Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Voices Over

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1 Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Voices Over Slide # 1 Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Introduction 2 Goals for Inclusive Scheduling 3 Needs Assessment 4 Continuum of Services 5 Organizing Student Needs Voice Over Welcome to the Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar. This webinar is intended to assist campus leadership in the process of creating an inclusive master schedule. The tips and tools included herein are for illustrative purposes and are to help stakeholders spur thought and conversation as it pertains to scheduling for inclusive practices and ensuring access to and progress in the general curriculum. It does not serve as official guidance. During this webinar, participants will: Gain an understanding of the key components to effectively develop a master schedule, which facilitates inclusive practices. The following questions are examples that could be asked of teachers and/or other stakeholders to help guide a campus philosophy or scheduling practice. Posing these questions prior to the construction of the master schedule can help align beliefs around inclusion and create a common philosophy regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities. Additional questions that can be posed for your needs assessment can be found in the resource section at the end of this webinar. Legally we must continue to provide a continuum of services on each campus. The services provided should reflect the needs of the students currently enrolled on the campus. For example, during the current school year, the location of services in student IEPS may not require a resource setting, but in the future, that may change and the campus will need to have flexibility within their schedule to provide it should a student s IEP require it. To completely eliminate the offering of a location for services is against the statutory requirements included in IDEA 2004 that requires school to offer a continuum of services. The number signs on the slide are to remind schools to monitor how many students are being served in different settings. The goal is to move to the left as much as possible. This slide provides a graphic to guide you through a process of organizing student s needs and gives a picture of students needs on your campus as a whole. You need to look at your student s IEPs to gather this information to assist you in organizing the student s needs, how they can best be met, the type of collaboration that is needed to support the student s needs and then how that support will be Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar Voice Over 1

2 provided and by whom. 6 What levels of : Student s needs can vary subject by subject during any given school year. They may need a variety support counld look like of supports which will vary along a continuum. for one student A student may need to be pulled out to a resource room for intensive math instruction while only needing inclusion support in Language Arts and in a co- teaching classroom environment for Science. Teachers need to work with administrators to identify students abilities and needs across the collaborative continuum Keys to There are 10 critical keys to the inclusive scheduling process. Scheduling 8 List of the 10 Keys to The Ten Critical Keys are: Scheduling 1. Gather the Key Players. 2. Identify the number of special service providers. 3. Identify the number of students who receive special education services in your school. 4. Review each of the students 5. Count the numbers of areas in each grade. 6. Consider the level of each student s need for supports in each subject area. 7. Monitor the percentages in each class 8. Limit the pairings of special and general educators as much as possible 9. Invite other stakeholders to review the schedule. 10. Work the schedule for a year We will discuss each critical key. 9 Gather the Key Begin by gathering the key players. While many people may want to participate, try to keep your Players numbers low at first. Too many opinions can slow the process and/or delay productivity. It is recommended to have the following key players as a part of the scheduling planning: 1. An Administrator to be able to make decisions as they come up such as can we add another co- teaching or resource class? ; 2. Special Education and General Education teacher(s) who know the students, their support levels and behavior patterns, etc ; Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar Voice Over 2

3 3. Special education counselor as they have the knowledge of the number of classes being offered, and they know if they can move class periods around, etc ; 4. Diagnostician/ARD Facilitator has the know all to be able to look at an IEP schedule of services pages to ensure services and support is being interpreted/followed correctly. OTHER: Depending on the make up of your campus, you may want to include additional staff who have insight into the scheduling needs of teachers, students, and related service providers. Next, take the time to account for teachers, paraprofessionals and other service providers who will provide support to students on your campus. This will allow you identify the staff you have available in order to allocate personnel appropriately throughout the school day. I3. Identify the number of students who receive special education services in your school. This can include just special education students if you want to start more simply, or you may choose to also consider students who are gifted, English Language Learners, those on 504 plans, and so forth Identify the Number of Special Service Providers 11 Identify the Number of Students Who Receive Special Education Services in your School 12 Review Each of the 4. Review each of the students. Students Weight students according to need. Teams can use colored post- it notes with each color indicating a different level of need; for example: high, medium, and low. Teams can also use the Worksheet for Scheduling Co- Teaching, posted along with this webinar, which has a chart to weight each student. There are various resources for accomplishing this step. Each campus should use the method that meets their needs. 13 Example of High, Here s an example of an empty master schedule for a single grade level. Teams would designate a Medium, Low Sticky student s need in each of the subject areas where they have identified goals. They would then place Note Planning them on the chart where they will receive their services. As this process goes on with more and more students, the master scheduling team will be able to see exactly where students are placed in order to accomplish the next few steps in this webinar and ensure equity in scheduling for teachers and students. 14 Count the Number 6. Identify the number of students in each grade that receive their services in a specific location, such of Areas in Each Grade as: the number of students in pull out, the number of students in co- taught classrooms, and the number of students receiving inclusion support. Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar Voice Over 3

4 15 Student Distribution Graphic 16 Consider the Level of Each Student s Supports in each subject area Monitor the Percentages of Students With Special Needs In Each Class 18 Limit the Pairings of Special and General Educators as Much as Possible 19 Invite a Few Other Stakeholders This graphic can provide a visual to help you see the location in which the majority of the students are receiving their services 6. Consider the level of each student s need for supports in each subject area. Try to keep each class at a similar weight by dividing up students so no one class has a high number of students with significant behavioral and/or academic difficulties. This maximizes instructional time and allows teachers to meet the needs of all students. 7. Monitor the percentages of students with special needs in each class. In order to ensure the direct support of special educators and paraprofessionals, students with IEPs need to be clustered somewhat, but if done too much, it becomes counterproductive. Remember, too many is simply too many. Balance out disabilities and areas of need. 8. Limit the pairings of special and general educators as much as possible Reducing the number of individuals teachers have to work with increases the chances that effective collaboration will occur between general and special educators. 9. Invite a Few Other Stakeholders Invite a few other stakeholders in to view the schedule and give feedback to see if you missed anything. 20 Work the Schedule 10. Work the Schedule for a Year for a Year See what works and what doesn t. Be open to suggestions for improvement. Make sure everyone in the school knows that you are working toward improvement in inclusive and co- taught settings. 21 Example of Here is an example of a process one high school used in building their master schedule around the Secondary Master services of students receiving special education supports. Scheduling for Inclusion In this example, the Master Schedule for the school year was put together and solidified before the process of scheduling special education students. Black blocks represent conference times. Red blocks represent coaching or athletic responsibilities The Master Schedule listed every teacher s schedule by class period. It included what subject they Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar Voice Over 4

5 were teaching and what period. After it was determined how many sections of each course would support inclusion students, the team determined which teacher(s) would instruct the inclusion classes and then designated on the Master Schedule those sections. Next, they assigned each section a special education teacher or paraprofessional to support those students. So in essence, they built the special education teachers and paraprofessionals schedules during this process. They also made sure to schedule the special education teachers conference periods at the same time as their collaborating general educators. On this high school campus, they divided their SE teachers up by subjects, not grade level. One teacher is supported math, one teacher supported ELA, one teacher supported science, and one teacher supported social studies. The paraprofessionals were also assigned one or two of the subjects Example of This process of special education student scheduling was for students needing inclusion support. Secondary Master There are some students that are not represented on this board because it does not have in their IEP Scheduling for Inclusion they need inclusion support, but may be receiving their support through content mastery only. (continued) The small turquoise stickies represent Seniors, so you will see some seniors taking sophomore or junior level courses and that is because they need those credits for graduation. Sticky note colors: Yellow: STAAR A Purple: STAAR with accommodations Pink: STAAR Administrators looked at the student s IEP schedule of services page, and what state assessment they took in the current school year. They wrote the name of the student on the color sticky note of the STAAR test they took. Following the student s schedule of services page, they put a sticky note under each course heading they were taking. When this whole process was completed, the administrators were then able to step back and Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar Voice Over 5

6 compare the number of students taking each type of assessment and see how many students were enrolled in each of the courses. From this point, they counted how many students were in each course and determined how many sections of that course would need inclusion students and inclusion support. For example: Biology had 12 students, so they determined to have 3 sections so that there would be no more than 4 students receiving special education services in each of the classes. They then went to the master schedule and marked which teacher would teach the inclusion classes and made sure to select at least a morning and afternoon class to accommodate the varying elements of the scheduling process such as different electives or off- site learning. The scheduling team went through this process for each grade level and content area. Once students receiving special education services were accounted for, then the general education students were placed in the remaining slots Example of In this example, an elementary school tackled the scheduling process by each grade level. The colored Elementary Master sticky- notes represent the type of special education service that is indicated in the student s IEP. Scheduling for Inclusion Orange = Co- Teaching Purple = Resource Yellow = Inclusion Support Pink = Behavior Self- Contained The scheduling wrote the student s name on the color of sticky note that indicated the type of service they were to receive in each content area. After they completed this for each student, they then stepped back to count how many students were in each category and then took the next step of balancing them out into classes. 24 Summary While daunting at first, master scheduling can be much more doable when you have a plan. Inclusive scheduling practices increase instructional time for teachers and makes learning for students more effective. This also ensures access to and progress in the general curriculum. By utilizing these ten keys campuses are better prepared to build their master schedule with Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar Voice Over 6

7 inclusive practices as the focus. 25 Additional Resources Additional resources mentioned in this webinar along with other resources to guide you through the inclusive scheduling process are located on this slide and in various resources on the PGC network website. If you have any additional question, please (Region 13 Live binder URL: Master Scheduling for Inclusive Practices Webinar Voice Over 7