Does every student in the Douglas County School District’s
special education program belong there?
A three-year study measuring the learning practices and
performances of special education students has left some district
staff members questioning whether some of the students need to be
in special education classes. It also led staff members to
re-evaluate special education teaching practices.
For three years, district assessment officials and instructional
support services officials studied student’s individual education
plans, which lists the student’s individual goals for the year and
Colorado Student Assessment Program scores.
The study showed that many of the students scored proficient or
advanced on the CSAP.
Of the 773 third- to 10th-grade special education students who
took the 2002 CSAP reading test, 257 scored advanced or proficient,
257 scored partially proficient and 259 scored unsatisfactory. Of
those who scored advanced or proficient, 96 were identified to need
additional help in reading.
“I thought it was surprising that if many of the kids were
proficient at the state test, then why are they in special
education,” said assistant superintendent Elliot Asp. “Have we
placed kids in special education for the wrong reasons?”
The overwhelming majority of the district’s 2,058 special
education students have a learning disability or a speech problem,
but other disabilities include emotional conditions, autism and
traumatic brain injury.
The data needs to be studied in depth before decisions are made
about special education placement, said Nancee Sprigg, director of
assessment.
“We need to look at why students are in special education. They
might have a physical disability that qualifies them, and we need
to ensure they get the services they deserve,” she said. “We also
need to be worried about those students that didn’t do so well on
the CSAP.”
The study also found special education students did better on
mastering objectives when instructions were broken down into
smaller parts.
When students had three objectives on their reading education
plan, 30 percent were proficient on all them, 37 percent were
proficient on at least one, and 33 percent were not proficient in
any of the categories.
When students had one objective, 27 percent could complete it,
while 73 percent could not.
“The more we break down instructions into smaller components the
higher the student demonstrates performance,” said Pat Longo,
regional director of instructional support services.
The study will be used to re-evaluate teaching practices.
Instead of assigning a student the goal of reading at grade level,
teachers likely will begin to break that goal down into several
smaller goals for students to master.
Douglas County is one of the first school districts to measure
the increase of learning in its special education
program.
While general education students are generally evaluated by
assessments such as the CSAP, special education students are
generally evaluated by the number of resources provided to them
such as the number of hours they spend with a specialized
teacher.
Collecting the data will increase the accountability for
learning of special education students.
“We wanted to ask if kids were actually meeting their goals,
because if not the amount of services did not amount to anything,”
Asp said.
District officials will continue to collect and study this
information.