All school leaders understand the importance of lifting student achievement scores for special needs student populations. The impact educators can have in an area such as special education is crucial.
That’s why Hacienda La Puente USD considers itself fortunate to have the services of Beth Nishida, director of special education.
Nishida is ACSA’s 2009 Special Education Administrator of the Year. She is known as a person who always leads by example with her positive attitude, compassion, undaunted spirit, determination and strength of character.
Adjectives such as “exceptional,” “trustworthiness,” “outstanding,” “enthusiasm,” “organization,” “teamwork” and “integrity” fill the pages of her nomination forms.
One of Nishida’s strengths is her ability to work well in the shared decision-making model.
“I think that in special education we have to be great collaborators, because we are working with every other department in the school district, parents, outside agencies, as well as with everyone within special education,” Nishida said. “We interface with almost everyone involved with the student, and we need to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all students. If we want to do the best for students, everyone needs to be included.”
Nishida said that co-teaching has been a big focus for special education professional development under her leadership.
“During the time that I’ve been here, we’ve focused on co-teaching, especially at high school, keeping students with disabilities as close to general education peers and teaching as possible,” she said. “There have been a number of trainings with general education and special education teachers together, with the goal of having everyone understand that students with disabilities really do belong in general education.”
Another aspect of Nishida’s leadership is her work with district assessment teams.
“I’ve focused on working with assessment teams – some team building with psychologists and speech-language pathologists – to really work on the disproportionality issues, as well as to make sure that we have the best and most accurate assessment that we can on each child,” she said.
Nishida is also a believer in giving to the greater cause of educational leadership. She has served as the special education chair for the Hacienda La Puente Administrators Association. She also chaired the Region 15 Special Education Committee for the past four years, and has served on ACSA’s state Student Services and Special Education Council for the past three years.
“I think ACSA work is important because it’s a great way for me to share with other administrators what I have learned and what my expertise is,” Nishida said. “If my presentations or consulting with someone can help, it’s something that I need to do. IDEA is very complicated and I enjoy helping other administrators understand it. Also, I can learn from other ACSA members who may know far more than I do in so many different areas.
“ACSA is a great way for special education administrators to communicate with each other about how they are addressing current issues. None of us has all of the answers.”
In addition, she has made many presentations on special education at the district, county and statewide levels. Some of the topics she has presented on include IDEA reauthorization, due process, interventions and strategies, speech and language regulations and programs, 504 programs, communication and violence, the role of special educators in student achievement, clinical strategies and retention of special educators.
Despite her impressive credentials and obvious expertise, Nishida reacted in an unassuming way when asked how she felt when notified of this statewide honor.
“This award was completely unexpected,” she said. “So I was totally surprised when I was contacted by ACSA.”
Each of ACSA’s 19 job-specific 2009 Administrators of the Year will be featured in EdCal through Nov. 2. They will be formally honored during ACSA’s 2009 Leadership Summit, Nov. 5-7 in Sacramento. To register for the event, contact the Educational Services Department at (800) 608-ACSA or click here for more information.