Interview with Jon Longenecker, History 150 Spring 2020, Conducted by Cory Longenecker, April 2, 2020.
Research:
Post-Secondary Transition Programs are programs put in place in the public-school system which help students with disabilities and their families prepare for life after high school. This includes learning related to independent living, job skills, and community involvement. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) helped bring about these transition-based programs. These impact students of all ages but include Post-Secondary Transition Programs and services for students aged 18-21.
The No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2002, and heavily impacted the education of students with intellectual disabilities by requiring that they take part in standardized assessments, such as the Standards of Learning (SOLs) in Virginia. The act also placed a limit on the students that were able to take alternative assessments, meaning that not all students who may need an alternative assessment could get one.
Bleiberg, Joshua, and Darrell M. West. “Special Education: The Forgotten Issue in No Child Left Behind Reform.” Brookings, Brookings, 29 July 2016, www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2013/06/18/special-education-the-forgotten-issue-in-no-child-left-behind-reform/.
Hasazi, Susan Brody, et al. “Implementing the IDEA Transition Mandates.” Exceptional Children, vol. 65, no. 4, June 1999, pp. 555–566, doi:10.1177/001440299906500409.
Virginia Department of Education. “Transition Services for Students with Disabilities.” VDOE :: Special Education Transition Services for Students with Disabilities, VDOE, www.doe.virginia.gov/special_ed/transition_svcs/index.shtml.
Biography:
I interviewed my father, Jon Longenecker. He is in his 29th year teaching special education in Virginia. He has taught at 3 schools, and he created the program that he currently works in, Reach (Reaching Educational and Career Hopes), which is a post-secondary transitional program for adults 18-22 with intellectual disabilities in the school system which helps with job and life skills, as well as community involvement. Both of his parents, his wife, daughter, and brother are all teachers as well, so he has a lot of experience with education.
Interview Transcription:
Cory Longenecker: Okay, can you please introduce yourself and describe I became a special education teacher?
Jon Longenecker: Yes. I’m Jon Longenecker. I’ve been teaching for 29 years, I started off teaching students with learning disabilities. And then for the last 24 years, I’ve been teaching students with intellectual disabilities. I don’t remember exactly when I decided I wanted to become a teacher, but I was young. I remember going to camp back when I was in high school for younger people and older people with special needs, and really enjoyed it and decided I wanted to do something where I was working with that population. So in school and ended up becoming a teacher.
Cory Longenecker: Can you describe your experience so far teaching special education?
Jon Longenecker: Yes. See, like I said, I started off in middle school teachers and students with learning disabilities. Did that for three years. Then went to the high school level, taught the same population. And it’s pretty much the same besides the academics just being a little tougher in high school. But behavior wise, middle school was a little a little more challenging, I would say because most middle schoolers are dealing with a lot, a lot of other issues besides their academic issues, and then moved to teaching students with intellectual disabilities. I taught for, 14, I’m sorry, 12 years, 12 years, 11 years, something like that, in the classroom. Students with intellectual disabilities of varying levels, taught them life skills, taught them some some basic academic types of things and then 11 years ago I started a program for students with intellectual disabilities and autism. It’s a vocational program. So it says students 18 to 22, who graduated from their base High School and we focus on the social skills, the vocational skills, the things that each of those individuals need to be as productive as they can possibly be in our community.
Cory Longenecker: Okay, and have you seen a difference in the gender of your co workers over your lifetime?
Jon Longenecker: You know, I don’t know that I’ve noticed a big difference. I think they were, I was the only male special ed teacher when I first started it, but it was a it was in middle school. So I’m not sure if that was different when I went to the high school level It really hasn’t been that big of a change. Maybe a few more men now than then there used to be teaching Special Ed, but it’s still dominated by women overall, but might be a small change, but it it’s not huge, I don’t think.
Cory Longenecker: And have you seen a difference in the teaching methods throughout your time teaching special education?
Jon Longenecker: It’s interesting every four or five years, they they come out with the, quote, new flavor of the month, end quote, and they try to I guess something works somewhere in the nation or in the world and then other school districts try to replicate that. So you see a lot of different methods ways that are that are shown. Personally, I think the most important thing no matter what methods, or whatever you’re using is just to develop relationships with each student. When you have a relationship with a student, they trust you that you’re going to get more out of them. So, you know, I think some sometimes people get in too much into, okay, do things this way do things that way. And I think it stifles creativity with teachers and I don’t think it’s a good thing. But it happens.
Cory Longenecker: Um, how have you seen the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities change, especially in the school system?
Jon Longenecker: When I was in school, I don’t recall seeing when I was in high school, I guess, I don’t read all throughout school, I guess I don’t recall seeing people with disabilities. I don’t know if they were in a school where they just were kind of in their own classroom. And they didn’t get out into the school population, or what, but I just don’t remember seeing many people with disabilities.
When I started teaching 29 years ago, in 1991, again, it was a different population that I was working with. So it was students with learning disabilities, they were in regular classrooms. You know, you were many, I mean, you wouldn’t know that they had a disability really, unless you put a pencil and paper in front of them. So socially, they were fine. You know, it just may be they were they may have been able to academically perform like their peers and math, but they couldn’t read real well. So you didn’t really notice. Excuse me much of an issue with that when I started working with people with actual disabilities in 1996, started teaching them, it was the high school level and you always have, you probably always have people who are going to tease that population who are gonna make fun of them.
There were situations early on when I remember that happening some sometimes twice bothered me tremendously. It still does, if I hear anything like that. But for the most part, I think, I think the more that those students, the more students with intellectual disabilities and autism or out, mingling out being seen out, doing things with the general ed population. I think they’re more accepted because I think there’s a stigma behind special ed that in some ways with people, maybe a fear of of talking to somebody like that or or just unsure not sure what to say. I mean, because that they act different. They look different at times, you know, they may have physical issues as well. But I think the more they’re out there, the more people realize that, that they’re people and they’re, they’re, you know, they’re treated much, much better. I know the school I’m at right now. I don’t see hardly any mistreatment of students with intellectual disabilities and autism. They’re they’re accepted. You know, the walk down the halls and get half as many other students. I mean, the students have different Club there’s probably 250 260 students at club at their their mission of the club is to just do different things throughout the school year with with students with disabilities.
Cory Longenecker: And have you seen a change in how especially education is taught or approached because of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or the No Child Left Behind Act?
Jon Longenecker: Well, with no child left behind, that brought in all the different standards associated with the SOLs and how schools needed to reach certain standards to be accredited. Things like that. There are people in the school, people with disabilities, students with disabilities who have to take those SOLs who are not academically able to pass the test. So I never did like the idea of that.
They came out with then what’s called the Virginia alternative assessment program, which is a portfolio that teachers could put together showing demonstrating that the student has a knowledge of a certain SOL. So that but you can only use that with up to I think 1% of the student population, which which still doesn’t reach everybody with disabilities. So that’s affected it in that sense, I think I think it’s it’s caused teachers to focus more on academics when I feel very strongly that students with intellectual disabilities, you should focus on the vocational piece.
There are certain ones who academically need to be challenged and academically can can do quite a bit. But I think for the most part, I think focusing on vocational programs, to teach them how to work, how to socialize within their community, you know, in a job setting, things like that are far more beneficial to them and to our community. Then teaching them about to step algebraic equations. So now I know with IDEA the best the biggest part that that affects us now Is it is it says that you have to address transition, starting at age 14 I think.
And so since we have to address transition, that’s why we started the program we started now, because it truly addresses the transition from high school to adulthood. And after, by starting at age 18, all the SOLs are finished a student graduates with his or her peers, and they can come to our program because we need to serve them, or they can get services until they’re 22 years old. So it allows us for up to four years to work on the skills that they really need to be successful out in the real real world. Most of my students, most of the students with intellectual disabilities are not going to be going to college. But they can be very successful in the workforce. And by doing what we do, by by using the method that we use and teaching these things. We’ve almost doubled the the percentage of people who are working, who have intellectual disabilities, the average is about 33%. And students that have completed our program, because we’re focusing on that so much. We’re right at 62% or so. So we’re almost double the national average. So it works. And it makes more sense. But yeah, there’s two things that definitely affected it. But I really think the transition piece is the piece that needs to be focused on. Did I answer your question?
Cory Longenecker: Yeah, and finally, do you think that the school system treats people with disabilities as well as they should and if not, which should change
Jon Longenecker: I think because it’s a law that the school system definitely tries to treat people with disabilities. Well, I it’s always, every time something happens, any kind of changes happen. You’re always thinking about how’s this gonna affect special education population, which which is a good thing. Again I think you can almost go overboard in the sense that if you want to give if you want to try to push the students with intellectual disabilities and, and and significant disabilities towards college I don’t think that makes any sense. So, so you can almost take get too far in a sense, but but but they should be treated fairly. And I think they are treated fairly and and the law says that we need to provide a free, appropriate education for each student with a disability. I think I think the schools for the most part do that at least every school that I’ve been a part of has done that. Now you hear about schools that, that that don’t. And I mean, you can look at the news, you can Google it, I’m sure you can find plenty of schools that don’t. But every school that I’ve been part of has done so. And anything that should change. Again, I said before, and I would say it 1000 times if you asked me is the focus should be on Adult outcomes, not academics. For everybody, academics needs to be addressed for for most students, I would say a vast majority of students, but there is a percentage of students where Once they learn the basics in academics, you should really start focusing on that vocational piece. I’ve seen students who are unable to read who are unable to write or unable to do math, who are unable to speak clearly have full time jobs working 40 hours a week, doing very well. So it’s best possible and i think i think that would help our community overall. To have that as a focus.
Cory Longenecker: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your your time and your interview.
Jon Longenecker: Okay.
Overview of Interview Process:
This interview was conducted in-person and recorded on my phone. We did the interview at our house and made sure that everything would be quiet for about 20 minutes so we could be uninterrupted. I did not have to edit the recording or the transcription.
Conclusion:
The interview went pretty smoothly. There were I few questions that I was planning on asking that he either ended up answering in another question or after talking with him before the interview, he was unsure how to answer them, so I did not ask them during the interview. I did not go “off-script” much because both me and my dad found it was easier when we had some idea of what to say before the interview took place. I think this helped the interview go a lot smoother and it was also helpful because he was able to think a lot more about his answers.