The Parents Engaged in Education Reform (PEER) Project is a federally funded project that began in October of 1995. This funding is a result of a proposal submitted by the Federation for Children with Special Needs, a PTI center in Boston, Massachusetts. There are three themes within the overall mission of the project. One is to provide information on school reform to parents and parent trainers. The goal is to educate them about the positive impact that involvement in discussions about school reform policies and practices can have on the education of children and youth with disabilities. The PEER Project staff at the Federation will draw upon the expertise of several individuals and organizations, as subcontractors, who will assist them in accomplishing the project's mission.
Easily accessed updates are required to remain current on best practices in reforming schools and educational opportunities. Therefore, a second theme in the PEER Project is to provide information about school reform through many and varied mediums. These include print materials, electronic communication systems, face-to-face meetings and teleconferences. All of the print material will be organized into a curriculum notebook and will be available in English and Spanish and alternative formats. The processes of systemic change are central to all reform efforts in schools and educational systems. Direct training and technical assistance are essential to the facilitation and support of access to quality learning experiences for all children. The PEER Project will provide training and support to parents and parent trainers in the Parent Training and Information Center network. The targeted result of this project is a core group of skilled parents and parent trainers to actively participate in the improvement and restructuring activities that include and benefit all children and youth.
There are two purposes for this newsletter:
1. To provide information and a source of support
for work being done to include children and youth with disabilities in ALL of the policies and
practices being initiated under the rubric of school reform at the national, state and local
levels.
2. To create a forum in which the concerns and possibilities for children and youth with
disabilities are voiced by parents and parent trainers at the beginning of all conversations
held on school reform.
The PEER Project values collaboration and community. Modeling the necessity of parent-professional collaboration, the project is staffed with individuals who, as parents and professionals, have made their commitments to their own children and to others their central concern. The Project Director, Glenn Gabbard, is the parent of two children who have received special education services and who continue to be important members of their educational communities. Martha Ziegler is the Assistant Director of the project, she is the parent of a young woman with autism and Executive Director of the Federation for Children with Special Needs. Jacque Davis, Project Coordinator, contributes a wealth of experience as a teacher educator and advocate for families and children. Carolyn Romano works on the PEER Project as Technology Specialist. Her primary responsibilities include setting up and maintaining the project's home page (http://www.fcsn.org/PEER) on the World Wide Web, providing technical assistance to PTIs around telecommunications, and editing PEER Review, PEER's monthly newsletter. Carolyn is also an attorney who specializes in special education law. Dee Spinkston serves part-time as the Minority Specialist on the project. Ms. Spinkston works on the TAPP Project as Coordinator of technical assistance for the Experimental PTI Projects. And Susan Crane, the project staff assistant, brings a commitment to children and families through her work at Wheelock College, a national leader in early childhood programs. In addition, the project will be working with a number of nationally recognized experts in parent training and educational reform issues. Barbara Buswell from the PEAK Parent Center in Colorado is working closely with the project as will be the National Parent Network on Disabilities (NPND). We will continue to update you with project collaborators in the next few months!
I am amazed at the way the internet is exploding. Just a month ago, people would ask me "Do you have email?" Now, the question is "What's your e-mail address?" I realize that I am expected by a growing number of people to be able to "log on" at any moment (and thankfully, I can--I don't even want to think about the looks I would get to have to admit, rather sheepishly, that I wasn't online yet...). In fact, you can't turn around lately without seeing evidence of the internet and its ever-growing presence in society, whether it's "www.boston.com" on the top of a cab or "www.toyota.com" on a television commercial.
Recently on CNN, I heard that by the year 2010, every person on the planet will have access to the internet. When put in the context of the Parent Training and Information (PTI) centers and the work that they do, the potential for outreach to parents, educators, and other professionals is enormous. Keeping this potential in mind, this "cybercolumn" will share relevant (and sometimes just plain neat) information about telecommunications. Hot web sites, listservs and gopher sites on education and school restructuring will be listed as well as information on children, families and disabilities. Additionally, you will find new e-mail addresses of PTIs (as they become available), where to find out more about the internet and even how to post your own home page!
If you have any questions about the internet or suggestions about information you would like to see in this column, please e-mail me (Carolyn Romano) at cromano@fcsn.org; for questions about PEER Project activities and content of the PEER Project, contact Jacque Davis at jdavis@fcsn.org. Of course, you could also call either of us at 617-482-2915!
Next month: Reasons your agency should go on-line
Finding multiple ways to become involved in a child's education and schooling has always been a strength of many parents of children with disabilities. At a recent presentation about the PEER Project, Liz Healey of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania shared some of her reflections on how her own concept of "being involved" has broadened and changed as school restructuring opportunities occurred in her own community.
Healey described her recent election to the Pittsburgh School Board as a logical progression of events that began, long ago, with her advocacy for change on behalf of her own child. Early on, she recognized that good education for children with disabilities can't happen in an environment that isn't good for all children and that coalitions of support were necessary among parents and advocates for quality education for all. Healey warned against the dangers of parents of children with disabilities being perceived as a special interest group instead of advocates for change to benefit all members of the community. The job of schools is based on the vision that all children can learn and that the task ahead of communities is the need to design an education system that can make that vision a reality. Healey noted that many of the basic concepts of school restructuring can find easy parallels in a child's individualized educational plan:
In order to make these changes possible, Healey reflected on her own experience as a parent and as a school board member in a complex urban environment. Many of the changes made in Pittsburgh have been based on the need to create a culture where collaboration is valued and where staff and parents are given the resources and time to reflect and learn.
On February 22 through 25th, 1996, the Colorado Coalition on Inclusive Education held its ninth annual conference on inclusive education. This year the PEER Project Coordinator, Jacque Davis, attended this conference and facilitated a focus group sponsored by the project. The purpose of the focus group was to assist the PEER Project in planning the TAPP regional conference's session on best practices in school reform. This focus group was comprised of five members who have experience and expertise working within the Parent Training and Information Center Networks.
We want to thank all of the individuals who considered and tried to arrange their schedules in order to be a member of the focus group. The members of this focus group were: Dee Hayden from California, Agnes Johnson from Texas, Deb Kunz from Illinois, Toni Robinson from North Carolina, and Ruth Ann Rasbold from Massachusetts. They attended conference sessions and met daily to discuss how the information from the conference would be of use to them in their work to help parents access quality and appropriate educational services for their children with disabilities. The PEER Project will use these ideas to initiate the planning of content for each regional conference's workshop on school reform.
Check out the February 1996 edition of Educational Leadership, which focuses on "Students with Special Needs." (Educational Leadership is the monthly publication of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, at 1250 N. Pitt Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, Tel. (703) 549-9110, Fax (703) 549-3891.)
Books to look for:
Brown, Rexford (1993). Schools of Thought: How the politics of literacy shape thinking in
the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tyack, David and Cuban, Larry (1995). Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of School Reform.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Rose, Mike (1995). Possible Lives: The promise of public education in America. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
The 51st annual conference for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development will be held March 16-19, 1996, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A leader in the change and restructuring process, ASCD has continued to deepen its work on the ways in which schools can best serve all students, including those with disabilities. Call 703-549-9110 for more information.
© 1996, Federation for Children with Special Needs, Boston, Massachusetts
Web Page by Carolyn Romano cromano@fcsn.org
Last updated 4/17/96
URL: http://www.fcsn.org/peer/pr/pr1.htm