The Leadership Challenge in Graduating Students with Disabilities

1. The Leadership Challenge in Graduating Students with Disabilities It’s Everybody’s Business! Joy Eichelberger, Ed.D. Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network

2. Goals of the Session • Examine leadership qualities and behaviors required to meet the challenge of dropout prevention • Connect effective leadership principles and effective teaching principles to the tasks and challenges of graduating students with disabilities • Analyze existing program and service delivery models and develop strategic interventions to improve graduation rates for students with disabilities • Initiate a thoughtful examination of our will (commitment) to graduate students with disabilities.

3. What We Know! • Complex Constructs • Dropout Prevention • What: Definitions • Why: Reasons • Who: Program Focus • How to Respond: Effective Strategies • Leadership • Leader/follower studies • Trait models • Situational leadership • Effective Leaders • Contingency Models • Non-leader Leadership

4. What We Know • Drop out Prevention • Complex • Involves multiple agencies • Defined in various ways • Event • Status • Cohort • High school completion rate

5. Who Leaves School Green and Forster, 2003

6. How Big Is the Problem? • In the 1999-2000, 29.4% of all students with disabilities in grades 9-12 dropped out of school. • Over 85,000 students with disabilities dropped out of school, enough to fill over 1,770 school buses National Center for Education Statistics, 2002. Dropout Rates in the United States: 2000.

7. Why is Dropout a Serious National Concern? Students with Disabilities • Nationwide, dropout rates among students with disabilities for all categories of disability combined is approximately double that of general education peers.

8. Why is Dropout a Serious National Concern? • Dropout rates vary substantially among the various categories of disability. • Students with emotional and behavior disorders [EBD (51.4%)] • Students with learning disabilities [LD (27.6%)]

9. Student related Absenteeism Tardiness Disciplinary infractions Poor academic achievement Substance abuse Pregnancy Legal issues Truancy Lack of motivation School related Lack of academic counseling Mismatch of instructional methodology Cultural insensitivity Suspension and expulsion policies Why Students Leave School

10. Why Students Leave School • Community related • Low value on education • Lack of social services and community support • Lack of business partnership • Lack of coordination with community-based organizations • Family related • Low economic status • Lack of parental support • High family mobility • Non-English speaking family

11. Systemic Renewal School-Community Collaboration Safe Learning Environment Family Engagement Early Childhood Education Early Literacy Development Mentoring/Tutoring Service-Learning Effective Strategies

12. Alternative Schooling After-School Opportunities Professional Development Active Learning Educational Technology Individualized Instruction Career and Technical Education (Dr. Larry Kortering) Effective Strategies

13. Lessons Learned • Dropping out is a process of disengagement that begins early and requires early intervention. • Dropout Prevention should focus on a “good outcome” and not simply preventing a bad outcome. • A focus on enhancing students’ connection with school and facilitating successful school performance is a promising approach for improving school completion

14. Lessons Learned • Factors associated with dropping out of school are numerous and some cannot be easily altered to change the trajectory of dropout and school completion rates • Factors Can be categorized into two major types: • Status • Alterable

15. Lessons Learned • There is not one best program or intervention. • Dropout issues must be considered in the context of other educational reforms (e.g., accountability, high academic standard, school restructuring) and not as an isolated appended program.*

16. Lessons Learned • Students dropout for a variety of reasons • Attending to student perspectives about dropping out provides additional information to strengthen programs designed to help students with disabilities stay in school and graduate.

17. What We Know • Effective Instruction! • School-wide behavior supports (Dr. Gloria Campbell Whatley and Dr. Cathy Kea) • Focus on adjusting school climate rather than changing students • Reading Instruction • Progress Monitoring

18. Instructional Delivery Instructional Design Effective Teaching

19. Instructional Design 1. Identify the Learning Using Knowledge Meaningfully Extend Knowledge Refine Knowledge Integrate Knowledge Acquire Knowledge “Know and Be Able To Do” 2. Cue Set Check for Active Understanding Participation Teacher Questions See-Listen Student Questions Talk-Write 3. Best Shot Partial Information Mini Paraphrase Lesson Hearing Words Looking At Pictures Looking At An Exhibit Watching A Demonstration Participating In A Discussion 4. Guided Practice Activity Period 5. Independent Practice 6. Formative Assessment 7. Closure 8. Summative Assessment Projected Enthusiasm for Learning

20. Ten Effective Teaching Principles 1. Engaged Time 2. Success Rate 3. Content Coverage/ Opportunity to Learn 4. Grouping for Instruction 5. Scaffolded Instruction Ellis, Worthington, et. al., 2001

21. Ten Effective Teaching Principles 6. Addressing Forms of Knowledge 7. Activating & Organizing Knowledge 8. Teaching Strategically 9. Making Instruction Explicit 10. Teaching Sameness in the Curriculum

22. Engagement Time Principle 1: Students learn more when they are engaged actively during an instructional task. Engaged Time Engaged Time Achievement Achievement …time is an important instructional variable!!

23. Engagement Time • Three aspects of time that directly impact • student learning: • time allocated for the activity • degree to which students are engaged during the allocated time • the rates of success the students experience while engaged in the activity

24. Engagement Time • Academic Engaged Time • The amount of allocated time a student spends actively engaged in appropriate tasks that s/he can perform with a high rate of success. • This is learning!!! BTES

25. Effective Leaders: What We Know • Challenge the process • Inspire a shared vision • Enable others to act • Model the way • Encourage the heart

26. Effective Leaders • Believe that Schools are for Student Learning • Listen and Communicate • Are Proactive • Take Risks • Act on what they know (data-driven decision makers)

27. Clear vision Beliefs and mission (purpose) Purpose &Priority - Commitment to the “Main Thing” Goals (focus) Connected Workscope Tasks / Strategic Alignment of goals, tasks, resources Inter and intra community links Effective Leadership requires ….

28. 1. Establishing Clear Vision • The role of Beliefs and Core Values • The effectiveness of school improvement strategies is tied to how well the strategies developed are tied to the values, beliefs and technical skills of educators….. Newmann and Wehlage (1995)

29. Vision: Compelling Features • Expresses belief in a future that is better than the present • Has a clear timeframe • Helps the community rise above daily worries • Elevates the community • Springs from core values and beliefs

30. Vision: Compelling Features • Springs from core values and beliefs • Is clear and articulate • Is clear enough that all members can “find” themselves in it • Has the power to move people emotionally

31. Fundamental Values Ethical Code Convictions* William J. Cook, 1995. Character Heart and Soul Moral Commitments 2. Beliefs

32. Life-liberating Beliefs All children are capable of high achievement You are not suppose to understand everything the first time around Consistent effort is the main determinant of success Life-limiting Beliefs Only a few and the bright can achieve at high levels Speed is what counts, faster is smarter Inborn intelligence is the main determinant of success Liberating and Limiting Beliefs Jon Saphier and D’Auria, 1993

33. MISSION • Expression of Purpose and Function • Acknowledges Reality • Aspires to the Ideal • Reflects the Vision of the Leader

34. 3. Purpose and Priority • Defines The Main Thing • What we know about the main thing • People have different perceptions about what the main thing is • People quit when the main thing gets fuzzy • Gets everyone on the same page Monday Morning Leadership

35. 4. Goals • Specific targets that fulfill your purpose and set your direction • Lofty, challenging and reasonable

36. 5. Aligned/Connected Workscope • District’s Vision and Goals • School Reform Efforts • Professional Development • Community

37. Business Community Centers Mental Health Social Services Higher Education Worship Centers 6. Community Links

38. Aligned/Connected Workscope • Responsibilities and Tasks • Inter and Intra Office Connections • Goal Setting • Long Term • Short Term • Establishing Priorities

39. Leaders….. • Create opportunities for connections • Foster collaborative environments • Facilitate shared decision making • STAND FOR SOMETHING

40. Leaders…. Identify stakeholders and provide opportunities for stakeholders to establish common goals and interventions and evaluations systems • Work on processes for members of the system to share information and create new information Margaret Wheatley, Leadership for Change, 2001 Margaret Wheatley on “Leadership for Change”

41. LEADERS…. • ACT AS THE CONSCIENCE OF THE SYSTEM KEEPING ALL STAKEHOLDERS FOCUSED ON IT’S INTENDED PURPOSE.

42. Establish vision and set direction Affirm and articulate values Motivate Achieve unity Model Build Trust Listen and explain Represent the organization Come early, stay late Involve others in decision making Communicate, communicate and communicate Summary: What leaders do!

43. What We Do • Implement splinter or isolated programs • Tutoring • Pregnancy • Ignore the impact of general education curriculum • Minimize the power of relationship and connectedness • People • Organizational structures • Inter and intra

44. The Challenge • Focus on Student Achievement • Meeting the Mandates • Changing Mindsets • Multiplicity of Tasks • Broad Constituencies

45. The Challenge • Transforming what we know into what we do (research to practice) • Bridging the gap between what we know and what we do • Getting in touch with what we believe and trust

46. The Challenge • Applying principles of effective leadership to the drop out prevention issue • Developing a comprehensive plan to address drop out prevention with a focus on effective instruction • Committing Our Will!

47. THE OPPORTUNITIES • Improving Student Achievement • Meeting Educational Requirements • Sharing Responsibility Across Constituencies • Visioning for All Students • Reculturing Vs Restructuring • Expanding Student Opportunities • Safer Communities

48. Why We Do What We Do • Comfort • Lack of Resources • Lack of Will

49. Off the Dime! • Strategic Planning • Alignment of Goals • Instructional Implementation Integrity • Accountability • Collective Will Moving from where we are to where we need to be!