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The New York State Education Department (NYSED) gratefully acknowledges
participation of the following individuals in the development of these
documents:
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Special Education Delivery Work Group
Cyndi Besig – Regional SETRC, Monroe I BOCES
Kelly Endres – SETRC, Monroe I BOCES
Elizabeth Fallo – SETRC, Delaware Chenango Madison Otsego BOCES
Susan Goldberg – SETRC, New York City DOE
Barbara Kestenbaum – SETRC, Rockland BOCES
Sally McGuirk – SETRC, Washington Saratoga Warren Hamilton Essex
BOCES
Cathy Quackenbush – SETRC, Herkimer Fulton Hamilton Otsego BOCES
Cecilia Dansereau Rumley – SETRC, Dutchess BOCES
Elizabeth Cutter – NYSED/VESID
Lisa Luderman – NYSED/VESID
Mark Ylvisaker, Ph.D. - The College of St. Rose
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James P. DeLorenzo
Statewide Coordinator for Special Education,
NYSED
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Patricia J. Geary
Coordinator, Special Education Policy and Professional Development, NYSED
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This document contains hypertext links or pointers to information
created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These
links and pointers are provided for the user's convenience. The Education
Department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness,
or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion
of links or pointers to particular items in hypertext is not intended
to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views
expressed, or products or services offered, on these outside sites,
or the organizations sponsoring the sites.
The State Education Department grants permission to New York State
public schools, approved private schools and nonprofit organizations
to copy this for use as a review and quality improvement guide. This
material may not otherwise be reproduced in any form or by any means
or modified without the written permission of the New York State Education
Department. For further information, contact the VESID Special Education
Office at (518) 473-2878 or write to VESID, Room 1624 One Commerce
Plaza, Albany, New York 12234
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General education and special education have for too long
been considered separate entities within the educational system. They are in fact interdependent
and the relative strength of one directly impacts the strength of the other. It
is difficult to assess the strengths and needs of a district and/or school
without consideration from both lenses. If special education
is truly the most intensive level of intervention for students, then its
effectiveness cannot be measured without consideration of the universal structures
that support its foundation. The quality indicators found in this document
are based upon the following set of assumptions. When problems
with low performance can be traced in part to systemic issues, these issues
need to be addressed in concert with improvement efforts that address instruction.
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Indicator: Instructional Environment
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Component: Structured, predictable school and classroom
environment
Driving Question:
Do school/classroom structures support student success or present
a barrier to it?
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Quality Indicators
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Look For
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Comments/Evidence
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The instructional environment is designed to support individual student
needs
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- Physical environment matches student need for visual, auditory and
tactile stimulation
- Classroom routines are evident and predictable
- Cues for routines/schedules are designed to support individual student
needs (e.g. color-coded, picture schedules)
- Instructional materials are available in multiple formats
- Assistive technology is used as necessary to support student learning
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Student participates in the general education environment including
curriculum and instruction, assessment, and social activities based on
individual student needs
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High expectations for all students are clearly articulated and defined
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- Students are provided multiple opportunities to demonstrate desired
expectations in classroom or school routines
- Educators and students understand and can discuss high expectations
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Classroom climate is conducive to learning
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- Positive, orderly classroom environment is evident
- Students are actively engaged in learning and on task
- Students are explicitly taught skills to manage school/classroom
transitions, schedules, routines
- Interactions between and among educators and students demonstrate
respect and a desire to build rapport
- Interactions are highly respectful, reflect genuine warmth and caring,
and are respectful of individual differences such as age, culture,
gender and abilities1
- Adults working in the classroom collaborate effectively to ensure
student’s access to instruction with interventions of increasing
intensity as needed
- Adults
working in the classroom collaborate to provide interventions for
any student who struggles, with increasing intensity (frequency,
duration, or alternate approaches) as needed 2
- Classroom roles are defined and implemented to maximize student benefit
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Resources
Danielson, Charlotte; Enhancing
Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching
Marzano, Robert, Marzano, Jana and Pickerin, Debra. Classroom Management
That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher
Rose, David H. and Meyer, Anne. Teaching Every Student in the Digital
Age. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available
at http://www.cast.org
Instructional Quality Toolkit, Instructional Quality Indicators:
Research Foundations.
http://www.co-nect.net/pdf_v2/White_Paper_Research_to_Support_IQT_Indicators.pdf
Strategies to Improve Access to the General Education Curriculum http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/documents/research%20supported%20strategies%20chart.pdf
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Indicator: Instructional Practice
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Component: Planning for effective instruction
Driving Question:
Do the strengths and needs of each
student drive instructional decision-making?
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Quality Indicators
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Look For
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Comments/Evidence
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Instruction is individually planned to address student needs.
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- Individual student’s strength and needs drive instructional
decision making.
- Instructional activities are planned for varying group sizes and
configurations to allow students opportunities to learn, practice,
and generalize knowledge and/or skills.
- Data from frequent formal and informal assessments inform Instructional
decisions.
- The justification for use of selected instructional practices is
based on research.
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Planned instruction is goal directed.
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- Instruction is designed to address IEP goals (and measurable post
secondary goals for students 15 years of age and older).
- Instruction is aligned with the NYS Learning Standards.
- Students are receiving instruction to address IEP goals.
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The plan includes direct instruction to explicitly teach academic content
and skills.
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- Direct instruction is provided in academic content areas (e.g., social
studies, science) and skill domains (e.g. reading, writing):
- Complex tasks are broken down into small steps or components
(e.g. task analysis). The components are either taught (1) one
at a time or (2) the complex activity remains integrated but the
teacher gives the student responsibility for only one component
at a time while the teacher contributes the remaining components
(e.g. writing a complex story or doing a science experiment).
- Formative assessments are ongoing during instruction.
- Teachers and therapists model the target skills, processes, and
products.
- Instruction includes multiple sessions of both guided and independent
practice.
- Instruction is organized and supported so that students are expected
to make few if any errors.
- Prompts are faded to support independence in learning.
- The instructional pacing provides many learning trials to maintain
focused attention.
- Students are given opportunities for practice, repeated and purposeful
feedback, and explicit review of developing skills designed to
meet their individual needs.
- In addition to direct/explicit instruction, the student is given
opportunities for distributed practice across varied settings and activities
to facilitate transfer or generalization of targeted skills.
- Students
are given opportunities for review and cumulative review individually
designed to facilitate maintenance of learning 3
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The plan includes explicit instruction in the use of strategies
for learning.
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- Teachers and therapists provide direct instruction in the use
of specific strategies designed to enhance learning throughout the
curriculum, improve the
five core areas of literacy, 4 improve writing and written composition,
and improve mathematical computation and application.
- Strategies are explicitly presented and explained.
- Strategies are modeled by teachers.
- In the early stages of instruction, strategies are used collaboratively
by teachers and students in curricular tasks.
- Strategies are associated with mnemonic aids (e.g. acronyms) to
facilitate learning.
- Strategies are presented visually if possible (e.g. graphic organizers).
- A variety of cues are used to ensure that the student uses relevant
strategies (e.g. think-aloud models, verbalizing. steps/procedures
during a lesson, visual and auditory reminders).
- Cues are systematically withdrawn as students gain facility in
using strategies.
- Reviews of strategy use are sufficiently frequent to ensure ongoing
use of the strategies.
- Relevant strategies are encouraged across content domains for purposes
of facilitating generalization and are used from year to year to encourage
maintenance.
- In groups, students are encouraged to remind one another of their
strategies to encourage deeper understanding of the strategies and
generalized use.
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Self-regulation/executive functions are an integral part of instruction:
compensatory strategies and effective habits of mind are taught.
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- Instruction is provided to teach student to:
- Communicate their own strengths and needs
- Understand and advocate for their needs for accommodations, adaptations
or modifications (instruction, assessment or environment)
- Students are individually involved in
personal goal setting 5(also, http://www.asgc.org/ed-self-determine.htm)
- Students are involved in planning and organizing their schedules
to meet their learning goals
- Students are involved in monitoring and evaluating their own progress
- Explicit instruction is provided to students in strategies for effectively
managing their thought processes (meta-cognition), learning, social
and other behaviors
- Adults model self-regulation strategies
- Students are instructed in, and given practice in, the use of meta-cognitive
scripts for self-coaching
- Students are given frequent opportunities for guided practice of
self-regulatory strategies
- Instructional plans include specific instruction to students on compensatory
strategies necessary to address individual student needs
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Instructional and assessment accommodations for learner needs are planned
and individualized
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- Accommodations support the student’s needs as documented in
the IEP
- Accommodations are consistently implemented across all settings and
for all types of assessments
- Students are involved in determining their accommodations
- Accommodations are taught to students and practiced to ensure independence
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Resources:
Intervention Research for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities:
A Meta-Analysis of Outcomes Related to High-Order Processing National Center
for LD http://www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=523
Test Access and Accommodations
www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/testaccess/policyguide.htm
What is Direct/Explicit Instruction? The Access Center
http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/DirectExplicitInstruction_Mathematics.asp
University of Kansas, Center on Research for Learning
http://www.ku-crl.org/library/publist.shtml
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Indicator: Instructional Practice
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Component: Effective implementation of specially-designed
instruction
Driving Question:
Does the specially designed instruction improve student learning?
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Quality Indicators
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Look For
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Comments/Evidence
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Roles and responsibilities of service providers are clearly defined
and implemented
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- Special educators, related service providers and general education
staff work together to enhance/unify instructional planning and implementation
- Educators can describe student needs and their implications
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Delivery of instruction maximizes student learning
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- All educators have realistic, high expectations for student learning.
- Decisions about provision of instruction (pacing, frequency, duration,
alternate approaches) are based on each student’s individual
needs
- The learning process is structured to include multiple, varied opportunities
for student participation in classroom instruction
- Materials used for student practice are meaningful and lead to the
desired learning outcomes
- A variety of instructional strategies are used to address student
goals
- Teachers adjust instruction based upon student response to learning
- Instructional groups (composition and size) are fluid and flexible
to address student needs as assessed through progress monitoring
- Instructional decisions are data-based and supported by evidence
and/or practitioner observations
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Instructional groups are appropriate to support learner outcomes
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- Instructional groups are based on learner needs in the areas of academics
and learning characteristics, social, physical and management needs
rather than disability category
- Classroom teaming provides opportunities for increasing instructional
intensity for students with disabilities in the general education classroom
- Supplemental instruction addresses student needs for targeted skill
development
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Supplemental supports and services are effectively used
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Resources
Heward, William. Ten Faulty Notions about Teaching Special Education.
National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals http://www.nrcpara.org/
Special Connections - Connecting Educators to strategies That Work http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/index.php
Swanson. H.L. Searching for the Best Model for Instruction Students with
Learning Disabilities http://researc.nichey.org/metaanalysispf.asp?ID=94
The Power of Two (co-teaching) http://www.powerof2.org
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Indicator: Instructional Practice
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Component: Ongoing assessment of student progress
Driving Questions:
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Are instructional decisions data-based and aligned with standards
and curriculum?
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Do instructional decisions support participation and progress of
students with disabilities in general education curriculum?
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Quality Indicators
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Look For
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Comments/Evidence
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Curriculum-based assessments (both formative and summative) are used
to monitor student progress
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- Formal and informal measures are used to assess student progress
- Information to determine student’s mastery of skills is purposefully
collected
- Frequent checks, in a variety of ways, are made of student understanding
- Instruction results in students being engaged in learning
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Assessments are aligned with the clearly constructed/formulated objectives
of the lesson/unit
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Teacher uses formative assessments while teaching to inform instruction
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- Teachers use multiple measures of assessment (authentic
assessment,9 review of work products, reflective logs, etc)
- Assessment is conducted before, during and after instruction
- Assessment is conducted across different settings to assess generalization
- Teachers use task analysis and the results of progress monitoring
to identify the most effective point of intervention when planning
instruction
- Educators track and maintain records on student progress toward meeting
goals as indicated on the IEP
- Information from assessments guides decisions to re-teach, change
pacing, and plan or adjust activities/strategies
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Data is recorded and analyzed to inform the instructional planning for
students with disabilities
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- Data is collected and recorded to:
- Inform the planning of instruction
- Inform progress towards IEP goals
- Communicate progress in student learning
- Determine future IEP goals
- Data is shared with students and parents in multiple formats (e.g.,
charts, graphs, tables)
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Resources
Marzano, Robert, Classroom Assessment and Grading That Works, ASCD
McMillan, James; Essential Assessment Concepts for Teachers and Administrators,
Corwin Press
McMillan, James; Classroom Assessments, Principles and Practices for
Effective Instruction, Allyn & Bacon
Research Institute on Progress Monitoring http://www.progressmonitoring.org/
Tomlinson, Carol Ann; Differentiation in Practice, ASCD
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KEY
QUESTION: