80/20 in Special Education: How Special Ed Can Create Big Gains With Minimal Effort!

Can You Relate…?

You’re a special education teacher (or maybe you know one) sitting in a building-wide staff meeting.  In the meeting, the results of your state’s annual, standardized test scores were released.  The results are good, except for one segment of students that are not showing enough improvement and thus hurting the school’s overall performance… special education.

80-20 Special Education

“You’re already overworked, trying to implement significant change… You need 80-20!”

Immediately, your heart begins to race and your blood pressure increases.  Instantly, thoughts of what your general education peers must be thinking races through your head…

“What are they doing over there in special education?”

“Why can’t they figure out how to help these kids?”

“The problem is they just don’t hold those students to the same high standards we do in Gen Ed.”

Meanwhile, the reality is you are working twice as hard as the average gen ed teacher to help your students succeed!

And, while all of this pressure bears down on you, what really breaks your heart and keeps you up at night is the thought of how your students will ever succeed beyond the walls of this building.  All you really want for your students is for them to graduate, have options, and pursue a fulfilling and productive life.

So, what are you going to do in this scenario? Try something new? Institute some new program?

Who the h-e-double-hockey-sticks has time for that?!

You’re already overworked, trying to implement significant change, with the small amounts of time you do spend with your neediest students. At this point, I think you’ll agree adding more on top of an already full plate is not the answer.

If we really want to effect significant change, we need a new approach altogether.  We need this approach to leverage great results with little effort and almost no budget.

Introducing the 80-20 Special Education Principle…

80-20 is a fundamental law of the universe.  It wasn’t invented by some “brilliant” person. It’s just an observed phenomenon in nature and the universe.  The basic law of 80-20 states that 80% of results comes from 20% of inputs.  Or, 20% of causes results in 80% of the effects.

Here’s some everyday examples of 80-20 in your life:

  • You probably wear 20% of the clothes in your closet 80% of the time.
  • You spend 80% of your social time with the closest 20% of your family and friends.
  • The neediest 20% of your students consume 80% of your time/attention.

Those are examples that occur naturally with no effort from us.

But, what if we intentionally harness this principle and used it as a tool to our advantage?  As in, what if we could teach our students some basic skills (the 20% most important skills) that increased their performance (in 80% of their learning).

80-20 Special Education.  Your Dream Solution.

Great news!  We can teach students the 20% of the most important skills that will increase their performance in 80% of their learning.

It’s been done before with proven success.  These study skills are easy to teach, and students love the experience of increased success with less effort.

The top 20% of study skills are:

  • How to learn.
  • How to organize.
  • How to be efficient.

In fact, did you know the Common Core Anchor Standards are actually these very same skills?  The Anchor Standards list all of the outcomes a graduating 12th grader needs to be successful in college and in the workplace.  The Anchor Standards are all study skills.

Why not let your students benefit from using these skills for increased performance throughout school?

So, here’s your dream solution…  Teach study skills (the Common Core Anchor Standards) now and watch your students soar!  Oh, and this won’t overload you, because your students can actually learn these skills independently with little or no direct instruction from you (keep reading to find out how).

Will This Work?

In Prince George County, Virginia school psychologist discovered that 50% of their caseloads could be resolved by teaching organization skills alone!  To read more about Prince George County, click HERE.

Schools using SOAR® Study Skills have increased school GPAs by more than ONE FULL POINT. Standardized test scores increased, too!

What Options Do You Have?

  1. Keep doing what you’re doing, but work 10% harder. See if that makes a significant difference.
  2. 80-20 Special Education. Teach your students the most powerful 20% of learning skills and watch their performance increase in 80% of their learning outcomes.

If you choose option #2, here’s how you can get started….

Click HERE to learn about the SOAR® Curriculum (your 80-20 Special Education solution).  Also, request a Free Digital Copy of the curriculum in the upper right corner of the page.

Don’t have time to “teach” the SOAR® Curriculum (80-20 Special Education)?  You don’t have to… The entire SOAR® Curriculum (80-20 Special Education) can be accessed independently by students with our SOAR® Learning and Soft Skills App.  To learn more about all of the SOAR® Curriculum (80-20 Special Education solution) options, click HERE.

Sincerely,

Brian

 

 

BW 02042016

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