Running Head: Running Project Part One 1

Name: David Szumlanski Date: February 6, 2017 Title: Running Project 1

Running Project Part One

Or

Strengths, Challenges, and Progress: Utilizing Quality Indicators to Increase the

Effectiveness of Transition Services for the Polk County School Board in Polk County, Florida

David J. Szumlanski

University of Kansas, Spring A 2017

Professor: Ryan Kellems, PhD

Acknowledgements: Thank-you to Gregory Kent, Senior Manager of Transition Services for the

Polk County School Board, for taking a generous amount of time to meet with me, and for your

thoughtful discussion and insights regarding transition services in Polk County Schools.
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Polk County, Florida is roughly between Tampa and Orlando. With almost 1,800 square

miles of land, and a population of 623,000 as of 2014, the community is predominantly sub-

urban with many pockets of rural areas (datacenter.kidscount.org, 2017). The school district is

the Polk County School Board, which serves the entire county, or 97,971 students as of the 2013-

2014 school year. At that time, 59.7% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch (58,535

students). According to the school district, the racial and ethnic composition of students is as

follows: 43.9% white, 20.7% black, 30.2% Hispanic, 1.6% Asian, 0.5% Native American or

Alaskan Native, 3% reported two or more races, and .1% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (polk-

fl.net). The county serves 10,600 students who are English Language Learners (ELL), or 10.8%

of the student population (polk-fl.net). Special Education services are provided to 15,349

students, or 15.6% of the student population (datacenter.kidscount.org, 2017).

David Szumlanski is a teacher at a center-school in that district for students with

significant cognitive, developmental, and behavioral disabilities. Of his 8 students (all middle

school age range), all have goals in the Curriculum and Learning, Social/Emotional, Independent

Functioning, and Communication Domains. Students at the school are assigned to each class by

ability level, and stay with their teacher and (at least) two paraprofessionals for the school day to

work on skills within each domain, except when they receive breakfast and lunch at school

(paras only), and have Specialized PE from a highly qualified teacher for 30 minutes each school

day. A significant amount of differentiation is needed within every facet of instruction. In

mathematics, for example, some students are able to perform mathematics activities like addition

and subtraction, while some work on activities related to developing 1:1 correspondence skills.

Some of Szumlanskis duties include the crisis behavior response team (with a focus on

prevention and de-escalation strategies), ensuring the physical and emotional safety of all
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students, following protocol of the school board, writing and implementing IEPs, positive

behavior improvement plans, and meeting the educational needs of each student through

effective, culturally sensitive teaching and progress monitoring under the Individuals with

Disabilities Education Act. Szumlanski is also the middle school grade-level team leader,

leading weekly meetings with the team to plan collaboratively. He also meets with the school

leadership team, comprised of the schools administrators and other team leaders, to set a

trajectory for the school. Some of Szumlanskis interests include bolstering the use of research-

based strategies at the school, guiding new teachers, and learning about students and families.

For this assignment, Szumlanski met with Gregory Kent, Senior Manager of Transition for Polk

County Schools, to discuss the transition-related strengths and challenges of the district in

preparation to identify and focus on enhancing an area that will be most beneficial to the district,

and to students in Special Education receiving transition services.

The Transition Coalition has implemented a survey of 47 questions, and an individual or

team rates the services of the district as Not Completed, Partially Completed, Mostly Completed,

or Completed (transitioncoalition.org). These questions correspond with seven domains, and

each question within the domain pertains to factors that correlate with post-secondary outcomes

of students, thus named the Quality Indicator (QI) Survey. Each domain is scored separately so

that a district may work effectively and efficiently in order to bolster student outcomes.

Within Transition Planning, Domain 1, the district marked three areas as Complete.

These strengths include the fact that all students begin transition planning early (at least by age

16), the goals target areas as specified by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and

goals include both academic and transition needs (IDEA via idea.ed.gov). Kent recognizes that

although these were complete, Transition planning could begin even earlier, though the district
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begins transition planning for students no later than age 14 and before beginning grade 8. Some

potential areas for improvement in this domain include bolstering transition planning via the

student-centered approach, and working to ensure that transition services are based upon student

interests, strengths, and preferences. With a 3.13, this was the strongest QI area for the district.

In discussing Transition Assessment (Domain 2), the district ensures that a summary of

performance is complete for each student, and that it includes recommendations for post-

secondary goals for each student. Another strength is that transition assessment is viewed as an

ongoing process throughout the year, and procedures are in place for assessing services if a goal

appears that it may not be achieved. One way to bolster the effectiveness of this domain is to

share the results of the summary of performance with parents and families in a more meaningful

manner. It may be necessary to meet with families to ensure they understand the form, and the

district could make recommendations to teachers in this regard since the completion of this form

is a strong area for this district. Another way to improve this domain pertains to the assessments

used. The district could invest in a variety of current assessment materials that could drive

transition goals by illuminating student strengths, preferences, interests, and needs in transition.

The district would benefit from specific information pertaining to effective assessments used in

other areas. The district scored a 2.50 in this domain on the QI survey.

Next is the Family Involvement domain (Domain 3). One of the districts strengths is

that each familys needs are considered during transition planning. Transportation continues to

be a concern among parents, and the teachers in the district are in touch with these concerns.

Another potential strength is that parents and guardians are usually present at meetings, and

extended family members are sometimes present. While in-person participation is preferred,

teachers in the district make accommodations for participation by phone when necessary, or by
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rescheduling meetings. One recommendation for the district is to encourage teachers to invite

families to pre-planning activities to garner input about the student. For this to take place, the

district could also provide information and training to parents and families regarding being an

active participant, and about the transition process itself. Kent pointed to state resources

available online (FDLRS.org), and the district could promulgate those resources to parents, or

develop written or in-person alternatives. The QI score for this domain is 2.17.

Student involvement (Domain 4) scores slightly higher. Opportunities to make real-life

decisions and meaningful choices are available to students, viewed as a source of strength in the

district. One of the gems in this district pertains to the strong opportunities to learn about post-

school options. While the district does not necessarily have the assessments in place to ensure

that student preferences are perfectly addressed, it does feature an array of programs for different

developmental levels. Kent pointed to Project SEARCH, a work-skills program, and several

other partnerships that afford students the opportunity to learn about post-school options. Some

of these projects are relatively recent, and will continue to grow over time; Kent also shared his

knowledge of various programs that would further expand these opportunities. Some of the

challenges in this domain include the lack of evidence-based curriculum that could be used to

teach goal setting, and the student-lead IEP process. If addressed, these areas would further

enhance the growing strengths of this domain, which scored a 2.29 on the QI survey.

Domain 5 relates to Curriculum and Instruction, and revealed some areas in need of

attention. First, though some district programs have been identified to teach Independent Living

skills, and some are available, they are not utilized to their potential; teachers do not encourage

students to participate in these as often as they could. To address this need, Kent pointed to

programs like the Zenith Lifelabs program in Osceola County as a model for independent living
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skills, and envisions a similar program for Polk County schools (zenp.osceolaschools.net).

Second, the district could also make recommendations for identifying accommodations in the

general curriculum, as some general education teachers lack the expertise to adequately fulfill

these accommodations in a manner that optimally benefits transition students. There are some

promising areas within this domain: the district has some school-based programs in place to

teach career development, such as the Traviss Career Center. There is evidence that teachers

utilize effective instructional methods such as Universal Design for Learning and Cooperative

Groups, though consistency varies greatly by teacher. The QI score for this domain is 1.86.

Interagency Collaboration and Community Services (Domain 6) is another bright spot for

the district. Scoring Mostly Complete in almost every area, a strong point in this domain is the

number of school-business partnerships available to enhance career development. The school

board has partnerships with Publix, supervised work experiences with the countys grounds,

custodial, and food services facilities, and various other opportunities. It also has interagency

support available that identify roles and responsibilities for exchanging information, sharing

resources, and coordinating services, and is always looking to increase further. Still, in the

interest of ever bettering each domain, the location of programs in rural areas is an area that

could receive attention, and the process for schools and agencies to determine anticipated service

needs could be further bolstered with district guidance, though this area also received a score of

Mostly Complete. This domain scored second highest on the QI survey at 2.80.

The final domain (Domain 7) is Systems Level Infrastructure, in which the district

achieved a Complete for: At least one district professional is responsible for coordination of

transition services, and Kent commended the Local Education Agency (LEA) personnel for their

work in further coordinating services at each school. Face-to-face communication with school
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personnel takes place at least twice a year (another strength), and would take place more

regularly if the county were not so spread out (technology could play a role in meeting more

often, or in promulgating district level information with more regularity). Comprehensive data is

collected on transition services, which could easily be analyzed to drive decision-making

improve postsecondary outcomes. Even in this strong domain, some areas were discussed as

having room for growth. For various reasons, professional development for transition teachers is

relatively limited, and at the discretion of each teacher. Some resources are available online

through a state-run website (FDLRS.org), though technology could be used to further promote

awareness among teachers. Another area that could be improved (using the same technology

platform) is to provide assistance in adapting instruction to meet the diverse needs of students in

transition, as a program for this is not currently in place. The score for this domain is 2.63.

Thus, the domains can be ranked from strongest to least strong as follows: Planning

(3.13), Interagency Collaboration and Community Services (2.80), Systems Level Infrastructure

(2.63), Assessment (2.50), Student Involvement (2.29), Family Involvement (2.17), and

Curriculum and Instruction (1.86). Even during the interview, before the scores were calculated,

Kent acknowledged that Curriculum and Instruction seemed to be the area most in need. While

the programs identified in the discussion of this domain are worthwhile, focusing on high quality,

evidence-based curriculum would allow all teachers to provide effective instruction in all areas.

Next to the students themselves, research indicates that teacher quality accounts for the largest

source of variance in student achievement outcomes (Hattie, 2003). Empowering teachers with

evidence-based curriculum and strategies not only boosts the QI survey score, it provides a solid

means for bolstering outcomes for transition students throughout the district.
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References

Kids Count Data Center. (2017). A Project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Retrieved from

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data#FL/5/0/char/0 on February 2, 2017.

Polk County School Board website. Copyright 2012. About Our District. Retrieved from

http://www.polk-fl.net/districtinfo/ on February 2, 2017.

G. Kent, personal communication, January 30, 2017.

Transition Coalition, University of Kansas. (publish date unavailable, copyright 2012). Quality

Indicators of Exemplary Transition Programs (QI-2). Retrieved from

http://transitioncoalition.org/qi-survey-introduction/ on January 27, 2017.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. (2008). Building the

Legacy: Idea 2004 Topic, Secondary Transition. Retrieved from

http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/,root,dynamic,TopicalBrief,17, on February 2, 2017.

Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources System. (2016). Parent Services. Retrieved from

http://www.fdlrs.org/parent-services.html on February 2, 2017.

Zenith Accelerated Learning Academy. (2017). Life Lab. Retrieved from

http://zenp.osceolaschools.net/school_programs/life_lab_2 on February 2, 2017.

Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers Make a Difference, What is the research evidence? Australian

Council for Educational Research, ACER Research Conference, Melbourne, Australia.