Rethinking Special Education

It is Monday, August 4^th, and I have returned from a long absence.

Personalized learning gives us the opportunity to offer learning accommodation to every kid, no matter whether they own a special education label or not. Recently, Khara Schonfield-Karan, a staff member at Education Reimagined, who is also a parent of a special education learner, wrote the following:

“’What should we do?’”

“I was asked this question twice recently – once by my son’s elementary school principal when he was having intense bouts of emotional dysregulation, and once by his pediatrician when I was desperately seeking help with his ADHD medications. Both times, my heart sank when I realized I had no answers. Despite being a teacher and education researcher for more than two decades, I felt completely lost and could only shake my head helplessly and admit, ‘I don’t know.’”

“This reveals the painful reality that, like me, many parents of children with learning differences have to navigate complex challenges on their own. For years, I’ve carried the weight of figuring things out – from preschool teachers saying ‘This is not in my wheelhouse’ to feeling lost when professionals asked me for solutions. While my son is in a caring school where he can usually manage, I can’t help but wonder: Can children with learning differences do more than just get by?’”

“Determined to find answers beyond my own experience, I turned to research. In a recent study conducted by Education Reimagined, we explored three learner-centered environments that are designed around each learner’s individual needs and interests – environments where 50 percent or more of students have diagnosed learning differences.”

“This research offered me compelling evidence about the effectiveness of learner-centered approaches for children like my son. For example, after one of the schools opened, graduation rates for students with IEPs in that school district jumped from 50-70 percent to 95-100 percent. At another school, students with IEPs consistently outperform the state averages for students with IEPs on both math and reading assessments. These outcomes demonstrate that, with the right educational approaches, students with learning differences can certainly do more than just get by.”

“Learner-centered education focuses on each young person’s holistic development through unique learning journeys that emphasize agency, relationships, individualized experiences, community connections and real-world skill development. Instead of existing as isolated programs or practices, the environments we studied integrate these approaches into comprehensive, school-wide systems.”

“Here’s what we observed:

Educators see challenges as information. At Norris School District, when a student struggles, staff ask, ‘What is this behavior telling us?’ instead of, ‘How do we stop this?’ A parent explained that when their child first enrolled, educators said, ‘We’re just going to talk and try and find out where your passions are. What do you want to do?’

Schools make accommodations invisible. At the Avalon School, inclusive design means accommodations are so embedded that students with IEPs often don’t know who else has them. Examples include universal quiet spaces, turning movement needs into learning opportunities and students co-designing the technology tools they use. AS one parent observed, their son ‘is not really singled out’ and ‘feels like he’s right with everybody else.’

Students develop genuine expertise. At LaFayette Big Picture School, students pursue passion projects that help them develop authentic career experience. One student’s love of cooking led to running the school café and the chance to develop strong customer service and business skills. A parent reflected, ‘I love that about this program. You find your niche.’

Students build self-advocacy from day one. One parent explained how students are asked, ‘How do you think you’ve done? What can you do better next time? and how educators ‘let them guide the conversation first.’ This helps students learn to identify and articulate their needs, with many viewing their learning differences as variations or even ‘superpowers,’ as one student shared, rather than deficits.

Support extends beyond the school walls and school calendar. The relationships and skills students develop in these environments can lead to year-round opportunities. For example, a woman shared how her godson’s internship calls him during spring break, winter break, and the summer asking ‘Can you come work for us?’ In amazement, she wonders, ‘What does a kid get that?!’ Meanwhile, another school develops partnerships to serve students during summer months, providing families with much needed support when school is out.

Schools offer parents profound relief by demonstrating they ‘have it covered.’ Parents can finally relax, knowing they don’t need to be constantly vigilant or fight for their child’s needs. One parent shared: ‘I don’t have to battle, and I don’t have to struggle.’ Another said, ‘There’s days when I walk out of her going, ‘God, I’m cheating,’ or ‘This is too easy.’”

“These findings reveal something profound: when we design educational environments around learners’ needs, rather than trying to get learners to fit in existing systems, everyone benefits.”

“Through this research, I finally found the answers I couldn’t provide when asked ‘What should we do?’ I can see that the educators and medical professionals asking me that question were facing the same challenge I was – we all need access to models designed to offer more comprehensive support for youth with learning differences and those who serve them.”

…

When I was a public school educator, I had a parent once tell me: “You know, there isn’t such a thing as special education in the real world.”

When we ran our personalized learning lab school, nearly a quarter of the young learners enrolled would have been considered special education in our traditional K-12 system. But those kids, along with the rest of the lab school learners, all demonstrated impressive gains in their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills over a three-year period.

The reason for this growth? We treated all young learners the same way by developing a learning plan that defined, executed, and evaluated each young learner’s ability to become smarter and stronger in preparation to be successful in the real world.

Treating all kids like they are special learners is the start to creating a learning system that is focused on what really matters when it comes to achieving success.

Til tomorrow. SVB