Social justice

Blog #8

Are Schools Providing the Best Special Education Services for all Students?

In our society today everyone is aware of the inequalities that happen in school systems.  People have come to believe that if the students are from a lower socio-economic family then it is all right for their school system to lack adequate teachers, facilities, materials and services.

Numerous questions come to mind with such a broad topic.  The issue that I will address is that all special education children should receive the same services and rights.  If a child that is in need of services has a knowledgeable parent then that parent will truly fight for their child’s rights.  These parents know the importance of bringing an advocate to Special Education meetings.  They fight for what they believe will be the best delivery of services for their child.  Let’s look at the other side of the issue to me called “social injustice.”  What about the poor, uneducated, working parents?  These parents trust the school systems will make the right decisions for their child.  They go the meetings, sign on the dotted line, and have no idea what they are signing. 

I am certain the teachers, in most schools, have the best interest at heart for all students.  However, the problem lies with delivery of services.  If it is a poorer school system, then there is not enough support staff to truly service the needs of all the students.  Does this happen in an affluent system? I think not!!

Are special education services provided equitably? Some school districts have a “pull out” model in which the special education teacher works with the child for a specific period of time during the day.  Other special education services could be when the child spends the day in a “learning center” environment and may participate with general education students for specialists.  There is also the inclusion model in which special education students spend the day in the general education setting.  This model can have a paraprofessional or assistant teacher working with the classroom teacher.  In affluent cities, there are often two teachers, general education and special education teacher, working together to instruct children.  Class size is not a problem because parents make certain teachers are instructing a reasonable amount of students.  In poorer communities, teachers have larger class sizes, maybe if they are lucky some assistance, and special education students all day long.  Is this equitable learning?

Often we hear taxpayers say, “I don’t have any child using the schools, so why should I pay taxes to benefit education?”  The point is that these children, whether they are receiving special education services or not, will someday be the leaders of our country.  We are a country that professes our love for children.  Shouldn’t we all care about all children? Our country needs to ensure that all our students receive the highest quality education.  Schools, cities, states, and our country overall must make certain that there is equity for special education students in affluent and poorer communities.

After being a classroom doing my observations, I feel very strongly about this subject.  I often see these special education students struggling and trying to grasp what is going on. Through discussions, I have heard of teachers having a large population of students that are identified as special education students and these teachers receive a minimal amount of support.  I am certain this would never happen in a community in which the parents were doctors, lawyers or CEO’s.

http://atlanticville.gmnews.com/news/2011-03-24/Editirials/Its_tim…

educational metaphor

             Educational Metaphor

I believe the purpose of education is to provide students with the opportunity to become productive citizens and lead us in the 21^st century.  My metaphor would be that educators are like bricklayers building a foundation.  Good educators must provide students with abilities to become a strong group of leaders for the next generation.  As each layer of brick is added to the foundation, more knowledge is gained.  It must be emphasized that strong foundations begin early on in a student’s lifelong journey of learning. 

These bricklayers (educators) must provide, not only the academics, for the students but the students’ foundation must also be strong with other additional skills.  Students must acquire critical reasoning skills, problem solving abilities, social skills, and common sense to have their own secure building of knowledge.

Just as the school environment should be strong, safe, and secure, so too should be the foundation of the students learning.  The actual school building foundation must provide security and be able to withstand disasters and unexpected problems.  The students’ foundation must also be taught how to cope with mishaps along the way in their life’s journey.

Real bricklayers must be knowledgeable masons in that they must know how to build a good, strong foundation.  We all know what happens to a building when the structure itself is not sound.  Therefore, students need a good strong foundation to build upon for their own knowledge. When students do not have this good foundation, their education begins to crumble.

Professional bricklayers share ideas and plan with colleagues.  By working with experienced bricklayers, they learn the proper procedures for spreading mortar and laying bricks. Educators, as well, should plan together and share ideas so they are able to implement stronger lessons.

Just as a real bricklayer will construct any type of building foundation, an educator should educate and construct a strong foundation for any child.  The race, color, or socioeconomic status of a student should not matter.  All children should be provided the same learning opportunity. 

When mixing the mortar to lay a building foundation it must be a perfect mixture of cement, rock, and water.  When laying the foundation for a student’s knowledge there also must be the right amount of materials.  Students need to have numerous mixtures of caring, support, nurturing, and the right amount of affection in order to become strong.  Students, just like buildings, must realize they are all different, unique, and each can stand up for themself. 

            The education and desire for knowledge ends up being the mortar the bricklayer keeps applying to the foundation.

 Three things I have learned up to this point are:

There are differnt types of ELL programs.
Special education students should be treated as equals in all clasroom settings.
There are numerous philosophical orientations and I am a strong believer in Cognitivism.

 http://www.ehow.com/about_6687220_bricklaying-job-description.html

Educational philosophy

                                          What is Cognitivism and Do We Use it Today?

         Overall, it is important that people construct their own knowledge through life long experiences.  Cognitivism, recognized around 1956, is also known as constructivism in curriculum and instruction today in education.   The overall theory is it is important that students learn how to use different skills in the creative process in order to become productive in society.  I believe that many good teachers today allow their students to construct their own knowledge.  I say this because one math program comes to mind known as TERC.  In this math series, I remember, we the students had to form our own conclusions.  It felt pretty good to see how different people formed their answers.  We asked a lot of questions and constructed our own knowledge. It was more like find out the answer for yourself.  It was almost as if there was no right or wrong way of coming up with the solution.  Also, many of the MCAS questions used today are open response questions, I wonder if they are going along with the idea of Cognitivism?  I believe a lot of teachers are instructing this way now, especially while teaching mathematics.  They ask students lots of open ended critical thinking questions.  This process allows the student to think on their own and defend their own conclusions.

          Many people believe that with the Constructivism Theory work performance increases.  Jean Piaget’s theory about Cognitivism which basically simplified is that people need to construct their own knowledge.  In this theory, people do not just receive knowledge, they work on proving it.  Basically, your memory helps you when you acquire new knowledge.  The new knowledge may attach itself to what you already know, change your thoughts or you may learn something new.  In this learning process you store the information so you may use it later.  The educator assists the students in processing the information.  Overall, Cognitivism means “thought process.”  "This can mean comprehension, reasoning, interpreting, analyzing and synthesizing. The Cognitivist asks the question “why?” in terms of behavior and in learning” (suite 101). This promotes independent thinking.

http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm

http://online.sfsu.edu/~foreman/itec800/finalprojects/danabayer/cognitivism.html

http://www.suite101.com/content/the-cognitive-approach-to-lesson-planning-a116006#ixzz1EdkXxy66

Is Inclusion the Answer? 

The term inclusion means to place students with disabilities of both high and low incidence in a general education classroom with their peers that have no disabilities. There are different types of inclusion models such as partial inclusion, regular inclusion, and full inclusion.  For the topic of my blog, I will discuss the pros and cons of full inclusion.  The premise of full inclusion is basically that all students can and do learn in the same learning environment in one classroom.  Many supporters of inclusion believe that we can learn from each other as well as learn to respect each other and our diversities. 

Some people believe inclusion works because children are provided with positive role models.  Inclusion allows us to accept diversity of people.  With inclusion, students with disabilities are prepared to learn about how to live and try to become self sufficient.  Students with disabilities, learning in a full inclusion class, are more prepared to face challenges they may later meet in life.  It is believed that students with disabilities gain socially when learning with their peers.  Friends are made and cooperation between people takes place.

On the other hand, some people do not believe inclusion works.  Often children with disabilities are placed in classrooms of untrained professionals.  There are often times when the school system does not support the general education teacher with the assistance of another teacher in the classroom.  A major complaint is that many feel the general education teacher does not have time to teach all the other students in the class as she/he is catering to the student with special needs.  With inclusion the general education teacher and special education teacher need common planning times that are pre-established.  There should be, but often not, less students in the classroom.  There also needs to be collaboration about the curriculum between both professionals.  Often this is not the case. 

I feel for inclusion to truly work there needs to be support personnel in place.  There also needs to be good, professional development training for both the special education and the general education teacher.  With a good support system and proper training inclusion can and does work.  Ferguson states, “All students should simply be included, by right, in the opportunities and responsibilities of public schooling.”

http://www.weac.org/Issues_Advocacy/Resource_Pages_On_Issues_one/Special_Education/special_education_inclusion.aspx