Systems Change and UDL

Question 1:

Whenever and wherever UDL is implemented, it’s important to consider the five phases of UDL implementation. They are adapted from Fixsen, Naoom, Blasé, Friedman, and Wallace (2005).

1. Explore
2. Prepare
3. Integrate
4. Scale
5. Optimize

One place where this was implemented was the Cecil County School Disctrict in Maryland. Cecil County has been known for there inclusiveness and collaborative efforts, which I think made them so successful in effectively implementing UDL. Another strength that Cecil County had in implementing UDL is that first, they have been exploring UDL since 2010. Second, after district leaders identified two middle schools with 11 cross disiciplinary educators and administrators, each school formed a UDL PLC that met with the UDL facilitator on a weekly basis. This shows that the county was serious in continuing to have open communication and collaboration efforts to ensure they were implementing UDL correctly.

Cecil County Public Schools did face some challenges amidst the UDL implementation . During that time, there were a lot of initiatives being pushed through the district all at once including the Content Literacy Continuum RTI Model (CLC) and the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC). In addition, the disctrict had just invested in a wireless network and a student to computer ratio of 3:1. The solution to the initiative overload problem was to focus on literacy instruction in the schools and utilize UDL as a curriculum design framework. According to Justin Zimmerman, a principal at Perryville Middle School, said “The key component of the district’s philosophy is meeting the needs of all the learners in our schools, so using the principles and guidelines of UDL seemed like a no-brainer. We felt that a natural solution to having so many mandates and initiatives was to use UDL as an umbrella to support all upcoming curriculum writing and direct instructional change.”

One of the key players in the UDL initiative in Cecil County Public Schools was Michael Hodnicki, an Instructional Coordinator for Professional Development. He made sure that the idea of variability was emphasized throughout the implementation of UDL. He stated, “It is more than providing flexible means of representation, action and engagement, it must come from a deep respect for the variability of the learners. What you do does not change until you change how you believe.” This recognition of learner variabiltiy is key to ensuring success with implementing UDL.

Question 2:

“To ensure that our vision and our plan for UDL is truly great, we must create a framework for information-based decision making. We must also keep instructional improvement front and center. If we do so, UDL will be a guidepost in the development of the three competencies of effective systems: understanding the work (the “what”), knowing how to do the work (the “how”), and creating a culture for continual improvement, sustained engagement, and self-reflection (the “why”)” (Novak & Rodriguez, 2016).

In terms of my current employment, I am between jobs at the moment. My spring course I taught at Frederick Community College has ended and the summer semester doesn’t start for another month. However, in a couple of weeks, I will begin employment at Frederick County Workforce Services as their Summer Jobs Program Coordinator. I worked there last year as a summer jobs counselor, but I’ve been promoted to the program coordinator role this year. Therefore, I’m going to focus on Frederick County Workforce Services for the purpose of this post.

Novak and Rodriguez identify one of the first steps in exploring how to apply UDL to a school or organization is to ask, “ Do your district’s articulated mission and vision statements encompass the needs and hopes of all students, regardless of their variability” (Novack & Rodriguez, 2016). I believe Frederick County Workforce Services holds true to their statement and meet the needs of the youth they serve, no matter their disability or socioeconomic status. The goal is always to provide the most meaningful summer employment experience for the youth as possible. In a lot of ways, Frederick County Workforce Services already implements the UDL framework.

For example, Engagement is an important part of the program from the beginning. Novack and Rodriguez (2016) state, “When stakeholders are engaged with us, they are interested in what we have to share, have a purpose for learning, are motivated to learn and participate, and have self regulation strategies so they can be reflective throughout the process.”Youth are given an informal assessment to determine their interests and career goals. It’s important that the youth be matched to a job site that aligns with their interests and career goals so the youth will stay motivated and hopefully, have the most meaningful experience possible. We also increase engagement in our youth by letting them know they will be getting paid! I think for anyone, knowing they are working for a paycheck is enough to keep them engaged with a job. For a lot of youth, this is the first paying job they will have, so they are motivated to start work.

“As we provide multiple means of representation and expression, we must adjust demands and the levels of challenge and provide different levels of support, so everyone has the skills necessary to persist in the learning experience and become an integral part of our system” (Novack & Rodriguez, 2016).

In terms of representation, the first thing that comes to mind is the pre-employment workshop training we offer for our youth. Because this is a first job for a lot of the youth, we provide a workshop focusing on basic information and skills for employment such as interview skills, what to wear, attitude, and being on time. Because there is a lot of learner variability within our youth we serve, we make sure to provide the information in more than one format. For example, we have the PowerPoint presentation for the youth to watch. There is also the staff member who is orally explaining the information to the youth. Finally, the youth each have handout with important points to remember, as well as their own copy of the PowerPoint with space to take notes.

Finally, expression is integrated in the summer jobs program for the youth, the worksite employers, and the summer job counselors. Every two weeks, the worksite employers fill out a five question survey about each youth’s performance at work. This is given to the summer jobs counselor to evaluate if any job coaching needs to take place or if we need to give a youth praise for doing an outstanding job! In addition, the youth receive weekly check-ins from their counselors to see how things are going. Youth have the option of communicating with their counselors in-person verbally, email, or text message. The summer jobs counselors have meetings every two weeks to talk about their cases, trouble shoot, and just discuss what they’ve learned. I appreciate that every person involved in the program is given options for action and expression.

References

Frederick County Workforce Services. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.frederickworks.com/

National Center on Universal for Design (n.d). UDL Implementation: A Tale of Four Districts. Retrieved from https://blackboard.gwu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-9206584-dt-content-rid-62275349_2/courses/45957_201901/FourCaseStories3.13.13_mo.pdf

Novak, K., & Rodriguez, K. (2016). Universally Designed Leadership: Applying UDL to Systems and Schools. Wakefield, MA: Cast Professional Publishing.