SETTINGS
This paper discusses the context and importance of integrated classrooms and the need
to provide Special Education students with the same opportunity to access Advanced
Academic curriculum, a, as their gifted peers. Integrating Special Education students
into Advanced Academic classroom settings and vice versa make up an inclusion
classroom learning environments. . Sapon-Shevin (1994) defined an inclusive school as
a place where everyone belongs, is accepted, supports, and is supported by his or her
peers and other members of the school community in the course of having his or her
educational needs met. Special Education students in Advanced Academic settings
would not hold any one students back, but instead, provide opportunities for all learners
to learn, grow, and challenge each other through a more diverse set of lenses (i.e.
background knowledge, content understanding, and problem-solving strategies). From
this experience, students, in particular, will learn how to better scaffold and reach their
peers. To support this need, Braddock Elementary statistics, from the 2016-17 school
year, are used.
The policy brief highlights Braddock Elementary 2016-17 statics from the
BLANK equity audit collection and analysis tool, proving the need and the need for
inclusionve classrooms. It also suggests Whole Language (Sapon-Shevin, 1994) and
Whole Schooling (Peterson and Beloin, 1998) is cited as a suggested alternative learning
models for schools whothat segregate their Sspecial Eeducation population and to . For
Fairfax County Public Schools, an action plan with specific steps and a timeline is
designed to achieve the goal of dually identifying Special Education students as
Advanced Academic students. improve segregated school conditions, an action plan
with specific steps and a timeline is designed to provide Special Education students with
more opportunities to be dually identified as Advanced Academic students.
Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 1
Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 6
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 3
References ....................................................................................................................... 16
Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 17
Policy Brief
settings and vice versa make up an inclusion classroom learning environment. Sapon-
belongs, is accepted, supports, and is supported by his or her peers and other members of
the school community in the course of having his or her educational needs met. Special
Education students in Advanced Academic settings would not hold any one students
back, but instead, provide opportunities for all learners to learn, grow, and challenge each
other through a more diverse set of lenses (i.e. background knowledge, content
particular, will learn how to better scaffold and reach their peers. Research shows that
children who are publicly identified as different makes it more difficult to promote
settings affect students outlook on others and in turn, their communication and
occupational skills sets. When outside of school walls, students will eventually work
with a variety of learners and if not afforded opportunities to work and peers who possess
varying and/or a variety of labels, the likelihood of accepting and connecting with
different lenses (those who are different) will be little to none existent.
students are not being serviced in Advanced Academic settings, nationwide. In the
Digest of Education Statistics 2015 (2016, p. 124), 3,189,757 public school students in
the elementary and secondary setting were enrolled in a gifted and talented program,
during the 2011-12 school year. This equates to 6.4% of the public school population, at
Education (SpEd) statistics, specifically students who received services through the
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 5
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 6,464,096 elementary and secondary students
were serviced, during the 2011-12 school year (U.S. Department of Education, p. 123).
SpEd disabilities ranged from hearing, visual, and speech or language impairments to
Autism. And according to 2011 statistics alone, 61% of the 6,464,096 SpEd students
spent 80% or more in regular school; time inside general class (U.S. Department of
Education, p. 122). Thought the majority of Special Education students may have spent
time learning in a general education, inclusive setting, this shows that opportunities to
challenge students with disabilities in a gifted and talented setting did not take place or
Schools who once pushed for separated Advanced Academic and Special
Education settings are now starting to merge their educational programs. At Washington
Elementary, staff members are being educated on how to reach all students through the
use of ...cooperative learning, whole language, and authentic assessment. Programs that
promote peer tutoring and peer advocacy are also in place (Sapon-Shevin, 1994). Staff
members are learning how to scaffold content, focus on meaning and strategy instruction,
and use rich tasks that not only address the content, but provide students with
Program meetings is mandated by law. Many gifted education programs have also
benefited from high levels of parental participation (sometimes required for a child's
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 6
acceptance in the program) (Sapon-Shevin, 1994). Parents are included in the parent-
teacher-student support triangle and by understanding whats going on with their childs
like my elementary schoolPeterson and Beloin (1998) shared their secret formula for
how they turned these settings into successful, inclusive schools. As a five step process
to, creatcreateed schools that follow the core principles and strategies of whole schooling:
schools in low socioeconomic, rural and urban learning environments.. The focus of this
school-wide approach is to engage and challenge each learner to his or her maximum
potential. Support is received from inside and outside of the school building, which
...includes the realignment of special education, bilingual, Title I, and gifted personnel to
engage in collaborative teaching with regular education teachers (Peterson and Beloin,
1998). In addition, a variety of strategies are being used to address students needs and
family and community partnerships are formed to sustain and excel student achievement
progress. When honing in Western International High School, a Detroit Public School,
Peterson and Beloin (1998) cited how the use of whole schooling and their mission to
focus on a more multi-cultural model of inclusive education has caused staff to focus on
less student labeling. For example, the Special Education Department took measures
...to stop being all things to the students with special learning needs, as their name was
Departments, who once separately catered to Special Education and gifted needs, now
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 7
merged together in efforts to show the importance of community and a diverse group of
students accessing rigorous and meaningful curriculum in the same classroom setting.
Recommendations
Beloin, 1998) models should be merged and highlighted as the crux of inclusion, where
meaning and strategy instruction along with support are the central focus and foundation.
It is here that more inclusive classrooms, where Special Education students are identified
as gifted and are placed in Advanced Academic settings, will form. In turn, students will
see beyond their rank and delve deeper into their learning within their newfound
Also, I like the idea of changing the Special Education program name to be more
inclusive. When the Detroit Public School, Western International High School, decided to
strategies to help students access and solve a variety of rich, open-ended tasks. At a
higher level, such as the entire state of Michigan and then throughout the 50 students and
America, this nuance tweak should be fought for to help everyone see students for
students though a more clear lens and how all students need individualized instruction,
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 8
Action Plan
Level IV Advanced Academics Center. This entails students from all over Fairfax County
being bused or driven to my school to receive gifted instruction that places a strong
where their student portfolio, usually composed by the classroom teacher and Advanced
disapproval of students received a Level IV label. To date, students who have received
the Level IV label had a option to go to my schools Local Level IV feeder school,
general Advanced Academics classroom with varying levels. Other Advanced Academics
levels include Level II and III. These levels entail part-time support where students, who
are often selected by classroom teachers, work with the Advanced Academics Resource
thinking based.
Before moving towards this administration goal, I feel that its important to
level, no SpEd student is labeled as gifted and out of the 851 students at my school, only
9 students (9/851) or 1.1% of the study body population are dually identified as SpEd and
AA students. Only a few students per grade-level, in grades 1-5, are being dually labeled
and the majority of SpEd students are being indirectly denied access to the gifted learning
may feel a sense of community in the Advanced Academic setting. Seeing how
underrepresented SpEd students are in each grade-level Advanced Academic setting, and
as a whole school, these students are still most likely being identified by their label
opposed to their thinking abilities by their peers (and classroom teacher), seeing them less
than equals.
Total Number 851 students 17.5% average 9/851 dually 1.1% of the
of Students per grade level identified students student body
I can see in the data that in all grade levels, there is a very low population of
students equates to 9/851 or 1.1% of the 2016-17 school year student body population.
When comparing this percentage (1.1%) to the average number of students receiving
Advanced Academic services per grade-level, 17.5%, Special Education students still
makeup a very small portion of identified gifted students. This is very shocking to me.
I wonder if Special Education students are given an equal opportunity to access higher-
level curriculum or are discounted due to already receiving a service? This also raises
questions about my schools Advanced Academics selection process for labeling students.
dually identified or not, I wonder if this is due to the school focus being on getting
number of Special Education students who are considered and identified to receive
31%
22%
18% 18%
16%
0%
Kindergarten First Second Third Fourth Fifth
Desired Outcome
scaffolding and how to identify students to be labeled and placed in Advanced Academic
settings. At biweekly literacy and math Collaborative Learning Team (CLT) meetings
and monthly science CLTs, targeted, content-based ways to reach all learns for the given
unit will be shared. This will help the mindset of teachers evolve and better see how to
opportunities to excel and soar. In turn, the goal is for teachers (and supporting staff) to
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 12
identify gifted and gifted potential behavior based on content meaning and strategies
year and present labels. Current student abilities and potential will take precedence over
just carrying on student labels (i.e. SpEd) and limited mindsets for students based on how
they are currently identified. As the end result, teachers will be more susceptible in
environments.
1. Starting Tuesday, April 18, 2017, Whole Language (Sapon-Shevin, 1994) and
Whole Schooling (Peterson and Beloin, 1998) models will be combined and
highlighted as the crux of inclusion, where teachers will be exposed to why and
how meaning and strategy instruction along with support help all students to
succeed. This will be done on a biweekly basis, as CLTs take place on Tuesdays
and Thursdays, school-wide. Here, information for helping teachers broaden their
lens and see student growth and abilities opposed to their current label will be
placement cards and form draft classes for the upcoming 2017-18 school year).
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 13
2. By Friday, April 28, 2017, I will connect with my schools Advanced Academics
Resource Teacher to see what criteria exists for labeling students with an
Advanced Academics label, so that she and I can work with the third grade team
and other team leaders to share the criteria. This will provide all grade-level
support to think about their students, who has the potential to succeed in an
Advanced Academic setting, and be ready to share their wishes they want added
to the current school-wide criteria for labeling students with a gifted label.
receiving services will be set after hearing the current criteria. This part of the
timeline may get confusing and overwhelmed. To alleviate this, a need for social-
Academics criteria list will be shared before with the school before its time to
complete placement cards and form draft classes for the upcoming 2017-18
school year.
The whole concept of my action plan is education. With all of the high demands
identifying Advanced Academic (AA) students is needed. Within the literacy, math, and
science CLT settings, permission from each facilitator is needed to get on at least a few
agendas to discuss how identifying students for Advanced Academics would look per the
given grade-level content lens. From this collected data, general and content specific
patterns and trends can be identified and help from the Advanced Academics Resource
Teacher is needed to fine-tune the updated AA selection process and student criteria.
Aside from sharing ongoing reminders about how to advocate for student enrichment in
the principal and/or facilitator is needed to speak about any inequities noticed when
drafting classrooms for the upcoming school year, at each grade-level placement card
meeting. In addition, help is needed by the principal and other facilitators, who attend
more than one or all grade-level placement card meetings is needed to share any
Advanced Academic and other noticeable inequities, as make them more equitable across
all grade-levels.
During the upcoming grade-level placement card meetings, there will still be non-
classroom teachers who are set in their structured ways, in terms of how classrooms have
been formed in the past. To move beyond this thinking, teachers need to be encouraged
to continually advocate for their students by name, need, holistic abilities, and potential
opposed to solely on Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) and Cognitive Abilities
Test (CogAT) scores, which are often used to determine Advanced Academic placement.
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 15
And even if 1-2 SpEd students are afforded the opportunity to be either an Advanced
Academic classroom or enrichment group the upcoming school year, thats a victory, as
supporting staff members are starting to thinking more about student potential than their
preset label(s)!
Reflective Narrative
By delving into this Equity Study, I have learned how to research and
disaggregate data at a deeper level. I learned to look beyond ethnicity and spoken
classroom and throughout my school. In terms of student Special Education and English
as a Second Language (ESOL) accommodations, I was able to see how many of these
students are actually being represented and challenged in enriched (Advanced Academic)
settings down to how many serve on the Student Council Advisory and as school safety
patrol. And by seeing little to no representation, not just in the Advanced Academic
setting, my awareness level raised and now, I am able to better advocate for more
My Role as a Teacher
advocate for all students, especially those in third grade. Thinking about labels in
general, I must advocate to help promote student achieve. What this looks like may vary,
as some students need more social-emotional help while others, more of an academic
scaffold or challenge. And in centering about the word fair, I am now more capable of
advocating for students in terms of looking at the current data or group make-up and
presenting the need to the person in charge. For example, a student may need a creative
outlet that centers around engineering and technology. Seeing that I can speak to the
demographics of my schools Robotics Club, I am now better equipped to cite the need of
Next school year, I am preparing to move out of the classroom and into a math
resource teacher position. With this position shift, I will sit on the leadership team and in
other meetings with my coach counterparts and principal. In turn, will be better able to
serve as a student, teacher, parent liaison, seeing inequities through many lenses, but too
problem-solving with these lenses to develop scaffolded plans to move towards a more
equitable state. In addition, I too will focus heavily on math vertical articulation. Noted
patterns and trends found when disaggregating assessment data and when pushing into
classrooms will be noted and in turn, plans will be put in place to help increase student
achievement.
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 17
Resources
http://www.theowlteacher.com/scaffoldingrescuing/.
Fairfax County Public Schools. (2017). Full-time advanced academics program, grades
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 18
https://www.fcps.edu/academics/middleschoolacademics78/advancedacademi
cs/fulltimeadvancedacademicprogramgrades.
Frattura, E., & Capper, C. (2007). Leading for social justice. Thousand Oaks, CA: poor
Corwin Press.
Peterson, M. and Beloin, K. (1998). For better or worse: Building inclusive schools in
http://www.wholeschooling.net/WS/WSPress/ForBetterorWorse.html.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/dec94/vol52/num04/Wh
yGiftedStudentsBelonginInclusiveSchools.aspx.
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016014.pdf.
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 19
Appendix
We have found that most districts do not gather or report all of this information. It may be
possible, however, to find such data or to calculate this information by hand. Please note
that some data may only be applicable to elementary, middle, or high schools. If your
school does not use a particular label, replace that category with a related category that
your school uses.
5- fourth grade
teachers
1-School Based
Technology Specialist
(SBTS)
3- art teachers
3- music teachers
3- P.E. teachers
2- librarians
8- SpEd IAs
2- General IAs
6- ESOL teachers
50/138 = 36.2%
(noncertified teacher
staff / total number of
staff members)
K grade: 0/141
students = 0%
2nd grade:28/155
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 22
students = 18.1%
3. SOL grade level Grade 3 Data: Braddock ES Upper grade, 3-5 data
achievement Reading: 77.6% pass School Profile*
(disaggregated by rate (59/76 students http://schoolprofiles.
race, disability, who took the
fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?
gender, ESL, and assessment passed)
FRL) p=108:8:::::P8_RET
Computer Adaptive URN_PAGE:50
Math Test: 90% pass
rate (90/134 students
who took the
assessment passed)
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 24
Grade 4 Data:
Reading: 46.6% pass
rate (55/118 students
who took the
assessment passed)
Grade 5 Data:
Reading: 55.9% pass
rate (57/102 students
who took the
assessment passed)
VA Studies (History):
83.9% pass rate (52/62
students who took the
assessment passed)
4. Of the number of NG
students identified for
special education,
what fraction and
what percentage
receive FRL
6. Students identified NG
as gifted in your
setting who receive
FRL. Compare the
response to Item 1.
7. Students identified NG
at-risk in your
setting who receive
FRL. Compare your
response to Item 1.
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 27
8. Report two 8/22 (36.4%) students SIS- Student -FYI: All students
additional pieces of in my class have Information have various
academic parents who work System, where adversities they face
achievement in your multiple jobs or and at-home
student attendance is
setting as they relate receive assistance (i.e. challenges
to social class. (Note: help from family taken and student
Social class here members in terms of profiles can be seen -Students w/
refers to social groups babysitting or clothes along w/ my Smartphones not
based on economic from a local church) to observations. reported because
status.) make ends meet (low though expensive,
SES families). there is no correlation
between having one
14/22 (63.6%) and any particular
students live in a 2 SES.
parent home and are
considered middle or
barely middle class,
have a little more than
students who live in
single-family homes.
-Other: 21/852 =
2.5%
3. Students labeled 1/22 = 4.5% SIS (FCPS Speech falls under the
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 29
1/20 Asian
1/20 White
1/20 Black
Breakdown:
51/138 or 37% of all
staff members are
uncertified staff and
people of color
Tuesday/Thursday
Technology and
Literacy (BEST) club-
the majority of club
members are hispanic,
which speaks to my
schools population
majority: 86/106
students (81%)
As an area of
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 33
improvement,
Robotics needs to be
more diverse and
through open to all,
more effort is needed
to reach people of
color and peek their
interest.
Dual languages
include:
Spanish- 15/21
(71.4%) students
Vietnamese 4/21
(19%)
2nd grade:28/155
students = 18.1%
0/28 = 0% gifted label
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 35
w/ SpEd label
Vietnamese spoken by
1/66 (1.5%) of the
bilingual staff
Breakdown:
51/138 or 37% of all
staff members are
uncertified staff and
people of color
Spanish spoken by
46/56 (82.1%) of the
uncertified, bilingual
staff
Vietnamese spoken by
3/56 (5.4%) of the
uncertified, bilingual
staff
Chichewa spoken by
2/56 (3.6%) of the
uncertified, bilingual
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 37
staff
Areas of
improvement:
More Hispanic
representation is
needed outside of my
school walls. For
example, out of the 13
FCPS school board
members, there is no
Hispanic or Black
representation. In my
school and schools
around the county, this
representation is
needed, as for one,
students and families
can see themselves in
this role and be able to
better relate (i.e. via
culture and language)
at a deeper level.
K- 13/141 = 9.2%
1st- 14/125 = 11.2%
2nd- 15/155 = 9.7%
3rd- 20/154 = 13%
4th- 23/145 = 15.9%
5th- 32/131= 24.4%
-Nce-r(dd):school
1st grade: 14/125 code in [SpEd]
students Primary Service data
LD: 3/20 (15%) column
2nd grade:15/155
students
LD: 7/28 (25%)
with a disability who the student body is literacy data sorter students participate in
participate in full fully included in the full inclusion, even
inclusion in your general ed. classroom students in our SpEd
school. setting. heavy, grade-level
classrooms do not all
Also, 129/151 (85.4%) have IEPs
of SpEd students are
participate in full -Non-CAT (NC)
inclusion. students excluded
from this data
-Self-contained
students not identified
on my schools
literacy spreadsheet
5. Students labeled 22/581 (3.8%) of the Braddock ES These are our Non-
with a disability who student body is literacy data sorter CAT (NC) students,
are partially included partially included in who generally push
in the general the general ed. into the classroom
education classroom. classroom setting- setting to receive
these are the Non-CAT science/social studies
(NC) students. instruction
K grade: N/A
Also, 22/151 (14.6%)
of SpEd students are 1st grade: 7 Non-
partially included in CAT (NC) students
the general education
classroom setting. 2nd grade: 5 Non-
CAT (NC) students
22 total NC students
grade-level peers.
As areas of
improvement, more
opportunities should
be provided
throughout the school,
allowing more SpEd
representation in
school-wide programs,
as noted in the above
Girl Scouts and Safety
Patrol demographic
data.
Breakdown:
6- kindergarten
teachers
0/6 (0%) males
6/6 (100%) females
6- kindergarten IAs
0/6 (0%) males
6/6 (100%) females
8- second grade
teachers
2/8 (25%) males
6/8 (75%) females
5- fourth grade
teachers
0/5 (0%) males
5/5 (100%) females
(16.7%) males
(83.3%) females
1-School Based
Technology Specialist
(SBTS)
1/1 (100%) males
0/1 (0%)- females
3- art teachers
0/3 (0%) males
3/3 (100%) females
3- music teachers
0/3 (0%) males
3/3 (100%) females
3- P.E. teachers
2/3 (66.7%) males
1/3 (33.3%) females
2- librarians
0/2 (0%)- males
2/2 (100%) females
8- SpEd IAs
1/8 (12.5%) males
7/8 (87.5%) females
2- General IAs
0/2 (0%) males
2/2 (100%) females
6- ESOL teachers
0/6 (0%) males
6/6 (100%) females
- first grade:
6/6 (100%) females
- second grade*:
1/7 (14.3%) males
6/7 (85.7%) females
- third grade*:
6/6 (100%) females
- fourth grade*:
4/4 (100%) females
- fifth grade*:
1/5 (20%) males
4/5 (80%) females
- fourth grade*:
4/4 (100%) females
- fifth grade*:
1/5 (20%) males
4/5 (80%) females
- fourth grade*:
4/4 (100%) females
- fifth grade*:
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 47
- first grade:
6/6 (100%) females
- second grade*:
1/7 (14.3%) males
6/7 (85.7%) females
- third grade*:
6/6 (100%) females
- fourth grade*:
4/4 (100%) females
- fifth grade*:
1/5 (20%) males
4/5 (80%) females
6. Gender makeup of 5/5 (100%) = female My knowledge of *In 3rd grade, there is
AP teachers. AAP teachers my school climate 1 full-time AAP
classroom in addition
K- N/A to 1 of the TWI
1st grade- N/A teachers teaching
2nd grade- N/A AAP math to her
3rd grade- 2 AAP afternoon class (gen.
teachers* ed. math is taught to
4th grade- 2 AAP her morning class)
teachers
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 48
3. How many staff are 0/138 (0%) of staff My knowledge This information is
open about their members not really publicized
LGBTQ identity to or displayed at my
SPECIAL EDUCATION INEQUITY IN ADVANCED ACADEMIC SETTINGS 51
6.How and to what A fine line about this FCPS Family Life
extent does your topic is vaguely Education
schools curriculum addressed when literature via
address LGBTQ teaching upper grade
Blackboard (K-6
issues? Family Life
Education. For content)
example, Physical
Affection is a
relationship topic that
is addressed and
parents/guardians can
opt-out their child.
youth?
group. to support
As to improve services
and outlets for this
potential population of
staff/students, more
than our 2 counselors
should be there for
support. Though there
may be an emotional
stand, there is also a
pride and acceptance
stance that should be
recognized without
judgment.