Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Identifying and Helping Struggling Students (Aki Takeuchi) (1. Baseline…
Identifying and Helping Struggling Students
(Aki Takeuchi)
1. Baseline
This step is crucial in ensuring that all parties involved have a reliable comparison point when identifying potential struggles in students. Establishing a clear profile of the student makes it easier to pinpoint exactly what changed in the student, and approximately when, which helps with the subsequent intervention development and recommendations for special education.
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Create an open environment where students can come in and discuss daily struggles or issues with trained professionals. Collaborate with classroom teachers to implement social and emotional learning (SEL) that can help students identify their own obstacles.
TEACHERS
Establish a comprehensive profile of students, their academic performance, and their behavioral traits. This can be useful for all students to measure their progress in formative and summative assessments, and further aid in identifying struggling students. Faciliate a means of regular communication between teachers and parents (e.g. class newsletters, one-on-one contact book like in Japanese public schools) so that they can be kept up to date on what is happening in the classrooms.
PARENTS
Keep the school and teachers up to date on significant details of how their children are responding to things happening at school, whether it is an achievement or a setback.
SCHOOLS
Designate days (per month/term) where parents can come in to discuss issues with teachers and staff. Establish a community understanding that struggles are not to be seen as negative traits of the child; rather, it is a natural part of development and should be discussed as early as possible to prevent triggering any larger obstacles in the future.
6. Planning
TEACHERS
Work with counselors/psychologists and the parents to develop a comprehensive IEP for the student. IEPs must include things like duration of certain interventions, types of assistance that will be provided, measurable annual goals, modes of transportation, and any other relevant pieces of information that is needed to suppor the student.
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Work with the parents and teaching staff to develop the IEP. If specialized aid is needed in addition to the mainstream classroom (i.e. pull-out instruction), then they should ensure that personnel with the appropriate qualifications are assigned to the child. Liaise with the parents to ensure that all the needs are being met.
SCHOOLS
Ensure that the IEP aligns with local curriculum standards and other guidelines that have to be met. Continue to support the school personnel, parents, and student to collaborate with each other and openly communicate on the child's progress.
If the student is deemed to be eligible for special education, the parents will proceed to the next step with a planning meeting with school personnel. If they are not seen as being eligible by the national/local standards, the intervention team will convene to discuss additional accommodations that can be provided at the school, or supplementarily in another institution. During these planning meetings, an IEP or an equivalent arrangement should be jointly designed.
PARENTS
Study and agree to the terms in the IEP. If any part of the plan involves the parents (e.g. feedback on child behavior at home), they will abide by the plan and act accordingly. Help their child prepare for any academic changes that may take place in special education.
3. Pre-referral
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Participate regularly in the implementation and evaluations of interventions. Provide expert advice to parents on how to follow-up with their children at home, and give insight into different options going forward if the student does not respond to the interventions at this stage.
PARENTS
Regularly attend meetings as a part of the early intervention team, and observe their children carefully. Consult the team's specialists and scaffold their children's learning at home with the appropriate strategies.
TEACHERS
Begin applying more specialized interventions with the help of the early intervention team. Continue to monitor the student progress carefully and report back to relevant parties frequently.
SCHOOLS
Create an early intervention team for the student, including but not limited to: parents, teachers, psychologists, administration, and nurses. Make sure they are all convening regularly (online or in person) to discuss strategies and updates.
This stage is a more formal version of intervention than the previous step, and involves more specialized differentiation. This is where formal structures such as the response to intervention (RTI) would be implemented (Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, n.d.).
4. Referral
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Provide pre-evaluation forms or any other relevant documentation needed to evaluate the student for eligibility of special needs support. Build an understanding with the parents and teachers about how the evaluation process will be carried out.
PARENTS
Attend the referral meeting and develop a common understanding about the needs of their child with the school personnel. Learn about the upcoming evaluations and how they will be expected to participate in supporting their child's special education needs. Give consent (or not) to any evaluations and tests as they see fit.
At this stage, an official referral for evaluation has to be made by one of the parties involved with the student. This should be stated clearly on paper, and the parent(s) or guardian(s) must give consent to proceed to the next step.
SCHOOLS
Facilitate an official referral meeting with the school personnel and parents. Make sure that the parents understand the procedures, their rights, and the implications for their child moving forward in this process.
TEACHERS
Assist the counselors/psychologists in explaining to the parents what the situation is: what interventions they have already implemented, which ones worked and which ones did not, and what the staff believe the child needs more of. Provide concrete examples of observations and classwork to paint an accurate picture of how the student is doing in class.
7. Implementation
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Monitor the student and ensure that they are responding well to the IEP, in areas outside of academic performance. Meet the student one-on-one intermittently to assess their behavioral and social progression as well, if these were issues that were previously identified in the student.
PARENTS
Communicate with the school personnel to let them know how the child is responding. Attend IEP meetings as often as possible to provide these insights. If they feel that a change needs to be made in the IEP, they should alert the school.
TEACHERS
Keep a detailed record of student performance and behaviors that are relevant to the IEP interventions. Communicate with the parents often to see how things are progressing at home, and request follow-up when they feel that the material should be reinforced more.
SCHOOLS
Facilitate regular IEP meetings and extend invitations to parents whenever possible.
Once the IEP is complete, it is up to the designated IEP team to carry out and implement it. The members should meet regularly to provide feedback on student progress, and the document should consequently be a "live" collection of data that is updated frequently. These notes will be used in Stage 8 for re-evaluation.
2. Identification
TEACHERS
Carefully observe the students as the days progress to identify any changes in behavior (social, emotional, physical, etc.). Set up a meeting with the parents and other teachers involved with the student, and discuss concrete plans on how to address these changes. Provide specific examples of student work to school specialists for opinions on differentiation that can be conducted with minimal changes to the flow of the class.
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Relay any useful information about student concerns to the appropriate teachers. Monitor classroom dynamics and give advice on minor accommodations or adjustments that can be made, if necessary.
PARENTS
Report any unusual patterns of behavioral problems or academic concerns to the teacher and school once they notice. No issue should be too minor to report—it could be that their child is getting sick often and wanting to skip school, they seem to be having problems with their friends, they are unable to concentrate at home, etc.
SCHOOLS
Make sure that all teachers have a platform to discuss and update each other on notable student struggles, and input can be added at any time from counselors/psychologists and parents. Instruct teachers to regularly review formative tasks to identify when something needs to be addressed.
The potential struggles and obstacles are identified and addressed here, but much more informally than it is in Stage 3 (Pre-referral) onwards. Here, the goal is to make small, practical adjustments to the learning environment to see if it adequately alleviates the struggles of the student.
8. Re-evaluation
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Carefully review the IEP outcomes as it pertains to the specific needs of the child, and determine if there should be any changes made in the next year. Consider the evidence gathered by the teacher and the counselor themselves during sessions with the student.
PARENTS
Parent attendance for re-evaluation should be mandatory, even if they were unable to attend some IEP meetings in the prior stage. They will have a significant voice in whether they think that the IEP should continue in the upcoming year as it is, or if thre should be some revisions made.
SCHOOLS
Facilitate annual IEP meetings with parents and school personnel. A school administrator should also be responsible for ensuring that the IEP outcomes—and subsequent changes—align with local standards for special education.
TEACHERS
Re-evaluate the IEP and determine its strengths and weaknesses. They do not need to conduct a wide range of performance tests on the student every year as they can refer to formative assessments taken by the student during the academic year. If the student will have another teacher (e.g. homeroom teacher) in the upcoming year, the teacher should ensure that all the information pertaining to this student is clearly communicated to the appropriate staff.
IEP re-evaluations should ideally occur every year or 3 years at a minimum. It is possible that, after a re-evaluation, the student is seen as no longer needing extra interventions. In this case, the apporpriate paperwork should be filed.
5. Evaluation
COUNSELORS/PSYCHOLOGISTS
Specialists must conduct individual evaluations on the child to see if they have any specific disabilities, what their overall needs are, and what services the school can provide to address these needs.
PARENTS
Provide valuable insight into the child's behavior, attitudes, etc. outside of the school environment and ensure that their child is not harmed during the evaluation processes. They can agree or disagree with the final evaluation and seek external support if necessary.
TEACHERS
Continue to provide reports and evidence of student's work to aid in the evaluation process. Collaborate with other personnel once the evaluation is complete, to create a comprehensive summary.
SCHOOLS
If the parent wishes to have their child evaluated elsewhere, the school may be asked to pay for the external fees. In cases that the child's struggles or disabilities pertain to other areas such as physical impairments, the school should assist in finding external specialists (e.g. doctor) to conduct additional evaluations. Once the evaluations are completed, the school should mobilize the internvention team to create a summary report that can be used to create individual education plans (IEP).
This step is crucial in ensuring that all proper diagnoses and evaluations of the child's struggles are evaluated and documented. Specialists—either from within the school or outside—should be mobilized to assess the student one-on-one. They will most likely be tested on the following domains: intelligence; achievement; behavior; disability-specific issues; and medical (Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, n.d.). In some cases, this may be the first time that the child is observed in isolation, as opposed to in a classroom environment with other students.
Classroom Modifications to Help with Students with Slow Processing Speed (Integrated Learning Strategies, 2017)
https://youtu.be/nPLUdT_ilMY
Who is on the I.E.P. Team: Members, Roles, and Responsibilities (Teachings in Education, 2016)
https://youtu.be/SpkFTNx02hw
Early Signs of a Learning Disability or Learning Disorder (Mayo Clinic, 2017)
The IEP Roadmap (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2014)
7 Components of an IEP (Russell, n.d.)
REFERENCES
Center for Parent Information & Resources. (2017). 10 basic steps in special education. Retrieved from
https://www.parentcenterhub.org/steps/
Integrated Learning Strategies. (2017, February 13). Classroom modifications to help students with slow processing speed [Infographic]. Retrieved from
https://ilslearningcorner.com/2017-02-classroom-modifications-students-struggle-slow-processing-speed/
Mayo Clinic. (2017, April 14). Early signs of a learning disability or disorder [Video File]. Retrieved from https: //youtu.be/SpkFTNx02hw
Montes Alti Educational Foundation. (n.d.). Are there indicators to help identify the specific educational needs of a student in my class? Retrieved from
https://lepole.education/en/classroom-practices/62-students-with-special-educational-needs.html?start=2
National Center for Learning Disabilities. (2014, February 10). The IEP roadmap [Infographic]. Retrieved from
https://elearninginfographics.com/the-individualized-education-program-roadmap-infographic/
Okanogan School District. (n.d.). Special education. Retrieved from
https://www.oksd.wednet.edu/Page/144
Power School. (n.d.). 5 steps to write better IEP goals [Infographic]. Retrieved from
https://www.powerschool.com/infographic/5-steps-to-write-better-iep-goals/
Russell, M. (n.d.). 7 components of an IEP [Infographic]. Retrieved from
https://infograph.venngage.com/p/51731/7-components-for-iep
Teachings in Education. (2016, August 30). Who is on the I.E.P. team: Members, roles, and responsibilities [Video File]. Retrieved from https:// youtu.be/nPLUdT_ilMY
Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities. (n.d.). The special education referral process. Retrieved from
http://www.projectidealonline.org/v/special-education-referral-process/
5 Steps to Write Better IEP Goals (Power School, n.d.)
