District 203 looks to improve special education

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

District 203 is looking to take a more unified approach as it seeks to improve services to special education students as well as those in the general education program.

That goal is based on recommendations of the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative, a national network of more than 100 school districts seeking to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

The collaborative was hired by the district last summer to conduct a comprehensive review of the district’s program and services for students with disabilities. In a presentation to the District 203 Board of Education last week, Ron Felton, associate director of the collaborative team, and team member Elise Frattura, associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said the report isn’t just about special education, but a review of the school system as a whole.

“It’s so clear that you have two very remarkable systems — general education and special education,” Frattura said. “They’re both very remarkable. The problem is, there’s two. ... We’re not saying the system is broken. We’re saying take the talents and skills and what’s going on in both worlds, on both sides, and merge them together.”

The collaborative team visited the district for three days in October, meeting with focus groups of parents, teachers, principals and administrators to determine where improvements are needed. While they said District 203 was high-performing, they pointed out several areas needing improvement.

Among their recommendations are that the district should develop a vision statement that includes a delineation of principles that help define how the district will continue to grow in a collaborative manner. They said functions of the special education and student services departments should be consolidated and that a mechanism for sharing information and receiving feedback should be developed.

“Our major recommendation is really having a single department in teaching and learning with assistant superintendents in this department,” Felton said. “They have different focus areas, but they operate in a unified manner, so there’s communication.”

The collaborative also recommends implementing a coordinated, system-wide positive behavioral support system for all students; align support services for students with second language needs; build the capacity of schools to serve all students so students with disabilities can attend the elementary and junior high schools they would attend if they did not have a disability; provide individualized community-based instruction for students with severe disabilities as they increase in age and minimize the number of students tuitioned out of the district with a solid plan to appropriately return young students currently placed out of district.

Frattura said students with disabilities should start in a general education environment and, from there, receive small group, large group and one-on-one instruction as needed.

“How do we serve the range of district students from the most gifted child in the district to the child that’s challenged the most?’ she asked. “What we know of good, healthy school districts is those school districts that are effective with the highest-need learner are effective with all kids.”

Felton said the district’s decision to seek outside help was a bold move. School Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said good and healthy organizations are willing to take a risk and look at themselves in an attempt to get even better.

“That was the entire purpose here,” he said. “This is how you continue to improve, how you grow stronger.”

He said the next step in the process is to begin discussing how to phase in these recommendations.

“This is not going to be something where you turn everything on in September,” he said. “That was not the intent. This is something that we gradually will move into.”

Board member Terry Fielden said some of the statements in the report were depressing, but must be addressed.

“I think if you’re going to look at yourself and decide what is going to be correctable and what you’re going to do better, you do have to hear it and you’re going to have to get on board and decide what the corrected path is.”

Board member Jim Dennison said he had a hard time accepting some of the collaborative’s conclusions but said the district must look at itself under “a pretty bright light.”

“I’m glad we’ve done this,” he said.

Frattura said if the district applies these goals, it will see more students excel, fewer students eligible for special education, fewer behavior problems and more academic success.

“We know we are sitting in a very high-performing district,” Frattura said. “We’re saying you can take it one step further. You’re not that far away.”