Board Leadership on Inclusive Practices, Equity and Access for All
January 01, 2020
Appears in January 2020: School Administrator.
With the need to realign human and financial resources and deploy integrated supports, buy-in by the decision makers is a vital first measure
To promote inclusive practices and effectively provide all students with equity and access to high-quality curriculum and needed supports, you must have buy-in first from your school board. This is not to minimize the importance of having school district
staff, parents and the community you serve on board, but empowering school board members to be well-informed decision makers is an essential early step.
This will happen only by providing professional development around educational research,
federal policy and evidence-based practices. Though challenging, starting with board members is imperative because they set the district’s direction and vision, approve personnel, oversee finances and create policy, all of which are needed to
transform an educational system to better serve the needs of its diverse learners.
Transformational systemwide change requires broad support for new budgetary practices, a realignment of human and financial resources, curriculum reviews
and updates and deployment of integrated systems.
Historical research suggests boards of education have been overlooked in reform initiatives, leaving them the forgotten players. Yet without full board support, thoughtful district initiatives
focused on improving student learning outcomes can be derailed by individuals or small groups intent on preserving current practices. Opposition often involves the fear of something being taken away or perpetuates the status quo. Leaving in place
tracking, leveling, overidentification and other practices results in segregation and marginalization of diverse learners and stands against what sound research and our own experiences inform us about the importance of inclusive practices.
The regional cooperative we lead in the Chicago suburbs, the Northern Suburban Special Education District, supports 18 member districts with diverse learner populations. We are committed to the possibilities in every learner and strive
to be a national leader in the commitment to inclusive communities that equally value all people and inspire them to be active participants in our world.
One of us (Schneider) made this inclusive vision a top priority when hired as superintendent
in 2016 — a goal that would not have been realized without the engagement and support of the district’s Leadership Council board.
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Author
Additional Resources
The authors suggest these informational resources for school districts pursuing inclusive practices with students.
BOOKS AND REPORTS
- “The Board’s Role in Educational Improvement” in Issues About Change, Volume 3, No. 4, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
- Leading for Social Justice: Transforming Schools for ALL Learners by Elise Frattura and Colleen Capper, Corwin Press
- Meeting the Needs of Students of ALL Abilities: How Leaders Go Beyond Inclusion by Colleen Capper and Elise Frattura, Corwin Press
- “The Stages of Systemic Change” by Beverly Anderson in Educational Leadership, September 1993
ORGANIZATIONS
- Integrated Comprehensive Systems for Equity, an annual summer institute co-sponsored by the educational leadership programs at University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that focuses on implementation in school settings.
- National School Boards Association’s annual Equity Symposium, a forum for school board members and community leaders to examine strategies and best practices around equity.
- TASH, a national organization based in Washington, D.C., committed to fully including individuals with disabilities in all facets of public life.
School Districts' Inclusion Initiatives
Several specific initiatives illustrate the move to include more students with disabilities within the schools of Illinois’ Northern Suburban Special Education District.
- District level.
The NSSED administrative team has been restructured to promote innovation through collaboration. The director of programs role, which largely focused on the administration of self-contained programs, has been reimagined as the assistant superintendent of instructional design and innovation. The role now facilitates collaboration among various administrators in the cooperative’s 18 districts to develop integrated comprehensive systems in schools and promote greater access to the general education curriculum.
Additionally, a new position was created from reallocated resources: chief technology, communications and data services official.
Together, the two administrators co-lead the newly established Department of Learning, which focuses on all aspects of student learning and the promotion of inclusive practices across the cooperative and within NSSED programs and services. - Lake Forest Elementary and High School Districts 67 and 115.
The catalyst for systemic change began with the local school board supporting the superintendent to conduct a study by an independent outside evaluator of their diverse learner population to better understand their student outcomes. The study led to several recommendations: Strengthen culture and acceptance of diverse learners; build the necessary infrastructure for all students to attend the same home school as nondisabled peers; and update policy and procedures around special education eligibility to promote more effective and efficient use of public funds.
Additionally, the two districts introduced new curricula across content areas, increased use of inclusive practices, strengthened social-emotional learning curricula and supports and developed co-planning and co-serving staff service delivery models.
As a result of these systemwide efforts, 99.5 percent of students are educated in their home schools, IEP rates have declined from 18 percent to 13 percent and the percentage of students with IEPs being educated in their general education environments for more than 80 percent of their day has increased from 61 percent to 80 percent over the past five years. - Winnetka School District 36.
Administrators collaborated with the local school board to begin developing an integrated comprehensive system. This required board support for increasing capacity to improve supports and outcomes for students with complex needs.
Responsibilities among school personnel have shifted from work silos toward collaborative school-based support of students throughout the day. In one elementary school, social workers, art teachers, and music staff now take a greater role in the inclusion of all students by working directly with student support teams to meet student needs beyond their own classrooms, notably on transitions during the day.
The results: reduced behavioral incidents and an increase in successful transitions throughout the school day.
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