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Welcome to The Golden Ticket to Improve Special Education podcast—your ultimate guide to revolutionizing education for students with diverse abilities! Each episode dives deep into actionable insights and transformative strategies that empower leaders and stakeholders across the special education landscape. We spotlight essential elements and proven methods to enhance services, programs, and outcomes for students in the USA and Canada. Inspired by Bob Barrows and his Clarity and Order for Special Education Success professional learning platform, we bring you expert interviews, compelling discussions, and practical solutions to drive real change. Whether you’re a passionate educator, dedicated administrator, a committed advocate, or parent looking for best practice, this podcast is your golden ticket to making a meaningful impact. Tune in and join us on this journey to elevate special education for every student!
Welcome to Episode 3 as we explore our second element in the Climate category from the Clarity and Order for Special Education Success platform: We are talking Harmony.
But before we start the Harmony analysis, let’s quickly revisit our last topic which was Optimism. We looked at “learned helplessness” and considered some ideas from artificial intelligence regarding how to address learned helplessness for students with disabilities.
Let’s revisit the strategy Positive Reinforcement:
The AI Quote “Providing positive reinforcement and celebrating small successes can help rebuild self-efficacy. This involves recognizing and rewarding efforts and achievements, no matter how minor they may seem.” Unquote. No matter how minor they may seem? Reward it. Is it just me or does this make you think about what the experts say about “empty praise”. Several years ago an instructional coach once told me that the worst compliment that you could ever give a student was “good job”. Her reasoning was that this type of feedback is not specific and does not really give anything meaningful to the student in regards to what he or she accomplished and how they could continue to get even more accomplished in the specific area either behaviorally or academically.
Now let’s consider what the The Practical Guide to High Leverage Practices says about feedback.
The quote in the introduction of this chapter says “ Of all the actions a teacher can do, effective feedback has more impact on the students than anything. Feedback is powerful, so powerful and important it is named as a high leverage practice twice” .
So the two High Levrage Practices are :
Number 8 which asks What Feedback Guides Improved Behavior?
And Number 22 which asks What Feedback Should We Give Students to Guide Learning?
Lets take a brief look at HLP 22 to see why we should stay away from giving feedback that is empty or minor. Here is another quote from the book:
“ When feedback is used effectively it moves the student closer to the desired performance; therefore it should be clear and specific, focused on the product not student, Immediate; stated in a positive manner; and corrective as needed. "
So, definitely stay away from empty praise!
Now, back to Harmony!
In our absolute best schools for special education across the USA and Canada, there is a very warm and positive relationship and collaboration with general education staff. There is a mutual presumption of positive intentions. Our reality is that the working relationships and mutual appreciation between general education and special education varies greatly from one school to the next. Every school should be in tune with how it can best develop mutual understanding and appreciation for supporting students with varying abilities. When harmony is great, students know it and benefit wonderfully. When harmony is not great, students know it and feel like they are in a losing battle. Bringing clarity to how each of these two entities can support the other will pay dividends for students. I am sure you all have the heard the mantra “All Means All” it is a common slogan rattled off by Superintendents, Board Members, Special Education Directors and many others. In some places it is acted upon and clearly evident and beneficial, and in some places it can be an empty slogan that is not acted upon very well. The notion that All teachers should “own” all students is noble. But How is it playing out in each of our school environments across the USA and Canada? Let’s look at this in another way:
In our Special Education realm, we have many opportunities to make music with each other. Let’s consider schools and their entire staff (admin, licensed and classified) as a band or orchestra. Some are making sweet sweet music and some are humming along pretty well and some are needing a serious tuning up.
In our most inclusive and supportive schools the team has general educators embracing and partnering with their special education counterparts. This is the team that has sophisticated communication methods, so that everyone is connected to supporting students with direct instruction, appropriate accommodations, calibrated expectations for student performance both academically and behaviorally. This is the orchestra that produces great harmony between special education and general education. I have seen these orchestras in concert in many high schools in my career. The strongest verses in their song are about co teachers having a common planning period and master schedulues that allow special education teachers to see as many students on their caseload as possible . They also have openness with each other and you will see general ed teachers in the SPED office and you will see SPED teacher in the Gen Ed Teacher Office. The best thing about these high performing harmonious schools is that the parent community appreciates it so much and the word on the street is you are rocking the house.
Contrast that beautiful sounding orchestra with other lower performing school teams and you can feel the division between general education and special education. Here you can feel the reluctance on either side of the house. Here you might run into the biggest nightmare of all of us, when several weeks into the school year, the general education teacher says “oh wow, I’m so sorry I did not know he or she had an IEP!” So, when the band is out of tune, it can be very unfortunate.
Let’s focus on some examples of our best teams. Think about your school team including everyone that works there. What do they do to help each other out?
Does the general education teacher welcome the special education teacher as an equal?
Does general education have a ready and willing teacher to co-teach with the special education teacher or is it like pulling teeth to find someone willing?
Do gen ed and SPED get together to discuss specific strategies to teach math or science?
Does the SPED teacher supply the IEP info and caseload information to the gen ed teacher in a timely manner and in an easy to decipher format?
How do the two entities acknowledge each other and show appreciation for each other?
Do Gen Ed teachers effectively support accommodations?
Does Gen Ed help SPED frontload upcoming content in a reliable and efficient way?
Do the right and most pertinent Gen ED teachers attend IEPs or do you rely on just the more willing gen ed teachers to show up?
These are the types of things that help create great harmony between Special Education and General Education. When we come back, we will look at another Harmony equation and then draw connections to the Practical Guide to High Leverage Practices in the area of Collaboration. See you on the other side! STOP
Harmony Equation #2 what is the harmony between School District and Parents? When you think about Harmony with Parents where does your mind go? Does it quickly divert to a beautiful meadow with a fawn sauntering by because it is so pleasant and tranquil? Or does your mind go to a dark and depressed ravene because it has been a little rough lately?
What are the indicators in your mind that tell you all of the good news in your relationships with parents? What are the indicators in your mind that tell you all of the bad news in your relationships with parents? One of the coolest things I ever saw in one of my districts was where they had an annual Appreciation Night for Special Educators and it was recognition coming from parents who nominated their child’s case manager or other provider or in some cases even a gen ed teacher. In other cases they nominated a para educator. But it was always such a beautiful event to hear parent after parent stand up and deliver their gratitude. It was always inspiring, heartwarming, and could involve lots of tears from many people. So, that right there, would be a good indicator of some sweet harmony.
Does your district have a special education advisory council? If so how often do they meet and how well are they attended by parents?
What data points do you have that paints the picture of your collaboration with parents? And Collaboration is the key word to build Harmony. You know it’s funny that in the last segment we learned that Feedback was so important it makes up two High Leverage Practices. What I just learned here is that Collaboration also takes up two High Leverage Practices. That would be HLP number one right out of the gate which is titled Why Collaborate With Other Professionals? Which supports our Harmony between Gen Ed and Special Ed. And HLP number three which is How Can Collaborating with Families Ensure Successful Outcomes for Students which supports our Harmony between school and family.
So let’s go back to the first Harmony Equation between Gen Ed and SPED. In looking at HLP #1 they have created a really nice chart listing the Coordination of Expectations Responsibilities and Resources. I wont recite them all but want to illuminate three shiny ones that will serve as indicators for our Harmony:
1) "Special Educators can bring together multiple general educators to agree on specific ways to do things, which will reduce the variability between teachers and the load on special educators to make specific changes for each general educator with whom they work." I love that one and also love.
2) "Special Education teachers can create IEP at a glance sheets for their colleagues that summarize the overall strengths, goals, objectives, accommodations, and needs of a particular student." And I would add it should be for all the students on that teachers caseload.
3) "At Back to School Night, co teachers can introduce themselves to families as equal partners ready to support all children in the class equally. They can identify their own areas of strength and how they will use those strengths to support their diverse learners."
So how many of you have seen co-teachers presenting together at Back to School Night, that is another great indicator of sweet Harmony.
Now lets consider our second Harmony Equation ; School and Parents and how
HLP #3 Collaborating with Families applies. Here are another set of three shining examples that I really love:
1) “Home visits at the beginning of the year if the family is willing and if not offer to meet at a public place like a park or coffee shop. Home visits help teachers better understand the family and the unique needs and circumstances of the student”
How many of you have conducted a home visit or met parents at a neutral site?
2) “When special educators support families in better understanding the special education process, families can become more actively involved and advocate for the needs of their children.” I think it is fairly common that distrcits who have advisory committees will do IEP training for parents and I personally provided that in more than one place. Currently I am doing that in one district exclusively for Spanish speaking families that want to learn more about the process so that they can become better advocates for their children.
3) "In addition to helping parents learn more about the special education process, special educators may also need to offer support to help families learn parenting skills." And they list an excellent resource at parent center hub.org
So obviously there is much we can do to help strengthen the harmony between schools and parents. And as we heard there is a lot we can do to increase the Harmony between general ed and special ed. The moral of my story today is that if you want to have a great climate in your school community, you first must have an Optimistic approach and healthy explanatory style like we discussed yesterday. And you need to have great Harmony between Special Ed and Gen Ed and you need to have great Harmony with schools and parents. There are other Harmony equations that we address in various trainings. One we left out today is the Harmony between school and community agencies and we will dive into that one at a later date when we focus on Interagency Collaboration which is one of my favorite elements!
Thanks for joining in today to consider the role of Harmony in your special education community. We invite everyone to tune in and self-reflect. If you are interested in a professional learning session. We host cohorts for Special Education Administrators, Special Education Teachers and Providers as well as Cohorts for School Administrators. You can access more information about these opportunities on my website at www.bobbarrows.com. You can book a free consultation with me from the Contact page to discuss the possibility of joining a Cohort on the East coast in Saint Simon’s Island GA, or the West coast on the Monterey Peninsula. We also offer trainings in the Rocky Mountain region in Colorado Springs. In addition, Dr. Adrielle Benini is available for Autism specific Cohorts in these locations. If you are interested in having us come to your district to help your Special Education teams analyze their strengths and areas of professional growth, we are available now to facilitate self-reflection for your district’s teams.
Episode 4 is next where we analyze the Dignity in your Special Education community. We will draw meaningful connections to how we think about our special education reality. Thanks for joining us today and stay tuned for more collaboration very soon! You are a already great and we just want to help you get greater and help you fill the gaps where you and your teams have room to grow with best practices!