information in the planning for the TAPP regional workshops on school reform in the spring. Ron Brandt from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development highlighted the sequence of activities comprising school reform practices for the past ten years in his talk "What we must do to get public support for progressive reform." Brandt's overview of school reform efforts included the following key elements: equity; governance and decision-making; character and citizenship; learning, and the provision for differences within an inclusive structure. His talk provided a point from which to begin the conference and to which the focus group members returned during their meetings at the end of each conference day.
During their meetings, focus group members discussed the material and experiences from the sessions they had attended that day and compiled a list of important points to be used in planning the workshops on reform for each of the TAPP Regional Meetings. Some of these included:
These are just a few of the ideas that comprise the foundation of the conference planning process. The PEER Project looks forward to weaving these into the content discussions on school reform policies and practices.
In January 1996, several hundred educators, administrators, parents and students attended the first conference on school reform co-sponsored by the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, Center for Resource Management, Inc., The Coalition of Essential Schools, Inclusion Press International, National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion, New Hampshire Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and TASH. The PEER staff were among those driving slowly in the snow to attend the conference entitled School Restructuring and Inclusion: Equity and Excellence for All. The major theme of the conference was restructuring schools and educational services to best meet the needs of students with disabilities.
With this focus as its anchor, the following brief descriptions of some of the keynote speeches and workshop sessions provide examples of how school governance, standards for learning and curriculum frameworks are being developed and implemented to educate all students. The first keynote speaker, Norman Kunc, outlined the importance of being involved in creating and supporting changes in the educational opportunities for all students with disabilities. He emphasized the importance of working through the ambiguity which change creates and not being bound to existing options just to avoid this ambiguity. Deborah Meier, author of The Power of Their Ideas (1995) and former director of the Central Park East Schools (CPES) in New York City, presented case studies from her experiences at CPES. Meier's presentation outlined a plan and process for changing CPES to provide better opportunities for learning for their students from elementary to high school. Woven throughout her talk were examples of how parents, educators and administrators worked collaboratively to implement these changes, to ensure accountability of the educational opportunities provided and to optimize student learning. Clearly, CPES created a supportive environment and community in which learning happened for all students.
Dorothy Lipsky and Alan Gartner from the National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion (NCERI) presented a workshop which examined practices of inclusive educational services and supports in public schools throughout the United States. Their work, to date, has generated some of the following facts: inclusion is taking place in urban, suburban and rural school systems in all states, these systems are evaluating the outcomes of the various instructional approaches used in meeting the educational needs of the students, and a network of resources is evolving to assist educators as they provide inclusive education for all students. These resources include people who are knowledgeable and available to provide technical assistance as well as videos and printed materials. Lipsky and Gartner's presentation also included a discussion of factors that contributed positively to making inclusion and restructuring happen and keeping these practices in place it happening. Again, the theme of a school culture which provides supports and resources to students, staff and parents was identified as a necessary part of an atmosphere conducive to educating all children well.
The importance of participation by parents of children with disabilities in the development of school improvement plans was another topic discussed at the conference. Sally Wade, a parent and educator from Florida, discussed the findings from her research in this area. Wade found that parents of children with disabilities actively participated in the development of school improvement plans. Their involvement occurred despite the great variability in the manner in which schools asked parents to participate, the approaches taken in defining the roles and responsibilities of the team members working on school improvement plans, and the variability in the content of the plans. She found that some schools asked parents to be involved in a way that empowered them to participate in decision-making about all components of the school and that others asked parents only to rubber stamp decisions made by school personnel. This research highlighted the importance of clear communication about the expectations for true collaboration on reform practices.
The conference planners are to be congratulated for the success of the conference and, more importantly, for how they modeled the importance of building a collaborative climate for learning about the importance of school restructuring to the education of students with disabilities. The conference provided many good resources, and Equity and Excellence, a publication of the School Restructuring and Inclusive Education Project, is one example. (See resource section for details for obtaining it.) A second conference is planned for 1997.
The PEER Project is now up on the World Wide Web. Visit http://www.fcsn.org/peer for information about the PEER Project and its upcoming activities.
Why Go Online? Maybe you are not sure of how online technology such as email and the World Wide Web is being used. Maybe you haven't quite figured out "what's in it for you." Or maybe you feel you have all you can handle right now just keeping up with the day-to-day needs of your PTI and its constituents. Maybe you should keep reading.
Consider for a moment that online technology from the most basic email to more sophisticated networks can play an important role in improving effectiveness and efficiency at your PTI. Online technology offers a cost-effective way of sending and receiving information, staying current with what's happening (for example, Senator Frist has his own IDEA home page (http://www.senate.gov/ ~frist/ idea.html) which contains information about the reauthorization of IDEA), requesting and receiving assistance (imagine a forum where all PTIs could discuss the work that they do), transacting business, and communicating with people all over the country (i.e., outreach!!). In addition, the Internet can be a valuable tool for improving your PTI's operations and services, fundraising, marketing, and public relations. Finally, online technology can assist PTIs in your efforts to collaborate and improve services to your communities.
Let me also underscore the value of the Internet as a research tool. Although the Internet is a little like having access to a huge library but no librarian, it is still an incredibly rich source of information on virtually any topic. Research on the Internet is performed by "search engines." You just go to a search engine site (like http://www.yahoo.com), type in what you are looking for, click on the search button, and you will be met with a host of websites pertaining to your request. Particularly relevant to PTIs is information on state and federal government goings-on, grants, foundations, advocacy and nonprofit management--all available via the Internet.
As you can see, the benefits of going online are readily apparent. If you are already online, congratulations; if you are not, and you still need some convincing, maybe this last reason will persuade you: it is PAPERLESS!!
References:
"The Information Superhighway: Will it be the High Speed or Breakdown Lane for Nonprofits?" New England Nonprofit Quarterly, Fall 1994 (40-42).
Next issue: Email Netiquette
Hot Websites
...on school restructuring, education, government
Pathways to School Improvement
ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation
FROM NOW ON: the Educational Technology Journal
...on using the Internet
Programs, Projects and Publications
The PEER Project is collecting information from organizations, agencies and projects actively involved in improving education and school services for all students. The emphasis of this collection is on ones with the following perspectives:
parent-school collaboration and partnerships, parent involvement in school restructuring efforts, parent participation in improving equity and excellence in education, and community involvement in school reform. The information gathered will be used to identify the network of parent and community organizations actively working to improve schools and educational services at the national, state and local levels. Being informed about the work of this network will assist the PEER Project in providing PTI's with additional collaborators and allies in the movement to reform educational policies and practices.
The Home and School Institute (HSI) helps families build children's achievement in school and beyond. HSI provides school districts, federal, state and local government agencies, businesses, and community organizations with systematic training and materials for total community educational involvement.
Published quarterly, Rethinking Schools is an independent educational journal committed to issues of equity and social justice. With views expressed by teachers, parents and educational activists from all over the country, Rethinking School's overriding concern is to help transform schools so they provide a quality education for all children.
The Parent Institute publishes two newsletters for teachers and parents during the school year and offers inexpensive pamphlets for parents on topics such as how to help their children learn to read or build self-esteem. Materials are available in both English and Spanish.
The Institute for Responsive Education is a national non-profit research and development organization which promotes new approaches to elementary and secondary education that are responsive to the changing needs of students, families, communities, and the larger society. IRE believes that schools need to be "reinvented, not merely reformed" and that educators, parents, community members, social service providers, policy makers and older students must work together to create better school communities of increased learning and respect.
IRE offers "Building a Learning Community," a series of practical guides for carrying out school reform through community involvement. The guides are Planning School Improvement ($35), Rethinking Teaching, Curriculum, Assessment, and School Structures ($24), Creating Family Driven School-Linked Services ($22), and Reaching Out to Families ($24). The complete set of guides is $95. To order, contact IRE.
If you require this material in an alternative format, please contact Susan Crane, PEER Project at 617-482-2915
© 1996, Federation for Children with Special Needs, Boston, Massachusetts
Web Page by Carolyn Romano cromano@fcsn.org
Last updated 4/17/96
URL: http://www.fcsn.org/peer/pr/pr2.htm