Collaboration Between Special Education Stakeholders for Successful Inclusion

Collaboration between Special Education Stakeholders for Successful Inclusion

Jason Willis

Grand Canyon University: SPE524-TE

April 27, 2015

The implementation of special education at Howe School of Excellence is an essential part of the school-wide achievement of students. Any special education program is naturally reliant on consistent, effective collaboration between various stakeholders which include: general/special education classroom teachers, extracurricular teachers, administrators, community organizations, paraprofessionals, and guardians. We have five new special education students enrolled for next school year with the following identifications: two intellectually disabled, two emotionally disturbed, and one learning disabled. The individual education plans (IEP) of our upcoming caseload dictate that our special education department to maintain a cohesive, collaborative, and effective inclusion program. Inclusion is the delivery of specialized education services to diverse learners in the general education setting.

Inclusion Plan

One of the most critical relationships in the inclusion process will be between the general and special education teacher. The national trend toward inclusion suggests that, “general and special education should not be separate systems but a single system that serves all students” (Kauffman, 2008, p.410). Each professional provides specific expertise to the system as a whole. Special educators provide general educators with strategies for differentiation and behavior management while general educators provide curricular expertise with regard to grade level content and pacing. This partnership will require teaching teams to co-plan, co-instruct, co-manage, and co-assess their assigned inclusion classes. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) states that the special education programming delivered to each student must adhere to the Individual Education Program (IEP) created for that child (Kauffman, 2008, p.406). The special educator and general educator will be responsible for both the creation and implementation of said program for each identified student. While the special educator will assume the majority of this responsibility, the general educator will be expected to impart information related to the performance of the diverse learner as measured by the general education curriculum. The special educator will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of services per the IEP including scheduling of services, completion of IEP goals, classroom and assessment accommodations, and modification of curriculum as needed.  

The implementation IEP goals and general curriculum in the inclusive setting will require that the teaching team utilize various co-teaching models to deliver differentiated instruction. These models include: lead and support, team teaching, station teaching, parallel teaching, and alternative teaching (Forbes, 2012).  The “lead and support” model entails one teacher instructing the whole class while the other teacher supports the instruction though interjection or management of the class. While this is widely used it is not the most effective co-teaching strategy. This strategy allows students to receive more private assistance from one of the teachers (Forbes, 2012). Team teaching involves both teachers simultaneously leading instruction. This model allows the special educator the opportunity to feel increasingly useful in the classroom. However, this model does not reduce the student-teacher ratio (Forbes, 2012). Station teaching involves the teachers breaking the class into small groups that rotate between learning centers created by teachers. Each teacher will lead a station with one or more stations requiring students to work independently. This model effectively reduces the student-teacher ratio and allows each teacher to lead instruction. This method does, however, require the most extensive planning (Forbes, 2012). Parallel teaching requires teacher to break the class into two groups and teach the same content simultaneously. This method reduces student-teacher ratio and allows each teacher to lead instruction (Forbes, 2012).  Finally, alternative teaching involves one teacher pulling a small group to deliver instruction. This is an excellent model for delivering differentiated instruction to students that are struggling or exceptional. This is a popular model for co-teaching as it allows each teach to work at whatever pace and functioning level is necessary (Forbes, 2012). Co-teaching teams will receive professional development through our special education professional learning community (PLC) on these various co-teaching models as well as effective management of the collaborative relationship.