Special Education Push-in model

I am a Resource Specialist at a Middle School in California. Since the adoption of NCLB, our district moved from a pull-out model to a push-in model. I was drawn to this site because of a discussion that was held in December of 2008. On the of the web members, Tanya, was talking about how well push-in was working at her site. She indicated that training had been provided. I want to know who did the training and would love to hear how push-in is working at other sites. Our sites problem, push-in has become IA work for a credentialed teacher. I personally co-teach in pre-algebra, but the school wants to stop that work in an effort to provide our students with more coverage. So I would love to hear how other sites are using the push-in model

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on April 3, 2009 at 5:49am

I would love to learn more about the push-in model. How is it different than the earlier "Inclusion" in which a resource teacher and a content teacher worked together with a class?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Vickers on April 4, 2009 at 2:32pm

Hey Anne, Here's what I can tell you about push-in. I does not work without training. Push-in in my opinion is inclusion. But, California has funny definitions (or maybe it is my district). They feel that inclusion is for the severely handicapped. Push-in is what they are calling a resource student (mild to moderate) in the general ed classroom. There is not much collaboration and the resource teacher is used much like an IA. I do co-teach in a pre-algebra class and that has been good, but it could be better. Admin would not give us the same prep, so we have to plan through emails, afterschool, phone. We decided that she would teach content. I would do small group reteaching and modification and accommodations. Those students (there are 4) are doing well. Scores are going up and the class on a whole is scoring higher than the rest of the 7th grade. The only draw back is the students do not always recognize me as a teacher. To get that I need to teach some lessons. I am hoping someone will respond to my question that has had training. Many Thanks for any thoughts you may have. Kathy Vickers

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kristina Cunningham on April 3, 2009 at 7:41am

I would also be interested in this. Having taught in an urban Connecticut district where Inclusion (which I guess is similar to the idea of Push-In) is law, I know what a struggle it can be when support is not provided for special education/intervention and general education staff members. My districts idea of support was "you and your special ed team work it out", which led to a large system wide failure for our intervention students.

I also see Ohio making a move toward inclusion based special education. Again, it appears in some districts faculty is provided with ample support to develop the necessary skills to differentiate effectively for these students, but in other districts this support is entirely lacking.

I would also love to receive information about training, workshops, and resources that help to develop an effective inclusive/push-in environment for all students.