Supporting All Teachers
Equity is a frequently used word in conversations about students with disabilities and inclusive education. But what about equity and inclusive practices among educators? Often, teachers of students with significant cognitive disabilities, autism, and other more complex needs, experience isolation and unintentional exclusion when it comes to shared leadership and collaborative processes such as Teacher-Based-Teams in terms of instructional planning, delivery, and assessment. Furthermore, targeted professional learning that addresses the needs and challenges of this unique student population, in addition to multi-age and grade-level classrooms is often overlooked.
The Regional Low Incidence Network is designed specifically for teachers of multi-age and grade-level classrooms serving students with more complex needs. The Network meets for a morning of targeted professional learning and an afternoon of grade cluster teacher-based-teams (TBTs). The grade cluster TBTs include teachers from multiple districts and schools across our region who do not typically have the benefit of collaborative teams for instructional planning, design, delivery, and assessment, which includes a protocol of data analysis (such as the 5-step process) for adjusting instruction.
