eSchool News » Special Education

Cumberland County teachers can broadcast lessons across entire district

staff and wire services reports — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:15:32 +0000

The computer software is one way the school system is meeting the federal requirement to have a certified teacher in every classroom.

Math teacher Rachel Hendrickson has the capability to teach every algebra class in Cumberland County, N.C., high schools at the same time: All it takes is a SMART Board, laptop, webcam, and a computer program that allows teachers to interact with students anywhere in the district.

SMART Bridgit, a conferencing software program, connects students with the class using a real-time video stream. The computer software is one way the school system is meeting the federal requirement to have a certified teacher in every classroom.

Superintendent Frank Till Jr. said the challenge to meet the federal requirements led to discussions about expanding the use of Bridgit in schools.

“We are in an era where just the use of the standard textbook is not meeting the students’ needs,” he said. “We do not want to limit our students. Technology allows us to do more.”

The school system paid $6,000 for the software. The initiative began as a pilot program last year at South View Middle School.

“It is dynamic instruction,” said Ruben Reyes, executive director of exceptional children services. “It allows you to interact.”

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He added: “Most of the programs on the market, you see the teacher, you hear the teacher, but you are missing the content. This enables you to have the best of both worlds. Some of the programs, you have to have a physical lab set up. Anyone who is in our network can access this. This is something that can touch more kids.”

Reyes said the purpose of the program is not to replace teachers.

“This is really a tool to enable teachers to share their expertise,” he said. “Without the teacher, this tool doesn’t do anything.”

The initiative started as a way to ensure that all students have access to a highly qualified teacher. Because of federal requirements, special-education teachers must be certified to teach the content like any other teacher.

“What we wanted to do was use Bridgit as a means to ensure that the students had access and that they still had the level of special-education support that they needed,” Reyes said.

The certified teachers and exceptional children’s teachers meet weekly to discuss lessons that will be streamed. The exceptional children’s teacher is in the classroom during the live stream to aid students.

Watch: This Android phone is tailor-made for visually impaired people

staff and wire services reports — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:37:51 +0000

Rather than downloading various apps and software to accommodate their needs, the visually impaired are getting an Android smartphone developed specifically for them, Mashable reports. Telecom-product manufacturer Qualcomm and Project Ray are partnering to create one do-it-all device for visually impaired consumers. The off-the-shelf Android device will be able to read your messages, navigation and audio books aloud. It also has object recognition and will adapt to users’ preferences and usage patterns. Users will navigate the touchscreen phone using vibration and sound. This phone will reach an entirely under-served market when it comes to smartphones. There are 285 million visually impaired people in the world, 39 million of which are blind. Currently, several smartphone apps help visually impaired people identify paper currency, navigate streets and read text messages out loud. These options might be preferable to some visually impaired people who are strictly iPhone users, as Qualcomm and Project Ray’s phone is Android-based…

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Michigan school elects special needs homecoming king

staff and wire services reports — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:08:11 +0000

Fall in high school means one thing perhaps more than others: football. And with football comes the ritual homecoming king and queen selections. In Linden, Michigan, a small rural community located between Flint, Michigan, and Detroit, it’s no different, Yahoo! News reports. Linden is just an average small town, but in quality of life and paying it forward, it’s a world leader, particularly at the local high school. Students at Linden High School elected a special needs boy, Danny Leideker, as their homecoming king…

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Special education in the U.S. has a long way to go—here’s what schools can do about it

staff and wire services reports — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:00:05 +0000

In 1965, Congress passed legislation that created a bureau to examine the problems facing special needs students in the nation’s public schools, TakePart reports. But nearly 50 years later, these students still deal with too much discrimination and bullying in schools. In fact, a recent study released by the Department of Education reports a record number of disability-related civil rights complaints. In the last three years, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) “received over 11,700 disability-related complaints—more than ever before in a three-year period, and more than half of the total complaints received by OCR during this period.”

The numbers are, indeed, shocking. The survey examined 72,000 schools that teach 85 percent of America’s children, 12 percent of which were identified as special needs students…

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Inadequate teaching may soon become a thing of the past for many special needs kids

staff and wire services reports — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:24:44 +0000

The Department of Education has just made their largest investment ever in improving education for students with disabilities, TakePart reports. With the goal of establishing a cohesive system to effectively train teachers who work with disabled children, the department’s Office of Special Education Programs has granted $25 million over the next five years to the University of Florida’s College of Education. Starting in January, the CEDAR Center will work with select states to help them bolster training for special education teachers, general teachers, and school district leaders—all of whom work directly with special needs children…

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Technology helps make speech therapy easier

staff and wire services reports — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:19:16 +0000

Students, wearing headsets, work with the therapist in pairs at a single computer station.

With speech language pathologists in short supply, the Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) of rural Glenn County in northern California has turned to PresenceLearning to provide online speech therapy services for about 10 Willows Unified School District students.

Vicki Shadd, SELPA director and assistant superintendent for the Glenn County Office of Education, said recent advances in web conferencing technology and great computer infrastructure at Willows Intermediate School have allowed students to work with a live speech therapist online.

“Their response to it has been amazing,” Shadd said.

Shadd said students in grades six through eight have been raised with technology, making them especially receptive to using computers to work with a therapist.

SELPA started using PresenceLearning at the end of the last school year and has received outstanding results.

Feedback from parents, students, and staff has been positive, Shadd said.

While Shadd believes computers will never take the place of educators and special-education instructors, PresenceLearning has filled a huge void when it comes to a rural school’s ability to pair speech pathologists with students needing extra help with language development.

“There is a real shortage of speech pathologists,” she said. “Not only are colleges graduating fewer pathologists, but many choose private practice or the medical field rather than education, because it is more lucrative.”

The Glenn County Office of Education has speech therapists on staff to work with students, but the addition of online therapy is a boon, especially when budgets are stretched thin, Shadd said.

PresenseLearning’s online therapist costs the county about $75 per hour.

Students, wearing headsets, work with the therapist in pairs at a single computer station.

In addition to a live therapist online, students are supported by a teaching assistant.

Opinion: How schools (even great ones) fail kids with ADHD

staff and wire services reports — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:26:08 +0000

There’s a group of students struggling through school rd to navigate that gets little attention in the media or in the debate about how to fix schools: Children with ADHD, the Washington Post reports. ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a brain condition that makes it especially hard for children to focus and concentrate in school and has a number of other symptoms. It is too often misunderstood by teachers, parents and even the students themselves. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 9.5% or 5.4 million children 4-17 years of age, had been diagnosed with ADHD, as of 2007. Many others who have the disorder haven’t had the benefit of a diagnosis. Here is a powerful post by David Bernstein, a nonprofit executive who lives in Gaithersburg, Md., writing about the difficulties that his two sons, ages 7 and 15, have confronted in school as a result of ADHD…

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Study: The one change districts should make to save $10 billion

staff and wire services reports — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:48:10 +0000

A study released Wednesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has found that if high-spending public school districts reduced their special education staffing levels to align with the national median, the country could save $10 billion annually, the Huffington Post reports. The study, authored by Managing Director at the District Management Council and former school superintendent Nathan Levenson, analyzed information — including staffing patterns and spending — from 1,411 public school districts representing 30 percent of the nation’s K-12 schoolchildren. From there, Levenson’s team reduced the sample into 10 pairs of comparable districts in five states — Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. In each pair, one district spent less on special education but boasted higher achievement levels, as measured by scores on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). On average, the higher-achieving districts within the pairs placed 25 percent more special education pupils at the proficient level, while their lower-achieving counterparts spent 22 percent more on special ed, when adjusted for total student enrollment…

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Are medications, IQ related to learning disabilities?

staff and wire services reports — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:21:38 +0000

A recent nationwide survey of nearly 2,000 Americans by the National Center for Learning Disabilities has found that many people are uncertain about the causes and treatments of learning disabilities, and believe more education on the subject is needed in their children’s schools, the Huffington Post reports. Of those who took the online survey, 12 percent indicated they have a learning disability, while 8 percent of the parents surveyed said they have a child with a learning disability. Regarding types of learning disabilities, two-thirds of individuals do not know what dysgraphia (difficulty with handwriting), dyscalculia (difficulty with math) and dyspraxia (difficulty with motor skill development) are, whereas 91 percent are familiar with dyslexia. One-third of respondents said it is appropriate to ask a job candidate if they have a learning disability, when in fact doing so is illegal. Forty-three percent of those polled also incorrectly believe that learning disabilities are correlated with IQ. Nearly two-thirds of Americans know someone who has a learning disability, according to the survey. Additionally, 37 percent of parents say their child’s school inadequately tests for learning disabilities, and 64 percent claim their child’s school does not provide information on learning disabilities…

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Special needs kids staying in traditional schools

staff and wire services reports — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:51:01 +0000

The high cost of educating students with special needs is disproportionately falling on traditional public schools as other students increasingly opt for alternatives that aren’t always readily open to those requiring special education, the Associated Press reports. The issue is particularly acute in districts where enrollment has declined due to demographic changes such as low birth rates and population shifts combined with an influx of charter schools and voucher programs that have siphoned off students. School district officials say all schools that receive public funds should share the cost of special education.

“It raises an ethical responsibility question,” said Eric Gordon, chief executive officer of Cleveland Metropolitan School District. “We welcome our students with special needs, but the most expensive programming is on public districts.”

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