December 2007 — Special Feature
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THE Journal's 2007 Innovators : 5
Linda McVay, Linda DeSpain, Diane Fenly, and Becki Teague
Edmond Public Schools (OK)
Just north of Oklahoma City, Edmond Public Schools—
comprising 20,000 students across 16 elementary, five middle,
and three high schools—always considered itself a
top-notch district. But in 2005 it was listed on the state's
School Improvement List for failing to make sufficient yearly
progress in reading. Upon investigating, administrators
discovered that special education scores were bringing their
overall average down, and they immediately took action to do
something about it.
The district hired a literacy coach, Linda McVay, and developed and launched the Special Education Reading Initiative, the core of which provides special education students in all grades with individualized, webbased programs in reading and mathematics. A cadre of dedicated educators—McVay, Associate Superintendent Linda DeSpain, IT consultant Diane Fenly, and Coordinator of Instructional Technology Becki Teague—started implementation where the need was the greatest. They began to use Pearson Digital Learning's SuccessMaker— 3,300 hours of standards-based reading and math curricula—with special education students in grades K to 5 (later with kids in grades 6 to 8), and Autoskill's Academy of Reading program with special ed students in grades 9 to 12.
They put three computers in every "mild" special ed classroom
and two computers in every "moderate" classroom.
McVay says they target 10 to 15 minutes a day of individualized
instruction for elementary school students, and a little more than
that for higher grades. "I think we're getting a pretty good bang
for the time we're putting in it," she says.
Indeed they are. All categories of special education, including autistic students, have shown improvement in both reading and math skills. The school is no longer on the dreaded School Improvement List. Documentation of past success is being used to support continued use of the programs. The group emphasizes training, monitoring, and feedback. "We have to work the program," Fenly says, not implement it and forget about it.
Teachers and students alike are reveling in their success. McVay recalls a ninth-grade special education student walking into class all smiles. "I understood my social studies test today," the student said, and immediately got hugs for her achievement. Not that long before, she'd been reading at a first-grade level.
