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Mike Bottai
Professor Neeper
SED 361
25 September 2016
A Look into the Special Education Process
The purpose of an interview is to help one gain knowledge about a topic they are curious
about. In this case, I conducted an interview about how the special education process works and
to gather information about their perspective of how well this process works. I interview one
particular person that worked as a Social Studies teacher in a Secondary Education class room,
his name was Nick (name changed to keep confidentiality). He taught for a number of years
where he then became a professor at Rhode Island College (school changed to keep
confidentiality). Where he is an Education Professor. We conducted this interview on Friday,
September 23, 2016. This interview took place on the second floor of the Education Center on
campus. It was at the conference table, where we started to have a conversation about everything
that has gone on in our lives over the last year to break the ice a little bit. After we broke the ice
for about 5 minutes, we proceeded into the interview. I asked open ended questions where he
would give me some insight on how the process treated him and his students. He gave examples
of what the process was like when he first entered the profession and how the Department of
Education continued to adjust the system to try and make it more accommodating to the students.
Then I shifted the conversation to ways the system can be adjusted to get it away from the
profiling of students. The last question was about their philosophy of Special Education. Where
he believes heavily on inclusion. We need to get away from mainstreaming. This interview lasted
around an hour in length and the conversation seemed to flow right through. He was very pleased

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to help me further my knowledge on the Special Education process as a teacher in training. I am
pleased to share my findings with you.
My first question I asked during the interview, was when the first time you encountered
the Special Education Process. I asked this to get a feel for when and where he was aware of this.
He went into a story about his first year, first class of teaching. A special education teacher came
into his classroom and talked about how they have the opportunity to have an inclusive
classroom. He had many students that needed services in his classroom. When he went to school
for education, it was not required to take classes for special education so he had no idea what she
meant but he went with it. Nick said the pros of not having the training was he had no
stereotypes about the students. So being a proactive teacher, Nick agreed to have an inclusive
classroom and they started to team teach. Nick did a lot of the planning and the special education
teacher figured out the best ways to relay this information to her students. During this time, the
school started a mandatory certification for all teachers to teach special education which was in
1988. They called this teacher workshops or professional development. Which lead to the
referral of students to the special education process. After he went through this development, he
noticed many students in the class that could have been qualified for services. He also noticed
that a lot of students in the class would try and hide these disabilities from the teacher and
students.
Since it was Nicks first time teaching he never referred a student to the special
education. He would mention it to the special education teacher and let them do the referral
because they knew more about the process. He said it worked well that way and thought that the
special education teacher had the best say in what the student needed. Nick also was never part
of an eligibility meeting for a student. This meeting is to find out if the student is eligible for

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services or not. Nick wanted to be involved somehow though, so he formed Student Assist
Teams. They used the same process. Teachers would refer students to this group, where these
teachers would meet weekly, to try and help these students that are struggling. Sometimes these
students just need to talk about what was going on and figure out how to get them back on track.
This group was made up with police officers, consolers, teachers and sometimes administration.
During the time of being a teacher, he noticed a lot of improvements in the system. Nick
started to realize that classrooms were fading away from mainstreaming and going more towards
full on inclusion. Different laws were brought in to make sure students get a free appropriate
education and others he could not remember. They started the professional development in
schools around special education. Schools started to become more assessable for all students
such as having ramps, handicapped bathrooms and assessable classrooms. The biggest change
was the ratio of number of teachers to students. In order for all students to get a fair chance to
learn to their highest ability. They would help them during class while the teacher gave
instruction to everyone. He then went into a story about his friend is a special education teacher
in 8th grade where she helps transition students from middle school to high school. While these
laws are going into place some teachers are doing everything they can to keep students with
disabilities. Teachers deny students into the class. Happened last week. This teacher said they
were not prepared, nor, wanted to instruct this student. As we can see there is still a lot more we
need to do, to stop this from happening. We need teachers that want to differentiate teaching.
Nick also believes that paraeducators should be more educated. They are helping these students
but have no training in the field and thats the field where they should be more educated than
everyone.

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Nick then began to talk about how students suffer when they are assassinated with the
special education program. He said its just another label for these children with disabilities. So
in order to keep these students happy, we need to keep them in their normal classes and have
paraeducators help other students in the class and not just the ones in need. He also talked about
the dropout rate and how we should address it. We need life skill classes so students can practice
skills needed to live on their own and in the workforce. We also need Alternative Ed Programs to
keep students involved and help them become positive contributors to the society.
After the conclusion of this interview, it was clear that everything Nick has said or
encountered was what is going on and what was going on in schools. One concept that is really
important is addressing the dropout issue. There are many connections with this interview and
the book Including Adolescents with Disabilities in General Education Classrooms by Tom E.
C. Smith, Barbara Gartin and Nikki L. Murdick. According to Smith (2012) To address the high
school dropout problem, school staff should consider school demographics, classroom
environments and instruction, administrative issues, staff issues, and student characteristics to
determine if changes could possibly impact this issue (p. 25). We need to start talking with our
teams of teachers and look at the classroom environments. See how the students are enjoying
class, if not can we bring a certain program to help these students. Just like Nick, said we need
life skill programs that can help reach these students. Looking at the area they live in, we can
provide classes to help students go right into the workforce, or we can talk to these students to
see how school could become more important and beneficial. Which is why Bush signed the No
Child Left Behind Act, to make sure students are given the programs or skills they need to be a
positive contributor to society.

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Project Muse, came out with an article in 2015 about relationships between the
implementation of school-wide positive behavior intervention and high school dropouts.
According to this study programs like PBIS have had a positive effect on attendance. With this
positive effect, dropout rates will fall overtime according to this study. As Nick mentioned
during the interview, he said students that dropout have a more difficult time trying to find a job
and be a positive contributor to the society. With programs that schools are using such as
SWPBIS (School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports), schools are seeing a
trend with behavior, attendance, academic performance and school level factors. Looking at the
article (2015) they provide a risk factor and explain what the SWPBIS outcome would look like:
Behavior difficulties in school and community Outcome: Reduction in Behavior incidents,
bully behavior, suspensions, increase in on task behavior Attendance: Frequently tardy, high
absenteeism rates Outcomes: Decrease in tardiness and unexcused absences (p. 292). There
are a lot more risk factors that are talked about in this article but that was just a gist of what the
implantation of this program would do to the dropout rate. If more schools would follow suit and
really try and close the gap of dropout rates, more students will most likely be successful in
postsecondary life. Which went right along with what Nick was talking about.
Nick also talked about how we need to differentiate instruction in order to provide for all
students in the classroom. We cant just kick a student from the class or fail them if they dont
understand the material from not adjusting their teachings to each student. Differentiated
instruction is providing different strategies for each student to meet their needs as a student.
According to Smith (2012), A second option when designing or adapting learning activities is to
use Gardners (1993) theory of multiple intelligences. Each student has varying strengths in both
thinking and leaning, and by planning the instruction to address these strengths, students will

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learn more easily (p.175). This will not only help students with disabilities but students in
general. Bringing this into our classrooms, students that do have certain disabilities, we can
adjust how we deliver the content to these students. They will be more engaged and be more
inclined to do the assignments. Nick talked about how this is one step in helping students be
more engaged and hopefully be less prone to dropping out. When using this process, Smith
(2012) believes, An essential characteristic of a classroom using differentiated instruction is the
use of Flexible Grouping (p. 175). Nick also believed heavily in this, because students that have
similar goals as learners and needs, tend to work together the best. So when we are
differentiating our teachings we need to help group students in groups where they will feel
comfortable with the students because they are at the same level. These groups will change based
on the difficulty and task type.
During the interview we also touched upon her friend being part of the transition
planning for students from middle school to high school. This is a very stressful and important
time in these students lives. During this time the special education teacher provides assessments
for potential and finds out their strengths and weaknesses. Smith (2012) believes Special
Education Teachers who are, or have been, working with the students are also essential to the
process. They can provide essential information concerning the students past achievements,
potential future issues and information concerning the next step into the transition process (p.
84). These teachers are vital to the students success in each phase of their education to post
education. They layout plans for these students and set them up to succeed in the classroom and
in society as a whole.
After this interview, it was clear that there are many issues that still need to be addressed
within the special education process. While special education teachers are pushing for a change

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with the process, differentiation and inclusion, other teachers are pushing back because they
dont feel ready to teach these students nor do they want to. It is a scary experience the first time
being in a classroom, so it can be expected to be scary when going through this process the first
time. Differentiation and Inclusion is one main thing that will be included when I become a
teacher. I will take on the challenge of bringing inclusion into my classroom as I will advocate
for other teachers around me.

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Works Cited

Freeman, J., Simonsen, B., McCoach, D. B., Sugai, G., Lombardi, A., & Horner, R.
(2015). An Analysis of the Relationship between Implementation of School-Wide
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and High School Dropout Rates. High
School Journal, 98(4), 290-315.

Smith, T. E., Gartin, B., & Murdick, N. L. (2012). Including Adolescents with Disabilities
in General Education Classrooms (1st ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.