With assistance from the TAPP regional centers, the PEER Project organized a one-day workshop on the participation of parents of children with disabilities in education reform and restructuring activities. While the structure and content for each of the regional meetings was similar, the keynote speakers and facilitators for the day’s learning activities joined us from all over the country.
The keynote speaker in each meeting discussed the possibilities that reform policies and restructuring practices offered to children with disabilities. In the West, this speaker was Dr. Mary Falvey from California State University at Los Angeles; Dr. Robert Audette from University of North Carolina at Charlotte presented at the Northeast Regional Conference; and Dr. Alice Udvari-Solner from the University of Wisconsin at Madison spoke at the conference in the Midwest region.
Each of these individuals has experience working within both special education and regular education settings. Currently, Falvey, Audette and Udvari-Solner are all involved in teaching future teachers in both regular and special education and working within classroom and school settings to improve all students’ opportunities to learn. The remaining workshop activities expanded on the information presented by these dynamic speakers and highlighted the importance of active participation by parents of children with disabilities and Parent Training and Information (PTI) centers in this work.
Activities included the presentation of information on content, performance and opportunity-to-learn standards; discussions by participants about the opportunities and concerns for students with individualized educational plans that school reform policies and practices may create; brainstorming about how each of the three types of standards might be used to benefit students on individualized educational plans; and what steps PTI’s want to take during the next year with respect to school reform and restructuring efforts.
When discussing what actions to take, within education reform and restructuring contexts, several common themes emerged during the three TAPP regional workshops on school reform. These included:
The information generated during these workshops will be shared with all PTI’s in summary form. Anyone wanting to receive copies of materials used during the workshops is invited to contact Susan Crane at the Federation.
Hilliard, A. (1991). Do we have the will to educate all children? Educational Leadership, 49, 31-36.
The conference was instructive for parents who are concerned about the inclusion of students with disabilities and how special education issues can be part of the larger conversation on school reform. In each of the major themes of the conference, special education issues were an integral part of the discussion of the challenges facing public education today. Following is a review of key themes and issues presented at the conference, as well as a discussion of opportunities for parent involvement in school reform and restructuring.
Major themes included diversity, multiple intelligences and brain research, heterogeneous schools and classrooms, and the role of public education in democracy and citizenship. These themes were explored in terms of their implications for education policy, structure, principles and practice.
ASCD has made a commitment to respecting and honoring diversity in school communities. Participants in a town meeting designed to discuss this particular issue saw diversity in terms of diversity of culture. Nevertheless, the acknowledgment that diversity enriches the educational experience gives parents of children with disabilities an easy platform from which to expand the discussion to the inclusion of students with diverse learning styles and educational needs. A diverse community of learners provides common ground for parents, students and school personnel.
The concept of multiple intelligences and its implications for classroom teaching strategies are not new, but an important part of the conference was the discussion of research and practices. Teachers, administrators and policymakers understand that teaching practices must change to accommodate the increasing diversity of the school population in this country. New research is also increasing our understanding about how people learn (multiple intelligences) and some biochemical bases for why people learn differently (brain research). Many of the session speakers presented ideas and strategies for designing curricula based on the understanding of multiple intelligences and some of the new brain research.
Many sessions offered strategies for teaching diverse, heterogeneous groups. The underlying assumption was that being educated in heterogeneous classes enhances and expands the learning opportunities for all students. One keynote speaker, Deb Meier, author of The Power of Their Ideas, talked of the importance of schools not only using heterogeneous grouping, but also creating a multi-generational community of learners by making schools a place where adults are welcomed. Other speakers, Carolyn Callahan and Carol Ann Tomlinson, talked specifically of inclusion and presented their strategy, called differentiated instruction, for flexible grouping to accommodate each student’s learning style as it varied according to each activity and subject. Still other speakers explored using multi-aged classrooms, as a way to meet diverse educational needs of students.
Underlying all of the discussions was the commitment to public education, with the understanding that the health and survival of a democracy is based on an educated population. ASCD is committed to providing all children with the opportunity to become well educated and to become active citizens. Most keynote talks mentioned threats to a good public education system, such as inequities in funding, a lack of commitment to equal access, and neglecting the needs of diverse school populations. Additionally, vouchers, charter schools and privatization were seen as threats to public education.
To be part of school reform discussions and decisions, parents need to know what educators and policymakers see as the major issues. There are many opportunities to expand school reform discussions to include the perspective of parents who see the inclusion of children with disabilities as a natural part of the discussion. When the talk is about preparing children to be informed citizens in an increasingly diverse democratic society, we can talk about disability as part of that diversity. Schools that fully include diverse learners create inclusive communities. Understanding how individuals learn is the basis for designing teaching strategies to address the individual needs of students. Continued research on teaching and learning is supporting the need to incorporate an individualized approach to educating students, similar to the individualized approach parents of children with disabilities know.
These major themes and ASCD’s overall commitment to all children’s education are exciting. They provide several ways for parents of children with disabilities, parents leaders and parent trainers to be involved in school reform conversations with parents and professionals who are interested in improving the education received by all children. The information on how brains work and children learn expands options for individualizing teaching and learning experiences. The work done by the ASCD network and distributed through its conferences and publications is one possible strong candidate for consideration as PTI’s form alliances to address school reform issues.
A search engine is a database of the content of world wide web pages which you can search by entering keywords. A computer "spider" crawls through each web page and gathers information which it then indexes into a database. Therefore, search engines are maintained almost entirely by computers. They generally give more extensive search results than web databases. The downside is that you often have to search through some irrelevant information before you find what you need. Search engines are constantly updated to keep up with the growing World Wide Web.
Search engines:
On the other hand, a web directory is a database of web pages collected, organized, and maintained by people--spiders are only used to make sure that the directory’s listings are current. Web directories generally have a smaller database than search engines and the information contained within them is not as up-to-the-minute as it is with search engines. The main advantage, however, is that a web directory returns very few irrelevant sites. In addition, a web directory will contain as many relevant pages as a search engine’s database, since many people list their pages in web directories to attract visitors to their web sites.
Web directories:
And don’t forget about Metacrawler, one of the newer search engines. Metacrawler searches Infoseek, Yahoo, Excite, Webcrawler, Open Text, Inktomi, Galaxy, Lycos, and Alta Vista. It then lists the sites in the order that seems most useful to the searcher after first eliminating duplicates.
In addition, you can limit the amount of time it searches, the geographic area (like “North America”), and even the specific domain (like .com or .edu).
References:
Bourland, Eric. (1996, Summer). Search the web to get the information you want. RRFC Links, Vol. 3, No. 2.
Liu, Jian. (Feb. 1996). Understanding WWW Search Tools [On-line]. www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/search/.
To post a message to the discussion group, send your thoughts to peer@fcsn.org, and your message will be distributed to the rest of the group.
If you have any questions, please contact Carolyn Romano at 617-482-2915 or e-mail cromano@fcsn.org.
Coalition of Essential Schools
Multiple Intelligence Theory Website
...on other useful resources
New Search Engine: Metacrawler
Global Tutoring available, through the International Tutoring Foundation. If you know someone who needs help learning any subject, you may apply for free global tutoring on the Internet on the student’s behalf. The student may also apply. A year of developmental work by over 300 educators, parents, students, business people and government employees from 28 countries makes it possible to announce Global Tutoring as a supplement to traditional schooling. This unique concept is offered via e-mail on the Internet to all primary, secondary, post-secondary, and continuing education students in all subject areas including, but not limited to:
All global tutoring arrangements are subject to final tutee/sponsor approval as well as ongoing monitoring and written performance evaluations by the members of the IT Evaluation Committee.
For further information regarding Global Tutor availability and subjects and levels taught, please contact: Ann Parsons at akpgsh@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Global Tutor and Global Tutee application forms and information on the global tutoring concept can be obtained at the IT home page at Simon Fraser University:http://edie.cprost.sfu .ca/~it/ or by contacting Michael Berns mberns@oise.on.ca
All who are interested in participating in the development of the global tutoring concept are invited to subscribe to the Global Tutoring Discussion Lists at St-Johns University.
To join "Tutor-I" (unmoderated) and "TutrVote" (moderated), send a "subscribe
This information is from the web-site and used with permission. More information may be obtained by contacting Michael Berns, Executive Director, International Tutoring Project, c/o History and Philosophy of Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6 Canada.
Family Involvement Partnership for Learning. This project is a collaboration among many organizations in the United States, including education, business, religious, community and family organizations.
For more information, contact: Family Involvement Partnership for Learning, 600 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202-8173.
Center on Learning, Assessment, and School Structure (CLASS). This project works to make school reform happen. Its overall mission is to “help educators better prepare young people for real-world performance demands and life-long learning.” Class provides materials on content and performance standards, authentic assessment and teaching standards, as well as consultation.
For more information, contact: Center on Learning, Assessment, and School Structure (CLASS), 648 The Great Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, or call
609-252-1211.
The Goals 2000 and Education Reform Project. This project is part of the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) Center for Community Educational Excellence in conjunction with NCLR’s Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation. This project’s general mission is to increase the involvement of Hispanic communities in education reform and to ensure full participation of the Latino community in Goals 2000 initiatives. The Goals 2000 project works through NCLR’s affiliate organizations across the United States to provide a quality education for all Hispanic students through building community collaborations.
For more information, contact: The Goals 2000 and Education Reform Project, National Council of La Raza, 1111 19th Street, NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036, or call 202-785-1670.
Campaign for Achievement: A Parent/Community Mobilization Initiative. Housed at the National Urban League, this project’s general mission is to emphasize parents’ rights and responsibilities in making sure their children receive a quality education and developing community partnerships to improve public education. The efforts of their affiliates are focused on parents being actively involved in their children’s education and advocating for quality education for all children in their community. The affiliates in Baltimore, Jersey City and Cincinnati are developing protocols for how the Campaign for Achievement’s materials will be used in training.
For more information, contact Campaign for Achievement: A Parent/Community Mobilization Initiative, Boston College, School of Education, Campion Hall, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167-3813, or call 617-552-0652.
Wolk, Ronald and B. H. Rodman (Eds.). (1994). Classroom crusaders: Twelve teachers who are trying to change the system. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Wiggins, Grant. (1992). Creating tests worth taking. Educational Leadership, 49: 26-33.
"All students must pass Algebra I to graduate.";
"School Reform holds only students accountable, not the educational systems and teachers educating them.";
"We plan to get waivers for all students with disabilities, so that they do not have to participate in the new statewide testing.".
Responses included:
Dear Editor,
Marianne Haven, from the Parent Empowerment Project in Immokalee, Florida, sent us information regarding an amendment to "s. 229.591, F.S., relating to the school improvement and education accountability system; creating a state education goal for parental involvement; providing an effective date." The amendment directs the entire state to work toward this goal which reads, “Parental involvement. - - Communities, school boards, and schools provide opportunities for involving parents and guardians as active partners in achieving school improvement and education accountability. The State Board of Education shall adopt standards for indicating progress toward this state education goal by January 1, 1997.” Thanks, Marianne, for sending us a copy of this amendment. We look forward to hearing from you, and others in Florida, regarding the practices that this policy will help to generate.
Assessment continues to be a frequently discussed issue in conversations about school reform. Of major concern are some of the following:
"creating more or different tests is what is happening, will that help to make a difference in the education children receive?"
"assessment!?!, what will that tell anyone about what needs to change, when teachers are not ready to do anything new or different?"
We now invite you to share additional thoughts on your experiences with assessment activities.
Send your thoughts and/or quotes about assessment of students with disabilities to Jacque Davis, PEER Project, Federation for Children with Special Needs, 95 Berkeley Street, Ste. 104, Boston, MA 02116. Fax Jacque at 617-695-2939 or e-mail her at jdavis@fcsn.org. You may also post your thoughts on the PEER Project’s new Listserv (See Join PEER’s Listserv, p. 4). To do so, send comments about assessment in your state to PEER@fcsn.org.
Web page by Carolyn Romano cromano@fcsn.org
Last updated 6/7/96Upcoming Activities
July 11, PEER Project focus group at the Experimental Projects’ Leadership Retreat on Craigville, Massachusetts.Letters to the Editor
In the April/May issue of PEER Review, readers were asked to respond to the following comments on assessments:
My daughter has been in school for ten years and every year since the end of first grade I have been asked for permission to evaluate her. Everyone wants to assess her and talk about evaluating what she knows, but no one wants to talk about teaching her. I know she learns differently from other children. I know school and learning are more difficult for her than for other children, and I want her to get the help she needs. But I do not know how tests help teachers know how to teach her better. I’ve asked them how, and no one has ever answered me really. Will these performance standards and new state-wide tests answer that question?
--Frustrated in Massachusetts
The PEER Project is creating a dictionary for parents and PTI’s of the language used in education reform conversations. We want this dictionary to be useful in all states and communities across the country. Therefore, we are asking for your help in writing it. What name and definition for oppotunity-to-learn standards are being used in your state? Please send us this information and an example of how this translates into practice, along with your name and address.
If you require this newsletter in an alternative format, please contact Susan Crane at 617-482-2915 or scrane@fcsn.org
The PEER Project is at the Federation for Children with Special Needs and is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (H029K50208). Opinions or points of view do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Department of Education or Offices within it.
URL: http://www.fcsn.org/peer/pr/pr4.htm