In This Issue

Early Learning Opportunities Support Quality and Access

Director’s Corner

Daring to Dream Awards

New EC Resource

In memoriam: Marcia Lovell

LEARNS: Work Keeps Team Hopping

IDS Curriculum Changes

Dissemination Team Leads Web Accessibility

Collaboration Brings Speaker to Maine

Center Sponsors Exhibit Venue for VSA arts

Center Hosts Visiting Fulbright Scholar

UMaine Students Lead EC Conference

10 Students Graduate TOP Program

Healthy & Ready to Work: Engaging Youth in Their Future

Standards for All Model: Personalizing Elementary Education

Selected Presentations & Publications

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The final results of Standards for All Model: Personalizing Elementary Education (SAM-E) will be presented at the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Project Director’s Conference in July 2005. Researchers from The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies will describe research methodology, data analysis, project outcomes and products.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Service Education Programs, SAM-E was a directed research project investigating the promotion of high standards to enhance achievement of students with disabilities in the general elementary curriculum. The project was designed to align with systemic educational restructuring initiatives at the national, state, and local levels. Researchers investigated the degree to which 'restructuring for all' advances beyond theory and puts evidence-based instructional interventions into action. The interventions incorporated high expectations and achievement of high standards for all students, including students with a full range of disabilities.

Center staff worked in collaboration with two Maine (elementary/middle K-8) schools over a three-year period and documented their efforts to implement more inclusive practices and access to the standards of the general curriculum. The work was based on the premise that reform efforts directed to improve achievement for students with severe disabilities can be attained by improving the effectiveness of instruction for all students (McDonnell, 1998) and that schools engaged in reform efforts provide greater benefit to students with disabilities when looked at as a unified whole, rather than as two parallel structures (Stainback & Stainback, 1996).

Researchers involved in this project worked with leadership teams at each school. Teams included administrators, regular and special educators, as well as parents and community members. Center staff participated in ongoing leadership team meetings, discussing beliefs and values, opportunities and barriers in practice, and providing professional development workshops per the individual school plans. The research involved developing case studies of both schools that documented how each school went about approaching, reflecting, discussing, problem solving, and moving toward a standards-based system.

The primary research question of the grant was, What changes in teacher practice resulted from SAM-E training on instructional and curricular accommodations ensuring that students with disabilities had access to, and achieved, high standards in the general education curriculum as reported by teachers? Data sources for analysis included: leadership meetings, teacher attitude surveys, observations, field notes, changes in Individual Education Plans (IEPs), interviews with key stakeholders, parent and teacher focus groups, and other document reviews.

During the course of the SAM-E research, a natural outcome for researchers was reflection on the process of delivering technical assistance. Combining research on the change process and key principles of universal design along with the lessons learned working on-site with educators and teams, a refined framework for providing technical assistance began to evolve. Additionally, a tool for reviewing IEP content and practices was developed. This tool specifically assesses components of the IEP using a Likert Scale rating for many of the indicators. A four-point scale was used to rate items as present or not present in sample IEPs. A variety of IEP components were reviewed for change over the grant period, such as: academic content of goals, alignment of goals with Maine Learning Results, percentage of participation in the regular classroom, extent of applied classroom accommodations and extent of multiple measures of assessment of progress toward the standards.

The schools’ movement toward standards for all, factors influencing change in teacher practice, and demonstrated changes in teacher practice, were documented in seven areas of school structure: philosophy, curriculum, instruction, assessment, administration, and professional development. The self-assessment guide, Standards for All: A Guide for Planning Whole School Reform was developed as a direct result of findings of the SAM-E project.

Currently in field test format, this guide describes areas of the system that repeatedly came up in analysis and in the literature related to whole school restructuring. It was designed as a framework to broaden the conversation around whole school initiatives, reflecting on practices at the student level, school, district, and community levels of the school culture.

The guide is grounded in the Center’s involvement and learning through the U.S. Department of Education funded Federal Statewide Systems Change Grant, promoting systemic change in the development of quality inclusive educational opportunities; the Center's involvement with the Consortium on Inclusive Schooling Practices, distilling the lessons learned from the National Systems Change projects; and the Center’s collaborative work with and products from The Principals' Project, a three-year Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education funded research project in which Principals and "external critical friends" engaged in reflective practice and action research to benefit and study inclusive education in their schools.

The lessons learned from the collaboration with educators in Maine participating in the SAM-E grant, continue to inform our work statewide as the Center seeks to improve educational outcomes and opportunities for all students, including those with significant disabilities. The Center continues to reflect on the importance of a school-wide vision reflected in daily practices of curriculum instruction, and assessment for all students. The Center's work seeks to ensure that all school practices:

• are linked to the standards for all students;
• embed professional development that is ongoing and of high quality;
• assist administrators and educators to cross traditional boundaries to support all students opportunities to learn;
• embrace the community that supports each individual school with high expectations for all students.

The impact of this work extends far beyond the scope of the two schools involved with the SAM-E project. The Self-Assessment Guide has been shared with several schools, the Maine Department of Education, and professionals working in other states. The lessons learned from this project are embedded in the practices and recommendations made by Center staff in their daily work with Maine students, parents, educators, and policymakers.

— Betsy Enright
Maria Timberlake

References
McDonnell, J. (1998). Instruction for students with severe disabilities in the general education settings. Education and training in mental retardation and developmental disabilities. 33(3), 199-215.

Stainback, S., & Stainback, W. (1996). Inclusion: A guide for educators. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.