Honolulu Symposium: Has Special Education Run its Course? New Considerations for the Future
Monday, April 18, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm: Hawai‘i Convention Center (Room 309)
Two priorities highlighted by personnel from the U. S. Department of Education after 35 years of special education are: a) more children with disabilities remaining in regular classrooms; and, b) more youth with disabilities graduating from high schools. Remaining in the classroom and graduating are two important pedagogical thrusts that are redefining special education services. Response to Intervention (RtI) has resulted in unparalleled progress in providing an educational evaluation approach that has reduced or prevented the future need for special education services, and increased the number of children who receive their education in a general educational setting. Twenty years ago, transition planning was introduced with high hopes for increased numbers of youth who graduate from high school and make the transition from high school to postsecondary educational programs or employment, respectively. These national priorities are important and, at least in part, are helping define how we measure the progress of special education to date. These priorities, and their associated outcomes, are also helping to predict the goals of special education in the in two ways:
- Preventing and/or reducing the need for a special education, and increased participation in the core general education curriculum, and
- Ensuring that our youth either participate in post-secondary education, or find employment after they depart our high schools.
These two goals are important paradigm shifts in our efforts to provide special education. This symposium features new approaches to teacher education, and ways of serving children and youth. On the one hand, there is a need to reduce the number of students who require special education services to be successful in school; and the other, to improve outcomes associated with attending high schools that place a high priority on propelling youth with disabilities into their communities prepared to meet their financial and social obligations.
Opening Session Speaker: Frank R. Rusch, Ph.D., University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Pennsylvania State University
“Introducing the Symposia—Are We Experiencing a Paradigm Shift in Special Education?”
Setting the Context Speaker: Robert Stodden, Ph.D., University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
“Addressing and Improving Outcomes Associated with General Education Curricula: State-of-the-State”
In-school and post-school outcomes for struggling learners, including students with disabilities have been dismal for many years. Despite numerous efforts to address this problem, poor outcomes continue to persist—this presentation will provide a concise, context of the situation. Two presentations will present exciting and new approaches to improving in-school and post-school outcomes.
Central Speaker: Bonnie Utley, Ph.D. University of Colorado, Denver
“Addressing the Needs of Struggling Learners in Our Nation’s Public Schools: Finding the Fit of Special Education and General Education in Teacher Preparation and in the Delivery of Education on K-12 School Campuses”
Providing an equal opportunity for all students to learn and succeed is an important value that has historically defined the education system in the United States (US). The need to improve learning outcomes for all students underlies the presumption that general and special education teachers share responsibility for addressing these needs, and ensuring such opportunities. A current example of this shared responsibility centers around the implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI); the multi-tiered, problem-solving and instructional support model that seeks to improve instruction and align instructional supports that address the academic and behavioral difficulties of all students. The teacher education programs at UC-Denver merged in 2000, and teacher education faculty from multiple education subject areas, including secondary, elementary, and special education, strive to meet the challenges of preparing teachers to serve a diverse population of students who attend public schools. This session will present past and current data suggesting that faculty representing diverse areas of expertise can address difficult topics collectively that pose new and continuing challenges (e.g., culture, and language) when there are important similarities in philosophy and practice. This presentation will also consider the future of special education, which may no longer be a “discipline.” Indeed, special education, which is based upon a rich foundation of knowledge, may be perceived in the future as an effective approach to achieving educational gains measured in terms of instruction that is personalized, precise, and intensive to meet the social concerns arising from poor school outcomes.
Reactors: Christine K. Sorensen, Dean, College of Education, & Donna Grace, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa—A teacher educator’s perspective.
Concluding Speaker: Frank R. Rusch, Ph.D., University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Pennsylvania State University
“Should Secondary Special Education Change Course? New Directions for Policy, Practice, and Research”
Transition services have experienced a renaissance in recent years in comparison to earlier efforts that focused upon identifying youth with disabilities and ensuring that they transition goals. Secondary special educators have never been more informed about how best to serve high school youth as a result of research that has been appeared since shortly after transition was first introduced as a priority by Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department of Education in 1984. However, we are facing a puzzling dilemma—our schools appear to be better prepared today to address the future needs of youth with disabilities than at any point in history, yet we continue to miss the mark in our quest to meet the expectations of the vast majority of adolescents with disabilities who want to work or pursue additional training after high school. Over 50% of entering ninth grade class members drop out of school before they enter their senior year and over 30% of these drop outs are arrested; over 50 are never employed, and the vast majority live at home, are socially isolated, and live below the poverty level. This presentation will introduce new recommendations for policy, practice, and research. Before presenting our recommendations for policy, practice, and research we introduce three essential elements that guide the Bridges Model. These three elements include (a) developing a new vision for our schools, one that is based on schools being accountable to all students, (a) developing new relationships with service agency that promote youth goals related to becoming responsible citizens of our communities, and (c) developing new relationships with community members that respect diversity, opportunity and voice.
Reactors: Bryan Cook, Ph.D., Department of Special Education, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa & Steve Brown, Ph.D., Center on Disability Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa—A Special Educator & Disability Studies Perspective.
- Download the Symposium Flyer (PDF Format)
- Symposium Flyer with Abstracts (PDF Format)
For more information on the Honolulu Symposium, please contact Dr Frank Rusch at frusch@hawaii.edu .
