Boston College Leading for All: A research report of the ... - CODE

guiding principles to help teachers and administratorsmeet the needs of all students.1. All students can succeed.2. Universal design and differentiated instructionare effective and interconnected means ofmeeting the learning or productivity needs ofany group of students.3. Successful instructional practices are foundedon evidence-based research, tempered byexperience.4. Classroom teachers are the key educators for astudent’s literacy and numeracy development.5. Each child has his or her own unique patterns oflearning.6. Classroom teachers need the support of thelarger community to create a learningenvironment that supports students withspecial education needs.7. Fairness is not sameness.In EFA’s vision, curriculum and instruction aremade accessible to more students through thetransformation of mainstream teachers and classrooms,rather than through reliance on separate placements.Teachers are encouraged to cultivate inclusiveplacements and practices by adhering to principles ofuniversal design for learning, differentiating instruction,and analyzing as well as responding to student datawithin teachers’ professional learning communities.In May 2005, the Ministry of Educationallocated $25 million to the Council of Ontario Directorsof Education (CODE)—directors in Ontario being theequivalent of US school board superintendents—todevelop and implement a plan to support therecommendations in Education for All. The CODESpecial Education Project for 2005-2006 was designedto assist school boards across Ontario in generatinglateral capacity-building projects to enhance teacherprofessional practice and to improve academicachievement for students with special education needs.In time, this project came to be called Essential forSome, Good for All (ESGA) and, eventually, it extendedover three years. 1The CODE Leadership Team designed theproject. The components of the project’s architectureincluded the development of a consistent, equitableand transparent application, selection, distribution,monitoring and reporting process. The architecture alsoinvolved the creation of a subsequent ESGA projectLeadership Team to mentor and support thedevelopment, implementation and evaluation of eachboard’s plan once the work of the project wasunderway. An additional feature was the decision byCODE to allocate an equal amount of funding to allboards regardless of their size. A prime focus was tomake a one-­time change in the way that schooldistricts structured their interactions betweencurriculum and special education staff, at theboard level and also within the schools, so thatthese interactions became more frequent, focused,effective, and integrated. The goal was to“break down the silos” between those who hadresponsibility for special education students andthose who had responsibility for the rest, sothat everyone would develop a sense ofcollective responsibility for all students.Some of these and other design features wereestablished in advance of the project’s implementation,and others emerged through improvised planning as theproject evolved (Louis & Miles, 1990). Over the courseof the next two academic years, the Ministry providedadditional resources to support the initiative. In 2009,CODE partnered with researchers from Boston Collegeto conduct a review of ESGA overall.Page5 | Leading for All