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State’s special education plan may focus on reading results
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Posted on Mar 10 2015
The Public School System’s Special Education Program and its stakeholders are still working on the State Systemic Improvement Plan, or SSIP, ahead of a nationwide April 1 deadline.
In an interview yesterday, SpED director Suzanne Lizama said the state plan will “most likely” focus on reading results for the third grade.
She noted that the third grade is when students begin taking their SAT 10s.
Lizama pointed out, though, that the “work really starts” in Kindergarten and the first and second grades.
Most state plans are expected to focus on literacy, it was learned. Public schools can focus specifically on which areas to target like reading results for students with learning disabilities, or reading results for certain grade students, for example.
Recently, low reading and math scores in SpED have been noted across the nation.
The SSIP is a federal mandate that essentially lets the states “decide what is it you are going to do increase or improve results for kids with disabilities,” according to Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan in a previous Board of Education meeting.
An SSIP task force has been working on the state plan over the last year. They are composed of principals, general and special education teachers, and curriculum and instruction staff.
The SSIP has been described as a “complete self-assessment” that will lead to a goal statement for the program in coming years.
