E-News—Issue 6, Number 1

Welcome to the January 2003 issue of E-News!

E-News is designed to keep individuals informed of new developments in urban education and inclusive schooling practices in urban schools. In particular, E-News includes brief items of interest around the work of the National Institute and other organizations engaged in similar work, current research, upcoming conferences and events, new online and off-line products and resources, and other news happening in the field.

Features this month:

• National Inclusive Schools Week Update: Share your celebrations;
  resource covers strategies to improve inclusive practices at the secondary level
• Call for Nominations: Good High Schools Project seeks nominations for model urban high schools
• Web Site of the Month: A longitudinal study of the implementation of IDEA '97
• Events: A wealth of online and off-line learning opportunities
• New Resource: Assistive Technology (AT) Quick Wheel
• National Institute Support Desk
• National Institute Support Desk
  

National Inclusive Schools Week Update

Share your celebrations

The National Institute is in the process of evaluating the 2nd Annual
National Inclusive Schools Week (December 2-6, 2002), and it is clear that
participation has grown quite dramatically over last year. By the end of
December, over 6,400 copies of the Celebration Ideas resource were
downloaded from our Web site - http://www.inclusiveschools.org - which is
well over 2,000 more requests than we received in 2001. Even more exciting
are the personal stories educators, students, and families are sharing
about how they celebrated the Week and the impact it had in their
communities. We hope to hear from more of you. Many of you told us of your
plans to hold poster and essay contests with inclusive themes--we are eager
to see copies. Please send us details regarding how the Week was celebrated
in your community, including any photos (be sure to include captions),
examples of students' writing and artwork, and media coverage.

Submit to Bonnie Johnson Barry, National Institute for Urban School Improvement, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458; or via email niusi@edc.org. We would like
permission to post this information on our Web site and in our final
evaluation report. Your stories will serve as inspiration to others who
participate in the future.

We are also gearing up for this year's
celebration, and encourage you to SAVE THE DATE: December 1-5, 2003, is the
3rd Annual National Inclusive Schools Week!

Resource provides strategies for improving inclusive practices at the
secondary level

Audiotapes from the December 2 telephone seminar, "Strategies for Improving
Inclusive Practices & Outcomes for Students with Disabilities at the
Secondary Level," with Drs. Cheryl Jorgensen and Don Deshler, are now
available. Sponsored by the National Institute as part of the 2nd Annual
National Inclusive Schools Week, this two-hour program opens with a special
message from the Assistant Secretary for Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services, Dr. Robert Pasternack. Dr. Jorgensen and Dr.
Deshler then cover the following topics:

• a framework for planning intensive supports needed by some students with significant disabilities
• the different levels of literacy support that should be in place in every secondary high school
• strategies for infusing literacy instruction throughout the high school curriculum
• inclusive educational practices that improve outcomes for high school students with significant disabilities
• the importance of high expectations and applying the Principle of the Least Dangerous Assumption in promoting successful inclusive practices at the secondary level
• why a host of high school teachers with different types of expertise are needed to successfully address the broad array of needs presented by adolescents, including students with disabilities

This program is especially beneficial to classroom and special education teachers, school-based leadership teams, central office and building level leadership, parent leaders, policymakers, and representatives of state education agencies. Tapes are available for $29.95 each (includes an emailed copy of the handouts). For additional ordering information, please visit the National Institute's Web site: http://www.inclusiveschools.org, or contact Charlene Bemis at cbemis@edc.org.

Call for Nominations

OSEP project seeks good urban high schools, nominations due March 1

The Good High Schools Project at Education Development Center, Inc. is funded by the Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The Good High Schools Project is currently accepting nominations of urban high schools, where all students, including those with disabilities, are performing at high levels. Completed nomination forms must be received by March 1, 2003. All nominated schools will be contacted and invited to submit qualifying applications. Completed application forms must be received by April 1, 2003. Schools, districts, educators, parents, states, foundations, and other organizations and individuals are invited to submit nominations. Nominators may submit more than one school, and schools may self-nominate.

Good High Schools is seeking nominations for high schools:

• that serve an economically and culturally diverse population of over 700 students (must include grade 10)
• where all students perform at high levels
• that are committed to including students with disabilities in the general education curriculum.
• that are located in the 50 states, District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense (magnet schools may be nominated).

Selected high schools will receive a $1,000 cash stipend, and gain national and local recognition as they are highlighted as models for high schools around the country. For more information, and to download a nomination form, visit http://www.edc.org/goodhighschools.

Web Site of the Month

Study of the State and Local Implementation and Impact of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (SLIIDEA)

SLIIDEA is a five-year longitudinal study, which began in 2000, to examine how the amendments of IDEA 1997 are being implemented by states, school districts, and schools. In particular, it addresses issues focused on student performance, access to the curriculum, behavioral supports, parental involvement, and transitions for young children to school and youth to adult life. The SLIIDEA study has begun to collect data from all 50 states, as well as a nationally representative sample of school districts and schools that serve children with disabilities, through a combination of surveys, interviews, classroom observations, and document review.

The study will answer the following research questions:

• How is IDEA being implemented?
• What is the status of each of the identified issues?
• What are the contextual factors influencing the implementation of the legislation?
• What is the relationship between implementation and the results?
• What are the intended and unintended outcomes of the legislation?
• What are the critical and emerging issues in states, districts, and schools?

Each fall, since 2001, the Office of Special Education Programs reports to Congress on the findings from this policy study. Visit http://www.abt.sliidea.org to find more information about this project, including issue briefs, summaries of findings, and annual reports.

Events

The Over-Representation of Minority Students in Special Education

A FREE online event from Project LASER February 17-28 Linking Academic Scholars to Educational Resources (LASER), a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, is taking a closer look at the issue of "The Over-Representation of Minority Students in Special Education," during a two-week online discussion. Dr. Brenda L. Townsend, Professor of Special Education at the University of South Florida and Project Director of LASER, will guide the conversation, exploring the problem of disproportionality and focusing on some much needed solutions. Joining Dr. Townsend will be several other prominent research scholars who share a passion for improving the education of children from minority, urban, and low-income backgrounds. LASER looks forward to your input. Details about this event can be found on LASER's Web site: http://www.coedu.usf.edu/LASER.

Making Adolescent Literature Matter

A FREE eWorkshop from Literacy Matters Now through February 26 English, Language Arts, reading, special education, and Title I teachers of the middle grades are encouraged to participate in this free online learning event. Participants will have:

• Access to sample lesson plans and especially designed teacher materials
• An opportunity to hear how other teachers deal with classroom problems
• A chance to offer their own teaching suggestions
• Access to a new section, which focuses on how to integrate adolescent literature into the middle grades curriculum

Visit http://www.edc.org/LiteracyMatters to begin learning about all aspects of adolescent literacy development.

Florida Forum on Hispanics and Education

February 28—Tampa, Florida
Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) of Miami and Hillsborough are co-hosting a forum for leaders in education, government, communities, and business to examine the status of Latinos in Florida's educational systems and explore ways to strengthen their educational success. ENLACE is a W. K. Kellogg Foundation-funded initiative that seeks to increase the number of Latinos who stay in school, graduate, and attain a college degree. Visit http://www.acad.usf.edu/enlace for more information.

Council for Exceptional Children's Web Seminars: Creating Better IEPs

February 26, 2003 (2:00-3:30 p.m. EST) Educators often become so worried about meeting the legal requirements for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) that they lose sight of the real purpose of the IEP, which is to create a plan that will describe the individual student's educational needs and the special education and related services to address those needs. The burdens of paperwork, concerns about litigation, and the emphasis on standards often drive educators to resort to using boiler plate, pre-printed IEPs, which are not individualized and do very little to assist the individual student in the classroom. This workshop will show you how to create IEPs that are legally correct and educationally useful and, best of all, practical to implement.

Differentiated Instruction

March 11, 2003 (2:00-3:30 p.m. EST) With today's classrooms becoming ever more diverse, how do you provide instruction that benefits all of your students? With the new emphasis on accountability and standards, teachers find it even more difficult to focus on the needs of the individual student. Differentiated instruction is an effective method that you can use to help students at all levels to learn to the best of their abilities. You'll learn specific classroom strategies to help your students to improve their academic achievement. You'll start by gaining an understanding of student learner characteristics. Then you'll learn how to focus on curriculum concepts and generalizations and how to make curricular, instructional, and assessment decisions. Finally, you'll discover how you can use classroom structures and roles to facilitate differentiated instruction. For more information, or to register for the CEC seminars, please visit http://www.cec.sped.org/pd/webseminar/index2.html.

New Resource

Assistive Technology (AT) Quick Wheel

This fun, hands-on resource was developed by the IDEA Local Implementation by Local Administrators (ILIAD) Partnership, the Technology and Media (TAM) Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, and the Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative to offer quick and easy access to a generic list of AT tools for a variety of tasks. On one side of the AT Quick Wheel are federal definitions of AT devices and services. The other side provides information about a variety of resources including books, journals, newsletters, and Internet sites. All resources listed on the wheel are useful for learning more about AT. Both sides include a generic list of the AT tools to consider in a number of topical areas, including the mechanics of writing, computer access, math, and reading. For more information, or to order please visit the IDEA Practices Web site: http://www.ideapractices.org/resources/detail.php?id=22168.

National Institute Support Desk

Previous issues of E-News can be viewed at: niusi.obiki.org/enews.htm.

For more information about the National Institute for Urban School Improvement, please feel free to contact us.