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| Allegany
County, MD •
Detroit, MI • Eugene
and Pleasant Hill, OR • Frederick
County, MD • Los Angeles,
CA • Southfield, MI |
| Baltimore
County, MD • Chicago, IL
• Clairton, PA • East
Baton Rouge Parish, LA • El Paso,
TX • Forsyth County, GA •
Fulton County, GA • Jackson,
MS • McComb, MS • Montour,
PA • St. Charles Parish,
LA • St. John Parish,
LA • St. Tammany Parish,
LA |
| Akron,
OH • Alliance, OH •
Anne Arundel, MD • Baltimore
City, MD • Belen, NM • Bernalillo, NM •
Bureau of Indian Affairs, NM • Cedar
Rapids, IA • Chandler, AZ
• Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC
• Clark County, NV •
Community School District 12, NY
• Dennehotso, AZ • East
Grand, CO • Iowa Dept. of Public
Instruction, IA • Jacksonville,
TX • Jordan, UT •
Lexington, MO • Park
City, UT • Maryland, State Level
24 • Memphis, TN • Montgomery
County, MD • Moriarty, NM
• Park City, UT • San
Antonio, TX |
Baltimore County School District, Maryland
 Baltimore
County school district is focusing on decreasing the disproportionate
referral of minority students to special education by implementing
the Instructional Support Team (IST) model. The Instructional Support
Team model presents a standardized approach to minimize erroneous
referrals for special education evaluation. The Linking Agent serves
as the coordinator for the IST teams at each of the schools implementing
the program. The IST teams are made up of teachers, parents, psychologists,
and other specialists, such as guidance counselors, reading specialists,
social workers, or speech therapists. They meet regularly for training
and to discuss specific students. This model promotes success of
students by meeting their needs (educational, behavioral, and social)
in the general education classroom. The success of the IST model
depends on the identification and use of the natural support systems
built into the school system beginning with the child's classroom,
to a grade level team, and ending with a school-wide team. The end
goal is to meet the needs of diverse learners in the general education
classroom by providing teachers with workable solutions and school-wide
support. This model was selected based on the superintendent's recommendation.
The district superintendent had heard about the IST model and knew
that the process they had been using was not data driven, collaborative,
and did not involve parents in the process. IST has been in use
in Baltimore County for four years and has expanded from four elementary
schools in 1997 to seventeen schools (fifteen elementary and two
middle schools) in 2001.
Currently, the Linking Agent is working in collaboration with the
special education office as they develop and conduct professional
development training for teachers, teaching assistants and personal
assistants. The Linking Agent is trying to "keep them [special
education office personnel] up to speed with the standard general
education curriculum." Many students, not just those being
targeted, have benefited from this approach. The Linking Agent would
like to do more data collection to ensure the efficacy of the interventions.
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