The Collaborative Model – Part One

Is the Berkeley Heights Public School District Maintaining Fidelity to the Model?

Inclusion. It’s one of the three principles in DEI. “Include” is one of the three tenets in our district’s slogan. Is our district doing enough, and are the things we’ve done actually helping? It’s an in-depth topic, but this article will attempt to hit the basics without becoming a mini-novel.

The following is a quote from the Iris Center at Vanderbilt University (link at bottom of article). “…more than one million students still do not have access to the general education curriculum and instruction. Many more are given access to the general education classroom but do not receive the supports they need to actively participate in that instruction.”

Students with disabilities have been integrated into the general education classroom in our district for a while, whether part-time or full-time, at most grade levels. At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, the district moved to the Collaborative Consultative Model. While all details are still not clear to me, here’s what I do know.

Government mandates regarding the “Least Restrictive Environment” (LRE), were possibly behind this move. Some classes known as “resource room” – slower paced classes, typically with ten or fewer students – were eliminated, and those students were placed in the general education setting with a regular teacher and a part-time special education teacher. When the district was researching this model, we looked at how Roselle had implemented it. At the time, per the Superintendent, there were no studies available on this model or any of the other delivery approaches to LREs.

According to the Vanderbilt article, “Although legislation and professional standards outline the what and how of educating all students, uncertainty over the exact nature of the steps to implementing change can make achieving real-world outcomes a frustrating challenge.” The article shows Kotter’s Model of Change: a list of eight principles that are helpful in bringing about an inclusive school environment. Of note are steps 4, 6, and 7.

Step four is “Communicate the Vision”. This may have been done to some degree, but was highly insufficient. Though there may have been good communication within the schools, our case manager at the time – who is the absolute best, btw – couldn’t give us any real detail about what was to come, and there was no clear communication district-wide with families. This is a failure from the top administration, not of the special services team, case managers, or child-study teams. It’s a problem we have seen over and over with this Superintendent. Success involves everyone. Includes, even.

Source

Part Two

Part Three