A site for Moms in Wilmington and Coastal North Carolina
New Hanover County PSM or RTI in the schools!
I have been having a lot of issues with the Problem Solving Module in New Hanover County school. I am a parent of a 6 year old who has been advocating for him since last year. I would love to talk with other parents who are having problems as well!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jessica T Nichols on
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I'm a teacher in NHC and have some experience with PSM. What concerns are you having? I'm not sure if I could shed any light on the problems you're having but maybe I could help.
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Permalink Reply by laura wines on -
LOTS OF PROBLEMS! The school refuses to do an educational evaluation on my son - after requestingit in writing twice. I have multiple medical diagnosis from doctors here to chapel hill and duke. They retained my child last year - they said that he needs more time. He is still at only at the 25th percentile on his second year around. (He is in Kindegarden). I quit work in November of 08' to be 100% available to him. It is just sad that they are not interesred in helping him - he needs an IEP. And the sad thing is, is I know I am not the only parent going through this. Thanks for listening.
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Honestly, the PSM process can take a VERY long time (years). Back in the day we used to take our concerns, observations, work samples, etc., in front of a team of people and ask for testing. IEP's were obtained much easier. The county got rid of this process several years ago and implemented PSM which consists of multiple interventions and probing.The probes are then compared to the county norms of 13% and 25%. If your child is at the 25%, then they consider that progress. The old process in which we requested evaluations from the School Psy. allowed us to "label" many children and obtain IEP's much quicker. The county felt like many children where mis-diagnosed. Especially the young ones due to developmental delays. An IEP would allow your child to see a resource teacher for what ever goals (math, reading, language, speech). However, with PSM, if he is in a level 3 or 4 then the classroom teacher should be doing interventions anyway. A lot of times, a resource teacher will agree to pull a student even if they don't have an IEP. It just depends on times, group sizes, etc. If your child continues to stay in the 25% this year, he will never get an IEP. Next year, the 1st grade teacher will begin the PSM process again..gathering probes and benchmark data and then once again, comparing it to 1st grade county norm scores. They are renorming the scores this year and the probes are matching our reading benchmark assessments much better. If your child hadn't of been retained and passed to 1st grade this year, chances are he would have fell below 13% and 25% percetiles..thus getting an IEP. I taught kindergarten for 6 years and am now a reading coach at 3 schools. I had a good idea when a child really needed another year of kindergarten. Is he improving now? Is he now at the top of the class instead of behind? Kindergarten is a great year to repeat. You have to trust that you made the right decision. The curriculum in 1st grade is much more difficult than kindergarten. Even though he would have gotten an IEP, he may have never caught up. That gap could have continued to get bigger as he got older. I've seen it happen many times before. I'm sorry you're frustrated. I've had children in the 25% who just never qualified and I knew they needed more help. Its not your teachers, administrators, school psy, fault. They are following the mandates of the county. Its out of their hands. If you tell me some issues you're having with your childs learning, maybe I could suggest some activities for you to work on at home. I hope this helps but I know its still aggravating!
laura wines said:LOTS OF PROBLEMS! The school refuses to do an educational evaluation on my son - after requestingit in writing twice. I have multiple medical diagnosis from doctors here to chapel hill and duke. They retained my child last year - they said that he needs more time. He is still at only at the 25th percentile on his second year around. (He is in Kindegarden). I quit work in November of 08' to be 100% available to him. It is just sad that they are not interesred in helping him - he needs an IEP. And the sad thing is, is I know I am not the only parent going through this. Thanks for listening.
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One thing I forgot to say is that the county will never allow an "evaluation" just because of a request. They have to follow the steps of the PSM model. You can push the child through levels 1, 2, 3, as quickly as possible...but "testing" won't occur until they fall below 13%.
Jessica T Nichols said:Honestly, the PSM process can take a VERY long time (years). Back in the day we used to take our concerns, observations, work samples, etc., in front of a team of people and ask for testing. IEP's were obtained much easier. The county got rid of this process several years ago and implemented PSM which consists of multiple interventions and probing.The probes are then compared to the county norms of 13% and 25%. If your child is at the 25%, then they consider that progress. The old process in which we requested evaluations from the School Psy. allowed us to "label" many children and obtain IEP's much quicker. The county felt like many children where mis-diagnosed. Especially the young ones due to developmental delays. An IEP would allow your child to see a resource teacher for what ever goals (math, reading, language, speech). However, with PSM, if he is in a level 3 or 4 then the classroom teacher should be doing interventions anyway. A lot of times, a resource teacher will agree to pull a student even if they don't have an IEP. It just depends on times, group sizes, etc. If your child continues to stay in the 25% this year, he will never get an IEP. Next year, the 1st grade teacher will begin the PSM process again..gathering probes and benchmark data and then once again, comparing it to 1st grade county norm scores. They are renorming the scores this year and the probes are matching our reading benchmark assessments much better. If your child hadn't of been retained and passed to 1st grade this year, chances are he would have fell below 13% and 25% percetiles..thus getting an IEP. I taught kindergarten for 6 years and am now a reading coach at 3 schools. I had a good idea when a child really needed another year of kindergarten. Is he improving now? Is he now at the top of the class instead of behind? Kindergarten is a great year to repeat. You have to trust that you made the right decision. The curriculum in 1st grade is much more difficult than kindergarten. Even though he would have gotten an IEP, he may have never caught up. That gap could have continued to get bigger as he got older. I've seen it happen many times before. I'm sorry you're frustrated. I've had children in the 25% who just never qualified and I knew they needed more help. Its not your teachers, administrators, school psy, fault. They are following the mandates of the county. Its out of their hands. If you tell me some issues you're having with your childs learning, maybe I could suggest some activities for you to work on at home. I hope this helps but I know its still aggravating!
laura wines said:LOTS OF PROBLEMS! The school refuses to do an educational evaluation on my son - after requestingit in writing twice. I have multiple medical diagnosis from doctors here to chapel hill and duke. They retained my child last year - they said that he needs more time. He is still at only at the 25th percentile on his second year around. (He is in Kindegarden). I quit work in November of 08' to be 100% available to him. It is just sad that they are not interesred in helping him - he needs an IEP. And the sad thing is, is I know I am not the only parent going through this. Thanks for listening.
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Permalink Reply by laura wines on
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Thank you Jessica for all your info. I guess I disagree with the entire process!! :) The thing is - is the PSM process is not meant to be a process that takes years. Which I know is out of the teachers hands. He was way below the 13th percentile last year. And this year he at the 25th - and I know that next year he will be under the 13th again. I know they do not have to evaluate him - but they are suppose to give me prior written notice and they said they did an educational evaluation on him and that it was the norms?? Then I was all confused. Because if that is an edu. eval - then why did they not take further action last year when that same paper was well below the standards? Does that make sense? Once again, I really do appreciate you helping me with this!
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Permalink Reply by laura wines on
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Oh - I even went to speak with the EC Director and the superintendent - and they admitted that they messed up!!(Two days after school got out last year) and then they said it was to late bc the principal already made her desicion.
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