Greetings
Have you ever felt like you are on a merry- go -round that is just going and going with really no definite end is sight? Well this is exactly how I am feeling with yet another program being implemented without really working with the other.
Students with an emotional disability diagnosis have documented behavior intervention plans included in their paperwork as a proactive measure to help avoide disruptions. However, if a staff member fails to follow the approved plan; the result is a classroom disruption that usually requires a discipline referral writeup that makes the teacher stop teaching to address the behavior and complete the paperwork before the student can be removed from the classroom.
Would it not have been easier to just have followed the plan provided? Would it not be more advantageous for the student to be involved in instruction rather than being removed from the classroom?
And by the way did I mention that the school's performance is recorded as "unacceptable" by state standards?
So now I am confused. How will the school show performance growth and improvements if the students are not there to learn?
With that said, only recently another behavior program was implemented to address disruptive behavior of special education students. This plan is called Intervention, Redirect, and Return (IRR). Staff members learned of this new program at a campus faculty meeting and was told it would become effective the next day for particular students. Staff members were explained the steps of the program and the special education persons who would be overseeing the program and the forms that would be required for teachers to fill out when the removal of the student was necessary.
The problem with this is here we go with another program to implement without knowing or documentating that the intervention plans already in place were not effective. Why do we always want to implement another program before we work the "kinks" out of the old? How do we know the plans did not work, we didn't use them? So what if the new program of IRR does not work, will staff members get another program to use?
It's a merry-go-round that just keeps going and going with no definite end in sight. When will the educational system understand that no reform can be effective if it is never tried, changed, tried, and changed yet again if necessary to be successful. Educators must stop the chain of trying one dismissing that one only to put another in its place once again.
It's no wonder teachers are confused and the students with an emotional disability are out of control-no one is sure what to use to help the students. Change is great at times, but changes without documentation is a diaster waiting to happen.
What's your opinion?
Ivyspecial (Janis)
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2 comments:
Janis,
The merry-go-round effect, I think, should be listed in an educator’s job requirements. I don’t know one educator who doesn’t feel like they are running around in circles with very little investigation into what works and what doesn’t. New program implementations are the worst, because everyone jumps on the most recent bandwagon and simply expects it to work. Everything sounds good in theory, but no one knows if it truly works. Why? Because no one every revisits the idea. Sometimes I think they don’t do so because they really don’t want to know if it works. In other words, it is better to leave well enough alone. This can act as a HUGE detriment to the school as a whole.
Our school has implemented guided reading in grades K-5. Surprisingly, we do not give specific reading instruction in the grades 6-8. This is a problem in itself. Since guided reading as been brought to the school, teachers have seen a huge reading deficit. In all honesty, the teachers do not agree with the program, but they don’t even know if it is the reading program that is having a direct effect on our students’ reading ability. No one has checked! It could be the kids or it could very well be the lack of efficacy of the reading program. Yet, the kids are getting lower and lower in terms of their reading. Something has to be done. It was asked if the program had been evaluated, but we were told it works. That’s it. No more discussion took place. To my knowledge the program has never been revisited since its implementation. Therefore, a program is in place without any real evidence that it actually works.
What is so ironic to me is that schools are a place for learning. However, the adults in the building, teachers and administrators, think learning should only take place with the children. Never do the adults or the “people who know best” ever try to increase their own knowledge to help the school as a whole. Perhaps this occurs because ignorance is bliss!
Jenn
Well Janis- I agree that the merry go round effect should be one of the qualifications in order for students to graduate in this field. As a building administrator, I am at a point to where I am confused with some of the programs that are HANDED DOWN FROM OUR CURRICULUM DEPARTMENT. Majority of the time, we are able to view them and approve them, but we are not trained to know what is going on in our buildings. Not to mention our special education department and our regular education inclusion classrooms. With all of the modifications that must be applied in the classrooms with the IEP's, supplemental programs, and the regular classroom standards..it is a wonder they have not all quit!!!
Most of the programs that are researched based and sound great are not always fit for some individual schools. This school term, our supt. promised us that we would not implement any new programs. Teachers were feeling like they had implementened so many new things, they were not teaching. Teachers have to learn not to reinvent wheels that are already established.
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