The ISSP & Pathways Commission Report - Government of ...

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parents in the planning process for their special needs child, citing that the realityof parental involvement differs from the theory. They write: “parents are notviewed as teachers of their children and are not accepted as advocates…. In fact,the very design of schools in terms of hours of instruction presents barriers forworking parents [and that] most of the social problems experienced in schools canbe traced back to the schism between parents and teachers (p.161).Inclusive education has not been without its criticism, however, both in quality ofservice for children and teacher readiness to implement practices (Salend, 2001;Scrubbs & Mastropieri, 1996; Zigmond & Baker, 1995). While teachers tend toagree with the philosophy of inclusion, they call for additional resources, extrapreparatory/collaboration time, and additional training (Semmel et al., 1991;O’Shea & O’Shea, 1998; Lupart et al., 1996; Salend, 1999; Edmunds, 2000; Maich,2002; Dibbon, 2004).This concern among teachers for their ability to implement inclusive educationwould rise in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador where the delivery of thePathways model and the development of ISSP’s eventually became so controversial(Dibbon, 2004) that Government would announce a review of the approaches in thespring of 2006.The Newfoundland and Labrador ContextSince the introduction of both the ISSP and Pathways model, much has beenwritten about their effectiveness. There have been several studies and threeGovernment commissioned reports commenting on the delivery of special educationin the province. These studies give a local voice in the literature on specialeducation practices and discourse which often echoes the concerns that havealready been identified in the global literature. The provincial Department ofFocusing on Students:A Report of the ISSP & Pathways Commission200
Education releases annual indictors of students participating in special educationprograms. A review of both sources of information can offer insights into themodel’s effectiveness.Enrolment IndicatorsTable 1 (attached at the end of this document) provides an overview of studentenrolment in the province, namely the numbers of students enrolled in specialeducation and the number of teachers assigned to meet their needs. Data ispresented for the past ten years beginning in the 1995-1996 school year. Theprovince implemented the Pathways model in the fall of 1998, while ISSP’s werefirst introduced in 1996.What surface in this table is a steady decline in the province’s school agedpopulation over these years – reflecting a 30.5% drop in enrollment. While thenumbers of students in special education also dropped, the percentage of studentswho required supports grew by 4.2%. In 1995-1996, for example, 11.84% of theprovince’s students were identified as requiring special education. That percentagehas steadily grown to where 16.08% of the 2005-2006 school aged populationrequire services. If current trends continue, nearly one quarter of the province’schildren could be enrolled in special education within ten years. In a province withsuch a dramatic and steady decline in students, it is disconcerting to see a steadyincrease in number of students with disabilities. Similarly, the number of specialeducation teachers has also increased by 11.8% in the past ten years. This reflectsGovernment’s acknowledgment that it spends more resources on special educationper capita than any other province does (Government of Newfoundland andLabrador, 2003) yet the province continues to have among the lowest level ofliteracy in the country (International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey, 2005).Focusing on Students:A Report of the ISSP & Pathways Commission201
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Government of Newfoundland and Labr
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Bernice LangdonCommissionerBill Som
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3.11. “At-risk” students 653.12
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een developed and implemented withi
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AcknowledgementsThe Commission woul
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These recommendations evolved direc
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of Education pursue certain recomme
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1.3 Advisory CommitteeAn advisory c
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Principle 4:The Commission’s data
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An exceptionally high rate of retur
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• The current model focuses on de
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design and structure of curriculum.
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Services to Children and Youth. As
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When a child/youth is identified as
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• Pathway Two: The provincially p
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3.0 Key Findings and Recommendation
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The Commission notes that the Labra
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Therefore, the Commission recommend
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3.3 Educational Record-keepingThis
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Table 3:Provincial distribution of
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Given earlier findings on the accur
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Table 6: Provincial distribution of
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out of the system. One area of part
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• Where there is more than one pr
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Adding to this frustration is recog
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Table 10: Communications regarding
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Recommendation 10the department hea
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Recommendation 13the Department of
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3.9 Behavioural analysis and suppor
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Even a cursory glance at the litera
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assessments. It indicates that 44.3
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A pan-Canadian review revealed that
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Table 14: Exceptionally Able Learne
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Nova Scotia articulates its approac
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increased emphasis on mathematics a
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The Commission’s pan-Canadian rev
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French being the dominant language
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Manitoba Education has a similar ap
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3.16 Support for ParentsThe Commiss
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Table 15:Numbers of parents who rec
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parents. Jurisdictions are increasi
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Concern for the absence of an effec
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3.18.2 Teacher AssistantsCurrently
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assistants (job titles vary among p
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Table 17: Attitudes of classroom te
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equivalent certification (italics a
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Table 20: Academic Qualifications:P
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While implementing these recommenda
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In this light, and combined with pr
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Table 23: Guidance counsellorsRespo
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3.19 Professional DevelopmentGiven
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Table 25: Teachers-identified in-se
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Recommendation 74regular “refresh
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too many parents and educators alik
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and continued reason for NL to rema
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Government of Manitoba (2004). Work
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Roberts, C. and Lazure, M. (1970).
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Recommendation 9the department head
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needs related to the Model for the
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Newfoundland and LabradorAssociatio
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Visit to Labrador DistrictNovember
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Visit to Eastern DistrictNovember 1
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Visit to Conseil Scolaire Francopho
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Table 1: The Stratified SampleSchoo
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Table 2: Response RateStatus Freque
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Data AnalysisAt the completion of t
Page 152 and 153: TEACHER SURVEYSection 1(To be compl
Page 154 and 155: 5. (a) Please indicate the number o
Page 156 and 157: 8. (c) Please indicate the average
Page 158 and 159: 16. On average, how long are you wa
Page 160 and 161: 33. Some students are “falling th
Page 162 and 163: 54. Speech Language Pathologists as
Page 164 and 165: APPENDIX E:List of SubmissionsAnder
Page 166 and 167: Langdon, TrentBishop, DavidNewfound
Page 168 and 169: APPENDIX F:Key InformantsAnthony, J
Page 170 and 171: Ferguson, TammyFerris, MaryFitzpatr
Page 172 and 173: Humphries, AnneKean-Dobbin, Claudin
Page 174 and 175: Palmer, Dr. BarbaraParsons, RobertP
Page 176 and 177: Sarkany-Coles, GailSheppard, FaronS
Page 178 and 179: White, PerryWindeler, HenryPrincipa
Page 180 and 181: Evolution of special educationA rev
Page 182 and 183: out of this report that would go on
Page 184 and 185: In the early 1970’s, this parenta
Page 186 and 187: with provisions for joint planning,
Page 188 and 189: attended to in separate classrooms
Page 190 and 191: against the parents of the rest of
Page 192 and 193: ising wind of change that would swe
Page 194 and 195: done. The curriculum guides outline
Page 196 and 197: education and bridging “the divid
Page 198 and 199: where the benefits will extend to a
Page 200 and 201: egular classroom when the choice cl
Page 204 and 205: Tables 2 & 3 (see end of this docum
Page 206 and 207: knowledge as to their needs. Subseq
Page 208 and 209: a lack of practical supports in the
Page 210 and 211: and resulting frustration among all
Page 212 and 213: negate blame and validate the strug
Page 214 and 215: Table 1: Enrolment and Teacher Allo
Page 216 and 217: Table 3: Categorical AllocationsExc
Page 218 and 219: graduation: A handbook for all teac
Page 220 and 221: Maich, K. (2002). When pathways cro
Page 222 and 223: Skrtic, T. M. (1995). The special e
Page 224 and 225: APPENDIX H:Inter-Ministerial Protoc
Page 226 and 227: 4. Services should be organized to
Page 228 and 229: - Support ongoing professional deve
Page 230 and 231: 2. The ISSP is a process with a pre
Page 232 and 233: . child's level of development indi
Page 234 and 235: 13. The ISSP Manager will be respon
Page 236 and 237: Appendix J:Child Youth ProfilesMode
Page 238 and 239: CategoryPhysicalNeed (check allappl
Page 240 and 241: CategoryTechnologyProgramNeed (chec
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