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25 <br />Ù®¿¼»Ô»ª»´ <br />í½òͬ¿ºº·²¹´»ª»´­ <br />The Lexington Public Schools employ 43.8 FTE resource room teachers. This does not include staff <br />assigned to substantially separate programs. <br />í¼òÜ·®»½¬­»®ª·½»©·¬¸­¬«¼»²¬­ <br />Special education teachers have a guideline of 24 students on their caseload, but they do not have any <br />contractual or even informal expectation for how much of the week they spend with students. <br />One important point to note is that nearly all the resource room staff expressed (passionately) the <br />concern that they were not actively supervised and are “left to their own to figure out what to do.” They <br />don’t feel part of the general education curriculum and instruction world, although this has changed a bit <br />recently. They indicated that building principals often consider them “part of special education and thus <br />we do not really report to them.” They also believe central office special education leadership is <br />overwhelmed with “fire fighting legal cases, preventing legal cases, assisting themore needy students in <br />substantially separate classrooms, working with high need parents, and ensuring compliance. They just <br />do not have enough time left for us.” Our interviews with other staff members suggest that the special <br />education teachers have correctly summarized the situation. <br />This level of independence has required each resource room teacher to independently decide: <br />Whether to provide services in class (push-in) or pull-out students to the resource room. <br />What curriculum to use (general education, self developed or separately purchased). <br />What to teach (review of general education material, skills, homework help, test prep, or study <br />skills). <br />Based on the interviews, there is a wide variation in the decisions made and no system beyond <br />professional judgment to gauge the effectiveness of resource room services. Interview participants <br />The District Management Council <br />7 Harcourt Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116 <br />- <br />Tel:1877-DMC-3500 | Fax:617-491-5266 |www.dmcouncil.org <br /> <br />