Literacy Support in NYC

We recently learned about an exciting new initiative from the New York City Department of Education – their Equity and Excellence Initiative. One pillar of this platform is called Universal Literacy. The DOE has called for universal literacy for all public school students by the end of second grade; they believe that with the right supports, by 2026 all students will be reading on grade level in second grade. To jump start this process, 103 new hires joined the DOE team as dedicated reading coaches in the spring of 2016, and they all received intensive training over the summer. Their role is to work with the younger elementary grades’ teachers and administrators to provide dedicated literacy support. Over the next few years, all elementary schools will have access to a dedicated reading coach with specialized training. If your child is having difficulty with reading or just needs some extra support, it may be a good idea to find out what your school is already doing to improve literacy in its K-2 classrooms. A dedicated coach may already be on staff.

One of our favorite organizations, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), recently published a new fact sheet on literacy. AFC is a local organization that protects the rights of our city’s children most at risk of school failure or discrimination. Their website has an extensive list of guides for parents about navigating your way through the school system. Their new literacy fact sheet is called "Parent-Teacher Conferences: Questions to Ask your Child’s Teacher about How Well He or She is Learning to Read and Write."  It provides a very detailed list of questions to ask teachers during conferences, including more targeted questions for when there are concerns about the progress your child is making.

Another noteworthy literacy document on the AFC website is called "Questions & Answers about Literacy: A Fact Sheet for Families of Students who Need More Helping Learning to Read and Write." This fact sheet provide a brief overview of the Response to Intervention framework, which is one way that schools figure out which students need extra support and what level of support they require. It also has information on how to find the right person in your district to talk to about getting help, and it outlines the rights of families surrounding the special education evaluation process. The fact sheet includes some descriptions of other services to consider, such as classroom accommodations and structured multi-sensory reading instruction, a Yellin Center favorite.

The AFC website is chock full of resources, including a guide to early intervention services in NYC and their short podcast about the NYC high school application process. They are a terrific independent, nonprofit resource, always deserving of support. 

Dyslexia Study Critical of Discrepancy Model

Back in October, we wrote about a new study that found that children with reading problems have the same kinds of processing issues regardless of whether they have high or low IQs. We quoted that study's authors who pointed out that the kinds of dyslexia interventions that are provided for students of average or above average intelligence should also be used with children with less than average IQs, whose reading problems had previously been thought to be "caused" by their lower IQ.

Now, the National Institutes of Health, which helped to fund the study, has weighed in with its comments  -- and we think that what they had to say is important for schools and parents.

The NIH noted, in a press release, "The results call into question the discrepancy model — the practice of classifying a child as dyslexic on the basis of a lag between reading ability and overall IQ scores." They go on to explain, "In many school systems, the discrepancy model is the criterion for determining whether a child will be provided with specialized reading instruction. With the discrepancy model, children with dyslexia and lower-than-average IQ scores may not be classified as learning disabled and so may not be eligible for special educational services to help them learn to read."

According to Brett Miller, Ph.D., director of the Reading, Writing and Related Learning Disabilities Program at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the part of the National Institutes of Health that funded the study, “It follows that, whether they have high IQ scores or low IQ scores, children with great difficulty in learning to read stand to benefit from educational services to help them learn to read. The study results indicate that the discrepancy model is not a valid basis for allocating special educational services in reading.” 

We have never been fans of the discrepancy model for providing services under the Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act and Dr. Yellin has done extensive work with school districts who seek to move beyond this model and use a student's Response to Intervention (RTI) as a way of determining how to deal with learning challenges. It's heartening to see that researchers and the NIH agree.

Expect more coverage of this study and its impact on special education services in blogs to come.

Dr. Yellin Speaks at Council of Exceptional Children Convention

Dr. Yellin is in Rochester, NY today, speaking to the 58th Annual Convention of  The New York State Council of Exceptional Children, which describes itself as "The Voice and the Vision of Special Education in New York State."

He is joining with Diana Bowers and Peggy O'Connor, Superintendent and Director of Special Education, respectively, of the Hamilton Central School District in upstate New York, to discuss "The Partnership Between Educators and Clinicians." Their talk builds upon an on-site professional development program Dr. Yellin provided for the staff of the district to help them create a meaningful program of Response to Intervention (RTI). RTI is an approach to identifying students with learning challenges by analyzing their response to increasing levels of academic interventions and teaching methods to determine whether and to what extent students may need special education services or settings.

Since Dr. Yellin's visit to Hamilton in July, 2010, the Hamilton professionals -- Principals, Learning Specialists, Reading Specialists, Classroom Teachers, and the District Psychologist, Occupational Therapist, and Superintendent of Schools -- have been applying their new approach and have seen measurable improvement in student performance. It is this exciting result of the collaboration between educators and clinicians that is the focus of today's presentation, which includes a discussion of the training, and success stories of children who have benefited from the implementation of this thoughtful, researched-based RTI program. Dr. Yellin, Dr. Bowers, and Ms. O'Connor previously presented information on their collaboration and the approach used by The Yellin Center team to attendees of the New York State School Boards Association Annual Convention in New York City.


Photo used under Creative Commons by Patrick Ashley

Special Education in Finland and Steering Clear of the Tiger Mom Controversy

Dr. Gene McMahon, former Director for the New York Institute for Special Education and presently an educational consultant and partner in the McMahon Advocacy Group, passed along an interesting article appearing in the Hechinger Report.

The article looks at research comparing how schools in Finland deal with students who are struggling in school. Finnish schools do not require formal identification or labels in order to begin offering extensive services. At all points along the way, Finland's handling of students with learning problems is more flexible and the end result is improved results over the bureaucratic U.S. system. Of course, it is important to keep in mind the differences in size and homogeneity between the two countries. Still, this is yet another argument for implementing such practices as Response to Intervention in U.S. schools, where students are offered supports as soon as they begin to have difficulties, rather than the older "waiting to fail" model where students needed to be substantially behind their classmates before they could be considered for special education and related services.

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We have been intentionally staying away from the "Tiger Mom" controversy triggered by a new book by Yale law professor Amy Chu, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom . Parenting is tough enough without supporting -- or criticizing -- any one mode of parenting over another and is even more complex when cultural and ethnic differences are added to the equation. So we were pleased to see an article in Scientific American looking at  whether the propositions laid out in Professor Chu's book, which have been described as some as harsh parenting, are supported by science. The article includes an interview of Professor Laurence Steinberg of Temple University who has studied different parenting styles among various American cultural groups. Not surprisingly, Professor Steinberg notes that some of the methods espoused in Amy Chu's book are supported by research and some are not. But we like the fact that this piece throws light, not the heat of controversy, on this much discussed current topic.

photo credit: digitalART2 at Flickr.com

Online Resources for Educational Research

There are numerous online resources for new scientific findings in the field of education. Some of these are delivered to us via regular newsletters or newsblasts. Others are out there to be found, but need to be proactively searched. These sites are often designed for different audiences -- parents, scientists, educators-- and can sometimes be focused on specific areas of research or knowledge. Some of the sources we find most informative are:

• The American Educational Research Association provides free abstracts of articles in the several journals it sponsors. These include Educational Researcher, Review of Educational Research, and others.
• ERIC -- the Education Resources Information Center, is operated under the auspices of the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education and provides " a comprehensive, easy-to-use, searchable, Internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of education research and information."  The Institute of Education Sciences is, itself, a valuable source of information and publications.
• The International Dyslexia Association provides information on articles and ongoing research relating to dyslexia and reading disorders.
• Connecticut's State Education Resource Center provides information on subjects such as best practices and response to intervention.

With the increasing emphasis on scientifically validated methods of instruction as part of the move to a "Response to Intervention" model of instruction in schools, having access to information about what works in classrooms and how students learn is crucial for teachers and parents. These resources can help.

Implementing RTI - One District's Experience

This past Saturday, Dr. Paul Yellin and two representatives from the Hamilton Central School District in upstate New York, presented to attendees of the New York State School Boards Association Annual Convention in New York City.

Diana Bowers, Superintendent of the Hamilton Schools, outlined the steps her district took together with The Yellin Center and our colleagues at All Kinds of Minds, to move to a Response to Intervention model of addressing students' learning needs well in advance of the New York State deadline for implementing such a program. Response to Intervention, often called RTI, is one way that states such as New York are moving away from such concepts as "normal learner" vs. "learning disabled" and from offering support services only to students whose academic performance is not in line with their scores on standardized tests, such as IQ tests. Instead of the older model of intervention, often called the discrepency or "wait to fail" model, RTI looks at how children who are struggling respond to various academic interventions. If an initial array of classroom supports (Tier I) is shown to be insufficient, the student will move up to Tier II, small group instruction in the areas in which he or she is struggling. If that does not work, the student will be evaluated for a more complete understanding of his or her learning needs and implementation of additional supports and services (Tier III) .

Although many of the initial steps in determining which children are not responding to the general classroom curriculum and differentiating instruction for these children "are what good teachers are doing all the time," Dr. Bowers noted, she also spoke about the need for a unifying approach throughout each school and the entire district. That led her to seek training for her staff from All Kinds of Minds, and eventually led her to inviting Dr. Yellin to work with some of the most complex students in the district, first at our New York City offices and later in Hamilton as part of a week long training of Hamilton staff by The Yellin Center. Dr. Bower's presentation was followed by remarks by Peggy O'Connor, District Coordinator of Special Education, and by a discussion by Dr. Yellin of how the use of the shared vocabulary of learning and an understanding of the ability of the brain to change with appropriate interventions made early recognition of learning challenges so important.

The audience of school superintendents, building principals, and guidance staff was deeply engaged, with lots of discussion, questions and follow-up, many of which were focused on how they can bring the same effective techniques to their own districts.

A Terrific Week in Hamilton, NY

I spent the last week in June, together with one of our Learning Specialists, in beautiful Hamilton, NY, where we met with a team from the Hamilton Central School District – Principals, Learning Specialists, Reading Specialists, Classroom Teachers, and the District Psychologist, Occupational Therapist, and Superintendent of Schools. Joining us was a representative from the Madison-Oneida BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services).

Over the course of the first day, I gave a series of presentations that included an overview of the emerging neuroscience about learning and its implications for classroom practice and assessment. I spoke about the basis of our clinical framework and how it is compatible with Response to Intervention (RTI) and consistent with emerging scientific knowledge. Particular attention was paid to looking at what the District was already doing for struggling students and bringing to these steps the notion of applying the concepts of differential diagnosis and neurodevelopmental profiles to an analysis of learning differences – with a particular focus on Tier 3 of RTI.

The lecture portion of our training visit looked in depth at the eight neurodevelopmental constructs at the core of our clinical model, and their linkages to the educational process and academic difficulties. We described how to apply this model to elucidate the specific breakdowns underlying each student’s academic difficulties. We also demonstrated how to develop individual plans based on a deep understanding of each student’s unique profile of strength and weaknesses. We ended our first day by discussing the issues faced by a specific student with long-standing difficulties, whom we would be assessing the next day. Together, we planned the assessment.

Our second day was spent assessing this student, who had been selected by the District, with the consent of his parents. We assessed two more students on the remaining days of our five day visit, (ultimately including both elementary and secondary students). For each assessment, the student’s parent(s) observed from one room and the Hamilton team from another location. For the remaining assessments, members of the Hamilton clinical team (the District Psychologist and Learning Specialists) participated in various parts of the assessment under the supervision of Yellin Center clinicians.

It was a gratifying experience and one that everyone agreed worked well for the Hamilton team. It would not have been possible without the terrific administrative support and troubleshooting from the District staff that made it possible for the parents and educators to observe the assessment process via remote technology, without intruding on the students’ experiences. The Hamilton Central School District is also the beneficiary of extensive professional development support from Colgate University, located in Hamilton. As both a visiting clinician and a proud parent of a Colgate graduate, I can appreciate the incredible community of support they provide to their local District. We also can’t thank our hosts enough for their hospitality and wonderful company.

Our next step will be a presentation, together with the Hamilton Central School District, at the New York State School Boards meeting in October in New York City, as an example of “best practices” in intervention and implementation of RTI. Our Yellin Center team is looking forward to continuing our work with these dedicated educators and to defining the next steps in our collaboration.

RTI in the Country

We are in upstate New York this week, at the invitation of the Madison-Oneida BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services), where Dr. Paul Yellin and one of our Learning Specialists are doing a week long training of educators and staff from the Hamilton Central Schools and neighboring districts. The training, over the course of five days, is part of the work these forward looking schools are doing to implement an important provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -- something called RTI (Response to Intervention).

RTI is not a new concept. Teachers have always looked at how their students were performing and modified their teaching approaches accordingly. What is new is the move to use RTI to replace the old model of how children were determined to either have a learning disability -- or not. RTI involves using several different tiers of consideration when students are struggling. A good explanation of the legal background of RTI and how it is implemented can be found on the Wrightslaw website.

The most common model for RTI is to have a three tier process for deciding how to instruct students. And that is where the Yellin Center team comes in. Our clinicians are working with the Hamilton area educators to build on their knowledge of the various neurodevelopmental constructs that are involved in learning. Many of the educators have already had instruction from All Kinds of Minds which looks at these areas as they apply to classrooms. The first tier of RTI has been described as requiring good basic teaching, which is flexible to meet the needs of all students. Some students will still struggle, even if the classroom teacher tries to shape the curriculum to their specific learning needs. These students may need assessment from a school based team with particular expertise, to determine if they need further supports beyond those the classroom teacher can provide. Most students who need this additional support will respond well and will need no further intervention. However, a few students may continue to struggle, even when they are provided with scientifically proven strategies. For these students, a comprehensive assessment of their learning needs and the development of detailed learning strategies will be needed to help them succeed.

In addition to the general instruction they will be providing to a number of educators, The Yellin Center team will conduct three complete comprehensive multi-disciplinary assessments of students of various ages selected by the Hamilton Central School District, in which the school district psychologist and learning specialist will participate. By working hand-in-hand with our clinical team, these individuals will learn how to apply their knowledge and how to handle all but the most complex learning difficulties within their own district.

By the way, the Yellin Center will be in full operation, even as part of our team is involved in this exciting training process. Our other clinicians and our full administrative staff will be here all week for regular appointments and inquiries.