RSEQ 5th Retrospective Issue Commentary

Over the last 5 years, we have conducted research in rural inclusive preschool classrooms across the state of Kentucky. Our attention has focused on teaching preschool teachers how to embed systematic instruction when teaching target skills to children with significant disabilities. When looking at the 5th retrospective issue of RESQ, we noticed that each article talks about issues that we have both encountered during our research of rural special education in Kentucky. * Just like K-12 teachers, preschool classroom teachers are held accountable for children's progress toward state and federal outcomes, and some teachers also have to document progress toward Head Start outcomes. To assist in documenting progress toward outcomes, there are early childhood assessments that are aligned or cross-walked with the state and/or federal outcomes. The alignment provides the teacher with information on what the child should know or be able to do. While teaching children with significant disabilities, it is important that we gather assessment data when deciding which skills to target and how to program plan for each individual child. Again, just like K-12, in early childhood special education, it is important to choose functional skills while, at the same time, assuring children address academic skills (Hager & Slocum, 2003). For example, in our present research study, we are targeting pre-math skills, such as counting to three. Counting in a preschool classroom is a skill that takes place each day. Children count how many peers are present at circle time or how many legs a spider has during science, etc. While participating in these daily activities, the children are simultaneously addressing the pre-math academic skill of counting. * To gain diverse opportunities in eastern Kentucky, university students have to travel over an hour to an urban area in order to observe diverse ethnic groups. While Kentucky has a large number of children of Hispanic descent, in some rural areas of Kentucky, the number is not very significant. For example, in Morehead, KY, where we have been conducting research for the last 2 years, only 6% of individuals within the communities are not classified as Caucasian (www.city-data.com). Misidentification of Hispanic children in special education (Fletcher 8c Navarette, 2003) has not posed a problem; however, there are issues with misidentification in special education. In the preschool classrooms, response to intervention has been put in place to address this topic. * When working with paraeducators, it is important to ensure they receive the appropriate amount of training required for working with children who have disabilities (Giangreco, Backus, CichoskiKelly, Sherman, & Mavropoulos, 2003). After providing individualized and intensive training to paraeducators, it is important to follow-up with them to ensure they are correctly delivering interventions. In our current research study, weekly reliability checks are conducted to ensure the validity of their instruction. This also is the time we can focus on questions or concerns they have when working with an individual child. In other words, those reliability sessions also serve as a weekly technical assistance visit with the paraeducator. * Smoot (2004) described issues related to inclusion starting in preschool and going through high school. In Kentucky, our preschool teachers face additional challenges around the topic of inclusion. Our current research takes place in a rural inclusive preschool classroom in eastern Kentucky. The current classrooms in which we are working have approximately 20 children in a morning session followed by approximately 20 children in an afternoon session. The classes include children with significant disabilities who may function at the 6-month level, children who have weaknesses in social-emotional skills or speech/language, and children who are typically developing and may be performing on a Kindergarten or first grade learning level. …