How Hortonville Area School District’s Special Education Services Increased LRE from 48% to 70% in Two Years
Change needed to happen, and it needed to happen quickly.
When Director of Pupil Services Lori Smits started working at Hortonville Area School District in 2015, the inclusion rate for special education students in general education courses was 48%. Less than half of the students with disabilities received instruction in general education classrooms because many subjects were considered “too hard” for students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs).
However, Lori knew the best place for special education students to learn was in the general education classrooms, which sparked her effort to improve the rate of students being served in the least restrictive environment (LRE).
The Barriers Faced by Hortonville’s Special Education Services
When she started with Hortonville, Lori asked questions and discovered some of the systemic barriers that were limiting the LRE opportunities for students with disabilities. These barriers included:
- A collective mindset that students who exhibit behavior issues in general education classrooms have academic skill deficits.
- The use of self-contained Emotional Behavior Disorders (EBD) classrooms across the district.
- Non standards-based IEP goals.
- Difficulties for special and general educators alike in designing instruction and managing behaviors for special education students in general education classrooms.
“I knew the best place for kids to learn was in the general education classroom … I asked myself, ‘How was I going to get them there?’”
The Vision for Special Education in Hortonville
To overcome these barriers, they developed a “Core and More” strategy. The “Core” refers to the notion that general education teachers are the best sources for core content expertise, and they should be able to support all students. The “More” signifies the customized instruction that special educators provide to further support students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD).
To execute their vision, Lori identified two crucial requirements:
- A better way for special educators to write standards-based IEP goals aligned with the standards-based report cards the special education students would receive due to being in the general education classroom.
- A Universal Design for Learning (UDL) resource that would support both special and general education teachers in differentiating standards-based instruction for students with disabilities in the general education classroom.
“I knew the best place for kids to learn was in the general education classroom,” Lori said. “I asked myself, ‘How was I going to get them there?’” In search of a tool to help with UDL and standards-aligned IEP goals, Lori found Goalbook Toolkit.
The Keys to Hortonville’s Implementation of Goalbook Toolkit
One key to starting the implementation of Goalbook Toolkit was collaborating with Hortonville’s District and School Customer Success Manager, Gretchen, and choosing one focus area per year.
“I really tried to scaffold the learning for the staff, so I worked closely with Gretchen and planned out the first year,” said Lori. With Gretchen’s thought partnership, Lori decided to start by focusing on IEP goal-writing.
During the first year, Lori and two IEP reviewers regularly read IEP goals. If they were not standards-based goals, Lori would have the special educators rewrite them using Goalbook Toolkit to ensure they were standards-aligned. Through accountability and continual feedback for both the writing of standard-based goals and the use of Goalbook Toolkit, Lori addressed the critical need of aligning IEP goals with standards-based report cards students received from being in general education classes. It also supported the vision of “Core and More.”
These key factors at the beginning of Hortonville’s Goalbook Toolkit implementation laid a solid foundation for the continual partnership between Goalbook and Hortonville. Since the first year, Gretchen has worked closely as a thought partner to Lori to align professional development and trainings with Lori’s goals. This ongoing collaboration has strengthened the relationship between Goalbook and Hortonville. Lori said: “Gretchen is such a good cognitive coach. She listens and sends questions or wonderings to help prompt me to see what I need to do.”
“Goalbook Toolkit has provided staff with the skills, ability, courage, and belief that inclusion and LRE can be done.”
Goalbook Toolkit Provides Resources and Skills that Shift Educator Mindset
Six years into the implementation, Goalbook Toolkit is embedded in Hortonville educators’ work and belief system. Lori said that “having a resource like Goalbook Toolkit that offers tools for progress monitoring, behavior, and UDL strategies for specially designed instruction created a mindset change.” Teachers have come to understand that an academic skill deficit is not a behavior problem.
“Goalbook Toolkit has provided staff with the skills, ability, courage, and belief that inclusion and LRE can be done,” said Lori. “They now have something to use with Goalbook Toolkit to make it happen.”
Inclusion Coach Keisha Stuart reinforced this by saying, “Goalbook Toolkit has strategies that we know work. When we use them as a team with fidelity, students can be successful in their general education setting. I think it’s just beautiful that there are so many different strategies, resources, and even templates.”
Goalbook Toolkit Supports Both the Increase of Special Education Students in LRE and Improved Student Outcomes
The prior systemic barriers that existed in Hortonville have been removed with the support of Goalbook Toolkit. As a result, Lori and her team:
- Increased the number of students from 48% to 70% in LRE for 80% or more of their day (within two years of Lori starting as Director of Pupil Services).
- Consistently maintained LRE at 88%.
- Reduced EBD self-contained classrooms in Hortonville to zero.
More importantly, the inclusion of special education students in LRE has proven beneficial for student academic growth. Before Hortonville started using Goalbook Toolkit, the special education achievement data was below the state average. After implementing Goalbook Toolkit, it increased and consistently hovers around the 80th percentile.
Hortonville’s dedication to inclusive practices and implementation of Goalbook Toolkit reiterates that “students with disabilities can be successful in the general education classroom if you give everybody resources that they need in order to be successful or help the student be successful,” said Keisha.
Lori said, “I truly believe Goalbook Toolkit is a game changer.”
Goalbook Toolkit Helped Remove Barriers and Make Change Happen for Hortonville’s Special Education Services
Shifting the collective mindset of a district, increasing the number of students in LRE, and improving student outcomes is no small feat. Hortonville School District’s story is a prime example of how Goalbook Toolkit can be leveraged as a foundational tool that supports systemic improvements in educators’ beliefs, goal writing, collaboration, and instruction. All of which have a positive impact on student achievement.
This level of change doesn’t happen overnight, but Lori says, “If you stay the course and focus on the right things, change will happen.”
Learn more about how Goalbook supports districts.
