Ann Nevin	Jacque Thousand	Toni Hood

Collectively, we have had the good fortune to live and work in a time when the social justice issue of access to education for all children has come to the forefront. Jacque and Ann further had the great fortune of working for 20 years in Vermont, a state where today 92% of children with disabilities are educated in general education classrooms (compared to a national average of 36%). Toni worked in Massachusetts during the time that a state law anticipating P.L. 94-142 was implemented. Because of this unique set of circumstances, our research interests and opportunities have led us to be active in applied experimental research in a systematic effort to identify school-related variables that affect the academic and social progress of students in public schools. What we achieved has been because of the power of networking. We believe that understanding this topic is the key to success in making a difference in the lives of students who are difficult to teach.

1. What do I do if I cannot find an instructional intervention that results in improvements for my learner?

2. What is my responsibility?

Consider the following people: what do they have in common?

Albert Einstein
 
Cher

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Helen Keller

Nelson Rockefeller

Anne Sullivan

Steven Hawking

Ray Charles

Notice whether or not you identified these people by their strengths (gifts and talents).

Now consider the following list of special needs and ask yourself the same questions:

Daydreamer (possible mental retardation due to head that is "too big")

Dyslexic

Paraplegic

Blind and Deaf

Dyslexic

Blind

Quadriplegic

Visual Impairment

Quadriplegic

Blind

Did you note that what the people listed above have in common is that each one has a very special need?

Even the most seasoned professional teacher will tell you that there are "some" students who have not responded positively even when several adaptations and accommodations have been made. In fact, this is such a prevalent occurrence that most school districts have created "teacher assistance teams" to provide a forum for teachers to discuss and share ideas to help learners from all ends of the spectrum of capability.

Another service that school districts have implemented is collaborative problem solving teams. Consider who you might like to invite to participate on a team to develop appropriate education plans for students like Helen Keller, Nelson Rockefeller, and so on!

Collaborative teams follow a problem-solving format in their deliberations. In Collaborative Consultation (1996, pp. 36-37), my colleagues Lorna Idol, Phyllis Paolucci-Whitcomb, and I described the following stages:

Stage 1: Gaining Acceptance. The important outcome for the first stage is to establish the informal relationships necessary to initiate a collaborative process. Determining the roles and responsibilities of various group members, conducting initial discussion of the problems or issues to be addressed, and disseminating information related to the rationale and benefits of collaborative consultation are activities typical of gaining acceptance.

Stage 2: Assessment During the second stage, collaborators assess the entry level needs and capacities related to the problem or issue to be addressed. The nature and parameters of the problem or issue must be clearly delineated and measured.

Stage 3: Goals and Objectives. During the third stage, specific goals and objectives are developed. When applying the collaborative consultation process to develop effective programs for team members, collaborators typically focus on goals and objectives for the team to achieve. Sometimes collaborators will address goals and objectives related to achievements for individual members of the collaborative team as well.

Stage 4: Intervention. This stage often involves two distinct steps--first the development of specific procedures to be used to ameliorate the identified problem or issue designed to achieve the specified goals or objectives. Collaborators then analyze the feasibility of each recommendation, prioritize the order in which they will be implemented, and identify explicitly who will be responsible for what aspect of the implementation. The second step involves implementing the delineated procedures as planned and concurrently collecting measures of the impact of the intervention.

Stage 5: Evaluation. During the evaluation stage, the success of the intervention procedures is measured, including the value and impact of the procedures for the identified problem as well as the collaborators themselves.

Stage 6: Redesign. The evaluation data are used during the redesign stage to assist collaborators in making decisions related to redesigning the intervention, reassessing the identified problems or issues, terminating the collaborative consultation process, and/or celebrating the achievement of desired goals and objectives.

1. First, learners with special education needs can be effectively served when their teachers collaborate to generate interventions.
2. Second, school personnel can acquire the related skills and knowledge to collaborate with each other.
3. Third, collaborators can expect changes at all three levels (changes in systems, adult collaborators, and students).

Parents and educators can practice specific strategies and change their internal attitudes to enjoy more active and effective collaboration. One internal attitude that can be changed is the view of who is the "expert." Teachers can recognize that expertise comes in many forms. Diane Sylvester, a parent of a young woman with Down Syndrome, explains, "Parents should be thought of as scholars of experience. We are in it for the distance. We see and feel the continuum. We have our doctorates in perseverance. We and the system must be in concert or the vision shrinks."

Norman Kunc (a family therapist who has cerebral palsy) notes, when a child is found to be "challenging" in terms of differing cognitive, emotional, or physical abilities, we tend to turn to an "expert" (i.e., the "distant, or consulting professional") who has a high degree of training in a particular area but may not know or understand the particular (or whole) child very well.The person with the most direct experience of being with the challenging condition is the child, the parents and siblings, friends and classmates, and the "connected" professionals (i.e., this year's teacher, last year's teacher).

Another partnership we can form is with the student and his/her advocates by using more "client centered processes" that help every participant feel valued--for their life's experiences or their knowledge and expertise. Marsha Forest and Jack Pierpoint in Canada (Inclusion Press) and Mary Falvey and Richard Rosenberg in California have developed two systems that help families and school personnel make decisions: Making Action Plans (MAPS) and Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH). Families of children with disabilities often raise long-term issues about their child's future. MAPS are tools designed to help a team (including family members, the child with a disability, and professional personnel) determine how to move into the future. The goal is to create a higher quality of life for all involved. Members of a team using MAPS guide themselves through the following key questions:

• What is the "story or history" of the situation?
• What is the dream? What is the nightmare?
• Who is the person(s) involved?
• What is the person good at? What are the person's needs?
• What is the plan of action to avoid the nightmare and to make the dream come true?

Much of Jacque Thousand's most recent work has synthesized the applied research outcomes yielded from my interactions with teachers, administrators, and state department officials in Vermont and across the US. through consultation and teaching experiences. For example, Creating an Inclusive School  (co-authored with R. Villa) combines the collective learnings of applied research regarding the organizational, instructional, and practical dimensions of instilling inclusive schooling as an ethic and installing it as a practice.

Special Populations. As you can see, the networking links we have been discussing relate prmarily to school-aged populations. If you have unique interests in preschool-age children with special needs, you realize that your collaboborating team members will include early childhood specialists, pediatricians, and preschool educators as well as parents and siblings of the child. Dr. Judith Garrett, a member of the special education faculty at Arizona State University West, has conducted research on using activity-based interventions . She is co-author of a useful practitioner-oriented guide entitled, Activity-based intervention guide, published by Therapy Skill Builders in Tucson, AZ.

  Dr. Sandy Parsons, professor in the College of Education at California State University San Marcos, has a special interest in the education of young children with special needs.  She is currently involved in a research project in the local schools in northern San Diego County.  She is the author of The Rights of Born and Unborn Children, a paper presented at the 1997 International Conference on Human Rights for Persons with Mental Handicaps in Prague, Czech Republic.

You might be interested in the unique needs of students with special needs who are transitioning from school to adult life. There are extensive research projects and exemplary practices focused on this populations. Dr. Ida Malian, the coordinator of the special education faculty at Arizona State University West, has co-authored (with Laura Love, former Arizona Department of Education technical assistant for transition planning), an article delineating the post-school transition of graduates from Arizona's special education programs.

Another challenge that you might face is working within culturally diverse settings. This requires accommodations in communication and interaction styles. Dr. Kathy Harris, a member of the special education faculty at Arizona State University West, conducted a review of the literature which identified competencies needed to increase effectiveness of those who design programs for culturally and linguistically diverse learners with special needs. Dr. Harris has also published her research on developing and using collaborative bilingual special education teams.

Remember that children are a powerful resource as well.  They can support you as a teacher by giving you explicit feedback on how well you teach!  And they can be active members of their educational development.  Meet Nathan  and let him tell you his story.

To summarize, what is one thing you can do if you find that your self-designed instructional interventions are not getting the desired changes in your learners? You can form a school-based problem solving team! You can ask for the support of the school psychologist, the special educator, the learner's classmates, the learner's parents, the learner himself or herself, and so on. In fact, the larger and more heterogeneous your problem-solving team, the more likely you are to come up with ideas that you would not think of alone.

You can also form a problem solving team by tapping into the World Wide Web! There are several resources which I have found on the World Wide Web. These links may provide you with solutions to your most challenging situations.

Texas Education Network (TENET) http://www.tenet.edu

Exceptional Parent (online) http://familyeducation.com

Students with Mental Retardation http://thearc.org

Students with Learning Disabilities http://www.fln.vcu.edu/ld/ld.html#Learning

Students with Gifts/Talents http://indyunix.iupui.edu/~ncci/ncci.html

Inclusion Press http://www.inclusion.com

National Council on Disabilities http://www.ncd.gov

What are some of the Web-based resources that you have found to be helpful in your quest to reach students who are difficult to teach? Be sure to include them in your Web Resource File!

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