Teachers of students with intellectual disabilities will evaluate them on alternative standards that are part of student IEPs in the areas of personal management, work and recreation/leisure. Students in self-contained programs that have an academic focus, such as Career Development, will work on alternative grade-level power standards and learning targets.

Students in EBD often perform at grade level. Their placement in an EBD class is not based on academic need but rather emotional or behavioral need. Teachers will focus on grade-level standards and will evaluate students on grade-level learning targets.

In the current system, SPED teachers have hundreds of standards to sift through as they determine which ones a student has yet to master. With the implementation of SBES, the district has already identified these essential standards—the power standards.

How do we hold them to a grade-level standard that is above their instructional level?

SBE allows teachers to hold students to a grade-level standard that is appropriate to their instructional level.

Core reading and math blocks are "sacred" and students are not allowed to be pulled for IEP, ELL or intervention support during these blocks, meaning that these students will miss instruction in other content areas. What is the plan for students with pull-out services when they cannot miss reading or math, yet they are being assessed by the general education teacher in the content areas they miss while receiving services?

This is a building decision that building staff may address in a variety of ways. When students are "pulled out" for ELL or SPED services, the ELL or SPED teacher may provide intervention or support using resources with similar science or social studies content. For example, in one school, when the ELL teacher is working with students on language acquisition skills, she may provide the student vocabulary instruction so he or she is able to better understand the science and social studies content that his classroom teacher is teaching in the general education classroom upon his or her return. In other schools, specialists (interventionists, RR, and ELL) are “pushing into” classrooms rather than "pulling out" to provide intervention in the classroom while working on similar content. Teachers and specialists will continue to explore creative ways to differentiate and meet the needs of students. Because teachers are innovating in our buildings around the district, school staff should network to learn from one another.

These students are pulled from the general education classroom to receive their support services, which means they miss instruction in science, social studies, and/or writing.

We are reviewing different options and working with the district SPED team to identify the needs and what will work best.

Interventionists have required materials they must use. Do their materials align with the standards/learning targets? Is there a plan to change the materials?

We are working closely with Title 1 in terms of material alignment and how to ensure the support materials match the Standards and LTs. However, much of what they are currently using still applies and can be adapted, modified and differentiated to align.