today I’m going to talk about compliance
specifically special education
compliance that’s good
which brings a lot of emotions fear
anxiety but I’m hoping that after today
we can talk about it a little bit less
or at least changed the dialogue so it
is no longer the focus of the
conversation this is an IEP an
individualized education plan for Kyra
who has dyslexia this compliance
document is the cornerstone of the
federal law I DEA the individuals with
Disabilities Education Act in the United
States that ensures Kyra gets a free and
appropriate education in comparison with
her peers for nine years I spent over 70
hours a year editing writing reviewing
and submitting these documents Kyra says
that she has a specific learning
disability that she’s in a 15-2
one-to-one setting she gets
time-and-a-half on her tests that she’ll
be assessed four times a year
on three objectives and that she’ll meet
four goals with 80% accuracy you can all
see the individual needs of this child
in this document right I see some of you
recognize her right away
know I spent 70 hours writing that
document what about this one can you
recognize the individual needs of this
this child in this document none of you
recognize mr. wonderful Kevin O’Leary
from shark tank and being overly
dramatic to make make a point my point
being is that it is very difficult to
actually glean anything meaningful about
an individual from these compliance
documents and some of you might argue
but that’s not the point of the
documents the documents is for
compliance I could play the same game
over and over again with all the
individuals you see here you recognize
all of these faces
because of their talents their success
or their genius not because of their
learning differences and so I would like
to make the argument here that maybe we
don’t recognize an individual in the
individualized education plan and so
some of you might be wondering well why
does that matter
well because actually the IEP was the
first ever personalized learning concept
ever created in 1975 before words like
personalized learning or blended
learning or flipped classroom or
individualized instruction before those
words existed the IEP was developed to
take into account the individual needs
of a child but as you saw from those
documents it has not caught up with what
we know about personalized learning
today in fact parents reports that the
IEP is confusing hard to navigate not
transparent difficult to understand in
fact this mother said that it was
difficult for her to recognize her own
child in these documents so an
individualized education plan that
obscures the individual maybe seems like
it’s not doing all of the job it was
intended to do teachers also very much
struggle with this document I know from
personal experience but also because my
colleagues and I interviewed hundreds of
teachers from across the country 79% of
them reported the IEP had very little
relevance to their teaching in another
study done in 2012 the majority of
teacher said that the IEP had little to
do with their day-to-day planning their
daily instruction or their pedagogy
overall the good news is we know more
about special needs and neurodiversity
than we ever have before
thanks to amazing institutions doing
really difficult work in the cognitive
and learning sciences we know more about
dyslexia the autism spectrum ADHD we
know more about reading writing thing
and learning in fact we know that some
of the greatest minds of our time have
had learning differences today 35% of
company founders identify as dyslexic
and individuals like Temple Grandin or
Richard Branson actually attribute their
different way of thinking to their
success and to their profound impact
unfortunately Lowe these realizations in
this research has not really been
brought to the forefront of awareness in
society and it has certainly not
trickled down into our classrooms today
today in the United States students with
special needs are more likely to be
suspended expelled get caught up in the
juvenile justice system they are less
likely to graduate and they are less
likely to be employed the achievement
gap for students with special needs is
wide and it has not closed in over
thirty five years and I’m here to talk
about the fact that this document is
part of the problem literally when you
utter the words special education this
document is almost all that comes to
mind in schools and in districts so I’d
like to spread the idea that compliance
is not enough it is not enough to simply
fill out these documents so I’m sure
you’re asking why and what is the
disconnect right now I’m gonna try to
break it down to you a little bit when
the IEP was written it was written as an
individualized education plan meaning a
process a detailed plan of action that
outlines or documents the services
accommodations and modifications that a
student should get however today we are
viewing it as if it is a product as if
it is an output itself produced with the
result to follow we believe that if
teachers and schools and districts spend
enough time writing the IEP producing
the IEP that the results in this case
academic and functional outcomes will
follow and that is simply not true so
much so that many people feel that this
is almost a
in lie this mother wrote an article in
the Atlantic in 2016
calling special education a charade
literally talking about smoke and
mirrors saying that the IEP was one of
the greatest pitfalls of our education
system today in the United States the
special ed system is so divisive that
special ed is one of the most litigated
topics in our courtrooms today schools
and districts spend ninety million
dollars on conflict resolution ninety
million dollars the majority of which is
spent on a special education that is
litigating the the what is written in
the IEP the words that are in the IEP
what’s a little bit more alarming than
this ninety million dollars is that
there is almost no guarantee all of that
fighting and litigation and filling out
compliance documents does not guarantee
outcomes in fact the research shows that
compliance does not equate to outcomes
you could be the most compliant district
in the country and your students with
special needs aren’t necessarily doing
any better as a family you can win that
litigation but there is no guarantee
that your child will have improved
educational outcomes after the fact
reports have shown that litigation does
not ensure measurable outcomes and that
compliance and this process has little
if any connection to the actual
educational improvements of students
also to add a little bit of salt to this
wound this process further
disenfranchises families and students
who do not have the means to access the
language the time the money to navigate
the system or advocate for their
children so what are we left with we are
left with a country that is in a
national crisis we cannot attract nor
retain special educators additionally we
have students who are sitting in our
classrooms
the next Erin Brokovich or Jim Carrey
and their IEP
are being argued over in the courtroom
instead of having their talents nurtured
in the classroom now I’m not here to say
that compliance isn’t necessary we
absolutely need to document the law and
hold every stakeholder accountable but
what I’m here to say is that we need to
change the conversation we need to stop
talking about the word compliance and
start talking about other words for
example tools specifically when I’m
talking about tools I’m talking about
resources technology knowledge many of
you have apps on your phone that use
mobile technology and geolocation to
deliver almost anything to your front
door some of you have apps that tell you
who you should marry a lot of a lot of
people now have devices in their homes
that use natural language processing and
artificial intelligence to play your
favorite music close your garage door
regulate the temperature in your living
room what if we applied that technology
to special education what if we spent 90
million dollars on research and
development to apply that kind of
technology so that teachers could use
artificial intelligence to finish those
compliance documents so maybe they spent
one hour a year writing I EPS and 69
hours nurturing the strengths of their
students instead what if we used mobile
technology to streamline communication
and create transparency between
districts and parents and families so
that they could collaborate instead of
arguing about the logistics or what is
written in the individualized education
plan what if we use technology to give
teachers instant access to the insight
and knowledge that is coming out of
those amazing institutions when a child
has dyslexia what if the IEP said you
know what let’s assess your creative
thinking skills or let’s assess your
ability to strategically problem-solve
or if a child is on the autism spectrum
let’s take a look at their pattern
recognition or their intense ability to
visualize this story is a fable but I
would like to share it because it’s
sentiment is relevant to my point one
day is a small child Thomas Edison came
home from school and gave his mother a
letter he said my teachers want you to
read this his mother’s eyes welled with
tears as she read the letter out loud to
her son it said your son is the genius
this school is too small for him as
teachers aren’t good enough please teach
him yourself many years later after
Edison’s mother died he found that
letter and he read it and it actually
said your son is mentally deficient we
cannot let him attend our school anymore
he is expelled now
Thomas Edison took that letter and he
wrote an update at the bottom of it that
said Thomas Edison was a mentally
deficient child whose mother turned him
into the genius of the century
now this fable it makes me think of a
lot of things a lot of different
stakeholders particularly makes me think
of teachers that spend tireless hours
writing ie Peas and lesson planning and
differentiated instruction it makes me
think of districts who work tirelessly
to stay in compliance but it mostly
makes me think of students and the
massive potential that is possibly lost
in arguing over a piece of paper that
documents a process we know it’s broken
I spent 13 years analyzing this problem
both in and out of the classroom my team
and I work day in and day out with
districts parents teachers and students
and we’ve come to the fact that the
first step is to recognize that
compliance alone isn’t enough we really
need to change the dialogue and start
talking about new words like technology
tools and resources we believe that if
we start to talk about those other
things that we can truly
implement an individualized education
plan for every child and carry out the
best intentions of the law so that every
child can reach its full potential which
is what I believe makes education
possible thank you
[Applause]
you
specifically special education
compliance that’s good
which brings a lot of emotions fear
anxiety but I’m hoping that after today
we can talk about it a little bit less
or at least changed the dialogue so it
is no longer the focus of the
conversation this is an IEP an
individualized education plan for Kyra
who has dyslexia this compliance
document is the cornerstone of the
federal law I DEA the individuals with
Disabilities Education Act in the United
States that ensures Kyra gets a free and
appropriate education in comparison with
her peers for nine years I spent over 70
hours a year editing writing reviewing
and submitting these documents Kyra says
that she has a specific learning
disability that she’s in a 15-2
one-to-one setting she gets
time-and-a-half on her tests that she’ll
be assessed four times a year
on three objectives and that she’ll meet
four goals with 80% accuracy you can all
see the individual needs of this child
in this document right I see some of you
recognize her right away
know I spent 70 hours writing that
document what about this one can you
recognize the individual needs of this
this child in this document none of you
recognize mr. wonderful Kevin O’Leary
from shark tank and being overly
dramatic to make make a point my point
being is that it is very difficult to
actually glean anything meaningful about
an individual from these compliance
documents and some of you might argue
but that’s not the point of the
documents the documents is for
compliance I could play the same game
over and over again with all the
individuals you see here you recognize
all of these faces
because of their talents their success
or their genius not because of their
learning differences and so I would like
to make the argument here that maybe we
don’t recognize an individual in the
individualized education plan and so
some of you might be wondering well why
does that matter
well because actually the IEP was the
first ever personalized learning concept
ever created in 1975 before words like
personalized learning or blended
learning or flipped classroom or
individualized instruction before those
words existed the IEP was developed to
take into account the individual needs
of a child but as you saw from those
documents it has not caught up with what
we know about personalized learning
today in fact parents reports that the
IEP is confusing hard to navigate not
transparent difficult to understand in
fact this mother said that it was
difficult for her to recognize her own
child in these documents so an
individualized education plan that
obscures the individual maybe seems like
it’s not doing all of the job it was
intended to do teachers also very much
struggle with this document I know from
personal experience but also because my
colleagues and I interviewed hundreds of
teachers from across the country 79% of
them reported the IEP had very little
relevance to their teaching in another
study done in 2012 the majority of
teacher said that the IEP had little to
do with their day-to-day planning their
daily instruction or their pedagogy
overall the good news is we know more
about special needs and neurodiversity
than we ever have before
thanks to amazing institutions doing
really difficult work in the cognitive
and learning sciences we know more about
dyslexia the autism spectrum ADHD we
know more about reading writing thing
and learning in fact we know that some
of the greatest minds of our time have
had learning differences today 35% of
company founders identify as dyslexic
and individuals like Temple Grandin or
Richard Branson actually attribute their
different way of thinking to their
success and to their profound impact
unfortunately Lowe these realizations in
this research has not really been
brought to the forefront of awareness in
society and it has certainly not
trickled down into our classrooms today
today in the United States students with
special needs are more likely to be
suspended expelled get caught up in the
juvenile justice system they are less
likely to graduate and they are less
likely to be employed the achievement
gap for students with special needs is
wide and it has not closed in over
thirty five years and I’m here to talk
about the fact that this document is
part of the problem literally when you
utter the words special education this
document is almost all that comes to
mind in schools and in districts so I’d
like to spread the idea that compliance
is not enough it is not enough to simply
fill out these documents so I’m sure
you’re asking why and what is the
disconnect right now I’m gonna try to
break it down to you a little bit when
the IEP was written it was written as an
individualized education plan meaning a
process a detailed plan of action that
outlines or documents the services
accommodations and modifications that a
student should get however today we are
viewing it as if it is a product as if
it is an output itself produced with the
result to follow we believe that if
teachers and schools and districts spend
enough time writing the IEP producing
the IEP that the results in this case
academic and functional outcomes will
follow and that is simply not true so
much so that many people feel that this
is almost a
in lie this mother wrote an article in
the Atlantic in 2016
calling special education a charade
literally talking about smoke and
mirrors saying that the IEP was one of
the greatest pitfalls of our education
system today in the United States the
special ed system is so divisive that
special ed is one of the most litigated
topics in our courtrooms today schools
and districts spend ninety million
dollars on conflict resolution ninety
million dollars the majority of which is
spent on a special education that is
litigating the the what is written in
the IEP the words that are in the IEP
what’s a little bit more alarming than
this ninety million dollars is that
there is almost no guarantee all of that
fighting and litigation and filling out
compliance documents does not guarantee
outcomes in fact the research shows that
compliance does not equate to outcomes
you could be the most compliant district
in the country and your students with
special needs aren’t necessarily doing
any better as a family you can win that
litigation but there is no guarantee
that your child will have improved
educational outcomes after the fact
reports have shown that litigation does
not ensure measurable outcomes and that
compliance and this process has little
if any connection to the actual
educational improvements of students
also to add a little bit of salt to this
wound this process further
disenfranchises families and students
who do not have the means to access the
language the time the money to navigate
the system or advocate for their
children so what are we left with we are
left with a country that is in a
national crisis we cannot attract nor
retain special educators additionally we
have students who are sitting in our
classrooms
the next Erin Brokovich or Jim Carrey
and their IEP
are being argued over in the courtroom
instead of having their talents nurtured
in the classroom now I’m not here to say
that compliance isn’t necessary we
absolutely need to document the law and
hold every stakeholder accountable but
what I’m here to say is that we need to
change the conversation we need to stop
talking about the word compliance and
start talking about other words for
example tools specifically when I’m
talking about tools I’m talking about
resources technology knowledge many of
you have apps on your phone that use
mobile technology and geolocation to
deliver almost anything to your front
door some of you have apps that tell you
who you should marry a lot of a lot of
people now have devices in their homes
that use natural language processing and
artificial intelligence to play your
favorite music close your garage door
regulate the temperature in your living
room what if we applied that technology
to special education what if we spent 90
million dollars on research and
development to apply that kind of
technology so that teachers could use
artificial intelligence to finish those
compliance documents so maybe they spent
one hour a year writing I EPS and 69
hours nurturing the strengths of their
students instead what if we used mobile
technology to streamline communication
and create transparency between
districts and parents and families so
that they could collaborate instead of
arguing about the logistics or what is
written in the individualized education
plan what if we use technology to give
teachers instant access to the insight
and knowledge that is coming out of
those amazing institutions when a child
has dyslexia what if the IEP said you
know what let’s assess your creative
thinking skills or let’s assess your
ability to strategically problem-solve
or if a child is on the autism spectrum
let’s take a look at their pattern
recognition or their intense ability to
visualize this story is a fable but I
would like to share it because it’s
sentiment is relevant to my point one
day is a small child Thomas Edison came
home from school and gave his mother a
letter he said my teachers want you to
read this his mother’s eyes welled with
tears as she read the letter out loud to
her son it said your son is the genius
this school is too small for him as
teachers aren’t good enough please teach
him yourself many years later after
Edison’s mother died he found that
letter and he read it and it actually
said your son is mentally deficient we
cannot let him attend our school anymore
he is expelled now
Thomas Edison took that letter and he
wrote an update at the bottom of it that
said Thomas Edison was a mentally
deficient child whose mother turned him
into the genius of the century
now this fable it makes me think of a
lot of things a lot of different
stakeholders particularly makes me think
of teachers that spend tireless hours
writing ie Peas and lesson planning and
differentiated instruction it makes me
think of districts who work tirelessly
to stay in compliance but it mostly
makes me think of students and the
massive potential that is possibly lost
in arguing over a piece of paper that
documents a process we know it’s broken
I spent 13 years analyzing this problem
both in and out of the classroom my team
and I work day in and day out with
districts parents teachers and students
and we’ve come to the fact that the
first step is to recognize that
compliance alone isn’t enough we really
need to change the dialogue and start
talking about new words like technology
tools and resources we believe that if
we start to talk about those other
things that we can truly
implement an individualized education
plan for every child and carry out the
best intentions of the law so that every
child can reach its full potential which
is what I believe makes education
possible thank you
[Applause]
you
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