Grant to establish Kansas-Illinois Center
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs has awarded the University of Kansas’ Beach Center on Disability, a sub component of the department of Special Education, and the Illinois Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Network a four-year, $1.6 million grant. The grant will assist in establishing ways of preparing educational staff within inner-city schools in the aspects of social and behavioral involvement.
The grant will set up the Kansas-Illinois, K-I, Center to investigate a Response to Intervention, RtI, model. The model acts as a guideline for the available resources within the schools.
“We have [resources like] special education, school psychology, mental health, gifted and talented, and English as a second language. RtI pulls all of these systems together and looks at intervention on three different levels,” said Wayne Sailor, professor of Special Education and associate director of the Beach Center on Disability.
Under the RtI model, all students including those with disabilities are included in the general education classroom. Inner-city school research indicates a tendency of general educators to delegate the information and training issues around children with extensive special needs and that general educators tend to drive the schools, Sailor said.
“I would like to see more schools equipped to support all kids, regardless of needs or reason for needs. I would like us getting to kids that need us sooner, and kids not standing out and being stigmatized for their individual needs,” said Jamie Bezdek, research assistant and doctoral student.
The K-I Center introduces three levels of intervention or assistance into the schools, closely monitoring its progress. The first level of intervention affects all of the children in the classroom at a primary level, testing speech and language issues.
“The data collected allows us to see if individual kids are keeping up with their grade level through a reasonable level of expectation or if they’re beginning to fall off the chart,” Sailor said.
Educators will direct students consistently showing low levels of achievement to the secondary level of assistance, small group arrangements. The secondary level teaches students strategies to enhance their content ability and as a result, be re-engaged with the rest of their class.
Between eight and 10 percent of students begin to fall off the chart within the secondary level of intervention, Sailor said. As a result, educators engage a third level of assistance. The third level includes highly individualized support from all available resources at a school. Educators write a specific plan for the individual.
A team of 12 to 15 KU individuals, including three doctoral students, will monitor students’ academic, social and behavioral progress quarterly, through a series of standardized testing of social emotional behavioral skills.
“The schools will be monitored depending on what schools in the district want to do and whatever pattern is already established; we may layer in additional measures,” said Amy McCart, associate research professor for the Beach Center and co-principal investigator at the K-I Center.
McCart will also engage in staff training development and consistency. Training will begin in January along with monthly contact with Illinois. The preparation for staff training is currently vague and in its brainstorming stage. More effectively including students in general with special educators and general educators addressing the needs of students with disabilities are among staff preparation plans, McCart said.
Schools in Kansas involved with the RtI model in the grant’s first year include two schools in the Kansas City, Kan. district, USD 500, and two schools in the Topeka district, USD 501. A total of eight schools in Kansas will be included by the end of the four years. The RtI model tests classrooms from pre-kindergarten through high school.
Participating schools already implement intervention techniques, which is the cause of their selection, Sailor said.
The issue of intervention relates to the extent to which children’s social and behavioral issues interfere with their learning. While this is an issue with children with disabilities, especially behavioral disabilities, it can also apply to children in general.
“The deeper you penetrate into cities and their schools, the greater the probability that kids will have social and behavioral issues that interfere with their learning,” Sailor said.
A research grant to conduct a trial for the effectiveness of the RtI model on a larger scale, including more schools, will be developed after the grant’s four years. The ultimate goal is to replace categorical logic with data-based decision logic in accordance with a response to intervention approach, Sailor said.
“Kids have a really wide range of needs and Rtl helps school personnel get specific about who needs what,” said Nikki Wolf, research assistance and doctoral student. “We need to find out how this can be used to best meet the needs of students.”
The K-I Center hopes to expand RtI model practices throughout school districts to improve social and educational outcomes for children. The grant begins January 1. The K-I Center is one of three sites in the nation testing the RtI model.