Integral sometimes seems to make problem solving more difficult

The challenges facing teachers in today's classrooms are monumental. I work mostly in urban, under-performing schools where the task is even more daunting. What is supposed to happen here when special education (SPED) students are mainstreamed is that teachers are to be provided copies of the students' individual educational program (IEP) which provides lists of accommodations that must be made for each student and the teacher should comply with each component. Possible accommodations may include having the teacher read assessment items to students, work individually with students, provide fine motor assistance, etc. and frequently a special education teacher will be included in the classroom to assist certain students as needed.

The problems arise when the reality of the overburdening and underfunding of the educational system takes effect. Often, when students move from one public school to another or to a charter school the IEP's or information on other student needs take months to show up. In addition, the identification process for students requiring services can take many months. Sometimes teachers are not provided copies of IEP's (despite federal regulations and monitoring) or do not use them due to lack of training and/or lack of time during classes to provide specialized services to a handful of students. In addition, frequently (dare I say usually?) schools do not have adequate funding to provide SPED services in all classrooms so students who are supposed to be in inclusion environments are grouped in a few classes so the specialist can be where the students are. This makes sense when considering personnel issues but it does lead one to ask, "Is it inclusion if most of the students in the classroom are special education students?" The number of SPED students in challenged districts is only increasing with factors like the maternal use of drugs and alcohol causing an increasing burden on special education support systems.

In the classroom teachers have major challenges. At one point in a single class I had a highly gifted student who needed advanced work and a severely cognitively and behaviorly challenged student with ADHD who routinely would get on his desk and spin in circles as well as a majority of kids who couldn't add and subtract (this was 9th grade), students who couldn't speak English (with no school based English language learner program), a student who had been out of "lock-up" for only days and a couple students who were chronically depressed and who had to be monitored for self inflicted injuries.The class had 33 students in it and I only had 29 desks and I was supposed to do a good job of teaching the entire class all of algebra 1! Good freaking luck! Although this is a little extreme as an example it is certainly not that far from the usual conditions teachers encounter on a day to day basis in many districts.

The system is so very badly dysfunctional and it isn't just the special education programs either. So many people in education have such good intentions but it is really not coming together well at all. I absolutely agree that we must document our successes and failures and share information across the educational community so our system can learn and improve because it doesn't learn well at all from its mistakes. Basically everybody has their own well-intentioned ideas about what might work and each individual, from leadership down to the classroom, tries new things. That is a good thing because people care and are seeking to improve the system and help kids learn but there is a massive expenditure of energy spent duplicating each other's efforts, frequently on programs that have not succeeded in many other schools and classrooms in hundreds of schools and districts across the country over any number of years.

I don't have the solutions but I am working hard to help schools to identify leverage points to target the minimal funding and resources available in the most effective ways possible. I feel frequently overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of substantially improving even a relatively small school. Any and all advice, wisdom or thoughts are welcomed on this issue. I guess maybe I should just issue a public New Year's prayer that we find the wisdom so we can ask the right questions and develop workable answers to resolve these issues and of course, may God bless the children and help them to find wholeness and strength to overcome the adversities they face that they may each fully realize their potential.

I wish all of you a wonderful and transformative New Year.

I would love to develop a dialogue with you around your experiences in education. I appreciate your input. I am actively seeking answers as I am working every day to change things (I am writing a report as we speak) and don't have the answers we need.