We are in an unprecedented time of opportunity in public education, both at the national and local level. Teachers, principals, district leaders, families and community stakeholders are engaged in conversations about how we ensure high quality teaching and learning and high quality leadership in all of our schools. Here at the central office, we are making changes for next year that we believe will better support the work our teachers and principals are doing to meet the needs of all learners.
We are developing a Teaching and Learning Leadership Team that is focused on improving instruction across all academic programs (i.e., early learning, special education, advanced learning, English Language Learners, and career and technical education). Also sitting on this team will be five Executive Directors of Schools. This position replaces our current Education Directors who provide leadership and supervision to clusters of schools by grade level. The new role will span a PK-12 cluster of schools so that we can provide more continuity to students and families within our new student assignment plan.
From Marni Campbell, Executive Director, Special Education Services:
Early in my first year as principal at Eckstein Middle School my team and I planned a complex and ambitious assembly for 1250 middle school students. It was, I thought, a great success. The program went smoothly, ended on time, and the students were respectful of one another as performers and participants. As I stood in the hallway shepherding kids back to class, one of my colleagues, a provider of sign language interpreting supports for students receiving deaf and hard of hearing services, taught me a powerful lesson. She kindly but firmly chided me for failing to provide her team with a script of the assembly in advance, for failing to reserve a row in the front and provide lighting for students who would need to access interpreter services to fully participate in the assembly experience. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I just didn’t think of it.” Her answer was a call to awareness and action for me. “I know,” she said, “That’s the whole problem. You need to think of it.”
I am indebted to this wise, courageous, committed colleague for reminding me that our first job as an educational community, not just as special educators, is to “think of it,” to actively create conditions of success for all students, to prepare in advance for “universal design” in all physical and instructional elements of our schools.
As we work to transform special education services in Seattle, our focus is threefold: a) to successfully educate students with disabilities in schools close to home, b) to ensure that as a system we support “student first” language and practice, and c) to ensure that students are educated “to the maximum extent possible” with typically developing peers, per the letter and spirit of IDEA.
The integrated comprehensive service model is one shift in practice from providing special education in isolated programs in specific schools to providing services that meet student needs in neighborhood schools. Services are integrated into the fabric of the school day so that every student is an authentic citizen of the community. Supports and services should be comprehensive, available along a continuum based on student need and varying in intensity. As students enrolled in their neighborhood elementary schools last spring, additional staff members were added, including inclusion coaches, instructional assistants, and certificated teachers, based on student need to support the integrated service model. General education and special education staff were trained in summer and fall institutes, and training continues with the support of our partners at the University of Washington.
We are carefully monitoring and assessing the efficacy of the model, and have gathered staff surveys, family surveys, feedback through focused family meetings, analysis of achievement and discipline data, and formal school visits. Our integrated comprehensive service task force has met regularly since November to review data, including real-time feedback from general education and special education staff members. Many students are thriving, and families and teachers report that their students are meeting their social and academic goals. Student success is our first priority, and in situations where there have been challenges, where students and staff are not thriving, we have immediately acted to put additional appropriate supports and resources in place. We will continue to monitor and adjust, responding to student data and school feedback, as we build “student first” services in our schools.
In partnership with the professionals from our community, we continue to provide training to teachers in both special education and general education on inclusive practices, and skills and strategies for teaching students with autism and other disabilities. Skilled experts from our department are co-teaching in Math, Literacy, and Writer’s Workshop trainings so that all teachers have access to the core content training and are learning how to differentiate instruction to support all students. Our assistive technology team is actively working with schools to provide supports that make classrooms more accessible by design. Special education supervisors conduct weekly learning walks, looking for key components of effective instruction for students with disabilities: access to the core curriculum, differentiated instruction, high leverage teaching moves, and evidence of change leadership.
As Dr. Enfield has said, we are in the midst of exciting change in Seattle, and we cannot do it alone. Your feedback, input, and yes, firm criticism, are essential as we work in partnership to provide the best possible schools for our children. Thank you for sharing your students with us!
Marni Campbell
