Parent perspectives on student IEP involvement

As key members of the Individualised Education Program (IEP) team and strong child advocates, parents play a critical role in special education. In this study, we sought to understand a crucial, yet underexamined, aspect of special education – parent perceptions regarding student participation in IEP development. Specifically, we asked parents how schools could better support student involvement in the IEP process, including IEP meetings. Participants included 646 parents of students with disabilities aged 5–21 years currently receiving special education services across the United States. Constant comparative analysis was used to code data. Qualitative coding revealed four major themes, including: (1) promoting an active student role, (2) supportive school staff, (3) making changes to IEP meetings and (4) considerations and concerns regarding student participation. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.     

Effective Assistive Technology Consideration and Implications for Diverse Students

Often the consideration of assistive technology devices and services during the individualized education program (IEP) process is overlooked. Because the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) authorized this consideration, IEP team members must be keenly aware of the importance they hold in providing this valuable input. Thus, IEP team members require expertise in the processes that lead to quality decision-making concerning using assistive technology for the diversity of students with disabilities. This article discusses models and procedures for implementing a system to effectively evaluate whether a student with a disability will benefit from assistive technology services and/or equipment as well as considers the implications for families from diverse cultures.     

Evaluation of the individualized education program: A comprehensive approach for special service teams

A comprehensive approach to evaluating the Individualized Education Program (IEP) is delineated. The approach has been developed by the authors and used by special service teams in numerous public school districts. It consists of four interrelated evaluation strategies: evaluability assessment, process evaluation, outcome evaluation, and consumer evaluation. Utilization of each strategy by a special service team at a particular point during the IEP process results in obtainment of specific kinds of evaluation information that can be useful in program development, modification, or outcome determination. In the paper, each evaluation strategy is defined and discussed. Also, practical considerations for installation of the total evaluation approach are enumerated, with particular reference to problems created in settings where partial approaches to IEP evaluation already have been implemented.     

‘It should be teamwork’: a critical investigation of school practices and parent advocacy in special education

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) suggests that parents are critical members of the special education system. Through conducting interviews with parents, observing individualised education plan (IEP) meetings, and analysing the discourse between the parent and the professional, this critical qualitative research investigates the parent–school relationship when parents are fighting for more inclusive placements for their children. This study uncovers the bureaucratic processes schools utilise, which do not allow for equitable parent participation in IEP processes including: medical and deficit discourse, professionalised discourse, policy interpretations, and meeting practices. We then describe strategies that parent-advocates use in order to obtain adequate services for their children including: networking, bringing an advocate, and education. We conclude with recommendations for schools and parents which promote enhanced parent–school collaboration throughout IEP planning, with an end goal towards improving educational opportunities for students with disabilities.     

Assistive Technology: Legislation and Legal Issues

Developing special education programs that confer a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for students with disabilities has been a challenge for local education agencies since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was first passed in 1975. Developing a FAPE has been particularly challenging when students require assistive technology (AT) services or devices to meet their unique educational needs. In this article, we consider how students' individualized education program (IEP) planning teams have met this challenge by examining administrative and judicial rulings on the use of AT services and devices by students' with disabilities. Specifically, we first examine rulings from 2005 to the first half of 2013 regarding the IDEA, FAPE, and AT. Second, we explore how courts have interpreted the AT obligations of educational agencies with a focus on cases in which parents were the prevailing party. Primary reasons for school district losses in these cases include failing to: (a) provide AT assessments (b) address AT needs, (c) provide the AT devices or services specified in a student's IEP, (d) properly implement AT services. We end by discussing the implications of these court decisions for school districts use of AT services and devices with students in special education.     

Factors affecting university teaching team effectiveness in detached working environments

This paper presents the outcomes of a study of the factors that contribute to teaching team effectiveness in situations where team members rarely meet face to face. Academic faculty within a university Business School were asked to report the degrees to which they believed that the module teaching teams to which they belonged contained members who (1) were satisfied and committed, and (2) regarded their teams as cohesive and as engaging in reliable and useful internal communications. All the teams covered by the study operated in ‘detached’ manners. Team members’ perceptions of the presence within their teams of trust, shared understanding, disparate educational orientations among participants and certain leadership styles were also examined. A model of the determinants of detached team effectiveness was constructed and tested. The respondents’ opinions vis-à-vis levels of satisfaction, commitment, cohesion and the value of internal team communications were then compared with metrics concerning student satisfaction and rates of progression on specific modules. Trust, shared understanding, differences in educational orientation among team members, conflict and the frequency of (though not the length of time spent on) communications emerged as major influences on perceptions of team effectiveness. Teams that were regarded as operating effectively appeared to be associated with higher student satisfaction and progression ratings.     

Communication skills to develop trusting relationships on global virtual engineering capstone teams

As universities seek to provide cost-effective, cross-cultural experiences using global virtual (GV) teams, the ‘soft’ communication skills typical of all teams, increases in importance for GV teams. Students need to be taught how to navigate through cultural issues and virtual tool issues to build strong trusting relationships with distant team members. Weekly team meetings provide an excellent opportunity to observe key team interactions that facilitate relationship and trust-building among team members. This study observed the weekly team meetings of engineering students attending two US universities and one Asian university as they collaborated as a single GV capstone GV team. In addition local team members were interviewed individually and collectively throughout the project to determine strategies that facilitated team relations and trust. Findings indicate the importance of student choice of virtual communication tools, the refining of communication practices, and specific actions to build trusting relationships. As student developed these attributes, collaboration and success was experienced on this GV team.     

General and Special Educators' Perceptions of Preassessment-Related Activities and Team Members

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of school preassessment teams in a midwestem state. Specifically, the study sought to determine perceptions of actual and preferred preassessment-related team activities and preferred permanent team members. This was accomplished through a preassessment questionnaire, distributed to randomly selected state-certified general and special educators, which was designed to identify general and special educators' actual and preferred rankings of preassessment-related activities. Survey results revealed agreement between general and special educators about their preferred permanent team members. Results of this investigation are discussed relative to their relation to prior studies of preassessment teams and directions for future research.     

Missing the Mark: A New Form of Honorary Authorship Motivated by Desires for Inclusion

As scientific teams in academia have become increasingly large, interdisciplinary, and diverse, more attention has been paid to honorary authorship (i.e., giving authorship to those not making a significant contribution). Our study examined whether honorary authorship occurs because of the desire to include all or many team members. Interviews with project principal investigators (n?=?6) and early-career project members (n?=?6) from 6 interdisciplinary environmental science research teams revealed that principal investigators frequently employed inclusion-motivated honorary authorship but that this practice had some negative impacts on early-career team members with less power and status, thereby undermining true inclusion of those from underrepresented groups. We believe our findings are of import not only for environmental scientists, but also for scholars who are interested in issues of authorship decision-making regardless of disciplinary affiliation.     

Collaborative learning processes in the context of a public health professional development program: a case study

The health promotion laboratory (HPL – Canada) is a public health professional development program building on a collaborative learning approach in order to support long-term practice change in local health services teams. This study aims to analyse the collaborative learning processes of two teams involved in the program during the first year of implementation. Based on a multiple case study design involving observations, interviews, and documentary sources, the study: (1) describes the learning process by which each team built a common understanding of the problem at hand and developed an intervention to address it; (2) identifies factors that facilitated or hindered these processes; and (3) proposes a cross-case explanation of the collaborative learning process in the HPL. The results demonstrate that the two teams learned by expanding their repertoire of actions, albeit experiencing different processes. Results point to the central role of shared mental models and key influencing factors, such as commitment and participation (team cohesion), team climate (psychological safety), and leadership style. Unlike previous studies on team learning that concentrated on existing teams in organisations, the current research studied purposely created teams working at transforming their practices and showed that they can successfully learn if specific conditions are achieved.     

Rebuilding the Family–Professional Partnership Through Facilitated Individualized Education Program Meetings: A Conflict Prevention and Resolution Practice

ABSTRACT

Decades of research identify the need to improve the individualized education program (IEP) meeting process. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of parents, advocates, educators, and facilitators who have utilized an emerging alternative IEP procedure known as a facilitated IEP (FIEP) meeting. This new process is used as an alternative dispute resolution practice in special education. FIEP meetings use a collaborative approach to encourage family and professionals to develop a meaningful educational program designed to best address student needs. Using qualitative interview methodology, 32 participants described their experiences with IEP and FIEP meetings. Data analysis identified the FIEP as a promising collaborative practice that can be used to restructure IEP meetings with the intent to prevent and resolve conflict through encouraging active parent participation through consensus building and maintaining focus on the student. Implications for practice and future research are presented and discussed.     

Patterns of interactions in multidisciplinary child protection teams in New Jersey

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of how multidisciplinary team members in child protection worked together within the team, meeting to provide assessments of, and services to, children and families. METHOD: Fifteen multidisciplinary child-protection teams in New Jersey were observed during one meeting of each team. The interaction among team members was recorded and analyzed using a structured observation method, Bales' Interaction Process Analysis. RESULTS: There was a wide variation in participation among team members, with some contributing nothing to the meeting and others contributing a great deal. In some teams, participation by members was more equal than others. Some professional groups and agencies contributed very little to any meeting while others contributed a great deal to many meetings. CONCLUSIONS: Professionals are members of multidisciplinary teams because they are expected to contribute to the investigation of child maltreatment cases and to the planning for further work with cases. However, the findings from this study suggest that there is a considerable degree of inequality in levels of participation in multidisciplinary meetings. It is particularly noticeable that staff from the prosecutor's offices participate in every meeting and either the agency as a whole or individual members of it dominate many of the meetings.     

An examination of an implementation of the simple difference score distribution model in learning disability identification

An important part of the PL 94–142 learning disability (LD) definition is the requirement that a child manifest a discrepancy between ability and achievement to be eligible for special education services. Because the language used in PL 94–142 is generic, it has been left to each state to determine how this discrepancy criterion is to be implemented. Subsequently, numerous discrepancy formulas have been proposed, and many of them have been rejected as statistically unsound. In response to this professional paralysis, and faced with continued increasing LD enrollment, the California State Legislature took matters into its own hands and passed legislation mandating the use of the simple difference score distribution model as part of the state LD eligibility criteria. This study examines the implementation of this procedure in six California school districts. The results revealed that the IEP teams' placement decisions were influenced by the students' discrepancy scores, but that prereferral status (initial evaluation vs. reevaluation) was a better predictor of postevaluation special education status. Shortcomings of this discrepancy procedure and implications for the IEP team decisionmaking process are discussed.     

Piloting a dispersed and inter-professional Lesson Study using technology to link team members at a distance

This article presents an evaluation of distance technology used in a novel Lesson Study (LS) approach involving a dispersed LS team for inter-professional purposes. A typical LS model with only school teachers as team members was modified by including university-based lecturers with the school-based teachers, using video-conferencing and online video sharing. The aim was to examine the experiences of using video-conferencing and video transfer technology to support the use of LS procedures to connect team members between schools and university. The meetings from two LS teams (primary and secondary) were recorded and analysed using a discourse analysis framework, and team members were interviewed after the LS cycle. Despite some technical difficulties, the communication between the dispersed members of the teams was largely smooth and successful. Extending LS teams and practice to include non school teachers, using distance-linking technology, can more effectively support teachers, while reducing the practical constraints of bringing other professionals into the LS team.     

The problems facing multidisciplinary teams: As perceived by team members

The present study investigated the problems that team members perceive to exist on multidisciplinary teams. One hundred forty-seven team members on 40 teams from four urban school districts completed a questionnaire that presented an exhaustive listing of potential team problems. Results indicated that the two most pressing areas of concern for urban, multidisciplinary team members were: too constrictive a set of team roles and goals, and teams functioning under extensive pressure with minimal support. Strategies to reduce problems and enhance team functioning are presented.     

Observing Leadership Roles in Shared Decision Making: A Preliminary Analysis of Three Teams

Despite recent attention to shared decision making as an approach to school reform, relatively little research has been conducted on the topic, and much of that research has relied on interviews and field notes, rather than systematic observation of team functioning. This investigation integrated systematic observations and interviews. The purpose of this study was to describe the leadership behaviors exhibited by principals, team leaders, and other team members (teachers, parents, students). We defined leadership according to team member contributions to decisions (decision content, decision-making processes, and statement function, such as initiating topics and making suggestions). This investigation used a comparative case study approach to examine the shared decision-making teams from three schools during the teams' first year. Results revealed variability in leadership across the three teams. Two teams were characterized by positive group process procedures with active involvement from a number of team members. A third team was dominated by the building principal with minimal input from most team members. This team appeared to be less productive than the other two. These findings are viewed in relationship to prior research literature concerning the ambiguity of team members' roles, lack of clarity concerning the power of shared decision-making teams, and the impact of school vision. Suggestions are made for future research.     

Simulating the multi‐disciplinary care team approach: Enhancing student understanding of anatomy through an ultrasound‐anchored interprofessional session

Quality of healthcare delivery is dependent on collaboration between professional disciplines. Integrating opportunities for interprofessional learning in health science education programs prepares future clinicians to function as effective members of a multi‐disciplinary care team. This study aimed to create a modified team‐based learning (TBL) environment utilizing ultrasound technology during an interprofessional learning activity to enhance musculoskeletal anatomy knowledge of first year medical (MD) and physical therapy (PT) students. An ultrasound demonstration of structures of the upper limb was incorporated into the gross anatomy courses for first‐year MD (n = 53) and PT (n = 28) students. Immediately before the learning experience, all students took an individual readiness assurance test (iRAT) based on clinical concepts regarding the assigned study material. Students observed while a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician demonstrated the use of ultrasound as a diagnostic and procedural tool for the shoulder and elbow. Following the demonstration, students worked within interprofessional teams (n = 14 teams, 5–6 students per team) to review the related anatomy on dissected specimens. At the end of the session, students worked within interprofessional teams to complete a collaborative clinical case‐based multiple choice post‐test. Team scores were compared to the mean individual score within each team with the Wilcoxon signed‐rank test. Students scored higher on the collaborative post‐test (95.2 ±10.2%) than on the iRAT (66.1 ± 13.9% for MD students and 76.2 ±14.2% for PT students, P < 0.0001). Results suggest that this interprofessional team activity facilitated an improved understanding and clinical application of anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 11: 94–99. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Crisis response in the public schools: A survey of school psychologists' experiences and perceptions

In this study, 228 school psychologists completed a survey regarding crisis intervention teams and plans. The majority of respondents indicated their schools had crisis plans (95.1%) and teams (83.6%). The most common team activities endorsed by participants involved providing direct assistance and services to students, staff, and the media. The majority of participants (93%) reported that their schools had experienced and responded to serious crises. Respondents indicated that psychological debriefing was frequently used (generic 49.1% and standardized 17.9%). Less than half of the participants (44.3%) reported that meetings were conducted with parents and community members following a crisis. Nearly all of the participants (98.2%) reported that they had some type of crisis intervention training. However, many participants suggested that additional training and practice with crisis intervention would improve schools' crisis responses. Results are discussed with implications for school psychologists to improve their schools' crisis intervention plans and teams' responses. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 749–764, 2007.     

Play and practice in the development of sport‐specific creativity in team ball sports

Current theoretical approaches regarding the development of creativity support the view that gathering diversified experience over years is an ideal medium for creative thinking. This study examined the role of practice conditions in the development of creative behavior in team ball sports. Twelve trainers selected the most creative and the least creative players from their teams. These athletes (n=72) provided information about the quantity and type of sport‐specific and other related practice activities undertaken throughout their careers. Results indicated significant differences between the groups for time spent in unstructured play activities and a marginally significant difference for total time spent in training for their main sport. In both cases, more creative players accumulated more time than their less creative counterparts.