Andrea Butzler and Valissa Howe

Portfolio Project EAD 6093

The program we chose to evaluate is the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) program at Joe D. Esther Elementary in Lebanon, MO. This program services children ages 2 1/2 to 5 years of age. This is a free preschool experience for special education children. The teachers and directors in the program also accept a few peer model students each year to participate in the ECSE program with the special education students. These peer models serve as student mentors to the special education students, which helps both the peer model student and special education student develop a variety of intellectual and social skills. The ECSE program currently has 4 teachers who each have a morning and afternoon class, Monday through Thursday. They are currently using a preschool Title I teacher in the morning session to service some of the ECSE students because of overflow. Each teacher has paraprofessionals in the classroom. The students are offered services such as speech, language, occupational therapy, and physical therapy according to the needs of the student as specified on his or her IEP. The ECSE program at Joe D. Esther Elementary currently services 70 students. The goal of this review is to evaluate the criteria required for entrance to the Early Childhood Special Education program as well as the criteria for exit and transition to kindergarten. This information may be beneficial to the ECSE teachers, administrators, and kindergarten regular education and special education teachers. This evaluation answers the following questions: How do students get into the ECSE program? How many students are in ECSE total, and how many are in each classroom? How are peer models chosen? What progress do you expect to see in students enrolled in ECSE? What does the transition process to kindergarten look like? The information collected during this study came from an interview of the ECSE teachers (Erica York, Danielle Shoemaker, Christy Brown, and Molinda Mitchell) as well as the Process Coordinator (Becky Simpson). There are 4 ECSE classrooms and each teacher was asked the same questions. We also had the opportunity to observe in some of the classrooms and see the interactions between the special education students and the peer models. District profile data available from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education was also used. Our data collection was a onetime collection process. We were able to get all of the answers to our questions with interviewing each teacher and the process coordinator once, as well as collecting data from the DESE website one time. The ECSE teachers can use the DESE data, as well as the information and recommendations we provided annually. Reevaluating the program annually could allow them to make improvements and reflect on the effectiveness of the program. After collecting our data, we considered the information we found together and discussed the benefits and drawbacks of the entrance and transition process as well as the number of students currently enrolled in the ECSE program. We paired all of this information with the data we found on the percentages of student achievement in order to reach a conclusion to develop our recommendations. We also talked with the ECSE teachers about our

Andrea Butzler and Valissa Howe

questions as well as the data we found and discussed different possibilities for the program in the future. Dialoguing with the teachers helped us to consider multiple options and become more familiar with the meaning of some of the percentages on the data we collected. We were able to collect the following answers on the questions we developed: How do students get accepted into the ECSE program? There is a referral process. Usually, referrals come from PAT, First Steps or doctors but occasionally we will have parent referrals. Once they are referred, we have a Review of Existing Data (RED) meeting with parents to decide what testing is needed. Then, we place them in diagnostic testing where they come to school and get pulled for testing. Once the testing is complete we meet again and determine eligibility. How many students are in ECSE total, and how many are in each classroom? There are 70 students currently in ECSE. There are about 15 in each of the four main classrooms, which accounts for 60 of the students. Then one of the Title 1 teachers has the other ten ECSE students in her morning preschool session and has title 1 students in the afternoon because of overflow in the ECSE program. How are peer models chosen? We use the DIAL scores for them. The top 20 or so kiddos will get invited to a play day and then as long as there isn't something significant (behaviors) then 16 of them will get placed on one of our rooms. There are 4 ECSE classrooms so four are placed with each teacher, two peer models for the morning class and two for the afternoon. What progress do you expect to see in students enrolled in ECSE? According to the information from the District Profile listed on the DESE website, 100 percent of students who entered the ECSE program made progress on their goals during the 2012-2013 school years. All of the students showed substantial improvement in the areas of social-emotional skills, acquisition of new skills and knowledge, and the use of appropriate behavior to meet needs. Although 100 percent of students showed an increase in knowledge and skills, roughly 30% of students progress to a level equivalent to that of their same -age peers. In the area of social-emotion skills, 65.52% of students improved but did not reach the level of skill of their same-aged peers. This rate was 75.86% and 68.97% consecutively in the areas of acquiring new skills and knowledge and the use of appropriate behavior to meet needs. Approximately 1 out of every 4 ECSE students transitioning to kindergarten is performing at an equivalent skills level to their peers. What does the transition process to kindergarten look like? Teachers use a number of resources when deciding placement for a student

Andrea Butzler and Valissa Howe

entering kindergarten. The most important piece of data used is the most recent evaluation report completed for that child. The teacher also uses the present level of performance section on the IEP to determine placement as well as information from the transition form. The transition form is a document that looks at the student as a whole and describes their level of independence and specific needs and any additional comments the teacher has on that particular student. After determining which resource teacher or special education classroom the student should be placed in, the ECSE teacher will meet with the Process Coordinator and the resource or special education teacher and go over the information and set up a date for the resource/special education teacher to come and observe the child. After the teacher observes the child, they will either confirm the placement decision or deny it. If they deny it, a placement team will meet and decide what placement option to present at the meeting with the parents. If the teacher confirms the placement, the Process Coordinator, ECSE teacher, and resource/special education teacher will meet with the parents at the IEP meeting and talk to the parents about the placement decision. In this meeting, the parents get a chance to meet the child's resource/special education teacher for the coming year. After analyzing our data and communicating with the ECSE teachers, we reached a number of conclusions. First, the ECSE program is very effective in the entrance process. Each student is seriously considered and treated uniquely. Everyone involved in the entrance process works hard to communicate with the parents and choose the best possible ECSE classroom for that particular child. The Process Coordinator and ECSE teachers are diligent in getting all of the necessary testing done in order to determine the child's needs for related services. We felt like the ECSE staff does a great job in the entrance process. Next, the program is also effective in the transition process. We felt like it was a thorough process that involved the process coordinator, the ECSE teachers, the resource/special education teacher and the parents. Everyone works together to determine the childs placement for kindergarten. We did not have any recommendations for the ECSE program in the entrance process or the transition process. We did, however, recommend them proposing adding another ECSE teacher position. The Process Coordinator along with the teachers could gather data and propose adding a position by presenting the data to the school board. Currently, a Title I teacher is servicing ECSE students in her morning session, and then services her Title I students in the afternoon. If the district hired another ECSE teacher, it would relieve the Title I teacher of ECSE and allow her to focus on Title I, as well as create a few more openings for the ECSE program. The program is experience overflow right now, and seems to have more students referred every year. Adding an extra ECSE teacher would relieve the entrance process stress and allow the district to add a few more ECSE students. After examining our data, we concluded that the ECSE program is a

Andrea Butzler and Valissa Howe

crucial part of the Lebanon School District and we found that they are doing a great job in meeting the needs of the ECSE students.