Peter Dragula presented on the Unique Curriculum and how it can help teachers address challenges they face. The Unique Curriculum uses a GPS profile to individually assess students' present levels, set standards-based IEP goals, collect data, and evaluate progress. This allows teachers to differentiate instruction for each student using the Unique Learning System. The GPS profile provides a baseline and directs teachers to the appropriate lessons. This helps resolve the paradox teachers face of providing both individualized and standards-based instruction. It can also help address the severe shortage of special education teachers by saving them time on paperwork and lesson planning through its structured lessons and documentation of student progress.

1. Unique Curriculum
Why and How It Makes a Difference
Presented by Peter Dragula, M.Ed.

2. My goal today is to facilitate
your understanding of why
“Unique” is important and
how it can save time.

3. About Me…...
Graduate of Ringling Bros. Clown College, 1986
B.A. International Relations, Monterey Institute of
International Studies, Monerey, CA 1992
M.ED San Francisco State University, 2001
Chapman University, 2008
Alliant University, 2014
Doctoral Candidate, Capella University, Present
Certificates: CA: Multiple Subject k-12, CLAD,
Educational Specialist, Mild, Moderate, Moderate,
Severe, Autism
Work History:
1995-2001 Soledad Unified, 5th & 7th Grades,
University of California Adjunct, Technology
Integration
2001-2005 Substitute and Dean of Academic
Studies for Athenian School, Berkeley School for
Arts and Science, Hearst Elementary School
2005-Present Dublin High School, Case
Manager Special Day Class, Moderate/Severe

4. What are the challenges teachers face?

5. Finding time to do it all
differentiating curriculum,
working with students,
training paraprofessionals
tracking data
assessing
holding IEP’s

6. Let’s Look at the Big Picture…..

7. “Leigh says more intensive services that can help
people with autism to have jobs and live independently
can reduce societal costs later.”
“There are definitely cost-effective interventions for
children and adults,” Leigh said, “and these can yield
big dividends in a few years … when people with autism
become functional and compete in the workforce.”
Autism Costs Could Reach $500
Billion by 2025, UC Davis Study
Finds

8. “And our thought is that the people who fought battles over the last 75 years
to get their kids out of institutions and into schools where legally they were
barred — schools could say, we’re not going to educate your kid.”
-John Donvan, PBS News Hour, January, 2016
Telling the Story of Parents and Activists Who Fought
for Autism Acceptance
By
John Donvan & Caren Zucker
Interview
PBS News Hour, January, 2016

9. “We’re at a point now where things aren’t perfect, but we have at least tried
to address the challenges of children with autism in ways that we weren’t
doing nearly sufficiently even 25 years ago.
They’re in public schools. They’re getting direct education and direct therapy.
But that’s, we think, the job only being half-done, because there’s a whole —
something’s going to happen to all of these kids, and they’re basically going
to grow up — like, your son has just turned 21.”
-John Donvan, PBS News Hour, January, 2016

10. “There are fault lines all of the time. But I don’t think
there’s a fault line on this question of, what do we do
about adults? I think everybody agrees it’s a problem,
but nobody really has a solution. And I don’t sense that
people are loving the adults the way they have learned
to love kids, because the truth is, they’re not going to
be cute in the same as kids are. And they shouldn’t
have to be cute to deserve and merit our attention and
support.”
-John Donvan, PBS News Hour, January, 2016

11. Providing an appropriate education is an important service.
Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
What are the dangers if we fail?

12. Rowley v. Hendrick Hudson S.D.
U.S. Supreme court
Procedures just as important as substance
Procedural violations can result in a denial of
FAPE
(Source: www.andrewsandprice.com)

13. Remember what IEP must do:
Must be designed to provide child with FAPE
What is FAPE
An educational program that allows a child to receive meaningful educational
benefit
What is meaningful educational benefit?
PROGRESS!
(Source: www.andrewsandprice.com)

14. Mistake: Comparing apples to oranges
Again: progress is the cornerstone of FAPE
Helpful to show more than just subjective
opinion of progress
(Source: www.andrewsandprice.com)

15. Showing progress
(Source: www.andrewsandprice.com)

16. PELs [IEP’s] must show progress
Set baselines
When developing next year’s IEP, review baseline established in PELs/IEP’s
Document in next year’s IEP how the child has improved from baseline
Discuss skills that the child has learned
Compare those skills to baseline
(Source: www.andrewsandprice.com)

18. Challenge I: Federal State Mandates
“The Individuals With
Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA) guarantees, but
does not define, access to
the general education
curriculum for all students
with disabilities (20 U.S.C.
SS 1400(c)(5)(A) [2004] as
cited by Timberlake,
2016)”.

19. Challenge: The Paradox
“Educators face the
paradox associated with
“...consistency and
uniformity of
bureaucracies, and the
simultaneous need for
individualized responses
to human diversity.”
“Educators face this paradox
today because federal law
directs teachers to
simultaneously (a) align
student goals and assess
student progress on the same
academic standards as their
nondisabled peers, and (b)
design an individualized
program for each student’s
unique needs (20 U.S.C.
ss1400;IDEA, 2004).
“Teachers must define and
create access to the general
education curriculum within
these dual policy goals of
sameness and individuality
(Timberlake, 2016).”

20. Why Unique?
Unique GPS both formally and
informally. Why? Because, educators
who instruct students with significant
disabilities cannot just focus on their K-
12 academic goals, they need to
assess the whole student. If they
expect to see academic or transitional
gains, these educators must focus on
the entire person/student and all of
their goals - educational and
transitional.
The Unique GPS allows an
educator to determine the
student’s present levels of
performance, develop
standards-based IEP
(Individualized Educational
Plans) goals, collect both
summative and informal data,
and evaluate this data to
define the next appropriate
goal for the students. With
Unique GPS, a student with
significant disabilities, the
teacher and related services
(SLP/OT) can evaluate
strengths and weaknesses and
develop strong education and
therapeutic plans.
The overreaching use of the
GPS Profile allows the teacher
to have an informal baseline
to make some basic
instructional decisions toward
identifying “present levels of
performance” and developing
standards-based IEP
objectives based on these
present levels. From the
results, the Unique GPS will
direct the educator to use the
appropriate level of
differentiated instruction from
the Unique Learning System,
guaranteeing that the level of
instruction is targeted daily.

21. Severe Teacher Shortages
"This crisis has been coming for a long time," says David Pennington, superintendent of Ponca City public schools in Oklahoma. Many
teachers there are nearing retirement and he's not sure he can replace them.
"Forget about replacing them with someone of the same quality," he says. "I'm just worried about replacing them. Period."
"The job is not what they thought it was going to be," Pennington explains. "They feel like they're under a microscope all the time."
On top of the normal demands of teaching, special education teachers face additional pressures: feelings of isolation, fear of lawsuits, and
students who demand extra attention. Many are the only special-needs teacher in their grade or their school, or sometimes in the entire
district.
And then, there's the seemingly endless paperwork.
"It is not uncommon," Pennington says, "for a special ed teacher to tell me, 'I did not get a degree in special ed to do paperwork. I got a degree
to help kids.' "
The IDEA and the IEP require hours and hours of filling out forms and writing reports documenting each student's progress.
"And when do teachers do that paperwork? Sometime during the hours of 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.," says Deborah Ziegler of the Council for
Exceptional Children, a special education research and advocacy group. "It's like having two full-time jobs."
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/11/09/436588372/behind-the-shortage-of-special-ed-teachers-long-hours-crushing-paperwork?
utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=202609&scrlybrkr

22. The solution
Unique Curriculum
Teachers using “Unique”
are able to solve the
paradox by individualizing
curriculum and creating
uniformity to meet the
requirements of IDEA.

23. How it works
Step 1
Set up
Enter student information:
profiles, levels and notes.
Step 2
Activate
Assess students at the
beginning of the month;
do a lesson each day
(weekly).
Step 3
Attend
Schedule time for
students to do lessons
and increase time on task
to develop appropriate
academic skills and
improve post
assessment.

24. Exploring Unique: Home
Link: https://www.n2y.com/Unique/Home#unique

25. Setting Up
the Class GPS
GPS:
Setting Up

26. Reports:
Activate

27. Library

28. Lessons:
Attend

29. Recap
Unique can….
Resolve the paradox of uniformity and
individuality
Document and help assess student progress
Provide evidence of FAPE
Increase accountability
Improve student participation
Save teacher time
Provide differentiated and structured lessons
consistently
Provide parents with support and documentation
of skills for academics and transitions

30. Questions and Answers