School Support System
Report and Support Plan for the
South Kingstown School
Department
October 2007
The
purpose of the School Support System (SSS) is to provide a means of
accountability for delivery of programs and services for students with
exceptionalities. The School
Support System model is designed to promote the involvement of the whole school
district, general educators as well as special educators and parents. It is designed to learn if the district
meets the regulations and what effects programs and services have on student
outcomes. Finally, the SSS
develops a school support plan for training and technical assistance.
To accomplish this the SSS includes these
components:
1.
School
Improvement /Family Engagement
2.
Free
Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
3.
Evaluation/
Individual Education Plan (IEP)
4.
Transition
School Support System
Review
October 2007
Team A: Sally Arsenault,
Elaine Burdette, Kenneth Duva, Helen OÕHara
Team B: Jane Keane, Shelia
Collins
Team C: Susan Wood, Jane
Slade, Andre Mayer
|
1. SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT / FAMILY
ENGAGEMENT |
|||||
|
Indicator |
|
Findings |
Documentation |
Support Plan |
Follow-up Findings |
|
Performance |
1 |
School
Improvement The mission of
the South Kingstown School Department is to educate the children of South
Kingstown in partnership with families and community, so that each student
becomes a responsible individual who possesses the knowledge and skills for
full productive citizenship. The mission is supported by six beliefs
statements that extend and support the mission. -Every human being has intrinsic
worth and each individual must be provided opportunities to become a
life-long learner -A well-balanced
development of mind, body, and spirit is important so that the total
individual can flourish -All children
want to learn and do so in a
variety of ways -Each student
will have the resources necessary to develop his or her potential. They will
(shall) be provided with equal opportunity to develop, accept and exercise
personal responsibility. -collaboration
among diverse people builds and strengthens community -It is the shared
responsibility of family, students, school personnel and elected officials
together to create a positive educational environment. |
District
Presentation Interviews Document Review Observation |
|
|
|
Performance |
2 |
Accountability A particular focus of the districtÕs
strategic plan and hence, each schools strategic plan has to examine and set
goals for subgroups specifically students receiving free and reduced lunch and
students with IEPs. Each school must reflect how they are working with these
subgroups via their schoolÕs strategic plan (using disaggregated data and
other related data) and how that is aligned with the districts initiatives
and efforts to address disproportionality and performance gaps. In addition
to these efforts, there is an Accountability Sub-Committee that is part of
the districtÕs strategic planning. This group focuses on performance reports
and evaluation of educational effectiveness. Overall the
district exceeded the state average by more than one standard deviation. One
target group that is a challenge is high school students with IEPs and
students considered economically disadvantages (receiving free and reduced
lunch). Schools are
working to align their school improvement plans with the district strategic
plans. Some are completed and others are in the process of completion. Throughout
the district there are active school improvement teams some including parents
and special educators among the members. |
District
Presentation Interviews Document Review Observation |
|
|
Performance |
3 |
Teacher
Support Team/Response to Intervention RtI is in a
myriad of places depending on the school. An overview of RtI has been
provided to all staff district-wide. Special educators
and other specialist have attended additional RtI training sessions. In some
schools, follow-up and ongoing building level RtI training, including
procedures, protocols, and formats for implementing RTI has been completed. The elementary
schools have shifted from Teacher Support Teams (TST) and TST protocols to
use of Response to Intervention (RTI) Teams and new protocols. After some
initial training and dissemination of RTI protocols, the Matunuck Elementary
School team refined and streamlined the RTI materials for ease of use,
incorporating some classroom protocols found useful through TST experience,
and a revised packet was disseminated to other elementary schools. The elementary schools evidence
different levels of training and are at various early stages of
understanding, organization, and implementation. Participants in RTI training
so far have been largely special educators, evaluation team members, and
reading teachers. The process currently relies on classroom referrals to
which the RTI team, comprised primarily of specialists, responds by assisting
the referring teacher to devise, implement, and track student response to
interventions for 6-week periods. Matunuck Elementary School is piloting AIMSweb,
a scientifically based, formative assessment system that informs the teaching
and learning process by providing continuous student performance data and
reporting improvement to parents, teachers, and administrators to enable
evidence-based evaluation and data-driven instruction. General educator
participation in RTI training to date is limited, with some viewing RTI as an
impediment to special education referrals and evaluation. |
Interviews |
Special education
administration in conjunction with school-based administrators will create
and implement a student intervention system that involves PLP, PBIS and RtI in an effort to
unify the various initiatives and to better address the needs of struggling
learners. Timeline:
Ongoing. To be implemented for the start of the 2008-2009 school year. |
|
|
Compliance/ Performance |
4 |
At Curtis Corner
Middle School RtI is comprised of the school social worker, psychologist,
counselors and administrators (no teachers are currently part of this team).
They meet once a week as needed. Staff acknowledges the initiative as
emerging an express the need for more technical assistance with progress
monitoring and evaluation strategies. At the high
school there is no formal TST/RtI in place. There is an active Student Support
Team (SST) where guidance and administrators meet to review teachers request
for student assistance. In addition, South Kingstown High School has just
become a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) school (the
second high school in the state to become PBIS). The PBIS process is in the
very beginning stages. |
Interviews |
School-based
administration at the middle school and high school will review and refine
their current TST/RtI structure with regard to composition and functioning. Timeline: October
2008 |
|
|
Performance |
5 |
All South
Kingstown High School 9th graders take a class called SK101 which
focuses on the portfolio requirements and overall acclimation of the high
school environment. The primary purpose of this class is to prepare students
for the task of completing high school successfully. In SK101 all students
take an electronic interest inventory via Choices. This is done
electronically and the students and parents can access it. SK102 for
sophomores, SK103 for juniors and SK104 for seniors are scheduled for later
in the year. |
Interviews Document Review |
|
|
|
Performance |
6 |
Common Planning
Time At the elementary
level, a weekly block of common planning time for 4th & 5th
grade teachers has been created using the extra minutes of preparation time
available from art, music, physical education, and library classes. Teachers
and therapists working in grades K-3 generally utilize short, incidental
interactions in the course of the school day for impromptu co-planning. Some
teachers report taking time on their own before or after school or during
brief lunch periods, if available, for co-planning. At Matunuck Elementary
School, the principal has arranged teacher assistant coverage for a 25 minute
block of time at the start of each day to enable any two teachers desiring
time for consulting or co-planning to sign up for coverage during pre-class/
homeroom period. There is a
variety of whole school community approaches for communication and
collaboration in common planning at Curtis Corner Middle School. Through
common planning time, administrators, special and general educators along
with support staff are engaged in extensive data analysis activities, aligned
to the school improvement plan to address disproportionality in regards to
student performance outcomes.
Comparison studies of the NECAP and the Gates scores at each grade
level and cohort/sub group (special education and free and reduced lunch
students) is being addressed through data analysis along with professional
development to inform instruction and to identify strategies to address
improvement of student performance outcomes. Common planning time is
scheduled for but not limited to grade level teams, co-teachers,
collaborative departments including special education and unified arts. At the high
school there are Teacher Learning Centers. Teachers participate in a learning
center groups per their unassigned teaching times. In these interdisciplinary
groups they review and discuss a variety of educational topics. They meet 4
times in a 7 day rotation. Teacher Learning Center is in its first year of
inception and implementation. The intent is to focus on data and challenge
areas as this would then lend itself to developing instructional strategies
that target the challenge areas. Special education staff expressed concern
that the only time they had to schedule IEP meetings during the day was
during class time. There is also
departmentalized common planning time every Wednesday. Students start classes
one hour later and teachers meet departmentalized and focus on SMART goals
that assess specific content area skills or concepts that students are
struggling with. Teachers are identifying how they are organizing the
curriculum area and concept and how does it connect to what teachers are doing
in the classroom. |
Interviews Document Review Observation |
|
|
|
Performance |
7 |
The South
Kingstown special education manual is in the process of being updated pending
the approval of the state special education regulations. There is variability
among the elementary schools in clarity of understanding regarding district
special education procedures, protocols, and forms in current use. Staff
whose principals have sought, accessed, and facilitated communication
regarding new special education procedures are more conversant with
expectations. |
District
Presentation Interviews Observation |
Administrators
and staff will receive professional development on the recently approved
special education regulations. This will include information regarding
special education procedures, protocols, and forms. Timeline: October
2008 |
|
|
Performance |
8 |
Special
Education Administrative Structure The special
education administrative structure in South Kingstown is comprised of a
special education director and two assistants. One of the assistants is
part-time and coordinates early childhood initiatives and programs. Staff throughout
the district cited their respective school principals as having ownership of
all students including students with special needs. |
Data Analysis District
Presentation |
The scope of the
early childhood initiatives for children ages 3-8 will continue to be
integrated (3-8). Timeline:
December 2008 |
|
|
Performance |
9 |
Professional
Development The district
publishes a district-wide professional development calendar. This calendar is
also available on line. Special education department funding for individual
conferences has shifted to align with the district-wide focus areas. Staff can seek support from school
level professional development funds (Article 31) and, when this is aligned
with the school improvement plan, sometimes receive funding through this
avenue. Many staff seek
out and take advantage of professional development opportunities on their
own. Schools typically provide substitutes to enable teachers to attend
professional development activities. Job-embedded professional development
also occurs through collegial consultation and in-class collaboration between
special and general educators, therapists, and coaches. At the elementary
level literacy and math coaches demonstrate model standards-based lessons in
classrooms. Staff report that model lesson demonstrations are a useful
learning tool for teachers. At Curtis Corner Middle School job embedded
professional development is currently focused on co-teaching school wide
along with differentiated instruction to support teaching and learning
strategies. At the high school level literacy teachers are available for
teacher consultation as needed. Staff reported that this was helpful. Teachers
throughout the district reported an interest in or need for additional
professional development in the following areas: -RtI training and
follow up for general education teachers -Behavioral
support and Intervention strategies for highly
challenging behaviors -Medicaid
processing and forms -District level
special education procedures and protocols -Training in
multisensory reading approaches/interventions for students with unique
reading disabilities requiring interventions beyond differentiated
instruction -Current therapeutic
interventions in specialty areas |
District
Presentation Interviews |
|
|
|
Performance |
10 |
Teacher
Mentoring The district
facilitates a teacher mentoring program that is available to new teachers.
Mentors must complete a training program and new teachers are paired with
mentors in their school who have completed the training program. . |
District
Presentation Interviews |
|
|
|
Performance |
11 |
SK CARES. This is
a well-establish community organization that recently celebrated its 10 year
anniversary. This organization is made up of community individuals who
volunteer time to work with students both during the day and in a variety of
after school programs. There are six programs: -First class
volunteering (trained volunteers who focus on the areas of PLPs and literacy) -Homework Clubs:
elementary through high school (focus on literacy and math games) -High School
tutoring (one-on-one for students who are at–risk for school failure) -Mentoring
(Mentors meet with mentees once a week) -Ementoring
program in the high school (connecting professionals in the community with high schools students via an email prompt once a week) -College and
Career Center. SK Cares maintains this in the high school. Every volunteer
goes through a screening, background check, and an overall orientation and
training. Workshops are held on a regular basis on literacy and math. All volunteers have been provided
with a PLP handbook. |
District
Presentation Document Review |
|
|
Performance |
12 |
The SECOND STEP violence
prevention program is used in many general education classrooms as a
proactive approach to social skill development for students experiencing
social/behavioral challenges as well as their peers. Second Step integrates
academics with social and emotional learning, teaches skills such as anger management, cooperation, respectful
behavior, and problem solving, and helps students recognize and respect
people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and ethnicities. Students
are encouraged to use their skills in a variety of situations. |
District
Presentation Interviews |
|
|
|
Performance |
13 |
Community and
Family Engagement -Family and
community engagement liaisons-- there are two in the district who work with
families in a variety of supporting ways. -South Kingstown
has acquired Connect-ED, a telephone communication service that enables the
district and schools to record, schedule, send, and track personalized voice
messages to students, parents, and staff as a whole or to select subgroups,
based on communication needs. -There are a
variety of community connections throughout the district .Some of these
include visiting schools in other school districts. One example is where
personnel from South Kingstown visit the Westerly Public Schools to
participate in learning walks and then Westerly personnel come to South
Kingstown and participate in learning walks. |
District
Presentation Interviews |
|
|
|
Performance |
14 |
Local Advisory
Committee (LAC) The focus of the
Special Education Local Advisory Committee (SELAC) has been promoting inclusive
educational opportunities for both general and special education teachers and
the recruitment of new members including educators. There is a small core group of parents that attend regular
meetings and then other individuals who may participate on an as needed
basis. The SELAC reported feeling supported by the special education
administrators. A SELAC newsletter is sent out once a month via the SELAC
list serve. The topics for the
next meeting are case load and the 230-day program issues with a lens towards
the proposed state regulations. |
|
|
|
|
Performance |
15 |
The schools were
warm and welcoming. PTAÕs and
booster clubs are active. The schools have established a continuum of options
for parent involvement, including channels for communication, volunteering,
special events, support for student learning, and opportunities for policy
development such as strategic planning, school improvement planning, and
local special education advisory. PTA fundraising is significant in some
instances and substantially contributes to educational materials and
experiences. Parents are actively engaged in their respective schools. |
Parent Interviews |
|
|
|
Performance |
16 |
Special
Education Compliance Due Process cases
reported by RIDE indicate a generally stable or slight downward trend in the
South Kingstown Public Schools for special education complaints, mediations,
resolution sessions (new in IDEA 2004) and hearings. This may be the result
of continued and/or improved school/family communication and/or the districts
efforts to intervene in matters before they rise to the level necessitating
due process. Mediations 2005 5 cases 2006 3 cases 2007 3 cases Special Education
Complaints 2005 2 complaints 2006 3
complaints 2007 1
complaints (district found to be in compliance) Resolution
Sessions 2005 0 sessions 2006 1 session
(resolved) 2007 0 sessions Hearings 2005 1 hearing 2006 1 hearings 2007 1 hearings |
SPP data Data analysis |
|
|
|
Performance |
|||||