Pontiac H.S. Pleased With State’s Review of Special Ed

By Tony Sapochetti, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.

Dec. 12–PONTIAC — “Positive” describes the state’s review of Pontiac Township High School’s special education reading programs, said special needs coordinator Tera Graves.

“They were very impressed and I would say that it was a very good visit,” Graves said. “Everything was very positive and we are glad they came.”

Monitors from the Illinois State Board of Education studied the program last week because of a gap in scores between special education students and other students on the 2005-2006 Prairie State Achievement Test.

The test is taken only by high school juniors. The scores indicated that 2.8 percent of special education students met or exceeded state standards in reading compared to 58.9 percent of other students.

The monitors interviewed teachers, looked at student records, held a public forum and watched classes.

Graves said the district already had implemented programs such as co-teaching and life skills.

Co-teaching involves having a classroom teacher and a special education teacher working together in a room with students from both areas. Graves said the program has worked well in classes drivers’ education, science and algebra, but hasn’t been tried yet in English classes.

“We would like to get (special education students) exposed to the regular curriculum, because that is where some of this gap is coming from,” she said. “They are not going to know what’s on the test unless they are familiar with it.”

In addition, individualized computer learning-based programs will work with a student’s strengths. “We do try to look at each student and help with their particular needs,” she said.

ISBE has 45 days to finish a report on its findings, said Jodi Fleck, ISBE acting division administrator for special education. The high school then has 45 days to develop a plan and eventually must show corrections to any non-compliance. The school also has to show progress with test scores.

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