:sorry: Just spent two days in a district training about data teams. Never once was the needs of special education students mentioned, though ELL needs was mentioned often. I am in a district that thinks that sped students on the multiply-handicapped/severe/ED/moderate spectrum should be educated in the special day class ONLY, even if the IEP team decides that at least SOME inclusion would be beneficial. I finally had to speak up and ask about WHERE, in their wonderful instructional strategy scenarios, using some strategies for students with special needs fit in. The trainers turned my question over to "district specialists" who answered that students with multiple and severe needs were only included for "social" purposes, not learning opportunities. Aaarrrrrggghhhh!
Can you describe data teams? From what I read online, it seems like PLCs...could the sped teachers form a team of their own? Or find teams where the sped teacher works closely with the students of the teachers on those teams? I'm in a grade level PLC...we have the sped teacher who works with our kids on our committee...most of our work involves planning for gen Ed, but she weighs in on differentiating for the classified students.
Yes, our special education dept is a PLC. There are four RSP teachers, 1 ED teacher, and me, the mod/sev SDC teacher. Our students really have little in common. I do data studies every day on my students, so its really not helpful. My problem with the whole system is that it seems as if everyone, including those planning all of these systems at the District level, give very little thought to students with mod/sev disabilities. They truly are "left behind".
