Project Title: Sumner Inclusion Project

Sumner School District Contact: Betsy Minor Reid 1202 Wood Avenue Sumner, WA 98390 (253) 891 6040

Population	Special Educ	504	Title I/LAP	ESL
7540	891	62	1093	47

Victor Falls Elementary School OSPI Inclusion Grant Progress Report 2001

Summary of Current Sumner Inclusion Project Practices

Three years ago the site council at Victor Falls Elementary made decisions that support inclusion and interventions for low performing students. Our third through sixth grade classrooms no longer receive LAP assistance. Teachers in those grade levels have taken it upon themselves to provide reading support for low performing students within their classrooms. All of the LAP time that was once used at those grade levels is now being used exclusively by first and second grade classrooms with the focus on reading instruction. K-6 Special Education students continue to be served by learning specialists and classrooms teachers both in and out of the classroom. Our third through sixth grade teachers have taken on the task of teaching reading to low performing students using the "Soar to Success" intervention program from the Houghton-Mifflin reading series. Research shows that by following this prescribed program, students can show more than one year's growth in reading skills. Teachers are instructing in class, providing small group instruction and guided reading lessons, and additional 30 minutes each day, while the rest of the class works independently. The Sumner Inclusion Program has supported this endeavor and we feel it has been widely successful.

At the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year we asked SIP members to identify any accomplishments related to the Sumner Inclusion Project. The items are listed below:

• I got ideas from general classroom practice as well as for special needs kids
• It raised my level of awareness, it reminded me of my focus for identified SIP students
• Partner teachers extended the focus from SIP kids to their own students
• It was gratifying to hear how former students are doing
• It helped in planning due to other peoples' past experience
• It opened the lines of communication with Special Services Staff
• It demystified Special Services
• I was able to use the ideas in class for non-focused kids It provided a perspective of developmental stages

Currently we have seven students formally identified as SIP students, and nine more students we are tracing informally. The goals we have identified for the year include the following:

• Identify needs
• Continue monthly collaborative planning and discussion in which we trouble shoot issues related to specific students
• Assign cross grade level buddies for identified SIP students
• Order and study Carol Tomlinson's book, Differentiation
• Use of the instructional specialist to demonstrate differentiated instruction within the classroom, help adapt curriculum and make accommodations for learners, and provide release time for teachers to observe others who practice inclusion strategies
• Continue to encourage the "Soar to Success" Intervention Reading program to be used in grades three-six

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Directory of Programs

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This article is in the public domain and can be freely copied and used in trainings as handouts at parent and community meetings, and in creating your school or district programs. (Please cite all sources of materials you use.)

This information is provided by:
Office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Special Education
P O Box 47200
Olympia, WA 98504-7200
(360) 725-6088
Fax (360)586-1631
E-mail: dgill@ospi.wednet.edu