pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf, 7
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 7 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Jennifer Roloff: Okay. And with FCMAT are there competitors? Can you pick different organizations to use than FCMAT? Victoria Forester: There are different FCMAT teams, and I'm not sure how Alameda went about that choice because I wasn't an employee yet. Jennifer Roloff: Okay, got it. Let's see. Oh, when you say that you're looking for Alameda to be the premier destination, distinction for special ed, is that a real distinction? Is there an association where we can receive awards, and accolades? Victoria Forester: Well, certainly within the state of California there are some markers in which you can say, "Dang, we're doing really well." But the way that the strategic plan kind of framed that was we were studying best practice from three school districts in the state, and then three school districts across the nation. We want to be written about and studied in that way. So one of the school districts Was it back in Vermont? And I can't remember the name. We want to be that school district? And that's kind of how we framed the destination postcard. Jennifer Roloff: Got it. Is there any way to differentiate what districts are falling behind in addressing the needs of special ed versus districts that are thriving? Is there a ranking or do you get reviewed every so often? Victoria Forester: Really good question. There's several different ways, but right now the state of California has what's considered its dashboard for achievement. And that's a place where you can go on the CDE website, look up "Alameda unified," and you can find out all about our assessment scores, our achievement. And within that there are scores for our special education students achievement as well as discipline scores as well as broken down according to race, and ethnicity, or disaggregated. I can tell you that currently Alameda Unified is very close to significant disproportionality in the area of discipline for students with IEPs. Which means we have a lot of students mostly in high school who are being suspended, who have IEPs. Victoria Forester: You can go further down and look at that based on race, and ethnicity, and you'll see more disproportionality. And we're not the only school district having those issues, but it's something that this strategic plan is hitting head on. That's just one indication of where we are in our special education in terms of doing well or not doing well. If you look at achievement scores on standardized tests, you'll see that our students with disabilities are struggling compared to our students in general education. We are not doing worse or better than most districts in California, but that's not good enough. Jennifer Roloff: And then Jody is presenting another piece. Victoria Forester: Jody is going to be presenting on health and wellness, and a needs assessment. And, yes, the two come together because if we just deal with special education by itself, we'll never get anywhere. It needs to be integrated into every bit of work that we do. And so you'll start to see that with Jody's presentation as well. 03/13/19 Page 7 of 32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |