November 16, 2006 – DOE (Riley Room)

 (These minutes are considered a draft until approved at the next scheduled meeting.)

MEMBERS PRESENT: Tom Adams (President), Pam Wright (President-elect), Cindy Pittman (Past-President)Vendetta Gutshall (Treasurer), Gary Collings (Secretary), Larry Bass (SW), Jim Murray (C), Cheryl Corning (SE),  Patti Kem (NC), Lynn Gosser (E),  Pat Pierce (NW), Mary Beth Hamilton (NE).

OTHERS PRESENT: Bob Marra, George Batsche

I.     Approvals

A.         Minutes – Tom Adams called the meeting to order and requested a motion to approve the October 19, 2006 minutes.  MOTION: Lynn Gosser moved for approval. After a second by Pat Pierce, the motion was approved.     

Treasurer’s Report and Claim Docket – Vendetta Gutshall distributed handouts for the November Financial Report.  The October 2006 Docket was presented in the amount of $16,634.43.  MOTION: Mary Beth Hamilton moved to approve the Docket as presented. After a second by Pat Pierce, the motion was approved. The financial report showed $29,351.92 of the $167,650 budget had been expended to date. 

C.     Membership Committee – Since Vendetta Gutshall had to leave the meeting, the price quotes from Brady Smekens for the Members Only application and two additional options were taken under advisement for discussion next month. 

D.        Roundtable Topical Proposals – None presented.  Larry Bass reported on Southwest’s successful topical and recommended the IU IIDC Collaboration/Co-teaching seminar (Carrie Chapman/Kate Hart).

E.         Strategic Plan – Tom Adams commented on his intent to convene the overseers for a progress report session.  Members discussed potential members of a fiscal management task force to be invited by Tom with Cindy Pittman as the overseer. 

II.    Reports: 2006-2007

A.     Conferences/Activities

1.          Fall Conference 2006: Tom Adams distributed the evaluation summary and an estimated revenue report of approximately $28,000.

2.         Spring Conference 2007:  February 15 – 16, 2007 – Pam Wright noted the briefing session with the lobbyist is planned for Wednesday evening after the Past President’s dinner and prior to the social.  She confirmed that the Legislative Breakfast is to be held in the State House prior to the keynote speaker (Wasner) on Thursday morning at the Radisson.  Another keynote speaker (Kukic) asked to be moved to Friday AM due to his schedule conflict.  Pam commented on the need to realign both the Division report and Business meeting to Thursday.  When the conference closes at noon on Friday, members of the executive committee have been invited to join members of the ISEAS University Forum for a dialogue on personnel shortages and training issues.                   

3.         Fall Conference 2007:  September 26-28, 2007 – The location at French Lick Resort is still pending.

4.         CEC/CASE Board Update – Vendetta Gutshall, Tom Adams, Pam Wright, and Gary Collings were present at the CASE Board of Directors meeting.  They also attended the CASE Institute along with Connie DeLong (East Allen).  Due to the lack of time, a report from attendees was postponed until the next meeting.

Tom Adams noted that CASE Winter Board of Directors meeting will be held on January 17-19, 2007 with CASE paying for the expenses of Vendetta Gutshall as the ICASE designee and the ICASE paying expenses for both the President and President-elect. 

In regard to the April 2007 CEC/CASE Convention at Louisville, members discussed the intent for all to attend the convention.  Tom commented that he had also offered to match a $1,000 donation with Kentucky CASE to pay for a band as the entertainment at the CASE social event at the Derby Museum.  MOTION:  Cindy Pittman moved that ICASE pay $1,000 toward the band as entertainment during the CASE social event at the CEC Convention in April 2007 as well as the registration fee for all 12 of the ICASE board members.  After a second by Pam Wright, the motion was approved.  Members are to submit their respective CEC membership numbers to Vendetta who will process a bulk registration form for all board members.

B.     Standing Committee Reports

1.                   Porter Scholarship – The two recipients will be invited by Cheryl Corning to the Spring Conference to receive their respective plaques and be recognized by the membership.

2.     Recognition/Awards – Pam Wright reported on the June 2007 retirement of Leonard Burrello, who is a member and former chair of the Department of Education Administration at Indiana University.  He is a nationally recognized trainer and leader in special education administration and former chair of the CEC/CASE Research Committee.  MOTION:  Pam Wright moved to acknowledge Leonard Burrello with the ICASE Career Achievement Award.  After a second by Cheryl Corning, the motion was approved.     

3.         Past-Presidents’ Council – Cindy Pittman will invite past presidents and host this dinner meeting on the evening of February 14, 2007.

4.         Nominations – Pam Wright reminded members to solicit names from their respective round tables to be considered for President-elect (2007-08) position.  

5.         Roundtable Activities – Tom Adams asked to suspend these reports until the next meeting due to the lack of time.

C.         Report: Rule 26 Task Force – Pat Pierce has compiled the feedback on Learning Disabilities and Communication Disorders and forwarded it to the Division of Exceptional Learners.

D.    Report: Division of Exceptional Learners – Members had an opportunity for a dialogue session with George Batsche, professor and co-director of the Institute for School Reform in the School Psychology Program at the University of South Florida (Tampa).  Bob Marra commented about the need to formulate a strategic plan for Response-to-Intervention (RtI) with consensus from stakeholders.  He wondered about the impact of placing assessment (RtI) language in the general education regulations with a cross reference to Article 7. Bob encouraged directors to begin considering options for using the 15% of new federal funds to spearhead RtI.

Bob remarked that the DOE is a member of the Balanced Score Card initiative sponsored by the Wallace Foundation.  The Division of Exceptional Learners (DEL) is pilot testing the department’s transition from data silos to a data warehouse platform using student test numbers (STN) and future school personnel numbers (SPN).  The DOE is also restructuring and Bob is assigned the merger of all the technical assistance plans into a single plan for school buildings.  The single building plans would be monitored through accreditation and tied to academic standards.  The State Board of Education is moving away from ISTEP/GQE to a program monitoring model for the future.

George Batsche reminded members to recognize the challenges that general education is facing, e.g., more diversity, differential outcomes, etc.  The suggestion of just working harder will not level the playing field for students.  If special education can provide more solutions to the multiple problems that face general education, such action will help to bridge the gap.  For example, special education administrators may provide resources and technical assistance for Tier 1 and Tier 2 student decisions to be guided by principals but would be expected to provide specialists for interventions at Tier 3.

George observed that if building faculty is not keeping data, the outcome is referrals, which are a general education strategy.  How does building faculty know where to start if they have no idea how many students are not making benchmarks?  A State’s influence is also limited by lack of data and lack of alignment of the data; benchmarks must be tied to standards and outcomes.  The score should reflect the benchmarks achieved or not achieved.  In fact, the scores should be predictable if the school faculty is doing continuous monitoring.

George remarked that the biggest barrier to RtI is data and a way to manage it.  He proposed as a starting point that we in Indiana begin with data sources and technology to manage the data and postpone the pedagogy discussion until we have a data system in place.  We must first get a handle on the current data at the building and state levels for decision-making purposes and find the students at risk as early as possible.  Once, however, we have the student data, we can begin to make pedagogical decisions.

George proposed that special education districts seek to support tasks with common elements across its member districts such as the data system.  Pedagogy and curriculum are not tasks common to all corporations and should be avoided at the district level.  He is a member of a national work group with Cisco Systems through a “think tank” grant from NCLD to plan software for an open architecture program (blueprint) for data entry at the building level for child-based decision-making.  If not already in place, George proposed that Indiana consider a similar work group to identify an entity to create the structure for school corporations to have a single data base management system.  He noted the currency of the future will be “growth rates” not single outcomes.

In reply to a question about the high school setting, George recommended that every three weeks common assessments could be tied to syllabus benchmarks for the subject area.  With an open architecture data management program, teachers can readily input data for gap analysis (rankings, benchmarks, student descriptors, etc.).  Data is critical for building consensus as well as for strategically targeting academic instruction.

In reply to a question about professional development, George commented that many States are going to web-based modules RtI instruction.  He considers the RtI modules from the IRIS Center (Peabody) as solid information for basic awareness.  [NOTE:  These modules are available via a link from the IDEAL project website <http://ideal.sf.edu>.]   He suggested tying in competency measures on the six basic instructional areas of RTI, five steps to problem identification, etc. with Continuing Renewal Units (CRUs).  What we are seeking is whether the module reader can demonstrate decisions based on data that are both correct and consistent with standard and customary decisions.  In other words, do the readers make consistent decisions from a given data set.

George encouraged members to spread CRUs across distributive requirements such as data decisions, ethics, issues and trends, etc. in contrast to an open-end requirement, for example, of 90 points from any areas of the candidates choosing.  He reminded members that teachers must have the support to develop the skills that they do not have so their training must be based on data regarding their level of awareness, knowledge, and skills. 

George reminded members about the December 6 (1:00 PM) NASDSE live satellite webinar titled RtI; Blueprints for Implementation at the State, District, and Local.  Sharon Knoth reported that the IEP@BSU has paid the statewide licensing fee ($4500) for all Indiana sites to access the December 6, March 14 (Reading and Math Strategies), and the May 9, 2007 (School-based Mental Health and Positive Behavioral Interventions) web broadcasts.  Contact Heather Neiheisel Neiheisel@bsu.edu to register to receive materials prior to the broadcast.  [NOTE:  The power point presentation and related documents from George Batsche’s presentation at the RtI seminar of the ISEAS Academy can be viewed on the ISEAS web site at <http://www.indstate.edu/soe/iseas/>.]

E.     Report: Public Policy and Legislative Committee – Tom Adams presented the request for approval of projected expenses for the Legislative Breakfast on February to include the meal, note pads, platform booklets, etc.  MOTION:  Patti Kem moved to approve expenses related to the Legislative Breakfast up to $6,000.  After a second by Pat Pierce, the motion was approved.  Tom remarked that the committee continues its work on a long range plan and drafting of legislation.

F. Liaisons – Pat Pierce, as liaison to the IAPSS, reported the following items were discussed at the November 6 meeting of its Special Education Advisory Committee:  CEEP Cooperative Study, ISTAR (2%), English Language Learners, Emergency Permits, RtI Best Practices, NIMAS, and Interim Alternative Education Setting (IAES).

Tom Adams distributed a memo from the COVOH liaison, Steve Wornhoff, noting the inactive status (not dissolution) of COVOH and his recommendation to discontinue the liaison assignment at this time.  Members accepted the recommendation by consensus.

III. NEXT MEETING:  December 13, 2006 (8:30 AM) – DOE Division of Exceptional Learners