Making All Teachers Better Teachers for Students with Disabilities Cheryl Wold, Ph.D., Alan Neville, Ed.D., and Andria Moon, Ed.D. Northern State University Aberdeen, SD

Introductions Who is in the audience? What are some barriers to collaboration?

Collaboration What thoughts come to mind when you think of collaboration? Education often viewed as a profession in isolation Collaboration has always been needed in special education, informally, but now an expectation Definition “a style for direct interaction between at least two co- equal parties voluntarily engaged in shared decision making as they work toward a common goal.” (Friend, 2014, p. 104)

History of Collaboration - Special/GeneralEducation 1977 - First Year of Teacher Education and Special Education Journal “The issue of whether inclusion was to be or not to be the way of life in America’s schools has been decided. The affirmative position won in both the courts and the nation’s legislatures by impressive majorities. The resolution of the issue leave us with many problems to solve. One area in which we believe it is important to address the problems of mainstreaming is the preparation of regular class teachers.” (Reynolds & Birch, 1977, p.25). 1980s Regular Education Initiative 1990s Inclusion

“One of the problems we face in education is that we work in silos “One of the problems we face in education is that we work in silos. You've got P-12 schools working in one silo. You have universities working in still another silo, and then there’s another silo where state agencies work. We’re often not on the same page. Because we’re not, we often don’t get done the things that we need to do that make a difference for meeting all the needs of students in schools. The important thing is figuring out how to get out of the silos so that we can work together.” David Hill

CEEDAR Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR) Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) project involving many states including South Dakota Our involvement

State Goal 1 *Increase the ability of general and special teachers, school leaders and teacher candidates to {successfully/inclusively} address the needs of all learners through education, assessment, and accountability

State Goal 2 *All professional educators including Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) faculty are prepared, supported, and engaged in ongoing professional development to effectively apply ideas of differentiated education that embed evidence-based research, curriculum, and instruction so that all educators can meet the needs of students with disabilities and students who struggle.

Work at NSU Course Development and Redesign Mentoring Program Research

Activities: Map curriculum, review courses using the configuration matrix, and implement the features of effective instruction into our courses Develop a Special Education Law course for the graduate leadership and administration program Develop a general Special Education course for the graduate Teaching and Learning Program Develop a graduate Reading course Review and possibly revise the teacher candidate student teaching final evaluation to include the effective instructional competencies

Innovation Configurations ICs

Redesigned Courses Features of Effective Instruction were added to four undergraduate courses: ELED 440 K-8 Language Arts Methods EDFN 455 Research-based Literacy Instruction and Assessment SEED 400 Methods and Media for Middle/High School SEED 450 Reading and Content Literacy

Features of Effective Instruction Explicit Instruction with Modeling Systematic Instruction with Scaffolding Multiple Opportunities to Practice Immediate Corrective Feedback Progress Monitoring

Explicit Instruction 8th Grade Social Studies Active Participation Pair Share and Discuss

New Teacher Mentoring Program Pilot program modeled after North Dakota Teacher Support System mentoring model, see https://www.nd.gov/espb/teacher-support Program aligned to the Danielson Framework, https://www.danielsongroup.org/framework/ Program aligned to the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, see http://www.nbpts.org/ Mentor teachers attend daylong training session in August 2016 Follow-up daylong training session conducted in January 2017 Mentoring occurs during the 2016-2017 school year

New Teacher Mentoring Program (Cont.) Program requirements: Training for mentor teachers Mentor teacher conducts 3 classroom observations and provides feedback to new teacher Mentor and new teacher complete 15 hours of face-to-face meetings New teachers observe other classrooms Building administrator signs off on mentor assignment Mentor teacher receive $500 stipend and $40/1-credit graduate class

Challenges State Mentoring Program Board of Regents Approval Sustainability

Questions

Contact Information Cheryl.Wold@northern.edu Alan.Neville@northern.edu Andria.Moon@northern.edu

References Archer, A.L. and Hughes, C.A., (2011). Explicit instruction, effective and efficient teaching. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Friend, M. (2014). Special education: Contemporary perspectives for school professionals. (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. North Dakota Teacher Support System. (2015). Mentor Manual. Bismarck, ND: North Dakota Teacher Support System. Northern State University. (2016) Mentor Manual. Aberdeen, SD: Northern State University. Reynolds, M.C. and Birch, J.W. (1977). The interface between regular and special education, Teacher Education and Special Education, 1, 12-27.