Strategies and Benefits of Teacher Parent Interaction in Education - Research Paper Example

? Learning Disabilities Learning Disabilities Chapter Four: Solution Strategy ment of Problem High school with learning disabilities who are placed in inclusive education classes do not show year to year progress on standardized tests. Discussion Remediation is needed to ensure the students passing rate on the standardized tests. Parents need to play a more active role within the student’s life especially at the high school level. Parents tend to think when student enters high school the level of tracking as a parent decreases. The researcher believes that if teachers, parents and the community worked with each other then and only then will people’s scores would increase. The researcher learned that there is a wealth of knowledge within her co-workers; especially, when it comes to the modifications with the students this research shared in people’s classes. People’s common goals were and still are the success of people’s students. However, schools do not see it that way. Unfortunately, what the school sees and wants is not always the same thing. This researcher will continue to monitor her student’s progress on the standardized tests, continue with the modifications within her classroom and continue working with the inclusion teachers. This was a great experience for her. This research is so caught up in people’s own world (being people’s classroom) this research cannot see what anyone else is doing. Month 1 Week 1 Who observes Observe students writing assessment within the classroom. Assign writing assignments. Are you using assessment and assignment interchangeably? Either go to my post during week 1 or apply the directions from the Student Handbook. Be sure you are reading all posts in the Main and Course Materials forum. Several aspects of this assignment indicate you’ve not read a number of my posts. Week 2 Identify SWD versus non-SWD writing samples Week 3 Continue to identify SWD versus non-SWD writing samples with the Inclusion/Special Education teacher. Week 4 Identify the area of weakness (compare previous GHSGT/EOCT). Remediation classes started this week. Month 2 Week 1 Once area of weaknesses is identified (compare previous GHSGT/EOCT). Incorporate different instruction writing activities discussed with the Inclusion/Special Education teacher. Week 2 Check students schedule (enrolled in an after school program). Grades from first progress report. Remediation classes for repeated failures. Week 3 GA High School Writing test will be administered this week. Week 4 Continue with the writing sessions incorporated within my classes. Month 3 Week 1 Continue with the writing sessions incorporated within my classes. Week 2 Meeting with English/Literature teacher reviewing writing samples of the students after the last sample. Week 3 Attending after school program monitoring the additional remediation classes being offered after school and how many students have attended. Week 4 GHSWT administered this week Month 4 Week 1 GHSWT administered this week Week 2 Fall Break (awaiting results) Week 3 Results are back 5 out of 12 passed the test this session. However, the remaining 7 did not pass. The scores range from 187-193. Additional remediation is required. Chapter Five: Results and Recommendations Problem Statement High school students with learning disabilities who are placed in inclusive education classes do not show year to year progress on standardized tests. Goals and Expectation The goal of this study is for high school students to show passing scores on standardized tests and show year-to-year progress on the GHSGT (i.e. Georgia High School Graduation Test). During this process, teachers will closely monitor the students’ progress every three weeks. Progress reports will be given to each student, and any student who has below a 75, the parents will be notified. Another goal for this study is for students to join the after school programs in order to get the extra remediation they will need to pass the class and successfully pass the end-of-course exam. These objectives were not met. Students’ scores did not improve as much as the research wanted them to. Results Students did not attain the high score, which was predicted in the analysis. Rather than the students’ scores increasing by five, they dropped. Scores from the tests, End-of-Course-Test, 6 weeks exam, Pre/Post Tests and final exams were lower when being compared to the GHSGT results. During the research analysis of students with disabilities taking standardized tests within an inclusion class, it was noted that the students are embarrassed to ask questions. They are afraid of being teased by their peers. During a meeting with some of the students after school, during the afterschool program, it was noted that being afraid of being teased is one of the main reasons the students were not passing the standardized tests. During a brief discussion with parents, some of them had no clue about the requirements of the GHSGT or what it is comprised of. When asked do they still have the results of their child’s test, their response was it is somewhere in the house or boxed up. The researcher, on the other hand, has her children’s entire collection of standardized test in a folder per child. The above chart shows that test scores between disabled students and normal students differ significantly. Normal students perform nearly half better when compared to disabled students. Discussion Students who are exceptional and have learning disabilities, as well, are those who hold an outstanding talent or gift and are able to perform highly, but who also possess a learning disability, which makes some features of academic achievement extremely hard for them. A lot of these learners are recognized, and their needs are met. This occurs only rarely, not unless a school purposely decides to recognize and then serve these learners. A majority of learners who have learning disabilities are normally forgotten in the system. Learners with disabilities often use accommodations to take part in extensive, standardized assessments (Bradley et al, 2002). Accommodations can comprise of transformations to the administration of the test, for instance changes to the test items (read aloud), and extended time or transformations to the student’s response like the use of a scribe. Some modifications or accommodations risk altering the complexity of the test items or lessening the soundness of how test scores are understood (Bradley et al, 2002). Questions concerning the validity of accommodated tests are increased when scores are utilized in high-stakes decisions like graduation, grade promotion, teacher merit pay and other accountability initiatives. Learners with learning disabilities have better or normal intelligence, but they also hold harsh information-processing deficits, which make them perform considerably worse in one or more academic fields (writing, reading, math) than may be anticipated, given their performance and intelligence in other academic fields. Even though, all learning disabilities are diverse, learners with learning disabilities, according to the results of the study, show some common problems, comprising of slow and incompetent reading; sluggish essay-writing, with troubles in organization, as well as the mechanics of writing; and numerous errors in math calculation. There are changes that could be made on this project to ensure that future research are more accurate, and the findings are constructive. Some of the improvements that should be incorporated in future research concerning this study are confidence to take up explorative study, permission to carry out the research particular centers, seek for publishing funds and sponsors, as well as easy access to the needed literature. Access to the needed literature was a major issue experienced during the literature review. The unavailability of access to Internet, unawareness of the methods to search needed articles from journals or other academic databases were other stern problems. Searching newspaper articles or books from conventional libraries consumed a lot of effort and time. The lack of confidence to undertake explorative studies were due to the fear of negative results, which the study attained eventually, and also the fear of not being able to answer tough questions during the presentation. Critics argue that a researcher should have the guts to disseminate the result of his or her study as it is the truth he or she has come to recognize after the research process. Furthermore, not all institutions permitted students to their centers to carry out research. This might be owing to security reasons, or the institution does not trust if the researcher will maintain the confidentiality of the institution. This was a major hurdle for the study, which, if rectified, in the future, then it would have some positive effect on the study. Finally, the lack of adequate funding, as well as sponsorship, is a huddle to any study, and this was not exceptional. The study lacked adequate funding, which, consequently lead to its unconstructive results. Future research should ensure that they have adequate resources to publish and carry out each and every matter that will make it effective. Below are some of the suggestions that critics have found to be helpful when working with learners who have learning disabilities. Learners with learning disabilities can consume more time when doing their exams and may require extra time (Bradley et al, 2002). Learners with learning disabilities can also consume more time when doing their assignments, so it is particularly vital to give a comprehensive syllabus at the start of the class (Francis et al, 2005). The syllabus must list all assignments, as well as the due-dates. If possible, an educator should grant frequent chances for feedback: for instance, weekly test on assigned topics, teacher analysis of early drafts of essays and error-analysis of tests. If a learner’s written exams appear far inferior to the learner’s classwork, then the teacher and disabled student meet during the teacher’s office hours to talk about the exam questions. Such as talk will give the teacher improved ideas of what the student, in reality, knows and how the teacher can assist the disabled student produce better written work or exams. Teachers should be charged with the duty of encouraging students to contact them so as to clarify assignments. Teachers may propose that learners re-phrase the assignment and send the revised version to them via e-mail. The educator can also reply via e-mail to the learners, ensuring that the student has comprehended the assignment or correcting misinterpretations. Before the start of a class session, the educator can leave a list of significant and recommended texts at the department office and inform the staff that learners with disabilities should be allowed to produce copies of the list or the book-list can be put on the course website. Some learners with learning disabilities will want to order their textbooks from Dyslexic and Recordings for the Blind and obtaining such books takes a lot of time. An educator should be sensitive to learners who, for disability-related causes, might be incapable of reading aloud or answering questions when asked. If students make the educator aware of these difficulties, then the teacher and students can talk about other ways, which they can significantly take part in class sessions for instance, making short presentations or volunteering comments. Educators should consider composing exams in a manner, which makes them accessible for learners with learning disabilities. They should ensure that exams are plainly typed or written, in large numbers or black letters, with ample spaces between lines (triple or double spacing). Also, in order for teachers to avoid visual confusion, cramming a lot of questions or putting too many math problems in a single page, they should put questions on just one side of the paper. Educators should consider grouping similar kinds of questions together, for instance, all multiple-choice, all true/false and all short-answers. They leave several spaces between different types of questions. Teachers should allow learners to circle answers in the test booklet instead of darkening circles on a Scantron sheet. Teachers should also permit learners to use extra paper in planning answers to essay questions. Persuade the learner to hand in scrawled notes or preliminary outlines with the completed exam bluebooks. Teachers should propose that math students utilize graph paper to guarantee neatness and avoid perplexity when doing math calculations. Recommendations and Plan for Dissemination Big steps have been made in the past years in research, legislation and education to purify and improved the comprehensive evaluation and assessment process. The necessities for comprehensive assessment and evaluation are incorporated in the special education principles of each and every State Education Agency (SEA) (Francis et al, 2005). The evaluation and assessment process is an essential part of educational decisions regarding students who might have learning disabilities. To guarantee the constant advancement of professional practice in a comprehensive evaluation and assessment of students with learning disabilities, institutions should strongly supports and advocates for the recommendations that will be discussed below. Research 1. Researchers must carry out studies to guide the selection of the most appropriate and relevant battery of assessment measures in order to identify learners with learning disabilities, as well as inform instruction. 2. Ongoing research must be carried out so as to identify and expand looms to other models of assessment of learners with learning disabilities (for instance, dynamic assessment, growth models and rule of universal design for learning). 3. Developmental data must be gathered concerning older students on a wide variety of compound skills, such as literacy, subsystems of language and academic content areas. Considerable attention must be granted to research in the creation of assessment measures with sufficient specificity and sensitivity for learners with learning disabilities across ages. 4. It is vital for such research to include a focus on the vital issue of disproportionality in special education (SE), particularly the overrepresentation of learners from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. 5. Extensive, longitudinal research across local districts and states are required steadily to explore wide-ranging evaluation and assessment processes. This study would incorporate gathering and examining RTI data, making distinctions to earlier relied-upon data, and applying the required changes. Professional Development 1. It is vital for ongoing education to happen to all professionals who are anticipated to participate in group decision making so that they can constantly reveal the skill of partnering with other experts, students and families in all phases of the evaluation, assessment and program planning procedures. 2. Teaching, administrative, as well as other related service providers, must be conscious of the possible impact of linguistic and cultural diversity on the administration, selection, and understanding of assessment measures and identification, eligibility along with instructional processes. 3. Premeditated, periodic professional growth actions, comprising of, but not restricted to, opportunities for discussions, video, interactive sessions and observations, along with printed information, written prompts on appropriate documents and other experiences are required to guarantee both understanding and use by all experts in an educational setting. 4. Professional development must be granted for both middle and secondary school staff that centered on the effects of current legislation and improved practical assessment information, which supports students and families as they get ready for transition from high school to the more advanced postsecondary education. 5. Comprehending the role of assessment in developing student courses, goals and curriculum, as well as in developing and completing the SOP under IDEA principles is vital. Equally significant are realizing the protections of the Disabilities Act of 2008, meeting admission standards comprising of medical evaluation or a psycho educational and accessing required support services like accommodations, universal design for learning and assistive technology. 6. Local and state agencies must offer professional development for all teachers, comprising of general education teachers and district and school administrators, to guarantee understanding of limitations for the determination of learning disabilities, wide-ranging evaluation, assessment and instructional practices. Families and Advocates 1. School district staff must create significant methods in which families and other advocates might be incorporated in the comprehensive evaluation and assessment of learning disabilities for their students. 2. School districts and other significant entities must increase training and information for families, as well as other advocates of both recommended and mandated components of the widespread assessment and evaluation procedure for students whose learning difficulties might be owing to learning disabilities. 3. School districts must make sure that educational staff comprehend and can communicate to families the need for early, joint and centered transition planning and assessment. Families of students who might look for admission to postsecondary education should be conscious that, even though the SOP document needed under IDEA can be supportive, a majority of the higher institutions of learning still need a medical report or a recent psycho educational evaluation from a qualified doctor to establish eligibility under the ADA. Administration/Leadership 1. School administrators should offer the infrastructure and resources needed for efficient evaluation and assessment (e.g., current and appropriate assessment tools, continuing professional development and current materials), high quality and data-driven instruction, ample time for data gathering and analysis and partnership (e.g. adequate joint planning time for groups). 2. District and school administrators should offer required leadership, as well as logistical support, to multidisciplinary evaluation team members to make certain the appropriate application of the all-inclusive evaluation and assessment processes. 3. Finally, educators must critically inspect the relationship between standards, curriculum and accountability measures, as well as the multidimensional nature of wide-ranging evaluation and assessment to make sure that meaningful information is accessible for decision making. References Bradley, R. et al. (2002). Identification of learning disabilities: Research to practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Francis, D. J. et al. (2005). Psychometric approaches to the identification of LD: IQ and achievement scores are not sufficient. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38(15), 98–108. Read More