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CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIESTotal School Solutions (TSS) and the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) are pleased to announce this one-day session on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in Ontario, California. This conference is the second in our “closing the achievement gap” series for African American, Latino and English Learner, and now Special Education students. Teachers, support staff, principals, and district office administrators from elementary, middle, and high schools, where students with disabilities are meeting their AYP targets, will present their underlying values and goals, and the specific strategies they implemented to accomplish such impressive results. There is no quick-fix, one-size-fits-all solution for every school. However, the schools and educational leaders featured in the conference share common beliefs: students with disabilities access core, standards-based curriculum; special education is not separate from regular education as it is a service, not a place; educators have high expectations for all students; frequent assessment, data analysis, collaboration, and Response to Intervention systems are essential. We are familiar with these ideas and terms, and it is easy to refer to, or list them in a plan. Implementing these approaches on a consistent basis is not easy, especially in districts that serve significant populations of ethnically diverse students from low-income families. The schools and programs to be featured at the conference have clearly demonstrated, however, that it can be done. Links to essential student performance data are provided for the schools that have been selected to present. Most educators who review the results will wonder, “How did they do that?” The conference is structured to provide specific, concrete answers to that most critical question. Presenters General Session Keynote Address Rich Smith, Deputy Superintendent, Sanger USD, highlights the fundamental elements necessary to ensure effective implementation of interventions to address student learning needs from the classroom to the most intensive levels of remediation. Emphasis will be placed on dealing with building a team approach to meeting student learning needs focused on learning data generated from ongoing monitoring and formative assessments. This presentation will focus on pragmatic, realistic recommendations to ensure higher achievement levels of all students, with a specific focus on students with disabilities. Enroll: 10,752; SED 80%; English Learners 38%; Latino 70% Elementary Schools Zhanna Preston, Director of Special Education, Murrieta Valley USD and Cynthia Vargas, Attorney, Rudd, Romo and Atkinson review key elements of a paradigm shift in the delivery of specialized instruction to students with disabilities using the learning center format. The presenters will discuss specific factors leading to the use of academic interventions for all students, key steps in developing successful learning centers models, and positive outcomes benefiting general and special education students. The discussion will address some of the hot topics associated with specific learning disability determination, credentialing, fiscal, and legal aspects of student participation in learning centers. Enroll: 22,318; SED 28%; Latino 32%; White 47% Rochelle Johnson-Evans, Principal and Harvey Estis, Alfonzo Hughes, Natekah Lo, Dr. Olukemi Owolabi, Paulito Vasquez and Bose Tsado, Teachers, at Bursch Elementary School, Compton USD present the Action Plan for Success that has enabled this school in the Los Angeles South Central area to achieve an API of 877 for Students with Disabilities, and to meet all subgroup AYP targets for 2011. The school has 19 general education classrooms, and six Special Day classrooms. They share five-year longitudinal data to demonstrate steady, sustained growth for all students, and for students with disabilities in particular. The group discusses the organizational practices they use on a daily basis to ensure students receive a standards-based curriculum and effective, good first teaching in the classroom. The share specific examples of the teaching strategies and practices that are used both in the general education and the Special Day classrooms. They explain how their intervention program is structured, and report on approaches to whole group and small group instruction. And, they offer examples of their strategies for monitoring academic progress, conducting academic conferences, and ensuring compliance with each student’s Individual Education Plan. Enroll: 443; SED 84%; Latino 70%; African American 20% Principal Rafael Plascencia, Topaz Elementary, Placentia-Yorba Linda USD presents the steps and key strategies used to move Topaz from a Program Improvement school to a two time Title 1 Academic Achievement Awards recipient and a CA Distinguished School. He will outline the steps taken, which included the implementation of RtI, ELD, EDI and PLC’s along with strategies used over four years to move from a school-wide API of 747 to 875. Significantly, all subgroups, including Students with Disabilities, moved up a minimum of 140 points during this time. When Mr. Plascencia began his leadership of Topaz the demographics were: 89% Hispanic, 90% Socioeconomically Disadvantaged, 77% English Learners, and about 10% Students With Disabilities. In 2011 Students With Disabilities registered an API of 850. Enroll: 492; SED:89%; Latino: 92% Middle Schools Amy Williams, Program Specialist, Sanger USD presents “Change as Challenge, but it CAN be done: Building and Maintaining Effective Systems for Student Achievement in Middle School.” She highlights Sanger Unified’s processes, success, and challenges in the implementation of key strategies and on-going refinement. The strategies are intended to benefit all students, and special education students in particular. This session will discuss building the foundation for collaboration, data- based decision making, and effective teaching strategies utilizing:
Attendees will leave with a basic framework to establish RTI at their site, examples of successful interventions, progress monitoring, and scheduling samples; Rubrics, adopted and designed by Sanger, will help guide teams along the learning and implementation continuum; and strategies to maintain and build capacity for best practices. Enroll: 1,606; SED 100%; English Learners 44%; Latino: 79% Angie Periolat, Kara Shepard, and Gayle Parra, Special Education Teachers from Fulton Middle School, along with Abby Bickford, Director of Support Services, Fountain Valley School District present: “Our Middle School’s Journey: How High Expectations and Collaboration Got Us RESULTS!” Join us to hear the story of our school and how we worked as a team to ensure that every student has a rigorous and high quality learning experience while here at Fulton. The special education program at our school ranges from the moderate/severe to high functioning autism to students receiving limited resource services. Learn how our staff has worked together to best meet the diverse needs of our students, from co-taught classes to teaching life skills while working with peer mentors. Our staff focuses on maximizing access to general education curriculum and blending services to maintain the high expectations we have for our students and staff, while supporting their transition to and from middle school. Enroll: 824; SED 14.6%; White 52.7%; Asian 35.6% High Schools Kathryn Allaman, Principal, Folsom High School, Folsom-Cordova USD and Maureen Burness, Senior Consultant, Total School Solutions report on the story of the high school’s journey to implement systems change to create a learning environment where every student succeeds. The story includes the use of data analysis, scheduling, professional development, and a school-wide focus on needed interventions. Enroll: 1,900; Students with Disabilities 11.6% Fal Asrani, EdD, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Campbell Union High School District and Jason Murphy, Assistant Principal of Antioch High School present. The more special educators, advocates, and decision-makers know about reform, the more effective they will be at ensuring access to services and opportunities for all students. This session provides opportunities to participate in interactive discussions around reform efforts that had significant impact on changes in the education options for students identified as special needs. Schools are under increasing pressure to change, and the push is coming from many parents, governments and local School Boards with a need for more accountability, higher standards, and better use of tax dollars. Businesses want a more educated and skilled workforce and a growing population of students with special needs require a greater number of appropriate services which includes access to a UC approved A-G course of study. A successful school reform effort touches on many areas of education—curriculum, teaching, standards, assessment, finance, professional development, and governance. There is research on school reform around each of these factors, but this presentation aims to take you through a two-year journey that moves the discussion from research to action. Click here to see the Accountability Progress Report for Campbell Union High School District Other Presenters Jarice Butterfield, SELPA Director, Santa Barbara County and Jonathan Read, Attorney, Fagen, Friedman and Fulfrost focus on Working with English Learners with Disabilities. They report on CELDT testing considerations, pre- referral strategies, initial identification and IEP development, programs and services for ELs with disabilities, as well as the latest news from the CDE regarding reclassification of English learners with disabilities. Kathy Clements, Senior Consultant, Total School Solutions and former Administrator, Butte County Office of Education presents this session that links the 1997 ELA standards to 2010 Common Core, which enables educators to strategically plan the journey students will travel as we move through this transition. In 2007, Clements took the 1997 ELA Standards and aligned them as a ‘learning progression,’ from the Pre-K foundations traveling through to Grade 12, aligned by the content of the standard, not the typical Blueprint view. This perspective allows for careful analysis of the alignment of the ‘essential’ standards across grade levels. For educators working with IEP Goals and Objectives, this perspective allows for locating not only appropriate goals and attainable objectives, but perhaps locating the highest leverage goals for students to progress toward. The perspective allows us to more easily identify answers to these questions: Where did this student get stuck on the path to grade-level literacy? Which students need what interventions? This session introduces a tool that promotes strategic analysis and permits us to more readily answer these questions and more. An added bonus: the graphic contains all of the related CST, CMA, CAPA, HSEE, EAP/EPT information from the State Blueprints, as well as relationships to ELD Standards. Strategic alignment, strategic planning, strategic problem solving are all so much easier using this graphic. In addition to all 1997 standards, the chart now also displays the 2010 California Common Core Standards for ELA. You will be able to analyze matches in your current system---what should remain in place; as well as identify what’s truly new---what added instruction should start now in order to ramp up for the revised CST in 2015. Dr. Caryl Miller, Director, Total School Solutions and former district Assistant Superintendent and SELPA Executive Director, and Maureen Burness, Senior Consultant, Total School Solutions and former Assistant Superintendent for the Folsom Cordova USD SELPA present strategies to promote effective, efficient and responsive leadership practices. Learn how to be fiscally efficient and programmatically effective at the same time. Presenters focus on evidence-based and responsive practices. You will walk away with a bundle of strategies and tools for immediate and friendly implementation. Participants will find out how to identify potential Achilles' Heel within educational settings and how to address these challenges. Date, Time and Location Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Ontario Hilton To access the online registration form, please click here. To access the registration form in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, please click here. Fees and Cancellation Cost: $325 until February 24, 2012, $395 on or after February 25, 2012 (subject to space availability) Purchase orders, credit card authorization forms or checks must be received by March 1, 2012. Cancellations received by February 24, 2012 will be subject to a $50 fee. All materials included. |
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