Barrington A. Irving


    Closing Keynote "Soaring to the Finish" 
    I was fortunate to hear the last keynote at TCEA.  The pilot brought cheers from the audience as they listened to him tell how he became a historic individual.  Irving has joined forces with the educators. He teaches students to do things that are far out of reach of most.  It's pretty rare to give students the opportunity to build an airplane or a car that is actually street legal.   But, that is certainly what he is doing.  
    Barrington Antonio Irving, Jr., C.D. was the youngest person to pilot a plane around the world solo, a feat he accomplished in 2007. The Captain shared his success in the Convention Ballroom which was the last presentation of the conference.  His mission was to inspire the educators to utilize STEM to motivate students to have hands on learning. Irving’s nonprofit, Experience Aviation, aims to boost the numbers of youth in aviation and other science and math related careers. Middle and high school students attend summer and after-school programs, tackling hands-on robotics projects, flight simulator challenges, and field trips to major industries and corporations.
    The videos that I captured were by chance!  So, they will give you a birds-eye view of this fascinating young man.

    What if we could find a way to create more hands-on with learning using practical experiences that they will learn by doing.  Below is where we are trying to move away from.  Placement of ethnic diverse students need to have opportunities for the future.
    Disproportionate placement of students from race and ethnic diverse populations in special education programs have been a concern of the U. S. Office of Special education Programs (OSEP) and the U.S. Office of Civil Rights for many years.  With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) 2004, Congress recognized the changes to our society and its role to be responsive to the growing needs of an increasingly diverse society.  The statute cited the increase in minority children in our public schools and the discrepancies in the referral and placement of minority children in special education programs.  IDEA noted, “greater efforts are needed to prevent the intensification of problems connected with mislabeling and high dropout rates among minority children with disabilities.”   The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004 identified disproportionality as one of its five monitoring priorities for states.  IDEA, Sec. 300.173 and Sec. 300.646, requires states to address significant disproportionality where it occurs.  States are instructed to collect and examine data to assess whether any racial/ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in special education disability and educational environment categories. 
    Addressing the issues related to disproportionality require examining policies, procedures and practices for serving students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. A review in terms of access to curriculum, instruction, services, resources, classroom management and discipline and identification can lead to improvement of educational services for students.  The National Education Agency’s (NEA) (2007) recommendations for making a difference in disproportionality found in Truth in Labeling: Disproportionality in Special Education include:
    Truth in labeling hyperlink http://www.nea.org/specialed/images/truthinlabeling.pdf  Sec. 300.173 Over identification and disproportionality Sec. 300.646 Disproportionality

    SELF ASSESSMENT TOOLS
    The calculations in this workbook are to assist in identifying the root causes of disproportionate removals of students with disabilities for disciplinary reasons.
    Technical Assistance Plan for Disproportionality Manual Right click to download here 
    The Texas Education Agency with the support of Dr. Edward Fergas and the Region One Education Service Center has developed “TEA State Performance Plan: Technical Assistance Plan for Disproportionality-A Plan for Districts. The calculations in this workbook are to assist in identifying the root causes of disproportionality. 
    Systems Analysis Tool for Disproportionate Representation in Special Education
    This document is a tool for conducting an examination of systematic school factors that influence disproportionate representation of students from racial and ethnic groups in special education.

    Equity in Special Education Placement: A School Self-Assessment Guide for Culturally Responsive Practice
    A NCCRESt assessment tool (Form A) that can be used by administrators to address issues related to culturally responsive educational practices. 

    Equity in Special Education Placement: A School Self-Assessment
    A NCCRESt assessment tool (Form B) that can be used to address issues related special education placement issues. 

    Preventing Disproportionality by Strengthening District Policies and Procedures: An Assessment and Strategic Planning Process
    A NCCRESt document Intended to help districts address systems issues that may impact students from culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The document serves as a self-study tool that assists district teams to examine policies, procedures, and practices in general and special education to prevent disproportionality.



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