Three Must See Resources for Special Education Administrators to Start the School Year

Another school year is upon us and, like every school year before, there are unique challenges that must be addressed. Your district (and even each school site within your district) has its own pain points, and there will never be one-size-fits-all solutions. Despite this, there is a commonality that can be found in any school or district: administrators and educators who deeply care about students figure out ways to overcome challenges and provide an education that helps all students succeed.

To help support you with the challenges you face at the beginning of the school year, Goalbook curated a list of three must see resources with actionable takeaways you can implement to support educator and student success.

Each resource below includes a specific challenge, key takeaways and summaries, and links to find more information.

Resource 1. How to Facilitate Productive Systems-Change Conversations with Your General Education Counterpart

Challenge: A lack of buy-in from your general education counterparts.

Watch the Full Presentation Here. Total run time: 89 minutes

Don’t Have Time to Watch Right Now? Here’s an Overview:

Sometimes it can be challenging to get all of our general education counterparts to believe every student is capable of performing at grade level. In this session, Katie Novak, Ph.D. argues that in order to help change these beliefs, we need to address two barriers:

Barrier #1: Inclusive practices but not inclusive classrooms.

Katie addresses the access (or lack thereof) to traditional general education programs for special education students. 4/10 students with disabilities do not have equitable access to grade level general education classrooms, even though it is the law. Special education students do not solely belong to the special education department; every student is a general education student first. All students can be a part of the same program if we provide opportunities for them to choose their pathways, tools, and goals. A question we must ask the general education community is: Do you believe every student can be successful in their own way?

Barrier #2: The hierarchy of special education.

A lot of decisions about special education are made by the special education department working on its own. To increase buy-in from general education counterparts, they need to be a part of the conversation and strategic planning. Your general education counterparts are more likely to hear from you when you hear from them. To accomplish this, Katie presents the idea of a horizontal organization with shared decision-making and open lines of communication. You do this through practicing radical candor and caring enough to respectfully confront whatever it is you want to change.

Katie Novak identifies key components of Horizontal Organizations. See this slide and more in her presentation.

Key Actionable Takeaway: Invite general education counterparts to conversations and strategic planning about special education. Doing this sets the foundation for two important items:

1. Shared decision-making
2. Open lines of communication

The first step of a horizontal organization is to do a needs assessment. But, you can’t fix what you aren’t willing to talk about. So, are you willing to respectfully confront what it is you want to change? Your general education counterparts are more likely to hear from you when you hear from them.

Resource 2. How to Redesign Your District’s IEP Meetings to Be Inclusive and Culturally Responsive so that All Students Can Succeed

Challenge: Focusing too much on the compliance factor of IEP meetings can make them challenging and cause participants to feel excluded.

Watch the Full Presentation Here. Total run time: 84 minutes

Don’t Have Time to Watch Right Now? Here’s an Overview:

One reason IEP meetings are challenging is because of the compliance factor; however, Andratesha Fritzgerald Ed.S. reminds us the reason for creating an IEP is not to check off the compliance box, but rather to create a picture of who the student is and can become. Compliance is a great indicator light of what is and isn’t going well, but compliance is not a good driver of the IEP process.

Andratesha presents four ways to redesign IEP meetings with Universal Design for Learning in mind:

1. Reimagine Introductions through Self-Regulation — Challenge each person present to introduce themselves in light of the relationship they have with the student.
2. Remixing Present Levels by Recruiting Interest — Invite the voice of the student by allowing them to prepare in advance a way to show their present levels.
3. Reinventing Transition through Multiple Means of Representation — Utilize pictures, videos, or music of what the student wants to become.
4. Reframe Goal Setting — Set the goals as a time for a party and to celebrate.

Key Actionable Takeaway:

Redesign your IEP meetings using four options with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in mind. To begin the process of redesigning your district’s IEP meetings, reflect on the following questions:

1. Who are IEP meetings designed for?
2. Where can we make changes to the model?
3. What can I do differently to change the outcomes?

This slide can be found in Andratesha Fritzgerald’s presentation How to Redesign Your District’s IEP Meetings to Be Inclusive and Culturally Responsive so that All Students Can Succeed.

Resource 3. Progress Monitoring in 2022: How to Effectively Harness Tools, Time, and Training for Your Staff

Challenge: Progress monitoring is a legal imperative, yet it still remains a challenge for administrators and special education staff.

Watch the Full Presentation Here. Total run time: 92 minutes

Don’t Have Time to Watch Right Now? Here’s an Overview:

Carol Kosnitsky provides practical strategies that you can implement at the beginning of the school year to create an infrastructure that will help guide your special education teachers to keep up with progress monitoring. Each strategy includes three to four examples of implementation. Below are the strategies:

1. Think about your professional development in regards to progress monitoring.
2. Simplify the progress monitoring process. Have clear-cut expectations.
3. Standardize the tools you provide to your special education teachers to prevent everyone from developing their own wheel.

Carol Kosnitsky shares multiple strategies to develop an internal infrastructure.

Key Actionable Takeaway:

Create an infrastructure at the beginning of the school year that will help your special education teachers schedule and keep up with progress monitoring. Three things you can do now to set your special education staff up for success:

1. Create schedules at the beginning of the year for progress monitoring.

Carol’s example of a progress monitoring schedule. See more practical strategies and examples in her presentation.

2. Make a point of helping staff to be more conscious about documenting changes to instruction.

3. Find time to progress monitor. Think smarter, not harder. Expand your expectations for who is responsible for data collection.

All of these resources come from Goalbook’s Spotlight Series which is a multiple part, hot topic series of webinars designed exclusively for special education administrators. You can learn about upcoming sessions here.

Speaker Bios and Session References

Andratesha Fritzgerald, Ed.S. is a former teacher, curriculum specialist, and administrator who is now the Director of Human Resources, Diversity and Equity in a large urban school district. As an international speaker, presenter, and facilitator, Fritzgerald exhibits audacious perseverance calling on organizations to evolve into inclusive anti-racist safe zones for all learners. She is the founder of Building Blocks of Brilliance Educational Consulting Firm and the author of Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning: Building Expressways to Success.

Fritzgerald, A. (2022, March 9). How to Redesign Your District’s IEP Meetings to be Inclusive and Culturally Responsive so that All Students Can Succeed [Video recording]. Goalbook. https://vimeo.com/686474308

Carol Kosnitsky is a renowned author, consultant, and national speaker on best practices in developing measurable and compliant goals and objectives. As a former special education director, supervisor, and teacher who has consulted with hundreds of school districts, she brings a great depth of practical experience and compassion to her work along with energy, insights, vision, and systemic thinking. Kosnitsky is also the author of IEP Goals that Make a Difference: An Administrator’s Guide to Improving Process. Funny and articulate, Kosnitsky inspires and informs.

Kosnitsky, C. (2022, May 5) Progress Monitoring in 2022: How to Effectively Harness Tools, Time, and Training for Your Staff. [Video recording]. Goalbook. https://vimeo.com/706685954

Katie Novak, Ph.D. is an internationally renowned education consultant, author, adjunct professor, and former Assistant Superintendent of Schools. Novak has more than 19 years of experience in teaching and administration and has written eight books, including UDL Now!, Equity By Design, and UDL and Blended Learning. She helps districts across the country implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and universally designed leadership. Novak’s work is featured in many publications, including Edutopia, AMLE Magazine, The Huffington Post, ASCD Education Update, and School Administrator.

Novak, K. (2022, January 25) How to Facilitate Productive Systems-Change Conversations with Your General Education Counterparts [Video recording]. Goalbook. https://vimeo.com/670024938