Affiliated with Walker Partnerships for the past two years as a Senior Staff Consultant, Bob is the former Executive Director of the Greater Lawrence Education Collaborative, Director of Student Services for the Stoneham Public Schools, Greater Lawrence Technical High School and Woburn Public. Bob also has been an adjunct professor at Salem State College and a trainer for Educational Specialists Association.

 In his new role, he will serve as administrative representative and be responsible for establishing a Walker Partnerships presence in the northeast region of Massachusetts, where he will develop and strengthen programs that assist public school systems, educational collaboratives, charter schools and community-based systems of care in building their capacity to serve students with complex social, emotional, and behavioral needs.

 The addition of McArdle to the Walker Partnerships team not only adds an education professional with 38 years experience who has made a significant contribution to children with special needs over his career, but also demonstrates the growth of Walker Partnerships services into an area of Massachusetts where more schools can potentially benefit from Walker Partnerships expertise and support services.

 Bob will be available to assist special education administrators as they develop their school-based wraparound services and strengthen their internal special education programs and service capacity with the objective of maintaining more students within their local districts. 

 If you would like more information about how Walker Partnerships can provide services and consultation to your school district in the northeast region of Massachusetts, please contact Robert McArdle at  rmcardle@walkerschool.org or 781-898-8305.

 With the assistance of Walker Partnerships, Fall River Public Schools has established a new middle school therapeutic day program. Walker Partnerships will provide a social worker/case manager and a behavioral specialist, along with professional development services and psychiatric consultation. Under the leadership of Joyce Blackburn, Executive Director of Special Education and Student Services, this initiative will provide a quality education in a safe and therapeutic learning environment to approximately 25 students in grades 6 – 8. This new middle school program is specifically designed to offer a therapeutic education program that will successfully return middle-school-aged students to the district and reduce out-of-district placement.  

Holliston Public Schools has contracted with Walker Partnerships for a .8 social worker/case manager for assignment to an elementary school therapeutic program. This in-district program is in place to provide a therapeutic educational setting that enables elementary age students to receive the necessary supports while having the opportunity to experience appropriate inclusionary academic opportunities

Walker Partnerships program evaluations are designed to identify the strengths of existing special education programming and services within a district as well as those program and service areas that need to be enhanced and further developed. These program evaluations can be site-specific or district-wide. They are uniquely  tailored to each specific district and are issued-focused to provide action steps that will lead to sustainable improvements and, often, cost savings.

 At the completion of the evaluation, clients will receive a detailed evaluation report that provides student data comparisons with similar school districts, financial analysis of special education expenditures, trend line data on student needs, areas of professional development that need to be addressed, current utilization of paraprofessionals, and other information critical to programmatic planning and budgeting. And each recommendation is supported with a detailed explanation that can help build consensus through discussion among all stakeholders.

 “The report has become a guide to the next steps in the district for both program development and professional development” said Terri Hamm, Director of Student Service, Old Rochester Regional School District.

 The evaluation report can serve as a blueprint for administrators of special education to map out short- and long-range plans for building the capacity to serve more students within the district and, in many cases, facilitating the return of students from out-of-district placement.

 John Brackett, Superintendent of Sudbury Public Schools, recently noted that “In the three years since receiving the report, we have implemented many of the report’s recommendations and believe our special education department is the better for it.”

 Walker Partnerships has conducted nearly 70 district-wide special education program evaluations, specific program evaluations, and federal-grant-funded program evaluations since September 2004. Cost of these program evaluations are based on Walker Partnerships rate structured for on-site time of $160.00 per hour and off-site time of $100.00 per hour with $125.00 per hour for travel time and expense.

 For further information regarding a district-wide or program-specific evaluation, please contact Jim Earley at jearley@walkerschool.org or 781-292-2178.

Currently, 27 of the 49 school systems partnered with us in fiscal year 2010 have renewed their affiliation, with three additional school districts joining us as new affiliations.

Nine school districts have contracted for a total of 17 Walker Partnerships personnel, social workers, case mangers, and behavioral specialists. Other districts are receiving individual case consultation, clinical supervision, program consultation, program evaluations, and professional development. There are 13 districts that are receiving two or more services provided by Walker Partnerships.

For further information about the services Walker Partnerships can provide to your staff or the ways we can help strengthen your capacity to serve students with special education services, contact James Earley at jearley@walkerschool.org or 781-292-2178.

Program development consultation with senior staff at Walker Partnerships can be utilized by school systems when developing a new program or to assist with a program that is currently in operation. In the planning stage, the targeted focus is on the creation of practices, procedures, protocols, and positive behavioral intervention strategies that will guide the daily operation of the program.

Ongoing consultation support by Walker Partnerships staff allows for timely adjustments according to the therapeutic and clinical needs of the students. This can be an important calibration tool for maintaining the operational efficacy of the program and a continuum of support for students.

Walker Partnerships also offers professional development to school-based staff of these programs. Upgrading and refining the skills of program staff, especially new staff, can prove to be very beneficial to the ongoing success of the program.

One unique—and often critically important—aspect of Walker Partnerships services is working with the parents of those students who have been identified as candidates for return into a program within the district. The transitional process can be very difficult for parents, with even when they are in agreement with the decision for a change in placement, and Walker Partnerships will work in collaboration with the school district to support parents through the transition.

Walker Partnerships has collaborated with 13 LEAs to develop district-wide programs that have reduced the number of students placed outside the district, facilitated the return of students to in-district programs, and sometimes even accommodated students from other school districts, with their tuition reducing overall operating costs.

Te learn more about how Walker Partnerships can assist with program development in your school district, contact James Earley at jearley@walkerschool.org or 781-292-2178.

Blackstone-Millville Regional School District
Brookline Public Schools
East Bridgewater Public Schools
Greater Lawrence Technical School
Hamilton/Wenham Regional School District
Holliston Public Schools
Lexington Public Schools
Medway Public Schools
Millis Public Schools
Norfolk Public Schools
Revere Public Schools
SEEM Collaborative
Stoneham Public Schools
Tewksbury Public Schools

As one school superintendent recently said about Walker Partnerships professionals, “they are highly skilled and have a deep knowledge of special education. They bring a wealth of experience and understand the complexities and tensions that often exist within a school or district.”

We look forward to working with these new professional partners on behalf of struggling students across eastern Massachusetts. With the help of Walker Partnerships, more and more of these students are receiving high quality, specialized educational programming within their own schools and communities.

Districts faced with complex cases which are at an impasse are asking Walker Partnerships senior consultants for case consultation to find innovative and effective solutions. The details in these “stuck” cases vary from case to case, major presenting themes are often the same:  school and work refusal, verbal and physical aggression, lack of self regulation and disruptive behavior.

Often these behaviors are manifested in symptoms of mood disorder, anxiety, sensory and learning issues, and are sometimes complicated by family issues. Walker Partnerships’ case consultation begins with an ecological approach to problem solving and provides teachers, school administrators students and families with objective support for maintaining the student within the district whenever possible.

Many districts are also renewing their commitment to professional development for their general and special education staff, as well as their paraprofessionals. Walker Partnerships trainings provide staff members with access to a broad knowledge base of new skills and best practices for managing challenging behaviors in the classroom.

A wide range of how-to strategies and behavioral intervention instruction comprises the Teacher Consultation Model, a proven model for successfully introducing new strategies of intervention to the classroom. This training format allows for 45 minutes dedicated to classroom observations targeted to specific teacher concerns, with immediate one-on-one teacher consultation.

Through the consultation model Walker Partnerships continues to provide direct clinical supervision to school-based social workers, guidance counselors, and school adjustment counselors. Several districts have purchased a set number of hours for the year to provide on-site clinical supervision and consultation to these critical service providers.

This supervision model has, in the words of one school-based staff member, allowed for the opportunity “to reflect upon the content and the process of their therapeutic work.”

In many districts, school-based professionals do not receive the ongoing clinical supervision that is essential to their work with students and families. When working in a school climate that is experiencing great pressure to effectively case-manage some of the most complex cases, clinical supervision becomes even more critical.

As one school adjustment counselor recently said, “I have been able to receive the ongoing clinical support I need to maintain a framework for counseling services, ranging from collaborative goal setting with clients, the use of treatment plans to track goals, and how to collect and utilize data to evaluate student progress.”

Sixteen evaluations recently completed for area school systems have ranged from comprehensive, district-wide assessments to program- and school building-specific appraisals, including grant-funded special education programs.

The emphasis of these evaluations has typically been on comparative cost analysis of the expenditures related to special education, and with recurring themes typically pointing to the need to target specific program areas for improvement.

One of the most consistent findings is the potential benefit of further clarification of roles and responsibilities of various special education personnel and paraprofessionals, as well as the ongoing professional development needs of general education and special education staff.

Evaluations also reveal a great deal of misunderstanding about various disabilities and exactly how these disabilities impact learning in the classroom. Terms like “inclusion classroom”, “co-teaching” and “in-classroom support” are often used interchangeably and lead to confusion among school-based staff members.

Walker Partnerships evaluation reports are very detailed and provide districts with solid data that can empower administrators to begin to develop actions plans that will assist in refining and improving programs that serve students with disabilities. With the help of Walker Partnerships senior consultants, program evaluations can be the first step toward improved capacity to educate and maintain students with complex challenges within the school district.

As many of you know, there is greater pressure today for special education administrators to reduce the number of students in out-of-district placement and contain growth in special education expenditures. To accomplish this, districts are moving toward more in-district programming with options and choices that will enable them to meet the varied needs of a very challenging population of students with complex learning issues.

Consultation with Walker Partnerships is not limited to program development, but also for the actual implementation and ongoing operation of these programs.

Along with the planning and ongoing support that Walker Partnerships provides to current and new programs, our team of senior consultants can also assist with your efforts to return students to the district with effective educational strategies in place.While teaming up with the district to observe students and work with parents and school-based staff, Walker Partnerships staff can create a transition plan that supports students and families during the process of returning the student to a district-based program.

Currently, Walker Partnerships is working with ten school districts in varying degrees on program development and implementation. These efforts consider all the contingency plans that need to be in place for successful transition to occur. With the help of Walker Partnerships staff expertise and the Therapeutic Inclusion Support Model, more and more students are successfully retuning to be effectively educated in their own schools and communities.