School Law

This weeks assigment led us on our journey through the wonderful world of ARDs and IEPs. It is a necessary evil we must all contend with to ensure our student's needs are all being met. Here are my findings:

How do school staff members feel about the IEP process as a whole? Is it stressful? Do they feel it represents a true collaboration between parents and staff members to best serve students?

Staff members really don’t mind going through the process because we are trying to develop ways to appropriately reach that individual child and ensure they are making progress. Sometimes it can be hard getting everyone to the meeting, though. Getting all of the paperwork completed appropriately can be very stressful. When the parents are involved, there is true collaboration, but when the parents are not involved, it seems to just be the staff members truly looking out for the student.

Which aspect of the IEP process most confuses or discourages team members?

The IEP’s themselves can be very confusing, especially to new teachers. Determining which type of test to take and what accommodations the child needs can be confusing as well. It can also be confusing when trying to determine how the student initially qualified for special education, whether it is a learning disability, behavior, or some other health impairment, and then relating back to understand how it impacts each individual child.

 How does your school/district determine whether students are eligible for special education?

My school determines eligibility going through the RTI process, starting with tier I, moving to tier II, and ending with tier III. Initially we meet with the RTI team to develop interventions to be implemented. The teacher will document the interventions along the way, and everyone will meet again to evaluate the interventions. If it is needed, more will be put into place and monitored and evaluated as well. Vision and hearing is also screened. The third time we meet, we evaluate interventions, work done within literacy groups, pulling for tutoring, using one on one time, and if the students is still not being successful, we refer them to be tested for special education. The student may also be screened for other things like dyslexia and ADHD. It is a long process but useful in correctly determining whether or not the student has a learning disability or if it is just a lack of motivation or effort.

 What do IEP team members say can be done to better improve the process?

The process can definitely be improved through more parental involvement. The paper work can also be a lot to keep up with and complete by the classroom teacher, so it would be helpful to have a third party assist with it. If the teacher had more resources, like new and innovative interventions, it would be very helpful.

Are students’ IEPs effectively implemented at your school? What can be done to improve implementation?

 Students’ IEPs are effectively implemented and closely monitored at my school. Progress reports are sent home with every report card as well. To improve implementation, it would be helpful to have parental feedback. It would be nice to know if out IEPs have improved the childs outlook not only in school, but at home as well.

Action Research Wondering

Our district has been discussing the whether or not retention and/or promotion fosters student achievement. There has been a lot of research showing the negative effects on a student’s social well-being from retention greatly outweighs any positive ones. Traditionally teachers think retention helps the students because it can reduce skill variance in the classroom, allow students to mature, ensure success with materials they have struggled with, and to more be prepared to move on the following year.

When discussing possible areas of research with my principal we had covered the areas I originally thought of like attendance, student teachers, parental involvement, technology, etc… Later, I emailed my principal because I had a feeling our time was cut short and we were not able to introduce any of her ideas into our discussion. She emailed me back and introduced the idea of researching retention and discipline. Many times, the students who are retained are those very ones all teachers know of because they are such high discipline students. Because of this, I would like to investigate ways we can help these students from ever needing to be retained, reduce potentially higher discipline problems, and still ensure their success in the classroom.

How can we gain higher student success without using retention and causing increased discipline problems? What interventions can we put into place to ensure the success of these students? What are some alternatives to retention that promote high performances? How can we help teachers/administrators/students/parents achieve this?

Reflection of Research Course

     As I reflect on all that I have experienced and learned through this course, I am able to recognize all of the positive aspects of it. I have gained the most through the readings, assignments, and discussion board postings.

     From the text, Leading With Passion and Knowledge by Nancy Fichtman Dana, I have learned the most. Her clear text features and organization helped me to easily navigate through the text. On any given page, my eye was drawn to the most important information she was presenting. Being a fourth grade reading and writing teacher, I am regularly covering text features and how they relate to the ease of reading through a non-fiction text. The style of writing Dana uses also contributes to the ease of learning from the text. She is very clear and concise and does not try to use unnecessary vocabulary which can lead to misinterpretations. I fully appreciate the way she provides facts and then backs them up with anecdotes. The real life examples help to visualize the way each aspect will play out in reality. Her brief mentioning of social justice has really sparked my interest. Teaching in a low socio-economic school has allowed me to realize the way many people around me around me live in a completely different way than what I thought was the norm. I hope through further research on social justice, I can help my students understand the importance of an education and breaking the cycle of poverty.

     The assignments individually and collectively have helped me tremendously. They have provided a framework to follow in order to navigate my way successfully through the course. Each week has a clear set of instructions that not only teach me the course curriculum, but also help me to further my abilities to effectively conduct my action research project. I am very interested in my topic and hope it will benefit many students, but in order for this to happen, I have to first know how to develop and conduct an action research project. This course has done just that. I feel that each week I have grown not only as a learner but as a researcher as well. I gained the most from week three because that is when I started feeling confidant on where my action plan started, grew, and where it is now going. Having to fully develop the plan allowed me to truly see the way my research will play out and how many students it can potentially benefit along the way.

     The discussion board postings have also been very important in my growth through this course. I have been able to view other students’ thoughts and reflections along the way, which usually directly correlated with my own. It always helps to know that we are not the only ones going through feelings of incompetence and that we can turn to others to help us on our journey along the way. There is a lot to be gained by reading through others’ reflections, commenting on them, internalizing the thoughts, and changing as a result of them. Sometimes, I find valuable information on areas I would have never considered and am able to utilize the ideas/information as well. Although I am a little reluctant to ever provide feedback that could be thought of as a criticism, I am always interested in seeing if anyone else has an insight of ways I could improve my reflections in the postings.

     Overall, as I look back on all of the knowledge I have gained through this course, I am grateful for the opportunity to grow myself as a learner and researcher and gain a master’s degree in the process. I am always trying to relay the importance of a quality education to my students and by being a student as well, I have more credibility in their eyes. This course in particular will forever change me because once this action research project is over, I will continue to look for more that can be conducted.