Special Ed. Program Evaluation
March 2022
Special Education
Southern Boone Life Skills Program
What data/evaluation criteria illustrates the effectiveness of this area?
Students have annual IEP’s (Individual Education Program) with annual goals in deficit areas. IEP goals are developed based on the student’s current level of functioning and projected growth of one year with the intention of goals being met by the end of the cycle. The special education department added an electronic progress monitoring tool to the current IEP system and we have been learning to use this tool along with professional development in Highly Effective Teaching Practices. Additionally, we use district benchmark data and state assessment data.
Individual IEP goals are used as a personal assessment of each student in the Life Skills Program to help determine strengths, weaknesses and areas of future focus. The ultimate goal is to give the Life Skills students the skills and experiences to work towards the highest level of independence possible in their post secondary lives.
Artifact #1: The graph below shows a student identifying environmental print signs around the school. We work on this to promote independence in moving around the building and for independence when out in the community. In this example the student is identifying: boys vs girls restroom, Exit signs, nurses’s office sign, and our classroom number.
Artifact #2 iReady diagnostic growth. The student below grew from an overall early kindergarten score on the diagnostic in September to an overall first grade score in January! One year of growth in 2 trimesters
What has changed since the last program evaluation?
This year we have added a second teacher for this program. One teacher serves K-5 and the other serves 6-12. By adding a second teacher, we have reduced the age gap between students that are participating in this program. We are able to provide educational services that are more appropriate for each age group. These teachers also case manage students placed at a private separate day facility for their educational program.
One of the district’s SLP’s is now serving students participating in our Life Skills program across the district. This allows students to access therapy minutes individually and also benefit from specially designed activities embedded in their educational program daily. This also provides for continuity of services and relationships as students transition through grade levels and buildings.
We have increased our school and community based work opportunities and continue to seek and develop additional opportunities.
What next steps would better serve our students?
This year we have had a shortage of paraprofessionals.
Increasing pay would retain our current staff and draw in quality, future paraprofessionals.
A social worker would be a huge benefit for our school
Outside services could be coordinated by this person, relieving some of the workload off our counselors
Some students in our program have many medical conditions, someone could help manage services they already receive and be a liaison between those services and the school
Increasing the number of special education teachers in each building across the district would allow us to provide smaller group instruction to meet each individual's needs.
High-quality Learning in Action
Southern Boone Primary Updates
What data/evaluation criteria illustrates the effectiveness of this area?
Artifact Two:
Multiple I-Ready Diagnostic results showing growth, we utilize the lessons to provide instruction at the student’s level and align with IEP goals.
What has changed since the last program evaluation?
We have added the Life Skills position between the Primary and Elementary building.
We have added an additional paraprofessional mid-year at our building to better serve our students.
Our Special Education team currently services students in specific grade levels. This allows the teachers to focus on grade level content and enhances collaboration with general education teachers. We have seen positives and negatives with this case manager and workload model and will re-evaluate our approach as needed.
FUNdations within the building, each Special Education teachers have grade level kits of the new curriculum.
We are utilizing SpedTrack progress monitoring. It works well for documentation of data collection and we have participated in professional development as we learn to be proficient with the new module in our IEP system.
What next steps would better serve our students?
- More support for paraprofessional staff, professional development, training, etc.
High-quality Learning in Action
Southern Boone Elementary Updates
What data/evaluation criteria illustrates the effectiveness of this area?
Artifact one: iReady Data- Students are assigned individualized iReady math and reading lessons to assess their IEP goals. The pictures below show growth from a student who completed the iReady reading diagnostic.
Artifact two: IRLA Data- Students are assessed through the IRLA diagnostic and then assigned a reading level which individually targets their areas of deficits. General Education teachers assign Power Goals for students based on their reading level. Students typically have IEP goals that align with the Power Goals.
What has changed since the last program evaluation?
We have added a position for a fourth Special Education Teacher.
We added a Life Skills Program for the south campus that serves students Kindergarten through Fifth grade.
With our Life Skills Program, we have a dedicated Speech Language Pathologist who serves Life Skills students across the district.
Since last year, we have experienced a shortage in Paraprofessionals.
What next steps would better serve our students?
Continue to increase the number of Special Education Teachers in the Elementary School as the district grows
Consider different ways to support Paraprofessionals in order to get qualified applicants.
High-quality Learning in Action
In the picture above the student is engaged and participating in a writing activity.
In the picture above the two students are delivering buddy packs.
Southern Boone Middle School Updates
What data/evaluation criteria illustrates the effectiveness of this area?
What has changed since the last program evaluation?
The number of students that the middle school serves continues to grow. The kinds of needs the students have continues to grow as well. Our highest needs students are being served in the high school setting this year due to the construction project making communication more difficult as well as scheduling events.
Also, this year a progress monitoring module has been added to the SPEDTrack IEP program to provide case managers with an efficient tool for collecting data. Additionally, the department is participating in professional development for highly effective teaching and data driven instruction.
What next steps would better serve our students?
With the continued growth of district enrollment, additional special education teachers must be added to the middle school staff. Student numbers for the next school year are projected at 500+. Of those approximately 45 or more will be special education students. The addition of two more special education teachers is necessary to provide special services in all areas of academic, social, emotional, behavior, and executive functioning needs.
Furthermore, the addition of a school social worker is needed to address the growing needs of the student population. As a liaison between the school and outside agencies, this position will have a positive impact in locating and connecting families with a variety of resources to meet student needs. A social worker will also provide assistance for staff in navigating mental health and behavioral concerns in the classroom.
High-quality Learning in Action
Southern Boone High School Updates
What data/evaluation criteria illustrates the effectiveness of this area?
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PROGRAM
The effectiveness of our program can be seen in the statistics for goal attainment.
When looking at data for goal attainment reported during the last reporting period on 1/7/22 or on IEPs recently developed:
Freshman made progress or met 36 of 39 goals
Sophomores made progress or met 25 of 35 goals.
Juniors made progress or met 25 of 26 goals
Seniors made progress or met 26 of 26 goals
WHO WE ARE
The Southern Boone High School Special Services team consists of four highly qualified certified special education teachers and a fully certified speech-language pathologist. Combined, this team has more than 66 years of experience working with the special needs population in public schools, alternative schools, counseling services, and state and federal programs. These five staff members also have a total of seven masters degrees ranging from Special Education and Social Studies to Instructional Design.
In addition, the team consists of three instructional aides who have a combined teaching experience of 36 years. Two of the aides are certified teachers. All of the aides provide valuable support to the High School special needs students and are invaluable to the program.
WHO WE SERVE
The Southern Boone High School Special Services team provides services to 45 high school students with identified disabilities in areas such as intellectual disability, autism, emotional disturbance, language impairment, specific learning disability, and other health impairments, which includes, but is not limited to, ADHD, ODD, anxiety disorders, trauma-related issues, and mental health diagnoses.
WHAT WE DO (A brief version)
The High School Special Services Team:
- Provides specific instruction in area of disability, as stated in each IEP
- Assists in earning a HS Diploma by earning credits and/or facilitating credit recovery
- Creates opportunities for Vocational Skills
- Teaches Post -Secondary Transition skills (job training) throughout the High School Career
- Provides resources for students before and after graduation
- Coordinates test accommodations for classroom and state assessments
- Creates and implements Standards-Based IEPs
- Pushes in to regular education classes so lessons can be reinforced as well as offering teacher support
- Teach classes in reading, writing, math and vocational skills
- Tracks progress toward IEP goals in SpedTrack
- Develops schedules to meet student needs
- Attends Professional Development to help improve student outcomesWhat has changed since the last program evaluation?
Population
As the population of Ashland grows, the number of students that the high school serves continue to grow. In December of 2021, the Missouri Department of Education and Secondary Education stated that the Special Service team served 168 students, or 9.4% of that population in 2020 - 2021 school year. In the 2016 - 2017 school year, special services served 129 students or 8%.
Mental Health
In addition, the needs of students have changed. We have seen an increase in the mental health needs of students due to COVID, online learning, new and different stresses at home, such as: students having to care for younger siblings when school is out; students stressing about money due to parent losing a job during the pandemic; parents taking on rolls as teachers or even older students teaching their younger siblings; worrying about parent or grandparent illness or even death; learning new technology needed for school work completion; missing work at school and making up work at school. All of these things combined contribute to the stress and anxiety of students that can be easily seen. These same issues also affect teachers and instructional aides.
Identity Struggles
High School staff members have also encountered students who have unique and complex identity struggles. These struggles and the need to be accepted by peers can disrupt the individual progress of the student.
Middle School Construction
This year, due to Middle School construction, the High School Special Service team has happily accommodated the Middle School Life Skills program into an existing special education classroom. This resulted in two Special Service classrooms having two teachers assigned to them. Although there are benefits to this arrangement, sharing the spaces can sometimes create issues.
Additional Requirements for IEPs
In the name of progress, requirements for creating IEPs have been changed. AMI must be addressed and data collection within SpedTrack has been added. While both of these changes are beneficial, they are time consuming and have required teachers to rethink how goals are created and measured.
Addition of Certified Teacher
The addition of a fourth full-time high school special education teacher has made our department come even closer together with more opportunity for collaboration. The addition of this teacher’s experience and knowledge has helped take a weight off our shoulders when progress monitoring and assisting in regular education classes. We are able to split special education classes, work with more students inside regular education classrooms, and have more general availability to the students.
Transition
In transition we teach students soft skills (being on time, task completion, phone etiquette, etc), assistance with employment and post-secondary education applications, as well as a variety of other topics. The team works on transition on a daily basis. The team works closely with outside agencies such as Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS), Vocational Rehabilitation, Boone County Family Resources (BCFR.)
The service of Pre-ETS offers no-cost pre-employment transition services provided to Missouri public school students with disabilities, ages 16-21, who are potentially eligible for Vocational Rehabilitation services. These services are designed to make an impactful difference for more students with disabilities at an earlier age which will lead to better coordination, enhanced communication, stronger collaboration, and increased successful post-school outcomes.
Transition education includes post-secondary field trips. These are facilitated through either the SBC Special Education Team and/or Pre-ETS. Field trips have generated interest in educational programs for students who may not have had a solid post-secondary direction. Other visits lead to employment for students.
The Student Work Employment Program is for juniors who have not had job experience. This program is a collaborative effort with VR and Pre-ETS. The team assists with this endeavor by recommending students and contacting parents of the opportunity.
After students have been accepted to an education program, case managers continue to support students in communicating with schools to assist in a smooth transition. This includes providing IEP and Evaluation documents to the student for the ADA office for accommodations, providing the student with key words and questions to ask admissions counselors/advisors, key deadlines for Fall registration, etc.
Summer Professional Development
The High School Special Education Team also attends summer activities for professional development such as Pre-ETS externships (business-sponsored opportunities for teachers to explore careers in areas of student interest) and Transition Coalition through DESE. The team also meets during the summer to ensure student schedules are correct to meet IEP minutes.
What next steps would better serve our students?
Additional Staff
With the continued growth of our student population, and therefore special education population, additional Special Education teachers will need to be added to the high school staff. The addition of one more special education teacher and one more instructional aide will be needed to serve the high school students to address academic areas, IEP goals, accommodations, transition, testing and the proper completion of state required paperwork.
Furthermore, the addition of a school social worker to address the needs of a growing student population would be beneficial. This person could serve as a liaison between the school and outside agencies that provide services to students. This person could be a main point of contact and help ensure processes and procedures needed are happening and maintain communication with outside agencies.
High-quality Learning in Action
Artifacts for the Special needs High School students can best be found in the online work students complete for regular education courses. Special Services staff assist students in creating projects and/or completing assignments.
picture below provided the teacher a way of checking for understanding.
Upcoming Events
Life Skills: We love visitors! Please come see our classrooms and all the hard work these kiddos are putting in everyday.
Elementary: You are welcome to visit the Elementary School anytime to see the growth and dedication of our team and our students.