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SPED Dashboard Survey

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Principals' perceptions of self-efficacy to administer special education in relation to regional education service center professional learning opportunities.

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The purpose of this doctoral study was to investigate Texas principals' perceptions of self-efficacy to administer special education services. An additional focus was the degree to which principals perceived the professional learning opportunities based at their Regional Education Service Centers (RESCs) to be supportive of their efforts to administer special education services.

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18 + services are designed to be specialized, age-appropriate instructional services for adult students 18 to 21 served by special education. Everything about the 18+ special education services should be age-appropriate, starting with transition assessments, instructional strategies, accommodations, and instructional environments. The resources below will assist LEAs in gaining a better understanding for defining, developing, and improving their 18+ programs. Families will be able to utilize resources on this page to assist their adult student in transitioning to life after leaving public education.

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Texas Transition | Student-Centered Transitions Network (SCTN)

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The Student-Centered Transitions Network (SCTN) is creating new pathways to successful adult life for students with disabilities. The SCTN is led by the Eleanor and Charles Garrett Center on Transition and Disability Studies at Sam Houston State University in collaboration with the Texas Education Agency.

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Texas Education Agency Compact with Texans Governor's Committee on People With Disabilities
1701 N. Congress Avenue Complaints Trial
Austin, Texas, 78701 Equal Educational Opportunity Where Our Money Goes
(512) 463-9734

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Small and Rural Schools Network / Homepage

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Texas Education Agency Compact with Texans Governor's Committee on People With Disabilities 1701 N. Congress Avenue Complaints Trial Austin, Texas, 78701 Equal Educational Opportunity Where Our Money Goes (512) 463-9734

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Educational researchers and leaders in the field are collaborating with the Texas Education Agency to develop timely, meaningful, appropriate, and high-quality resources to guide educators and families in supporting students with significant cognitive disabilities.

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The TIER Leadership module comprises six pathways or trainings. These pathways aid leaders in implementing the elements and processes needed to plan instruction, problem solve, and consistently analyze data effectively within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) framework.

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This free lesson set includes instructional routines and materials for designing foundational reading skills lessons. The routines are designed for students in first grade who are learning to read and students in first, second, and third grades who need additional instructional support.

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This free lesson set includes instructional routines and materials for designing foundational reading skills lessons. The routines are designed for students in first grade who are learning to read and students in first, second, and third grades who need additional instructional support.

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special education rules and regulations texas

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overview of special education for parents

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We offer resources to understand your child's disability, rights under IDEA, and promote collaboration for effective services to children with disabilities in Texas.

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State Guidance, Blind/Visually Impaired, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Child Find, Evaluation

TEA's FAQ regarding evaluating a student with a sensory impairment for a potential learning disability.

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State Guidance, Blind/Visually Impaired, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Child Find, Evaluation TEA's FAQ regarding evaluating a student with a sensory impairment for a potential learning disability.

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This column helps you identify resources from TEA TA Networks (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you identify resources from TEA TA Networks (~Dr. JCB~)

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SPED Funding Master Class-Results Driven Budgeting.mp4

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This column helps you change learning trajectories  (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you change learning trajectories  (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you change the conversation    (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you change the conversation    (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you to effectively disrupt the status quo              (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you to effectively disrupt the status quo              (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you illuminate blind spots and avoid pitfalls (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you illuminate blind spots and avoid pitfalls (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you ignite and inspire IDEAs  (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you ignite and inspire IDEAs  (~Dr. JCB~)

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This Pillar helps you optimize organizational efficiencies (~Dr. JCB~)

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This Pillar helps you optimize organizational efficiencies (~Dr. JCB~)

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This Pillar helps you maximize curricular alignment (~Dr. JCB~)

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This Pillar helps you maximize curricular alignment (~Dr. JCB~)

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This Pillar helps you analyze budgetary resources        (~Dr. JCB~) 

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This Pillar helps you analyze budgetary resources        (~Dr. JCB~) 

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This Pillar helps you synthesize resources for staffing (~Dr. JCB~)  

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This Pillar helps you synthesize resources for staffing (~Dr. JCB~)  

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This column helps you strategically prepare for success   (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you strategically prepare for success   (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you effectively utilize this resource           (~Dr. JCB~)

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This column helps you effectively utilize this resource           (~Dr. JCB~)

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Ideas, Information, & Resources (Spring 2021)

Dr. John C. Bullion

Doctor of Education

RESC Supports for Special Education
Special Education Liaisons
Since 2017, Special Education Liaisons in all 20 Regional Education Service Centers across Texas provide - boots on the ground - support for the transition to RDA. With extensive training in Design Thinking, Four Disciplines of Execution, Lead Measures, Lean Data, and Little Bets, SPED Liaisons are uniquely equipped to provide support to LEAs in their efforts to positively impact the achievement and outcomes of students with disabilities. This is just one of the many ways that PED Liaisons connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Disrupting the status quo to change learning trajectories; We are ESC Liaisons!
Effective Special Education
Effective Special Education Programs in 2021 require all educators - gen ed/sped/admin - to understand and implement strength focused practices, which include high expectations, effectively designed instruction, and experience rich learning environments for students with disabilities. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about how to increase organizational capital by leveraging people, processes, and mindsets to transform special education programs from procedural compliance focused to student outcome focused, reach out to your RESC SPED Department and SPED Liaisons.

Getting to Effectiveness will require educators to make a choice; a shift from adult-centered mindsets and organizations to kid-centric campuses and classrooms. Growth minded educators dedicated to studying their standards and mastering their craft understand that children thrive when learning conditions are optimal. Prioritizing the needs of children above their own, these individuals effectively navigate internal thoughts and emotions to mitigate external variables, which might be otherwise disruptive to the carefully crafted climate of controlled chaos their classrooms become when kids are in control of their own educational trajectories.

Mastering the art of calculated risk-taking enables these courageous curators of culture to continually innovate and refine their pedagogical approach while failing forward through adjustments to instructional pace and rigor. Engineering ever-evolving educational experiences with enthusiasm and excitement, ensures engagement and effort while fostering academic autonomy and personal responsibility.

In the age of effectiveness, educators must become expert learners in tune with their own unique strengths and learning preferences if they are to engage the elephant and the rider residing within themselves; thinking fast and thinking slow; shifting focus from field to tree. Sparking, fanning, and feeding the flame that fleets within, effective educators in 2021 emulate excellence by exemplifying courage and kindness in the quest to inspire, enlighten, and illicit the intrigue and curiosity within every child.

Statewide Technical Assistance Networks

Statewide Technical Assistance Networks

Statewide Technical Assistance Networks

Statewide Technical Assistance Networks

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Ideas, Information, & Resources (Spring 2021) Doctor of Education Special Education Liaisons Since 2017, Special Education Liaisons in all 20 Regional Education Service Centers across Texas provide - boots on the ground - support for the transition to RDA.

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September 2020 Edition Regional Education Service Centers
Regional Education Service Centers (RESC) provide a multitude of programs, products, and services, which support LEAs with state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, special education coaching, and professional learning for paras, teachers, staff and administrators. As the TEA's Division of Review & Support continues implementation of the Special Education Strategic Plan, LEAs are adapting to the requirements of Results Driven Accountability (RDA), while RESCs are adapting services and supports in alignment with TEAs Differentiated Monitoring & Support System (DMS). This seismic shift in pedagogical paradigms emphasizes effectively designed instruction informed by lead data collected by empowered educators who have mastered the art of making Little Bets enabling them to learn fast and fail forward as they pivot or persevere with insight and agility.
Special Education Liaisons
Since 2017, Special Education Liaisons in all 20 RESCs provide - boots on the ground - support for the transition to RDA. With extensive training in Design Thinking, Four Disciplines of Execution, Lead Measures, Lean Data, and Little Bets, SPED Liaisons are uniquely equipped to provide support to LEAs in their efforts to positively impact the achievement and outcomes of students with disabilities. This is just one of the many ways that PED Liaisons connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

If you are interested in leveraging the SPED Liaison in your Region, you can do so by contacting your Regional Education Service Center. As the role of Special Education Liaisons continues to be adapted in response to the evolving needs of our Regional LEAs, turn to them for innovative resources, supports, and services. ESC Liaisons provide assistance with , , , SPED Self-Assessments, SPED Strategic Support Plans, and TEA Desk Reviews. Disrupting the status quo to change learning trajectories; We are ESC Liaisons!
Effective Special Education
Effective Special Education Programs in 2020 require all educators - gen ed/sped/admin - to understand and implement strength focused practices, which include high expectations, effectively designed instruction, and experience rich learning environments for students with disabilities. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about how to increase organizational capital by leveraging people, processes, and mindsets to transform special education programs from procedural compliance focused to student outcome focused, reach out to your RESC SPED Department and SPED Liaisons.

Getting to Effectiveness will require educators to make a choice; a shift from adult-centered mindsets and organizations to kid-centric campuses and classrooms. Growth minded educators dedicated to studying their standards and mastering their craft understand that children thrive when learning conditions are optimal. Prioritizing the needs of children above their own, these individuals effectively navigate internal thoughts and emotions to mitigate external variables, which might be otherwise disruptive to the carefully crafted climate of controlled chaos their classrooms become when kids are in control of their own educational trajectories.

Mastering the art of calculated risk-taking enables these courageous curators of culture to continually innovate and refine their pedagogical approach while failing forward through adjustments to instructional pace and rigor. Engineering ever-evolving educational experiences with enthusiasm and excitement, ensures engagement and effort while fostering academic autonomy and personal responsibility.

In the age of effectiveness, educators must become expert learners in tune with their own unique strengths and learning preferences if they are to engage the elephant and the rider residing within themselves; thinking fast and thinking slow; shifting focus from field to tree. Sparking, fanning, and feeding the flame that fleets within, effective educators in 2020 emulate excellence by exemplifying courage and kindness in the quest to inspire, enlighten, and illicit the intrigue and curiosity within every child.

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September 2020 Edition Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers (RESC) provide a multitude of programs, products, and services, which support LEAs with state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, special education coaching, and professional learning for paras, teachers, staff and administrators.

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Your future self’s memories are like pathways paved with the choices you make today (~Dr. JCB~)

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Your future self’s memories are like pathways paved with the choices you make today (~Dr. JCB~)

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When We Know Better..                              We Should Do Better                               (~Dr. JCB~)

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When We Know Better..                              We Should Do Better                               (~Dr. JCB~)

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Knowing is half the battle, the other half is Learning not to know (~Dr. JCB~)

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Knowing is half the battle, the other half is Learning not to know (~Dr. JCB~)

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Every kid has a story worth telling         (~Dr. JCB~)

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Every kid has a story worth telling         (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids get it. Adults not so much             (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids get it. Adults not so much             (~Dr. JCB~)

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My "I Can" is more important that my "IQ"

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My "I Can" is more important that my "IQ"

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Most think to change others, few think to change themselves                                 (~Dr. JCB~)

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Most think to change others, few think to change themselves                                 (~Dr. JCB~)

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To Lead is To Follow                                (~Dr. JCB~)

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To Lead is To Follow                                (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids These Days...(Insert)                         are not the Problem!!!                              (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids These Days...(Insert)                         are not the Problem!!!                              (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids Are a Direct Reflection of the adult influences in their life (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids Are a Direct Reflection of the adult influences in their life (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids Are a Direct Reflection of the adult influences in their life (~Dr. JCB~)

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Kids Are a Direct Reflection of the adult influences in their life (~Dr. JCB~)

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Student Behavior Should Be Interpreted Not Controlled (~Dr. JCB~)  

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Student Behavior Should Be Interpreted Not Controlled (~Dr. JCB~)  

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Because Creativity                               Craves Constraints                                  (~Dr. JCB~)

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Because Creativity                               Craves Constraints                                  (~Dr. JCB~)

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IDEAS, INFORMATION, & RESOURCES

SPECIAL EDUCATION SUPPORTS
March 2019 Edition ESC Region 12 Special Education
ESC Region 12 offers numerous programs and services to support LEAs and their Special Education staff with meeting the needs of students. This includes complying with state and federal legislative requirements, securing funding, and training Special Education staff and administrators to ensure that all their students have the opportunity to be successful regardless of special needs or disabilities.
SPED Liaisons
Special Education Liaisons provide additional supports and services to LEAs at each of the 20 Education Services Centers across Texas. While our approach varies along with the regional needs of LEAs, our purpose is to "connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities."

In my time as an ESC Liaison, I have had the opportunity to work on several projects, which focus on amplifying the state's resources such as SPED Dashboard and ARD Buddy. More recently I am collaborating with ESC Regions 9,10, & 11 on the development of a Podcast about all things SPED called " SPEDTalk with Pam & John." More on that to come.
Future Opportunities
Opportunities to provide support in your local context has enabled me to learn so much from each of you. I look forward to continuing these efforts whenever invited to do so. Special Education Leadership Academy has provided additional opportunities to collaborate and learn from one another. Moving forward the Academies will be held in the LEx Labs at the BRIC.

DESTINATION EDUCATION

John C. Bullion, M. Ed., LPC-S (#61611)

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IDEAS, INFORMATION, & RESOURCES March 2019 Edition ESC Region 12 Special Education ESC Region 12 offers numerous programs and services to support LEAs and their Special Education staff with meeting the needs of students.

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IDEAS, INFORMATION, & RESOURCES April 2019 Edition Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators.

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IDEAS, INFORMATION, & RESOURCES

RESC Supports for Special Education
May 2019 Edition Regional Education Service Centers
Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators. Our Purpose is to ensure that all students across Texas have the opportunity to be successful regardless of differing abilities and needs. When was the last time you stopped in for a session or contacted your Regional Education Service Center for supports or services?
Special Education Liaisons
Special Education Liaisons provide additional supports and services to LEAs at each of the 20 Education Services Centers across Texas. While our approach varies along with the regional needs of LEAs, our purpose is to "connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities." Have you considered Leveraging Your Liaison to support your LEA, Campus, or Classroom?

Check out our most recent episodes of SPEDTalk with Pam & John, and you just might find a little something extra. Included this month is a Special Extended Edition of our Podcast focusing on the amazing things happening at the only Ultra-Accessible Theme Park in the World, Morgan's Wonderland in San Antonio, Texas. Let's continue to Elevate the Conversation as we Accelerate & Amplify state special education resources into the hands of those who need them. This a positive platform for celebrating the people and organizations that are really making it happen for students with disabilities across Texas.

I am also excited to announce the release of Destination Education: When Worlds Collide co-hosted by Andi McNair (A Meaningful Mess), John C. Bullion (Chaos in a Suit), Josh Essary (Digital Innovation Guru) and Arash Abnoussi (Mathematician Extraordinaire). Tune in as we connect the worlds of "Special" and "Exceptional" while highlighting and celebrating "The Genius in Me!" Explicitly connecting Genius Hour Concepts and Practices to Students with Differing Abilities. By focusing on human-connection and educational destinations steeped in experiential educational opportunities, we can bridge these two schools of thought. Results Driven Accountability (RDA) encourages educators to tap into the potential in each and every child. What better way to do that than designing to the edges of our educational landscape?

Also, remember that the student lead transition app, Big Changes, which was designed with the assistance of Northwest ISD High School Students, can be downloaded at the Apple and Google Play Store. And don't forget to circle back to and SPED Dashboard for just in time resources and supports.
Future Opportunities
If you want to Elevate the Conversation and Partake in the Positive, be sure to attend our session SPEDTalk with Pam & John: Live and Interactive at TCASE Interactive 2019. You never know what to expect when Pam and I get together, and having a live audience will only add to the fun. And, I am super excited to invite those of you attending Interactive to join Laurie Tresl and Myself in our Thought Leader Session "Building Organizational Capacity," which is scheduled for Monday, July 22nd. Hope to see you there!

Shifting gears, I am fortunate to announce the cast of DESTINATION EDUCATION: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE will also be going Live and Interactive at the TransformEd Conference in June at ESC Region 12. If you are planning to attend the conference, join your tour guides Andi, John, Josh and Arash as the connect the worlds of GT and Special Education Pedagogy and Practices and explore educational destinations yet to be discovered.
In Case You Didn't Know
While Texas is Information rich when it comes to Special Education Resources and Supports, it can be difficult knowing where to go to find what your looking for because there is so much stuff in so many locations around the state. One need look no further than ESC Region 20 to find a plethora resources at the Progress in General Curriculum (PGC) homepage on their website. Whether you are a campus or district Administrator, SPED Teacher, Gen Ed Teacher, Paraprofessional, or Instructional Specialist, ESC Region 20 and the PGC Network has you covered.

In case you didn't know, Texas has 14 Statewide Leadership Functions and Projects, but is currently re-consolidating these into 10 Statewide Technical Assistance Leadership Networks, which are scheduled to role out in the 2019-2020 school year. In addition to these Networks, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is developing Technical Assistance Frameworks, which will provide additional information regarding Best Practices and Exemplar Models for LEA consideration.

Regional Education Service Centers across the state are connected to and provide support in these areas and many more. Expect to see and hear more about these Networks and Frameworks in upcoming SPEDTalk Newsletters and on SPEDTalk with Pam & John as we will no doubt be keeping a close on their evolution. In Region 12, these topics will be explored in more detail throughout the 2019-2020 school year in our Special Education Leadership Academy 2020sessions, which will be hosted at the ESC Region 12 at the Baylor Research & Innovation Collaborative BRIC.

DESTINATION EDUCATION

John C. Bullion, M. Ed., LPC-S (#61611)

Just a Thought
Just a Thought

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IDEAS, INFORMATION, & RESOURCES May 2019 Edition Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators.

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John C. Bullion, M. Ed., LPC-S (#61611)

Special Education Liaison at ESC Region 12

June 2019 Edition

Special Education Liaisons In Case You Didn't Know

DESTINATION EDUCATION

ESC LIAISONS CONNECT TEXAS:

Pam and I had the opportunity to drop into the offices of the last time we were in Austin, and I must say we definitely elevating the conversation while we were there. Joining us around the table were Theresa Parsons (Executive Director), Ginger Meyners (Deputy Director), and Kristin McGuire (Director of Governmental Relations) and of course SPEDTalk Producer, Amy Rogers. We loved learning about the vision, mission, and purpose of TCASE, as well as gaining insights into the upcoming TCASE Interactive 2019 Conference.

I was also blessed to have the opportunity to share information at the TEPSA Summer Conference regarding "What every principal needs to know about the TEA SPED Strategic Plan" where I met so many amazing campus leaders from around Texas. To wrap up an amazing month of touring around the state and sharing ideas, information, and resources, I made it back to Waco, Texas just in time for the TransformEd Summer Conference at ESC Region 12 where we recorded Destination Education: When Worlds Collide with a student paneland audience contributions.

Just a Thought
Just a Thought
For educators, summertime is a time for rejuvenation, reflection, and refocus. Thinking back on your year, was there a kid you felt like you just weren't able to reach this school year. Thinking back on my time as a teacher, counselor, and administrator, I often found myself reflecting on just such a kid. Thinking I should have tried one more approach. Wishing I would have managed my own thoughts and emotions differently when being confronted with feelings of confusion and doubt about my own abilities because of the behavior of that kid. I remember thinking about how much I focused on relationships and how much I really did care about every student in my care including that kid. And yet when things became stressful because of the behaviors of that kid, my thoughts and emotions betrayed me and undermined me ability to remain objective in my responsibilities to that kid.

The irony is that it was my desire to help kids like that kid, which led me to education as a profession. It has dawned on me over the past few years that I was that kid. I have since realized the importance of remaining in control when others are out of control; not to enable me to control the actions of others, but so that I might remain firm in my purpose for being. That is to add value to the lives of others through kindness and love. I've realized that as an educator, my main responsibility is to add value to the lives of others. In order for me to do that, I can't let my pedagogical prowess and emotional self-regulation be comprised by external factors.

If we don't remain cognizant of the impact that these external situations can have on us, we become victim to their influence. I refer to the impact these external factors have on us as "Circumstantial Turbulence." For the same biological reasons that kids become aggressive, despondent, defensive, or hyperactive, educators often respond in similar ways. It's called fight or flight and it is our bodies elevated risk response. Often our responses (Reactional Positionality) further exacerbate the amount of circumstantial turbulence experienced by the kids we are trying to help. As these external situations are internalized by kids and educators, it further elicits the fear response in each of us,which reinforces our tendencies towards reactional positionality.

As I conclude my reflection, it occurs to me that even in my current life as a Special Education Liaison, I am still the kid that gets easily distracted, hyperactive, and excitable. Somewhere along the road of life, I was blessed to have amazing educators and mentors who taught me to know my strengths. My hope is that we all begin to recognize strengths in others. We all have them...even that kid.

Just a thought

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Special Education Liaison at ESC Region 12 June 2019 Edition Special Education Liaisons In Case You Didn't Know ESC LIAISONS CONNECT TEXAS: Pam and I had the opportunity to drop into the offices of the last time we were in Austin, and I must say we definitely elevating the conversation while we were there.

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John C. Bullion, M. Ed., LPC-S (#61611)

Special Education Liaison at ESC Region 12

July 2019 Edition

Special Education Liaisons In Case You Didn't Know

DESTINATION EDUCATION

ESC LIAISONS CONNECT TEXAS:

This month I had the opportunity to visit my friends at ESC Region 4 and share information about Designing Educational Destinations and Digital Resources with amazing educators (I see you Pat Monaghan) at the AGC Summer Institute. Access is a means of approach.

Access is how educators expose students to the general curriculum. Designing learning environments that ensure students receive quality access to the general curriculum is challenging. Educators are faced with a wide range of learner variability in their classrooms. To address this variability, educators need professional development opportunities that focus on evidence-based practices for instruction. This annual summer institute does just that. Be sure to check it out next year. Maybe I'll see you there!

During our week in Austin with our Statewide Liaison PLC, Pam and I also sat down with Lorraine Klim (ESC Region 4 Liaison) to discuss her efforts developing an exemplar autism program that can be scaled into larger and smaller school systems. Lorraine's experience developing an autism continuum during her time in Houston ISD, makes her the perfect person to scale these efforts across the state, and as a recipient of an Autism Grant from TEA, her work stands to help countless numbers of students with autism and the educators who support them. Be sure to check out new Episodes of SPEDTalk to learn more about Lorraine's work with Autism.

We want to send a special thank you Theresa, Ginger, Kristin and the entire TCASE team for making our experience at TCASE Interactive 2019 so amazing. When Pam and I first talked about starting a podcast, we never could have imagined that we would be recording SPEDTalk with Pam & John, Live and Interactive with such an amazing group of educators at TCASE Interactive. Elevating the conversation about Results Driven Accountability from a student's perspective allowed members of the audience to empathize with the experience of being educated with a disability. It is through the contributions of our guests that SPEDTalk has become a platform for celebrating the positive aspects of special education while amplifying ideas, information, and resources around the state. Blessings & Gratitude! Without you, there is no SPEDTalk!

Just a Thought
Just a Thought
Attending public school in the 1970s and 1980s in La Marque, Texas afforded insights into diversity and disability. True to the times, students with significant cognitive disabilities were housed separately from the general population of students and only visible during off period strolls with hall pass securely in hand. Walking past the gymnasium, one might catch a glimpse of these students engaged in all sorts of aerobic type movements and postures. Wondering thoughts of "who, what, where..." were soon replaced with the realization that time out of class had exceeded any logical adult's perception of acceptable restroom break time allotment. As elementary turned to middle then secondary school, a few of these students with less significant needs became more visible in the hallways and cafeteria as memory recalls. Vague recollections of students with less visibly noticeable learning disabilities spending the majority of their school day in separate classrooms also come to mind.

Myself, a struggling student with needs that were invisible to the educated eye, spent most of my time unsuccessfully trying to keep up with the daily demands; an anomaly of public school homogeneity. My educational stemmed from symptoms of a broken home and over stimulated cerebral cortex. Learning struggles led to remedial courses and low expectations, and by today's standards, I would have likely been served in special education as a student with ADHD or an Emotional Disturbance. My career in education has left me with mixed feelings regarding my unidentified needs as a child. While I would have likely learned to type in that keyboarding class from which I was removed, I have overcome this deficit in adulthood. And that Spanish course that was replaced with another remedial math class would not likely have led to me becoming bilingual beyond my current illiterate bilingualism.

What I have seen in my 20 years as a special educator is that for many kids like I was, identified needs leading to eligibility and services have both hastened and inhibited the learning process. While many students in special education receive needed supports and services in appropriately intensified and accelerated remediation, many more struggle to overcome the low expectations and exclusionary educational opportunities offered through modified mediocrity and accommodated apathy also known as Specially Designed Instruction (SDI). And so the story goes and only the actors change until now that is!

There is currently a national discussion on what it means to educate children with disabilities. Enthusiastic educators are debating beliefs regarding equity and equality while lackadaisical legislators are pandering to political rhetoric and policy elites. Policing practices through compliance heavy policies have created sometimes complaint systems, which aim to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) with Access to General Curriculum (AGC). Reflecting on the origins of SPED in P.L. 94-142 and iterations of IDEA frames the discussion that has been part of the sociopolitical landscape we call special education. Despite ongoing efforts by the US Department of Education to re-frame this discussion, many had begun to ask, "What's so special about special education anyway?"

Until now, attempts to fuse the two parallel systems of education (special education & general education) back together have failed to address a growing achievement gap (student paradigm) and expectation gap (adult paradigm). While progress regarding students having access to general education has been well documented, access has not led to progress in the general curriculum as expected. Recent rulings by the Supreme Court revisited FAPE as taught us that we must ensure that children with disabilities make meaningful progress in our education system (PGC) and achieve 'appropriately ambitious' objectives. Adding to this discussion is the shift at the federal and state level to Results Driven Accountability (). The Current formula for effective special education programs is as follows: Compliance + Student Achievement = RDA.

What's kinda funny is we have seen this coming for years with increased participation of students with disabilities in state standardized assessments and federal accountability. Terminology has followed suit as well; disabilities have replaced handicapping conditions and mainstreaming has been replaced by inclusive practices. What has yet to change is the system that has produced the results with which we are displeased. When approaching a complex problem in search of a second-order solution from within the same constraints that produced the problem in the first place, we get band aide fixes and patch work preponderances. So, while the Feds continue to try to legislate the reconfiguration of our bipolar educational system without addressing the need for systemic reform resulting in a single educational system designed to meet the needs of each and every child, maybe we should expand the discussion we have been having beyond the system which has led us to this point. In doing so, we just might wander upon a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that removes learning barriers and predicts student needs. Maybe then kids with differing abilities will learn more about their strengths than their deficits and minds will shift from students being disabled to schools being disabled.
Just a Thought

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Special Education Liaison at ESC Region 12 July 2019 Edition Special Education Liaisons In Case You Didn't Know ESC LIAISONS CONNECT TEXAS: This month I had the opportunity to visit my friends at ESC Region 4 and share information about Designing Educational Destinations and Digital Resources with amazing educators (I see you Pat Monaghan) at the AGC Summer Institute .

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August 2019 Edition

Regional Education Service Centers
Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators. As the Texas Education Agency (TEA) continues its efforts to redesign Special Education with Regional and Local Education Agencies across Texas, RESCs will be adapting services and supports in response to the changing needs that arise.

Special Education Liaisons
Special Education Liaisons connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Have you considered Leveraging Your Liaison to support your LEA, Campus, or Classroom? You can do so by contacting your Regional Education Service Center. As the role of Special Education Liaisons continues to be adapted in response to the evolving needs of our Regional LEAs, turn to them for innovative resources, supports, and services. Connecting resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities; We are ESC Liaisons!
In Case You Didn't Know
In case you didn't know, Education is changing. A growing tension exists between two schools of thought; between teaching and learning, lessons and experiences. While some believe that schools should be places of wonder and excitement in which students should be engaged in passion-based problem solving, many others are holding on tightly to a more traditional view of education, one in which teachers are the keepers of knowledge and controllers of concepts. But these opposing views may not be such a new phenomenon in our collective psyche.

According to Craft (1984), there are two different Latin roots of the English word "education." They are " educare," which means to train or to mold, and " educere," meaning to lead out. While the two meanings are quite different, they are both represented in the word education. One side views education to mean the preservation and passing down of knowledge and the shaping of youths in the image of their parents. The other side sees education as preparing a new generation for the changes that are to come, readying them to create solutions to problems yet unknown.

And then there are those who believe we can do both; that we can both honor the lessons learned and paths paved by the generational teachings that came before, while also forging ahead into new innovative approaches and practices and educational destinations yet to be discovered. I am from this group of divergent thinkers. Craft contends that striking the right balance in educational aims is a valid focus for educators; however, this requires changing organizational structures and the ways in which decisions are made. The first steps to achieving such a balance involves utilizing stakeholder perceptions, establishing a shared vision of education, and facilitating a change in educators' roles.

The changes to Texas educator certifications including the Special Education Certification and the Principal as Instructional Leader most certainly aim to facilitate a change in educators' roles. The TEAs Special Education Strategic Plan took on several iterations in response to stakeholder perceptions and feedback, and the redesign of the Statewide Leadership Functions and Projects will maintain many resources and materials from the current functions and projects as they launch this school year.

While the degree to which these efforts will result in the establishment of a shared vision of education in Texas schools is yet to be determined, change is definitely the new norm. In 2017, redefined our state accountability system by emphasizing the importance of closing the achievement gap of struggling learners and ensuring that every student makes a years growth. As we enter the 2019-2020 school year, educators are still adapting to these changes, and those seeing the greatest improvement in student outcomes understand that change is not the enemy that we have been taught to believe. These educators realize that it is the choices made in response to these changes that define their success. Adding to these changes and choices are the funding reforms provided by , which prioritizes pay raises for educators across the state. With change comes opportunity, and with all these new opportunities, it truly is an exciting time to be an educator in Texas.

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August 2019 Edition Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators.

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IDEAS, INFORMATION, & RESOURCES

John C. Bullion, ABD, M. Ed., LPC-S

RESC Supports for Special Education
September 2019 Edition

Regional Education Service Centers
Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators. As the Texas Education Agency (TEA) continues its efforts to redesign Special Education with Regional and Local Education Agencies across Texas, RESCs will be adapting services and supports in response to the changing needs that arise.

Special Education Liaisons
Special Education Liaisons connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Have you considered Leveraging Your Liaison to support your LEA, Campus, or Classroom? You can do so by contacting your Regional Education Service Center. As the role of Special Education Liaisons continues to be adapted in response to the evolving needs of our Regional LEAs, turn to them for innovative resources, supports, and services. Connecting resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities; We are ESC Liaisons!
In This Edition
In this edition of SPEDTalk, you will find ideas, information, and resources about Dyslexia, SPED Certification, Differentiated Monitoring & Support, Results Driven Accountability, SPED Changes, SPED Resources, and TEA Trending Topics. Texas is Rich in Resources, and I believe information should flow through us so that others might benefit. It is my hope that you might take a moment today to feel blessed and bless others!

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IDEAS, INFORMATION, & RESOURCES September 2019 Edition Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators.

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October 2019 Edition
~Happy Halloween~

Regional Education Service Centers
Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators. As the Texas Education Agency (TEA) continues its efforts to redesign Special Education with Regional and Local Education Agencies across Texas, RESCs will be adapting services and supports in response to the changing needs that arise.

Special Education Liaisons
Special Education Liaisons connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Have you considered Leveraging Your Liaison to support your LEA, Campus, or Classroom? You can do so by contacting your Regional Education Service Center. As the role of Special Education Liaisons continues to be adapted in response to the evolving needs of our Regional LEAs, turn to them for innovative resources, supports, and services. Connecting resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities; We are ESC Liaisons!
In This Edition
In this edition of SPEDTalk Newsletter, you will find ideas, information, and resources about Special Education Finance and Budgeting, SPED Leadership Academy, and the Small and Rural Schools Network (SRSN). Be sure to check out the flyer for the SRSN Small School Connection Conferences included below.

Links to new episodes of SPEDTalk with Pam & John are also included. Amy, Pam, and I took a road trip to College Station to learn about the Aggie ACHIEVE Program. We also sat down with SPED Directors from LEAs in Region 12 to discuss RDA, SPED Leadership, and managing the whirlwind.
Liaisons Connect Texas
Texas really is Rich in Resources, and Information should always flow through us to those who need it the most. Often this is our students, parents, and teachers in addition to our campus and district leaders. In my experience as an educator, my focus has primarily been in support of students with disabilities, which has led me to the following belief.

All Kids (each and every one) need caring, positive adult role models who prioritize the needs of children above their own. When we pair these characteristics with growth minded individuals dedicated to studying their standards and mastering their craft in the classroom, children thrive. In the recipe for creating a high performing classroom, campus, and culture, these are the basic ingredients required to help Gen Ed Student, SPED Student, GT Student, EL Student, and all the rest. ~JCB~

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October 2019 Edition~Happy Halloween~ Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, and special education coaching and professional learning for staff and administrators.

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SPEDTalk Special Edition: MOE & ME! - The Intersection Between SPED Programs & SPED Finance by John Bullion | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, nonprofits, businesses and more

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SPEDTalk Newsletter: 03/20 Covid-19 Special Edition

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SPEDTalk Newsletter: 03/20 Covid-19 Special Edition

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March 2020 Edition Covid-19 Resources Regional Education Service Centers
Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, special education coaching, and professional learning for staff and administrators. As the Texas Education Agency (TEA) continues its implementation of the Special Education Strategic Plan, LEAs must adapt to the requirements of Results Driven Accountability (RDA). RESCs have begun adapting services and supports in response to these changes in federal and state monitoring. Special Education Liaisons in all 20 RESCs provide - boots on the ground - support for the transition to RDA.

Now as LEAs across Texas are adapting pedagogy, processes, and practices in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, there's never been a better time to reach out to the Special Education Department in your Regional Education Service Center. We are here, and we want to support your efforts in the transition to digital convergence, distance learning, and blended approaches required to provide effective educational opportunities for students with Differing Abilities (gotta stop dissing the abilities of individuals). I have included a link to all 20 RESC Covid-19 Resources web pages. The most important thing to remember is that we are all going about this a little different from one another, and this is absolutely appropriate. In Texas, we retain local autonomy in our Independence (ISD); therefore, we not only have the responsibility of creating meaningful educational opportunities for children in their homes, we have the privilege of doing so. This is what sets Texas apart from the Nation, and this is where our greatest potential for Excellence Resides!
Special Education Liaisons
Special Education Liaisons connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Have you considered Leveraging Your Liaison to support your LEA, Campus, or Classroom? You can do so by contacting your Regional Education Service Center. As the role of Special Education Liaisons continues to be adapted in response to the evolving needs of our Regional LEAs, turn to them for innovative resources, supports, and services. ESC Liaisons provide assistance with , , , SPED Self-Assessments, SPED Strategic Support Plans, and TEA Desk Reviews. Disrupting the status quo to change learning trajectories; We are ESC Liaisons!
Effective Special Education
Effective Special Education Programs in 2020 require all educators - gen ed/sped/admin - to understand and implement positive strength focused practices, which include high expectations, effectively designed instruction, and experience rich learning environments for students with disabilities.

Getting to Effectiveness will require positive adult role models - educators - who prioritize the needs of children above their own. When we pair these characteristics with growth minded individuals dedicated to studying their standards and mastering their craft in the classroom, children thrive. In the recipe for creating a high performing classroom, campus, and culture, these are the basic ingredients required to help Gen Ed Student, SPED Student, GT Student, EL Student, and all the rest.

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March 2020 Edition Covid-19 Resources Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with regard to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, special education coaching, and professional learning for staff and administrators.

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June 2020 Edition Regional Education Service Centers
Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with respect to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, special education coaching, and professional learning for staff and administrators. As the Texas Education Agency (TEA) continues its implementation of the Special Education Strategic Plan, LEAs must adapt to the requirements of Results Driven Accountability (RDA). RESCs have begun adapting services and supports in response to these changes in federal and state monitoring. Special Education Liaisons in all 20 RESCs provide - boots on the ground - support for the transition to RDA.

Now as LEAs across Texas are adapting pedagogy, processes, and practices in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, there's never been a better time to reach out to the Special Education Department in your Regional Education Service Center. We are here, and we want to support your efforts in the transition to digital convergence, distance learning, and blended approaches required to provide effective remote educational opportunities for students with Differing Abilities (gotta stop dissing the abilities of individuals). I have included a link to all 20 RESC Covid-19 Resources web pages.
Special Education Liaisons
Special Education Liaisons connect resources and supports across Texas to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Have you considered Leveraging Your Liaison to support your LEA, Campus, or Classroom? You can do so by contacting your Regional Education Service Center. As the role of Special Education Liaisons continues to be adapted in response to the evolving needs of our Regional LEAs, turn to them for innovative resources, supports, and services. ESC Liaisons provide assistance with , , , SPED Self-Assessments, SPED Strategic Support Plans, and TEA Desk Reviews. Disrupting the status quo to change learning trajectories; We are ESC Liaisons!
Effective Special Education
Effective Special Education Programs in 2020 require all educators - gen ed/sped/admin - to understand and implement positive strength focused practices, which include high expectations, effectively designed instruction, and experience rich learning environments for students with disabilities. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about how to leverage people, processes, and mindsets to transform special education programs from procedural compliance focused to student outcome focused, I am available for consult via phone, email, and zoom.

Getting to Effectiveness will require positive adult role models - educators - who prioritize the needs of children above their own. When we pair these characteristics with growth minded individuals dedicated to studying their standards and mastering their craft in the classroom, children thrive. In the recipe for creating a high performing classroom, campus, and culture, these are the basic ingredients required to help Gen Ed Student, SPED Student, GT Student, EL Student, and all the rest.

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June 2020 Edition Regional Education Service Centers Regional Education Service Centers located across Texas provide a multitude of programs, products, and services to support LEAs with respect to state and federal legislative requirements, special education funding, special education coaching, and professional learning for staff and administrators.

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Pitfalls

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RESCs: Serving & Supporting Texas Public Schools

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RESCs: Serving & Supporting Texas Public Schools

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Dr. John C. Bullion has 21 years of experience in education as a Special Education Teacher, Licensed Professional Counselor, Campus Administrator and Special Education Director for a Special Education Shared Services Arrangement in Central Texas. With the belief that each and every child can reach his or her potential with the support of compassionate, courageous educators and communities, his mission has been to move from a compliance-based educational system to one that embraces the unique individuality and differing abilities in children. As the Region 12 Education Service Center Special Education Liaison to the Texas Education Agency, Dr. Bullion has spent the past few years developing resources and solutions for the efficient dissemination of special education resources across the state of Texas.
For the past 50 years, Regional Education Service Centers (RESC) have been integral to the success of Texas Public Schools. RESCs in Texas are defined as "intermediate educational units that provide training, technical assistance, administrative support, and an array of other services as determined by the Legislature, the Commissioner of Education, and the needs of local school districts and charter schools". The expansion and evolution of RESCs in Texas began in 1965 when the Texas State Board of Education authorized by the 59th Texas Legislature, developed media centers across the state. Beginning in 1967, the board utilized Title III funds from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to create a RESC in each of 20 geographic regions across the state. Initially, the main purpose for RESCs was to distribute 16 mm films to schools and coordinate educational planning in each region in Texas.
The Rise and Roles of ESAs
RESCs in Texas are part of a larger group of service agencies supporting educators in the United States. According to the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA), there are currently 500 regional educational service agencies (ESA) in 45 states in the U.S. These ESAs play an important role in the education of the Nation's children - Pre-Kindergarten through grade twelve and beyond - with the regional supports and services they provided to school districts. ESAs are documented to have been in operation as early as the 1930s.

According to Stephens and Keane (2005), the evolution of the earlier day educational service agency-type organization is arguably one of the most significant developments in the school government, especially during the past four decades. Moreover, the development of the contemporary educational service agency is a fascinating story for it in many ways mirrors the struggles faced by local and state interests to address the huge socio-economic changes that have impacted education over time, as well as the challenges presented by the rising expectations that have been placed on the schools, school districts, and the state. The efforts of the ESAs (Educational Service Agencies), with their limited resources, to implement policy issues initiated by the state and also serve needs defined by local school districts reflect their continuing efforts to strike a meaningful balance in the centralization- decentralization of educational policy.

Meant to operate as extensions of state offices, these early versions of ESAs were intended to provide services, collect educational statistics, develop educational goals, promote educational research, and observing state educational standards.

In those days, Texas schools spread across the state numbering 6,953 school districts with an average enrollment of 65 students. This led to great inequities of educational experiences. Recommendations of the Texas State Board of Education to consolidate these small districts were met with strong opposition from communities fearing the loss of local control and had little effect until the enactment of the Gilmer-Aikin Law in 1949. This law established the Texas Education Agency (TEA). It also created the office of the commissioner of education, a funding plan based on the economic index, and the state's first minimum salary for teachers. Following the initial resistance to consolidation, the financial incentives of becoming an independent school district with locally elected school board members eventually became the norm in Texas. Currently, RESCs are available to support the 1,200 plus independent school districts and public charter schools in Texas.
Region 12 Education Service Center
Since the Texas Legislature created RESCs through statute in the 1960s, school districts have benefitted from the services, products, and partnerships afforded by these organizations. There are 20 RESCs strategically located throughout the state of Texas - each with their own identity and areas of expertise - mitigating geographic and financial constraints in the services and supports they provide to Texas schools. The ESC Region 12 in Waco, Texas is where I am privileged to work as a Special Education Liaison. ESC Region 12 serves 76 school districts, 10 charter schools, 22 private schools, 413 campuses, 160,613 students, 12,138 teachers, and 24,500 staff members in the 12 surrounding counties. Supporting schools to ensure students receive equitable educational opportunities and operate efficiently and economically, ESC Region 12 strives to maximize district efficiency through systems alignment. All programs and services focus on three impact areas: educator success, resource development, and community outreach.

In his tenure as the executive director of ESC Region 12, Dr. Jerry Maze and his executive leadership team have cultivated the Center's Culture to reflect its Organizational Vision; Innovate. Empower. Educate. Through strategic partnerships with schools and communities, ESC Region 12 provides innovative solutions while empowering learners with a variety of delivery methodologies and personalized learning opportunities. In doing so, ESC Region 12 fosters trusted relationships with the superintendents, principals, special education directors, teachers, and support staff of schools throughout the region. By offering cost-sharing services, customized professional development, and embedded coaching and support services, ESC Region 12 removes time constraints, funding limitations, and geographical barriers experienced by many educators in small and rural schools around the region.

Through its transformED initiative, ESC Region12 also supports schools in their transition to digital convergence. Through modern pedagogical practices, innovative approaches, collaborative facilities, and redesigned professional learning opportunities characterized by blended learning, flexible scheduling, flipped classrooms, and participant engagement, ESC Region 12 has become a leader in the field of adult learning. As educators across the country transition to distance learning models in response to the COVID-19 Crisis, now is the perfect time to find out if your state and region have an ESA close to you. If you are a Texas Educator, don't hesitate to reach out to your RESC for ideas, information, and resources. We are here, and we are called to serve!

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Texas Regional Education Service Centers (RESC): Serving and Supporting Texas Public Schools - K12 Digest

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Dr. John C. Bullion has 21 years of experience in education as a Special Education Teacher, Licensed Professional Counselor, Campus Administrator and Special Education Director for a Special Education Shared Services Arrangement in Central Texas. With the belief that each and every child can reach his or her potential with the support of compassionate, courageous [...]

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The World of Education           is Changing!

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The World of Education           is Changing!

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Dr. John C. Bullion has 21 years of experience in education as a Special Education Teacher, Licensed Professional Counselor, Campus Administrator and Special Education Director for a Special Education Shared Services Arrangement in Central Texas. With the belief that each and every child can reach his or her potential with the support of compassionate, courageous educators and communities, his mission has been to move from a compliance-based educational system to one that embraces the unique individuality and differing abilities in children. As the Region 12 Education Service Center Special Education Liaison to the Texas Education Agency, Dr. Bullion has spent the past few years developing resources and solutions for the efficient dissemination of special education resources across the state of Texas.
The World is changing. Education is changing too. A growing tension exists between two schools of thought: between teaching and learning, lessons and experiences. Although some believe schools should be places of wonder and excitement in which students engage in passion-based problem solving and strength-focused pedagogies, many others insist on preserving a more traditional view of education; one in which teachers are viewed as the keepers of knowledge and controllers of concepts. Many believe these dueling dichotomies to be derivatives of the polarizing rhetoric pushed by pundits of American political parties; however, these opposing views and competing factions may not be such a new phenomenon in the collective psyche of American society.

According to Craft (1984), there are two different Latin roots of the English word education. They are educare, which means to train or to mold, and educere, meaning to lead out. Although the two meanings are quite different, they are both represented in the word education. One root suggests a process of preserving and passing down knowledge and shaping youths in the image of their parents. The other root suggests a process of preparing a new generation for the changes that are to come, readying them to create solutions to problems yet unknown. Although this clash of ideals and practices continues to play out in classrooms and campuses across the countryside, some believe both are achievable-that we can both honor the lessons learned and paths paved by the generational teachings that came before while also forging ahead into new innovative practices and educational destinations yet to be discovered. I am from this latter group of thinkers. Craft (1984) contended that striking the right
balance in educational aims is a valid focus for educators; however, this requires changing organizational structures and how decisions are made.

Educators are changing. Evidence of this can be found in every classroom, on every campus, and all across our state and country. Emerging research into neurology, mindsets, perseverance, and habits is reshaping the collective psyche of our profession. Ideas about pedagogy once believed to be fringe are being embraced by innovative educators employing kid-centric practices in collaborative learning spaces. Educators must stand together despite generational differences and pedagogical preferences and speak with one voice, stand as one profession, and rise with one purpose. All kids-each and everyone-need caring and positive adult role models who prioritize the needs of children above their own. When we pair these characteristics with growth-minded individuals dedicated to studying their standards and mastering their craft in the classroom, children thrive. In the recipe for creating a high performing classroom, campus, and culture, these are the basic ingredients required to help the general education student, special education student, gifted student, English language learner, and all the rest. When educators realize that differences do not divide us - beliefs and blind spots do - the needs of all children become quite visible.

Each needs an understanding of curricular standards and alignment, high yield instructional practices, differentiation and accommodations, and positive behavioral supports. Each needs competent/attentive school-based administrators prepared to evaluate and support professional growth and maintain quality control regarding curricular and instructional practices. Each needs opportunities to collaborate in support of students of differing abilities.

Each needs opportunities to continue learning and refining pedagogical knowledge and application. Each needs an understanding of the difference between Lag data (STAAR results) and Lead Data (daily work, formative assessments, interim exams, and other forms of student feedback). Each needs to understand how to collect, analyze, and utilize student-generated data in making determinations with respect to daily instruction (pivot or persevere). Each needs to cultivate the ability to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk through pedagogical eclecticism and experience-rich learning environments.

Each needs to become proficient at personalizing learning experiences for themselves and the children they support through the cultivation of becoming expert learners. Each needs to understand how to implement concepts such as growing grit, encouraging effort, supporting sustained struggle, and failing forward. Each needs to understand how to engineer passion, purpose, and potential in self and others. Each needs to facilitate strength searching, engineered passion, defined deficit digs, interest investigations, controlled chaotic cultures, and comfortably challenging
classrooms and campuses.

Each needs to understand and implement the least dangerous assumption when planning lessons, engaging student discussions, and organizing classroom settings for optimal student learning. Each needs to understand the jaggedness profile of each child by learning their interests, beliefs, micro-motives, and propensities. Each needs to understand the potential detriment to a relationship that overly punitive settings and practices create with an illusion of control. Each needs to feel safe to take chances when facilitating the learning of students through pedagogical variations, creative curricular implementations, and innovative instructional practices.

Each needs to remain keenly aware of personal attitudes, behaviors, interactions, and tendencies ensuring that strengths and solutions permeate the conscious. Each needs to cultivate positive, supportive interactions with students, colleagues, and families to maximize learning, relationships, and communication. Each needs to understand the other's role and responsibilities in connection to that of their own in an effort towards shared responsibilities, the efficiency of effort, and maximization of strengths. Each must teach with and through one another, coopting the learning experiences of shared students while retaining autonomous identities and collective priorities.

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The World of Education is Changing - K12 Digest

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Dr. John C. Bullion has 21 years of experience in education as a Special Education Teacher, Licensed Professional Counselor, Campus Administrator and Special Education Director for a Special Education Shared Services Arrangement in Central Texas. With the belief that each and every child can reach his or her potential with the support of compassionate, courageous [...]

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I have come to realize that I am a product of exclusion. Some might argue that since the inception of special education in 1975 every child entering and exiting the public education system in the United States is a product of exclusion. While this no doubt sounds like a harsh - if not extreme - statement coming from an American - white middle-class male - with his doctorate degree, I implore you to hear me out. In doing so, you just might begin to understand how the Great American Model of Education became the victim of idealistic federal policies intended to create equity in educational opportunity only to become the equivalent of an American Educational Almagest. The term Almagest was coined by Greek mathematician Claudius Ptolemy (100-170 CE) in support of his geocentric model of the universe. In short, Ptolemy cataloged countless mathematical and astronomical treaties - total of 13 books - and the use of a fudge factor ( equant) to justify his theory that the Earth was at the center of the Universe. Complex and nebulous as Ptolemy's theory was, it went largely unquestioned and even amended and improved upon until the 17 Century when Galileo's heliocentric views cast doubt on Ptolemy's Almagest. The idea that the Earth rotated around the Sun created much controversy and ultimately led to Galileo's conviction and house arrest where he spent the remainder of his life. Changing paradigms can get messy, I suppose. So how does any of this relate to the American Educational System?

Before moving on, it behooves me to state that in no way is this analysis intended to be political in nature. As I have found, there was no great conspiracy to mislead the American public by federal, state, or local governmental entities in the legislative actions leading up to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975. Quite to the contrary, public outcry regarding civil liberties served as the foundation from which the ideals of the EAHCA catalyzed special education. Many of these same ideals served as the precursor for the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA), which replaced the EAHCA in federal statute in 1990. While IDEA has been amended and reauthorized numerous times over the past twenty years - each time intended to improve educational outcomes of students with disabilities in public schools across the country - with each iteration of the IDEA, the achievement gap between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers only widened. How could this be? In attempts to protect against disability discrimination, could federal educational policies have created an increasingly nebulous and complex system that produces that which it was designed to eliminate? Furthermore, by creating a parallel or dual system of education - general education and special education - did these policies serve to divide American Children into haves and have nots?

As a child of the 1970s and 80s, I struggled to find success in public school for a plethora of reasons. Growing up with ADHD and Social Anxiety exacerbated by the divorce of my parents hastened my journey into the world of low expectations in which I became that which I was perceived to be...less than the others. While I was not identified as having a disability, I was recognized to be at risk of dropping out of school, which I did in my sophomore year of high school. After spending a semester away from high school - a bit of an extended summer break I suppose - it dawned on me that just as I struggled to find success in school, I also struggled to find steady employment. I ultimately elected to return to school and despite the beliefs of others began to redefine myself as a learner. In doing so, I managed to graduate from high school with my classmates in 1989 only to find out that my struggle had just begun. While my graduation from high school was a move in the right direction, I soon realized that the lowered expectations I had experienced as a child in public school now translated into sub-par opportunities in my newly acquired adulthood. It would be many years before the pieces of my shattered childhood could be reassembled - one jagged piece at a time. This set me on a quest to understand the system that had produced me, and so the story goes.
Perceptions, Expectations, and Assumptions
The origins of the current educational system in the United States date back to the Taylorist vision of education, also referred to as the educational factory model (Mooney, 2019; Rose 2016). According to Rose (2016):

"By 1920, most American schools were organized according to the Taylorist vision of education, treating each student as an average student and aiming to provide each one with the same standardized education, regardless of their background, abilities, or interests" (p. 51).

In support of the Taylorist version of education, Edward Thorndike retrofitted these ideas in order to sort superior students from inferior ones (Rose, 2016). Thorndike's conceptualization of standardization led to the concepts of gifted students, honors students, special needs students, and educational tracks. Thorndike believed schools should serve as human sorting institutions in which students with superior brains received superior educational opportunities and those deemed to have inferior brains should be discarded from the school house as quickly as possible. According to Mooney (2019), the standardization of all things education and the characterization of humans as either normal or abnormal, led to an American model of education, which for many years excluded millions of children from attending school.

The controversial path leading to many of society's current assumptions with respect to the valuing and devaluing of specific human abilities provides context for consideration. As asserted by Gould (1981), early attempts to test intelligence were flawed with bad science, imposed political influence and racist interpretations, and led to erroneous assumptions that Northern European people were intellectually superior to non-Caucasians. Gardner (1984) also expressed contempt for intelligence testing due to the limited nature of IQ tests, which only test verbal/language skills and math/problem-solving skills. His assertion being that results from these tests represented only one part of a complex, multidimensional framework that is the human intellect. People come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and creeds. Each is a unique combination of genetic propensity and environmental conditioning. The degree to which nature and nurture coalesce from person to person cannot be qualified in absolute terms, nor quantified by normative statistics. Although some believe that the intellects of individuals are fixed traits that cannot be changed by external conditions, others prefer a less deterministic perspective, as did Howard Gardner in his theory of multiple intelligences.

Gardner postulated that people do not simply have an intellectual capacity, they have multiple capacities in a variety of other areas such as musical, interpersonal, spatial-visual, and linguistic intelligences. Gardner's theoretical views, which should not be confused with the learning styles movement - analyzed as being too broad and lacking in supportive empirical research by some - gained much attention as an alternative to a one size fits all system of education hastened along by the psychometric movement. Gardner developed his theory of intelligence while at Harvard University in the 1980s. Another prolific movement was also born in the courtyards of Harvard a decade later when Anne Meyer and David Rose first laid out the principles of Universal Design for Learning.

One might imagine the likes of Gardner, Meyer, and David Rose crossing paths in Harvard Square and swapping theoretical perspectives within earshot of Todd Rose, the upcoming researcher from Harvard and soon to be author of The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness and Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment. In Todd Rose's (2016) estimation, the standardization of society, which he argued currently defines society, began centuries ago, but does not have to define one's potential. Rose asserted that three principles of individuality reveal the uniqueness in humans. According to Rose's (2016) three key principles, the potential within each person is uniquely individual and attainable. The following are the three principles defined by Rose (2016):
1. the jaggedness principle (i.e., talent is never one dimensional), 2. the context principle (i.e., personality traits do not exist),
3. the pathways principle (i.e., we all walk the road less traveled).

In response to educational and professional environments designed to marginalize and standardize the value of human capital, Rose's (2016) principles push back on the assumption that human value should be determined by weighing individuals against the average. Assumptions are often at the core of societal beliefs and expectations regarding individuals with disabilities.

The term referred to as the least dangerous assumption involves having an awareness of such biases with respect to perceptions of intelligence. According to Jorgensen (2005), an educator's least dangerous assumption should be to presume competence with respect to individuals with disabilities. Listed below are her five reasons for this belief.
1. Human intelligence is a multifaceted construct rather than a one-dimensional characteristic and measuring it with a test is invalid and leads to mistaken conclusions about a person's capacity to learn. 2. Assessments of students' IQs are seriously flawed when they have difficulty communicating and movement challenges. 3. Research shows that a growing number of children and adults labeled retarded have demonstrated they are more capable when they have a means to communicate and are provided with high quality instruction. 4. To presume incompetence could result in harm to students if the presumption is wrong. 5. Even if assumptions of a student's competence prove wrong, the consequences of that mistake to the student are not as dangerous as the alternative.
With respect to educational pedagogy and policy, the least dangerous assumption is an inclusive approach, through which theorists have posited that,

"in the absence of conclusive data educational decisions should be based on assumptions which, if incorrect, will have the least dangerous effect on the student" (Donnellan, 1984).

The Tale of Two Educational Systems

"Special education is undergirded by assumptions of normality-and abnormality" (Dudley-Marling & Burns, 2014, p. 18), which lead to implementation efforts defined by deficit or medical modalities dominating educational opportunities for children with disabilities (Mooney, 2019). Although the Education for All Handicapped Children Act positively influenced the lives of millions of children with disabilities across the country, Van Horn (2018) posited that "P. L. 94-142 did not create special education, it created general education" (p. 1). Van Horn's (2018) assertion was that this law was born from the assumption that a new system was needed to allow students with disabilities access to public education in a system called special education and the current system would continue to serve students and be named general education. Thus, the creation of general education for students included in public education (i.e., students without disabilities) and the creation of special education for students excluded from public education (i.e., students with disabilities) resulted in two parallel educational systems.

Prior to the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, only one in five students with disabilities in the U.S. were educated in public schools (Dudley-Marling & Burns, 2014), which could explain the impetus to develop a parallel system allowing for students with disabilities to have access to public education as asserted by Van Horn (2018). According to Dudley-Marling and Burns (2014), "the history of education for students with disabilities in the United States has, until relatively recently, been marked by exclusion, not inclusion" (p. 14). Before 1975, children excluded from U.S. public schools because of their educational needs were estimated at 1 million and children with disabilities not receiving the educational assistance needed to succeed in school were estimated at 4 million (Bergert & Burnett, 2001; Pulliam & Van Patten, 2007). Mandlawitz (2016) explained:

Prior to 1975, some children with disabilities were denied access to the school building. Many who made it inside received an inferior education, and students with a wide range of intellectual and physical disabilities were often warehoused in one special education classroom. (p. 1)

Despite the continued efforts of the United States Department of Education to bring these two systems of education into alignment, a divide remains between general and special education. If the legislative intent of special education was initially to create a system of education through which children with disabilities could receive a public education, the system continues to accomplish that which it was designed to achieve-a separate educational system. Has Special Education become an American Educational Almagest requiring never ending calculations, amendments, and re-authorizations to explain away its failure to produce that which it was designed to produce; equitable educational opportunities for students with disabilities? Maybe, or maybe it is simply a system with inherent flaws; a system that will always divide children into general and special, haves and have nots.

Dueling Educational Systems

Dudley Marling and Burns (2014) discussed the dichotomous perspective known as the deficit-constructivist theory of inclusion. According to the deficit-constructivist theory of special education, the perceptions of educators can influence variables such as fidelity of implementation, adult mindsets, special education processes, and purpose for services. Anastasiou and Kauffman (2011) asserted that technical solutions through scientific research and an emphasis on best practices are associated with the deficit stance of inclusion. In the deficit perspective the responsibility of school failures is assigned to students presumed to be deficient in regards to the skills and abilities associated with school success. Miller explained:

"The philosophy of deficiency takes the view that those whose performance deviates from the majority lack some critical attribute, ability, or potential" (Miller, 1993, p. 59).

When approaching special education from a deficit perspective, efforts focus on providing children with skills needed to function as close to normal as possible with the assumption of a normal environment being the general education classroom (Bartolome, 1994).

Three approaches dominate implementation efforts by special educators to achieve the goal of normalizing students with disabilities. These approaches include remediation, compensatory skill training, and accommodation of environment and curriculum. Remediation involves identifying specific skill deficits in a student and intervening with instruction and methodology appropriate for the deficit. Compensatory skill training involves teaching students specific strategies for overcoming their identified deficiencies. Accommodation involves providing alternative ways of accessing buildings (e.g., ramps for wheel chairs) and curricula (e.g., extra time on tests). While supporting students with disabilities in the current educational systems, Dudley-Marling and Burns (2014) argued that the underlying assumption in each of these approaches was that the student was the problem and the interventions must be specialized.

Mooney (2019) expounded on the work of Michel Foucault in his description of the normalizing society, which seeks to remediate and pathologize human differences. The assumption that it takes specially trained professionals to attend to the special needs of students with disabilities characterizes the medical perspective of special education also synonymous with the deficit stance on inclusion.
Deficit Perspective of Inclusion
The meaning of the term inclusion in the deficit special education perspective is defined by legal requirements that students with disabilities be educated in the least restrictive environment. According to this interpretation of inclusion, the regular classroom is the least restrictive environment for all children but not necessarily the most appropriate placement for each child (Hyatt & Filler, 2011). Scanlon and Baker (2012) stated that the regular classroom is determined to be the appropriate placement for students with disabilities when they function with little support and need minimal alteration to the setting or curriculum to be successful. For students requiring more intensive supports and services, the regular classroom is not always the most appropriate setting, hence the assertion that inclusion is not always the best placement for students. Many schools have equated inclusion with mainstreaming by operationally defining it as "a student with an identified disability, spending greater than 80% of his or her school day in a general education classroom in proximity to non-disabled peers" (Baglieri, Bejoian, Broderick, Connor, & Valle, 2011, p. 2126). When inclusion is associated with a service delivery model, which emphasizes the specialized implementation of a set of research-based practices, a deficit-medical model of special education is the outcome (Baglieri et al., 2011; Ferguson & Nusbaum, 2012). Historical efforts of the U.S. Department of Education to align general education with special education seem to reflect the deficit perspective on inclusion with an emphasis on scientific research, best practices, and accommodation efforts as described in the medical model of special education.
Social Constructivist Perspective of Inclusion
In contrast, the social constructivist perspective on inclusion emphasized the need for systemic reform as opposed to individual remediation. According to Sapon-Shevin (2003): "Inclusion is not about disability, nor is it only about schools. Inclusion is about social justice" (p. 26). Social constructivists argued inclusion is about the rights of children with disabilities to receive equitable educational opportunities in regular education settings alongside peers without disabilities (Liasidou, 2012).

Inclusive education reflects values and principles and is concerned with challenging the ways in which educational systems reproduce and perpetuate social inequalities with regard to marginalized and excluded groups of students across a range of abilities, characteristics, developmental trajectories, and socioeconomic circumstances. Hence, inclusion is inexorably linked with the principles of equality and social justice in both educational and social domains. (p. 168)

Proponents of this stance argued the regular education classroom should be the default setting for all students and exclusion of a student from this setting must be justified in that it would be an anomaly to the status quo (Brantlinger, 1997). Contrary to an assimilationist perspective of inclusion, in which theorists institute a hierarchy between those being assimilated (i.e., special education students) and members of the in-group (i.e., normal students), constructivists emphasize that every child can learn and contribute to every classroom and in all aspects of society (Beratan, 2006). Educators practicing from a social constructivist stance have argued for diversity and inclusivity. Inclusion necessitates equity in educational opportunities and settings in which students are not all treated the same, and differences are celebrated rather than ignored (Morrier & Gallagher, 2011).

But what if there is a fundamental flaw in the assumptions implicit within the ideals of IDEA, specifically people are not disabled? What if the Buildings, Systems, and Organizations are disabled; ill equipped and disorganized to meet the needs of children and adults with differing abilities? We must stop "dissing" peoples' abilities. We would not need to individualize if we did not standardize the human condition in education. We would not need to justify Inclusion if our educational systems were not predicated on Exclusion.
We Include or We Exclude

Here's where I have landed on my quest for an understanding of the concept referred to as inclusion. If the question is: Should we do inclusion? The answer at best will be a flawed solution to the wrong problem. What I now hear is: Should we choose to include or choose to exclude? We include or we exclude, it's really that simple! In an inclusive environment, we do not exclude. When we are truly open and honest about what we want for our own children, do we not want them to feel and be included? What I want for Emma, Mia, Aiden, and Addi May is a school culture that includes them in all settings and at all levels. I want each of them to be encouraged and challenged to realize their potential and fight for what they believe to be good and right about this world. I believe we all want this for our own children: for them to feel whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy. In my aspirations for them, I hope they learn not to be comfortable with the attributes born in them, but to aspire themselves to become their best selves and realize their god given potential. Isn't this what we all want for our children? I know it's what I want for mine.

But are they not all my children? Am I not responsible to each and every child who comes under my influence? Should I not care for each as though he or she were Aiden or Mia? Should I not search for patience and wisdom in my duty to serve their development as I often find myself doing for Emma and Addi May? They are all our children! I will care for yours if you for mine. Isn't that a concept innate in society? It takes a village of caring adults to tend to their needs. We cannot do it alone! I need you and you need me, together we are us, but have we stopped long enough lately to ask, who are we?

We are educators! We believe when others doubt. We ignite the flames that others douse. It is our love and life's lessons that guide their hearts and minds when their families fail to do so. We don't need to treat them all the same or expect them all to get across the proverbial finish line at the same time. They don't need to be motivated by our expectations or indoctrinated by our opinions. They do however, need us to manage our priorities and agendas so as not to let our needs negatively impact our relationships with them. They need role models that are fair and just, but not perfect. Their greatest needs are of attention and time. Our children need us to prioritize their longing to feel loved, appreciated, and challenged above our need to manage time and teach subjects. They all need to feel valuable, and they all need to be included, just like you and just like me!

Despite ongoing efforts to force the convergence of special education and general education, the U.S. Department of Education cannot rectify contradictions inherent in Federal education policies - IDEA and ESSA - requiring both individualization and standardization. Moreover, Individualized Educational Programs required by IDEA cannot be standardized; however, all other aspects of American education are required to be so. Hence the need for an educational equant; a way to factor in a bridge or solution to solve for the variance introduced by the confounding variable of special education in educational standardization. Theoretical constructs defining our current educational systems cannot account for the problem of Equity, which derived from standardization. Furthermore, the introduction of an ability equant allows for educational standardization with a fudge factor regarding individual ability. When human abilities become objectively value laden, it allows for an otherwise standardized system to explain away the sub-par performance of students deemed deficient who require or deserve sub-par individualized educational programs. Perhaps, if education was not standardized, special education would not need to be individualized.

Every person's potential influences and is influenced by every other persons potential when coming into contact with one another's environmental orbit. Like mass attracting objects to one another, human potential is pushed and pulled upon by the potentialities of others. Until federal policies reflect one American Educational System in which all children are afforded equitable educational opportunities, it is incumbent of all educators to create these conditions. The time has come to stop dissing the abilities of individuals and begin recognizing the unique talents and differing abilities inherent in all learners. As leaders, educators must work to innovate within their current educational systems while also working to transform these systems. By focusing on children's possibilities instead of disabilities, procedural compliance - once the ceiling for success in special education - will become the foundation for improved student outcomes, the new ceiling under which children thrive. According to the law of the diffusion of innovation, there will always be early adopters choosing to engage change efforts. Someone must become the model for others to follow. Why not let that someone be you?
REFERENCES
Anastasiou, D. & Kauffman, J.M. (2011). A social constructionist approach to disability: Implications for special education, Exceptional Children, 77(3), 367-384.

Baglieri, S., Bejoian, L. M., Broderick, A. A., Connor, D. J., & Valle, J. (2011). [Re]Claiming "inclusive education" toward cohesion in educational reform: Disability studies unravels the myth of the normal child. Teachers College Record, 113(10), 2122-2154.

Bartolome, L. I. (1994). Beyond the methods fetish: Toward a humanizing pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 64, 17-194.

Beratan, G. (2006). Institutionalizing inequality: Ableism, racism, and IDEA. Disability Studies Quarterly, 26(2).

Bergert, S., & Burnette, J. (2001). Educating exceptional children: A statistical profile (Report No. Ed99-CO-0026). Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

Brantlinger, E. (1997). Using ideology: Cases of nonrecognition of the politics of research and practice in special education. Review of Educational Research, 67, 425-459.

Donnellan, A. M. (1984). The Criterion of the Least Dangerous Assumption. Behavioral Disorders, 9(2), 141-150.

Dudley-Marling, C. & Burns, M. B. (2014). Two perspectives on inclusion in the United States. Global Education Review, 1(1), 14-31.

Ferguson, P. M., & Nusbaum, E. (2012). Disability studies: What is it and what difference does it make? Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 37(2), 70-80.

Gardner, H. (1984). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Gould, S. (1981). The mismeasure of man. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Co.

Hyatt, K. J., & Filler, J. (2011). LRE Re-examined misinterpretations and unintended consequences. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15(9), 1031-1045.

Jorgenson, C. (2005). The least dangerous assumption: A challenge to create a new paradigm. Disability Solutions, 6(3), 1-8.

Liasidou, A. (2012). Inclusive education and critical pedagogy at the intersections of disability, race, gender and class, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 10(1), 168-184.

Mandlawitz, M. (2016). Special education after 40 years: What lies ahead? Policy Priorities, 22(1), 1-7.

Miller, L. (1993). What we call smart: A new narrative for intelligence and learning. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group.

Mooney, J. (2019). Normal sucks. How to live, learn, and thrive outside the lines. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

Morrier, M. J., & Gallagher, P. A. (2011). Disproportionate representation in placements of preschoolers with disabilities in five southern states. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 31(1), 48-57.

Pulliam, J. D., & Van Patten, J. J. (2007). History of education in America (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Rose, T. (2016). The end of average. Unlocking our potential by embracing what makes us different. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

Sapon-Shevin, M. (2003). Inclusion a matter of social justice. Educational Leadership, 61(2), 25-28.

Scanlon, D. & Baker, D. (2012). An accommodations model for the secondary inclusive classroom. Learning Disability Quarterly, 35(4), 212-224.

Van Horn, G. (2018), Inclusion: The ongoing illusion. Retrieved from https://patinsroject.org/patins-blog/inclusion

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Is Special Education the Almagest of Public Education in the United States?

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Cosmic Chaos or Specially Designed System I have come to realize that I am a product of exclusion. Some might argue that since the inception of special education in 1975 every child entering and exiting the public education system in the United States is a product of exclusion.

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Effective Special Education Transformation
As principals lead change efforts in response to the shift to RDA and the effectiveness phase of special education implementation, potential exists for innovative approaches to emerge for creating inclusive classrooms, campuses, and cultures that emphasize system-wide supports, processes and procedures that adhere to the principles of UDL, and strength-focused practices. Special education is a complex, multifaceted, ever-changing area of education that involves complex problems requiring creativity within constraints if lasting solutions are to be found. Beliefs, perceptions, and assumptions construct the realities of the mindsets of teachers, counselors, principals, and superintendents. These individuals in addition to myriad others create the culture in which children receive educational opportunities-at times equitable, and unfortunately, sometimes not.

Although the United States educates more students with greater diversity and need to a higher standard than ever before in the history of its public education system, this is not always the narrative shared with the public. Furthermore, although heavily influenced by federal education policies, the United States actually has 60 states and territories, each with its own unique version of the larger national vision of education. Although the majority of the 1,200 plus public schools in Texas are independent school districts with locally elected citizens serving as school board trustees, this is not necessarily the case for other states and territories.

Innate within Texas's identity is the belief in local control of government; perhaps, in some part harkening to a time when Texas was-independent from the country and fierce in its Republic-an educational topography defined by geographical, economic, and financial barriers. Within this fierce independence, exists the potential for Texas to reinvent special education with an emphasis on equity and effectiveness. According to Maze (2009),

"The effective schools correlates identified effective schools as those having five common characteristics: (a) principal as instructional leader; (b) high expectations for student success; (c) instructional focus; (d) a safe and orderly environment; and (e) frequent monitoring of student progress" (p. 38).

Texas is at a pivotal point with respect to future educational opportunities for students with disabilities. By leveraging the urgency for improvement of special education implementation felt across the state, LEAs might ride the wave of change into the effectiveness phase. To do so, principals will need to play an integral role in the development of effective school-based special education programs. This will require a systemic approach for navigating the complexities that arise at the intersection of people, processes, and mindsets. If principals can leverage these three elements effectively, they will hold the potential to create sustainable positive change to special education in Texas.
People, Processes, and Mindsets
Human capital is the most valuable commodity a school possesses. The people within a system hold the power to protect the status quo or push back on the system until change occurs. American activist Mario Savio (1964) expressed his frustration with the state of affairs at his time, but his words are apropos for the feelings shared by students and parents during the PBMAS years in Texas.

"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it-that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" (p. 1).

In its transition from PBMAS to RDA, the TEA signaled the necessity for LEAs to adapt special education programs by emphasizing effective instructional practices for students with disabilities and maintaining procedural compliance. Effective practice, reflective leadership, and supportive governance define the effectiveness phase of special education implementation. Improvements to special education practices and outcomes requires the support of people from the top to the bottom of a school system. From the school board to the classroom, the individuals in a school system create the cultural norms and expectations experienced in the daily lives of children of all abilities. School boards that are eager to create organizational cultures in which student learning is the work of every member of the educational community must effectively navigate political processes to create support-oriented central offices. Helping members of school boards and central offices to consider the impact adult expectations have on student outcomes might facilitate cultural shifts in which school climates transition from adult-focused environments to kid-centric educational destinations. When governance embraces such beliefs, it creates the potential to adopt strength-focused practices in which the differing abilities of staff and students strengthen organizational operations while normalizing relationships between students of differing abilities.

By providing school boards with information about frameworks and processes such as UDL, which are designed to remove barriers to learning, school board trustees might better understand and support such approaches if embraced at the district or campus level. Sharing improved achievement outcomes of students with disabilities and communicating with school board members about promising special and general education practices, including the ways teachers collaborate with school-based administrators to remove learning barriers and create inclusive campuses would highlight for school boards the kinds of practices that are effective in educating all students. Informing school boards about organizations such as Best Buddies and Unified Sports can create opportunities for interagency partnerships. Utilizing design thinking with school boards when ideating about what schools could be might generate novel ideas leading to effective change within the district. Most importantly, educating school board members so they better understand the conditions necessary for optimal learning to occur for all children with emphasis on struggling learners might create support for such efforts from local governance.

Superintendents are also integral to improving achievement outcomes of students with disabilities in their district. With the current shifts in special education monitoring from the TEA, forward-thinking superintendents understand the importance of creating systems and processes that will lead to improved achievement outcomes of students with disabilities in their district. Nonetheless, many superintendents lack the knowledge necessary to contribute to such efforts. Mastering the complexities of special education implementation is not required for superintendents to play an integral role in creating effective special education programs in their schools. What is crucial for superintendents in Texas is that they become educated about RDA, differentiated monitoring and support, and the TEA's review and support division. It is equally important that they understand the annual LEA special education self-assessment and strategic support plan, which are requirements for schools in Texas with respect to continuous improvement in special education. Superintendents can collaborate with their special education directors and support staff in the special education departments at their RESCs to learn more about these topics.

For superintendents wanting additional insight into how to shift focus from procedural compliance to students' outcomes, frameworks such as UDL provide processes that focus on removing barriers to learning. More information on UDL can be found on the CAST website. In addition, organizations like Best Buddies (https://www.bestbuddies.org/bbu), Unified Sports (https://www.specialolympics.org/our-work/sports/unified-sports), and the Penguin Project (https://penguinproject.org/) create opportunities for interagency partnerships. Each of these organizations focuses on the normalization of relationships between students with differing abilities, and design thinking provides a creative process with which to ideate innovative solutions within constraints and barriers such as time, funding, and mindsets. The book, Design Thinking for Educational Leaders by Gallagher and Thordarson (2018) provided excellent examples for implementing the principles of design thinking in the K-12 setting.

Principals are the catalysts for creating sustainable change because of their power to influence vertically and horizontally throughout a school system. Principals can facilitate collaboration among special and general education teachers and staff while attending to instructional quality control for all students. When principals embrace the ethics of justice, care, and profession, they can develop systems to control the chaos that so often characterizes their role. McChesney, Covey and Huling (2012) provided a process for balancing the whirlwind of daily responsibilities while remaining focused on goals for improvement in the book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Design Thinking for Educational Leaders is also appropriate for school-based administrators when ideating innovative solutions within constraints and barriers such as time, funding, and mindsets. Such examples provide insight into processes and practices that enable principals to create change within their systems while enabling them to work on their systemic cultures.

Mastering the complexities of special education implementation for school-based administrators elevates in importance when attempting to create effective special education programs in their schools. Principals in Texas must acquire an understanding of RDA, differentiated monitoring and support, and the TEA's review and support division. It is equally important that they understand the annual LEA special education self-assessment and LEA strategic support plan, which are requirements for schools in Texas with respect to continuous improvement in special Education. Principals should collaborate with their special education programs in the completion of these annual monitoring requirements to provide insight and feedback from the campus level. Special education directors should be including a diverse committee of stakeholders in the completion of these processes. Principals can collaborate with their special education directors and support staff in the special education departments at their RESCs to learn more about these topics.

School-based leadership depends on support from central offices, school boards, and RESCs. Because of the plethora of responsibilities populating a principal's calendar, resources and supports must be easily digestible and accessible. Educators within each LEA have established sets of beliefs and attitudes. Dweck (2015) postulates that people often have fixed or growth mindsets about intelligence, abilities, and talents and argued, "Students who believe their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperform those who believe their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset)" (p. 1). Mindsets - be them fixed or growth oriented - are influenced by the cultural beliefs, norms, and biases implicit within organizational systems and processes in which one works. This is why cultivating a culture of academic optimism is essential. The following examples - expounding on the efforts of Korobkin and Meller (2019) - provide options with which to explore.

· Grow and nurture a system-wide culture of academic optimism and child-focused supports

· Define a system of effective special education procedures, practices, expectations, and monitoring which emphasizes continuous growth and improvement.

· Conduct annual surveys, interviews, and pilot groups to assess teachers' instructional perceptions, practices, constraints, needs, and ideas for improvement.

· Conduct annual surveys, interviews, and pilot groups to assess school-based administrators' perceptions, practices, constraints, needs, and ideas for improvement.

· Conduct annual surveys, interviews, and pilot groups to assess parent/guardians' perceptions, practices, constraints, needs, and ideas for improvement.

· Strengthen communication and relationships between schools and families of students with disabilities through facilitation of conversations and functions in which families are prioritized as experts in understanding their child's unique characteristics and needs.

· Celebrate diversity through inter-agency partnerships, which emphasize and support the normalization of friendships between students of differing abilities.
Ideas for Teachers
This section provides information for all teachers. The aim is not for recommendations from this study to send the message that special and general education teachers are separate and require separate assistance and supports. All teachers need the equivalent assistance and supports to varying degrees. Each needs an understanding of curricular standards and alignment, high yield instructional practices, differentiation and accommodations, and positive behavioral supports. The medicalization of special education reinforced by an educational system defined by lack mentality and deficit perspective has created confusion and apathy with respect to the education of students with disabilities in otherwise capable educators (special and general). This must change to ensure a successful transition into the effective phase of special education implementation. This will require increased empathy among special and general education teachers and their school-based administration.
Educators are changing!
Evidence of this can be found in every classroom, on every campus, and all across our state and country. Emerging research into neurology, mindsets, perseverance, and habits is reshaping the collective psyche of our profession. Ideas about pedagogy once believed to be fringe are being embraced by innovative educators employing kid-centric practices in collaborative learning spaces. The quest for student engagement and instructional influence has uncovered an interesting paradigm in which children are arriving to campuses needing adults who will do more than teach and who will listen more than they speak. In empathy interventions, teachers gain insight into the lives of their students by engaging in student-led conversations about topics of their choice. Teachers are learning, students are teaching, and systems are adapting. The energy and excitement is palpable with a focus on creativity and passion pouring in from every corner. Too often such experiences are saved for students deemed worthy by standardized assessments denoting giftedness and exceptionality when schools and educators operate from a lack mentality characterized by deficit perspectives. While all children would benefit from kid-centric practices and collaborative learning environments, various constraints prevent many schools from applying such approaches full scale. In an effort to design to the edges of educational systems, effective special education departments will begin to choose personalized learning experiences, effectively designed instruction, strength engineered practices, and experience rich environments - traditionally seen in educational programs for the gifted and talented - for students with disabilities.

For some, these changes in preparation, pedagogy, and practice are disconcerting. When a teacher reaches a level of proficiency in his or her craft, change can feel forced. It is important to create a sense of normalcy whenever transitions in approach or shifts in practice take place. There has and always will be a tension between that which is and that which will be. We cannot have one without the other, and successfully navigating such changes requires courageous leadership. Kindness is the glue that holds cultural values and norms together when system transformation occurs. Organizations always take on characteristics of their leaders, and this is why it is crucial that our educational leaders maintain collegiality among all members of the school community.

Educators must stand together despite generational differences and pedagogical preferences and speak with one voice, stand as one profession, and rise with one purpose. All kids-each and every one-need caring and positive adult role models who prioritize the needs of children above their own. When we pair these characteristics with growth-minded individuals dedicated to studying their standards and mastering their craft in the classroom, children thrive. In the recipe for creating a high performing classroom, campus, and culture, these are the basic ingredients required to help the general education student, special education student, gifted student, English language learner, and all the rest. The following list of attributes will serve all educators - general and special - when working towards transitioning to RDA and effective special education programs:

· Each needs an understanding of curricular standards and alignment, high yield instructional practices, differentiation and accommodations, and positive behavioral supports.

· Each needs competent/attentive school-based administrators prepared to evaluate and support professional growth and maintain quality control regarding curricular and instructional practices.

· Each needs opportunities to collaborate with one another in support of students of differing abilities.

· Each needs opportunities to continue learning and refining pedagogical knowledge and application.

· Each needs an understanding of the difference between Lag data (STAAR results) and Lead Data (daily work, formative assessments, interim exams, and other forms of student feedback).

· Each needs to understand how to collect, analyze, and utilize student generated data in making determinations with respect to daily instruction (pivot or persevere).

· Each needs to cultivate the ability to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk through pedagogical eclecticism and experience rich learning environments.

· Each needs to become proficient at personalizing learning experiences for themselves and the children they support through the cultivation of becoming expert learners.

· Each needs to understand how to implement on concepts such as growing grit, encouraging effort, supporting sustained struggle, and failing forward.

· Each needs to understand how to engineer passion, purpose, and potential in self and others.

· Each needs to facilitate strength searching, engineered passion, defined deficit digs, interest investigations, controlled chaotic cultures, and comfortably challenging classrooms and campuses.

· Each needs to understand and implement the least dangerous assumption when planning lessons, engaging student discussions, and organizing classroom settings for optimal student learning.

· Each needs to understand the jaggedness profile of each child by learning their individual interests, beliefs, micro-motives, and propensities.

· Each needs to understand the potential detriment to relationship that overly punitive settings and practices create with an illusion of control.

· Each needs to feel safe to take chances when facilitating the learning of students through pedagogical variations, creative curricular implementations, and innovative instructional practices.

· Each needs to remain keenly aware of personal attitudes, behaviors, interactions, and tendencies ensuring that strengths and solutions permeate the conscious.

· Each needs to cultivate positive, supportive interactions with students, colleagues, and families in an effort to maximize learning, relationships, and communication.

· Each needs to understand the other's role and responsibilities in connection to that of their own in an effort towards shared responsibilities, efficiency of effort, and maximization of strengths.

· Each must teach with and through one another, coopting the learning experiences of shared students while retaining autonomous identities and collective priorities.
Education is changing!
A growing tension exists between two schools of thought: one emphasizing kid-centric practices and a strength (abundance) mindset, the other emphasizing adult focused controls and a deficit (lack) mindset. Although some believe that schools should be places of wonder and excitement in which students should be engaged in passion-based problem solving, many others insist on preserving a more traditional form of education, one in which teachers are viewed as the keepers of knowledge and controllers of concepts. However, these opposing views may not be such a new phenomenon in the collective psyche of American society.

According to Craft (1984), there are two different Latin roots of the English word education. They are educare, which means to train or to mold, and educere, meaning to lead out. Although the two meanings are quite different, they are both represented in the word education. One root suggests a process of preserving and passing down knowledge and shaping youths in the image of their parents. The other root suggests a process of preparing a new generation for the changes that are to come, readying them to create solutions to problems yet unknown. There are also those who believe both are achievable-that we can both honor the lessons learned and paths paved by the generational teachings that came before while also forging ahead into new innovative approaches and practices and educational destinations yet to be discovered. I am from this latter group of thinkers. Craft (1984) contended that striking the right balance in educational aims is a valid focus for educators; however, this requires changing organizational structures and the ways in which decisions are made. The first steps to achieving such a balance involves utilizing stakeholder perceptions, establishing a shared vision of education, and facilitating a change in educators' roles.

The changes to Texas educator certifications including the special education certification and the principal as instructional leader certification most certainly aim to facilitate a change in educators' roles. The TEAs Special Education Strategic Plan offered several responses to stakeholder perceptions and feedback. Although these changes have created chaos in the system, the shift occurring with regard to RDA and effective special education practices has arrived. With change comes opportunity, and with all these new opportunities, it truly is an exciting time to be an educator in Texas. Excitement can elevate and complicate improvement efforts by making it more difficult to remember the details needed to drive change. Although the attention span of most may be getting shorter from generation and generation, some things are worth remembering. It would seem that remembering the first moments of learning to read would represent a significant event in most people's memories, but many people, including myself, cannot recall the precise moment or day when it happened. This suggests that the age when readings skills are acquired may not matter as much as the fact that they were eventually mastered. Everyone learns at different rates and to varying degrees of proficiency given optimal conditions, but everyone is not yet afforded the equal educational opportunity to realize their individual potential to learn.

Principals should ask themselves if they feel students with disabilities in their schools receive the quality of instruction and attention that their peers without disabilities receive. They should ask themselves if students deemed to be average in their schools are exposed to educational and pedagogical opportunities like those offered to high performing students and students classified as gifted learners. Principals should ask: Do all students believe they have attributes that add value to classroom culture, experiences, and learning? Do all teachers believe that every child regardless of differing abilities can learn and contribute in their classrooms? These are questions with which many educators grapple in an effort to implement the ideals of federal and state expectations regarding the provisions defined within the IDEA.

Questions like these often lead to debate into the appropriateness of inclusion. Educators wonder if and when it's appropriate, how it should be implemented, and how far it should be taken. In my own experiences, I have seen a trend in which elementary campuses in a district or feeder pattern embrace inclusive practices, but the secondary campuses in these systems struggle or refuse to do so. For years, I participated in the quiet conspiracy of agreeing that inclusion was easier to do at elementary campuses while justifying why it might be a more allusive ideal for secondary educators. I am no longer remaining silent about my thoughts on this matter because I believe that when we know better, we are obligated to do better. I don't believe we do children any favors by developing inclusive environments in our elementary campuses only to segregate children with disabilities into restrictive settings in our secondary campuses. I do believe we live inclusion through our thoughts, words, and actions. I have also grown to understand that doing inclusion equates to doing exclusion.

Here's where I have landed on my quest for an understanding of the concept referred to as inclusion. If the question is: Should we do inclusion? The answer at best will be a flawed solution to the wrong problem. What I now hear is: Should we choose to include or choose to exclude? We include or we exclude, it's really that simple! In an inclusive environment, we do not exclude.

When we are truly open and honest about what we want for our own children, do we not want them to feel and be included? What I want for Emma, Mia, Aiden, and Addi May is a school culture that includes them in all settings and at all levels. I want each of them to be encouraged and challenged to realize their potential and fight for what they believe to be good and right about this world. I believe we all want this for our own children: for them to feel whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy. In my aspirations for them, I hope they learn not to be comfortable with the attributes born in them, but to aspire themselves to become their best selves and realize their god given potential. Isn't this what we all want for our children? I know it's what I want for mine.

But are they not all my children? Am I not responsible to each and every child who comes under my influence? Should I not care for each as though he or she were Aiden or Mia? Should I not search for patience and wisdom in my duty to serve their development as I often find myself doing for Emma and Addi May? They are all our children! I will care for yours if you for mine. Isn't that a concept innate in society? It takes a village of caring adults to tend to their needs. We cannot do it alone! I need you and you need me, together we are us, but have we stopped long enough lately to ask, who are we?

We are educators!

We believe when others doubt. We ignite the flames that others douse. It is our love and life's lessons that guide their hearts and minds when their families fail to do so. We don't need to treat them all the same or expect them all to get across the proverbial finish line at the same time. They don't need to be motivated by our expectations or indoctrinated by our opinions. They do however, need us to manage our priorities and agendas so as not to let our needs negatively impact our relationships with them. They need role models that are fair and just, but not perfect. Their greatest needs are of attention and time. Our children need us to prioritize their longing to feel loved, appreciated, and challenged above our need to manage time and teach subjects. They all need to feel valuable, and they all need to be included, just like you and just like me!

According to the law of the diffusion of innovation, there will be early adopters choosing to engage these efforts with rigorous intent. These LEAs will break the mold regarding the current approaches to special education service delivery. LEAs willing to take chances on innovative ideas and strength-focused practices will shape the future of special education implementation in Texas. In doing so, procedural compliance-once the ceiling for success in special education-will become the foundation for improved student outcomes, the new ceiling under which children thrive.
Someone must be the model! Why not let that someone be you? (Excerpt from Bullion Dissertation): John C. Bullion, ABD, M.Ed., LPC-S Principals' Perceptions of Self-Efficacy to Administer Special Education in Relation to Regional Education Service Center Professional Learning Opportunities

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Excerpts from my Journey Effective Special Education Transformation As principals lead change efforts in response to the shift to RDA and the effectiveness phase of special education implementation, potential exists for innovative approaches to emerge for creating inclusive classrooms, campuses, and

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We would not need to Include If our systems did not Exclude

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We would not need to Include If our systems did not Exclude

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My Own Journey Anchors My Belief in Realized Potentiality  

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My Own Journey Anchors My Belief in Realized Potentiality  

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The World is Changing. Will You Remember Me?

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Tell me about You!

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special education director 
special education leadership

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Information source for new special education administrators

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"DON'T LIMIT ME!"- Powerful message from Megan with Down Syndrome

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Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, “They don’t pay me to like the kids.” Her response: “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.’” A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

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The End of Average: Harvard's Todd Rose on Why Individuality Is the Key to the Future

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