Category: Updates

Literacy unlocks the door to opportunity. Among the top five skills for tomorrow’s jobs, as listed by RBC Economics Research, is reading comprehension. Every student should have opportunities to engage meaningfully with rich, authentic, complex text. Complex text is text that is worthy of repeated readings over multiple instructional periods, allowing the reader to re-read, investigate, and deeply analyze a text for language and meaning, ultimately making connections to the author and the world.  READ MORE

Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools Resources offer a range of free guides, curriculum aids, informational packets, and Playbooks to help lead one’s Special Olympics journey from elementary school to high school, and beyond. If you’re interested in starting a Unified Champion Schools program in your school or district, these resources are a great place to start. The Playbook series is intended for educators and students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels to assist in the process of becoming and maintaining a Unified program. Also included here are the Unified Physical Education Resource and the Unified Champion Schools Graduation Packet, tools that are essential for harnessing the passion of young leaders and offering a wide range of options for inclusive activities. READ MORE

This month’s update concerns two issues that were subject to recent court decisions and are of practical significance: (a) contingent IEPs for students in third-party placements, such as Medicaid-provided residential treatment facilities; and (b) restrictions on parental communications to district personnel based on a previous pattern of excessive or intimidating e-mails, calls, and/or visits.  READ MORE

The National Center for Systemic Improvement is pleased to present a two-part webinar series: Got Evidence? Where to Find and How to Use It to Make Sound Decisions About Evidence-Based Practices. The term “evidence-based practice” in early childhood has its roots in evidence-based medicine and relies upon identifying and combining multiple sources of evidence to make decisions about services for young children and their families. The NCSI has created an interconnected suite of tools that explain the history and rationale behind using these multiple sources, where to look for evidence, and how to appraise and combine the evidence to inform the selection, implementation, and evaluation of specific practices for individuals or groups of children and families.

The first webinar on Feb. 15 will introduce the suite of tools and engage participants in considering real world vignettes that illustrate their application in early childhood programs. Click here to register for webinar 1.

The second webinar on March 1 will engage participants more deeply in using the tools to conduct the search for evidence, evaluate information from different sources, and synthesize it to make decisions about practices to implement and how to ensure they improve outcomes for the children and families in participants’ specific contexts. Click here to register for webinar 2.

Care for children with trauma related needs.

Early trauma changes the developing brain and relationships hold the key to recovery. Key paradigm shifts and important tools for implementing compassionate, trauma-informed care allow us to navigate, facilitate and empower recovery and build resilience. This workshop will focus on:

• Implementing compassionate, trauma-informed care
• Crisis management and de-escalation techniques

The Details:

• When: March 23, 2019
• Where: Central Kitsap School District Teaching and Learning Center
• Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm (doors open at 8:30)
• Cost: $40 non-CCBD members/$35 CCBD members
• Register: WACCBD.ORG

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY TO PROVIDE INPUT ON SIGNIFICANTLY DISPROPORTIONALITY

CASE needs your input!  This is your opportunity to get involved and be heard! The CASE Executive Committee and the Policy and Legislative Committee continue to study the complex issue of disproportionality.  Please take this opportunity to review the work that has been done to date and provide input.  CASE needs your voice and expertise.

CASE has been hard at work on behalf of its members on the issue of disproportionality.  After gathering feedback at the Board of Directors meeting in November, CASE submitted comments regarding the issue to Johnny Collett, the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS).  As we move into the next phase, we are asking for additional feedback to ensure we are on the right track with our work.

A brief summary of the Letter to Johnny Collett:
The letter laid out a new path for the federal government to take with regard to disproportionality.  Specifically:

• Work with the IDEA Data Technical Assistance Center to identify three standard risk ratios that could be used across the country (rather than one) and require every school district to examine their practices around disproportionality once every four years using these risk ratios.
• Providing specific staff within OSEP to support technical assistance for states and local education agencies identifying issues with disproportionality.
• Reviewing the use of the 15% set aside required when a district is identified as having disproportionality.

The results of this survey will be used to tailor our message with the Department of Education and to provide additional feedback to key officials as this issue moves forward.

Please read the letter prior to taking this survey

Some schools are eliminating homework, citing research showing it doesn’t do much to boost achievement. But maybe teachers just need to assign a different kind of homework. In 2016, a second-grade teacher in Texas delighted her students — and at least some of their parents — by announcing she would no longer assign homework. “Research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance,” she explained.  READ MORE

A group behavior contingency is a classroom management system designed to proactively support appropriate classroom behavior. Groups or teams of students are rewarded for exhibiting appropriate or desirable classroom behaviors rather than being punished or reprimanded for exhibiting inappropriate or undesirable behaviors. Why use a GBC? Gimmicks like names on the board, check marks, and loss of recess don’t work and are self-shaming to students.  READ MORE

Curtis Chandler, a contributor for MiddleWeb, writes: “Few things are more frustrating for students (and their teachers) than having a concept or skill that has already been learned ‘leak out the brain’ and disappear mysteriously into thin air. As educators, we do our best to make things ‘sticky’ by piquing students’ interests, communicating clear learning goals, building on background knowledge, fostering and maintaining engagement, cultivating discussion, modeling and scaffolding challenging tasks, providing feedback, differentiating instruction, etc., etc.”  READ MORE