Grading in an Inclusive Classroom

Grading is always a hot topic in schools. Throw into the mix a classroom with learners who access the curriculum in various ways, students who are "off" grade level, and mindset shifts of what meeting the standard really is, and you're left with a Pandora's box of questions.

A friend of mine, Julia Snider (who has her own awesome blog), shared with me this amazing resource she found. It's been a go-to of mine over the last two years as an instructional coach for my schools.

Grading Resource 101

Flowchart: This is a GEM!

This is a helpful tool when determining HOW to start the grading process. It's referred to on the Think Inclusive blog as well. IEP teams can use this to determine how to write grading procedures into the IEP. Co-teach teams can use when grading assignments, assessments, and projects.

Dennis Munk, Ph.D., from the University of Kansas, provides an extraordinary resource for teachers that describes adapted grading.

Below are some of his suggestions for teachers:

a) Prioritize assignments that will cover most of the material

b) Incorporate progress on IEP objectives

c) Grade on processes used to complete work

d) Grade student effort, changing weights and scales

e) Assess progress made over time

Modified Grading:

A student receiving modifications should receive a modified grading scale. A narrative, described in the IEP grading portion, should detail the specific criteria put in place with justifications WHY the modifications are in place.  A C is meeting the standard. Inherently, a student receiving a true modification should not receive anything over a C because it would demonstrate a skill has been met above the standard and therefore a modification isn't necessary. There are always exceptions to the rule, but in general a modified assignment should help a student meet the standard.

An A is exceeding the standard
A B is above the standard
A C is meeting the standard
A D is not meeting the standard
A F should not be assigned to a student with an IEP- if a student is failing, the adult team supporting the student is failing to provide adequate supports and services

Final thoughts:

At my school in Chicago, we used a 10 point grading scale. 90-100% was an A, 80-89% was a B, etc. We decided as a school that a C is meeting the standard. That means that if you demonstrated knowledge of meeting the standard, you earn a C. This became the benchmark for many of our students who were off grade level but demonstrated that they met the standard through their accommodated work. A B is going above the standard an an A is exceeding the standard.

For a student with an IEP and an identified learning disability in reading to get an A in reading might be a falsehood of how that student is performing. They've been identified with a disability for being off grade level. That's not to say that a student with an IEP can or shouldn't ever receive an A. Each student demonstrates how they've met the standard in a different way. However, a typical rule of thumb is: if the student is performing off grade level but is able to meet the standard with an accommodation, their grade should reflect HOW they met the standard.


What grading resources have you found useful?

Inclusive IEP Writing

I often get questions around how to make an IEP reflect the instructional strategies in an inclusive environment. I also get lots of questions around the justification in the LRE section.

I run a training in our district around inclusive IEP writing, but wanted to put out some handy tips and resources for all to share.

Cheryl Jorgenson, an Inclusion Consultant and researcher, has several sample IEPs on her website. While sharing sample IEPs can lead people to tempt the "copy and paste" syndrome, it can be important to have a reference and an idea of how particular sections should be crafted.

Inclusive IEPs:

• IEPs are living, breathing documents
• Goals are based on standards. Standards, standards, standards!
• The LRE is a continuum
• The LRE should be written as a narrative
• There are direct and indirect (consultative) services that can be written into the IEP

Specialized instruction can be provided by anyone, but is monitored and trained by the special education provider. You heard that right! The Colorado Department of Education agrees. Special education teachers don't have a magic wand to close the achievement gap.

LRE

In 2014 Erin Barton and Barbara J. Smith generated the ‘Brief Summary: Fact Sheet of Research on Preschool Inclusion’. One point states: “Children with disabilities do not need to be ‘ready’ to be included. Programs need to be ‘ready’ to support all children.”

The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) seems to be interpreted as a place where students are required to "earn" their way into the classroom. Let's be clear here: ALL students are supposed to start in the least restrictive environment possible, which is most times general education. Skill sets of teachers, mindset of adults on the IEP team and the district, and other adult barriers often prevent general education as being thought of as the first option for students with IEPs. Rather, students must "prove" they can behave in the class, learn their multiplication charts (just give them a calculator, people!), or read at a certain level before they're allowed "in" the general education room all day.

Ways to Increase Access to Other LREs

• How can we take a portion of the agenda and make it accessible?
• Do Now- accessible questions, draw a vocabulary term
• Mini-lesson- exposure
• Guided practice: students at seat with accessible packet of tools
• Independent practice: students are provided with materials at their instructional level. Can be completed independently OR in a small group.
• Master schedule
• Flexible scheduling
• Case management versus service delivery
• Collaborative structures and admin support
• Center program teacher has collaborative planning with other SPED teachers.
• Center program teacher has consultative time built in for applicable general education teachers

Direct Versus Indirect Supports

200 mpw in reading.  How many of those minutes are spent directly supporting the reading goal?! Do you need 200 minutes to provide instruction around the goal OR to help the student in reading class?  If it’s the latter, you’re writing minutes wrong.

The goal of special education is independence.  We want to create independence in our instructional strategies that we provide, in person through direct support and through INDIRECT support (creating the modifications)

Other General Rules of Thumb:

• 

  Minutes that match the need to teach the goal
• WHO can provide the specialized instruction
• What amount of time will be needed to prepare accommodations for the subject area in which the goal is related to?
• How does the goal relate back to how the disability manifests itself in the subject area?

School Culture Shifts

     What is your school doing to be more inclusive? To promote equity and access for all students, regardless of disability label, color of skin, race, ethnicity, and sexual preference?  The current news in our country is a deep, urgent reminder of how important it is to teach acceptance of differences and create communities where all are accepted. In Denver, many of our schools are on the road map to creating an inclusive culture with an emphasis on equity for all. 

    Here are some main characteristics of Inclusive School Culture (from Kluth/Causton)

•         All school staff is invested in the success of ALL students
•         Staff uses language reflective of an inclusive philosophy (i.e. “our students” vs. “your students” or “my students”)
•         All students engaged in appropriate (but not necessarily identical) learning activities 
•         Range of curricular adaptations and modifications offered to all learners 
•         Frequent teacher collaboration

    School culture shifts don't just happen. They require an administrator who keep the vision of an inclusive culture at the forefront of all conversations. There isn't an "inclusion session" during one part of one PD on one day. It's embedded into everything that's done as a staff. 

      Below are some pictures of a staff that's currently done a HUGE amount of work towards building an inclusive community. The administration team has built a master schedule that allots for not only co-teaching, but co-planning as well. They've met as a school to learn more about what inclusion means on numerous occasions. They've created an Inclusion Team that focuses on technical assistance, like how to tackle first year co-teaching, instructional strategies that are universally designed, and learning how to support students of all needs together. This is a school that up until June supported many students with IEPs in small pull-out, or resource, groups to provide specialized instruction. 

      Today, they had a PD day before the students arrive to create classroom culture plans.  A pretty typical before-school PD, right?  Well, here's what's different: culture plans were created by ALL teachers in each classroom, regardless of label of degree. Typically, these are developed by the general education classroom teacher. This year, both co-teachers had equal say in how the culture should be addressed and developed.  There's other little, but very meaningful changes, too. Both names are on the doors. If there's a paraprofessional in the classroom, all THREE names are on the door.  Humbled to witness this cultural shift in action. Amazed to hear "our students" language, to see this teacher collaboration occur.

In an inclusive school culture, it's 100% of staff for 100% of all teachers. 

 

Co-Teachers planning for the culture and behavior management in their classroom.


What is your school doing to shift the culture towards a more inclusive space for all? 

Creating Your Own "Roadmap" to Inclusion

A few weeks ago, we had our first cohort meeting with all the schools involved in our Inclusive Practices Pilot.  As my colleagues and I sat down to plan out what we would do, it become clear very quickly that every school was in these vastly different places.

Some schools are in a planning year: they're trying to create buy-in from staff, plan for schedules, and learn about strategies that will support students in the inclusive classroom. Other schools are working hard at creating better "push-in" services: they're working towards keeping students who would typically be pulled out of their classroom for specialized instruction IN the regular class. Some schools have started dabbling in co-teaching. A few schools have ripped off the band-aid and got rid of all their resource rooms. Then there are the schools who have full co-taught classrooms and are attempting to now start including students with more significant needs who would typically be in a self-contained classroom.

How can we possibly all be learning the same thing at the same time?!  It felt like being a general education teacher, trying to meet each team where they were at on their own learning path.  As we embrace the philosophies of personalized learning and universal design, it would only seem fitting that an activity was designed to challenge each school on a level that met their individual needs....


The Roadmap Activity:

Each school was tasked with several guiding questions.  Follow the link above to give you the guiding questions we used.  I wanted schools to think about what they are doing NOW.  What is working, what services currently look like, what the buy-in level is like at the school.  Then each school was asked to think about what they envisioned their school to look like in a year, in two years, in five years.  What did services look like along the way?

We know that there are several KEY INGREDIENTS  that schools need to have in order to be a successful and effective inclusive school.  The reality of the pilot program and of most current schools is that there won't be a designated inclusion facilitator/coach/mentor for the entire process.

 In order to create sustainability, it's important that each school owns its own path, determines what is a sustainable pathway for itself, and identify what specific needs and fears should be addressed.  I think that it is imperative that the members of the learning community at the school level be the ones to develop their plan.  They truly understand the specific ingredients they already have and can identify what they need to move forward.  When the road map is designed with this front-loaded planning, it greatly helps a facilitator know where to effectively begin the work to support the school. It's personalized learning at it's most personal.

The best part?  Each school had a rare opportunity to sit down and be accountable for creating their own inclusion scope and sequence.  Every school in attendance was engaged and ownership was felt throughout the room. As a facilitator, I was absolutely blown away with the amount of think time each school put into their own plans.  It was so so so cool to see the self-assessment of where each school feels like it's at, to see a list of specific needs and fears that they have, and to learn more about the specific vision and goal they wanted for their school.  It is what will help drive my facilitation and coaching this school year.

There are so many possibilities for an activity like this!  It can be done at the school level: at a department meeting, at a principal leadership committee meeting, with parent groups, at a classroom level, or even as a vision and goal setting meeting with a facilitator.  Check out some roadmaps below!

There are so many incredible resources out there that discuss how to build effective inclusive schools. Thomas Hehir with Lauren Katzam'book, Richard Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand's book, and Paula Kluth's book are all phenomenal resources when determining how you will create your own "roadmap".  What key ingredients do you think make a school inclusive?

Fairness and Equality

Many teachers, principals, and even some parents use equality as an arguing point against including all students in the general education setting. "It's not fair to the general education students". "It's not fair to the teachers to have to do more work". "More attention will be put on the students who have IEPs and the typical students will fall behind".

Fair is getting what you need.

Fair is getting a shot.

Fair is not getting the exact same thing.



These are such important notions to discuss with students as you embark including all students with all types of needs in the classroom.  Open, frequent discussions need to be had as a classroom community to ensure that all students understand why and how they learn.

I'm so excited to be discussing this very topic with a group of teachers who are embarking on the inclusion journey this week at our first cohort meeting.  At the advice of a colleague, we are going to be doing this activity! It is my hope that teachers will take this activity back to their own classrooms to facilitate these discussions.

Having the language be part of the daily school culture will help students to understand how they learn, how their classmates learn, and why their classroom is a place that welcomes and celebrates all learners!

Inclusion is Not a Location

Your school decides that it's going to "try inclusion".  Binders with the word "Inclusion" are made, schedules that include students at recess and lunch are created, and everyone feels warm and fuzzy that students are getting to enjoy inclusion.... This is the reality in our schools in 2015.

In my brain, I want to scream, "This is not okay! What is happening?!".  But even though I come from a Utopian land of a fully inclusive school, I know that this IS okay.  This IS the starting place for many (okay most) schools as they begin to think about how they will use better practices for their students with diverse needs.

Everyone needs to start somewhere.  I want to start changing peoples' ideas about inclusion. It is not a place. It is not a location. It is not a schedule.  It is a belief system.  And you have to start somewhere. This blog will serve as diary of several urban public and charter schools as they start their journeys towards inclusion and using best practices for ALL learners.

Thanks for joining the journey!