All Special Education Articles
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a complex subject and states and districts have a lot of discretion with the implementation of this three-step, research-based approach to intervention and placement. Learn about some of the common misconceptions of the RTI process and read about additional RTI web sources.
When dealing with a bureaucracy, and school districts are bureaucracies, you need to keep detailed records. Logs, journals, and calendars provide answers and support memories and testimonies. This article provides examples of how to keep a paper trail.
Teachers: How do you convince your principal, fellow teachers, and other school staff to help the student in your class who has a learning disability? Rick Lavoie, world-renowned expert, speaker, and author on teaching children with LD, tells you how to get your voice heard. Learn how to handle common road blocks and become a proactive and successful advocate in the hallways, the teacher's lounge, and the administrative suite.
Learn to develop the evidence you need to support your belief that your child is not receiving the right help in school. Peter and Pamela Wright, from Wrightslaw, tell you how to interpret and chart your child's test scores, graph your child's progress, and successfully communicate with the educators who make decisions about your child.
This overview from the PACER Center walks parents through each step of the special education process, describing what happens from the time a child is referred for evaluation through the development of an individualized education program (IEP).
When an advocate negotiates with the school on a special needs child's behalf, the odds are increased that the child will get an appropriate education. Learn who can advocate, what they do, and how you can get started advocating for your child.
This article discusses the challenges in providing psychoeducational services to the rapidly increasing minority populations in the U.S. and offers a brief elaboration of the role and function of school counselors and school psychologists and how they can meet the mental health and educational needs of this large and growing population.
When a doctor develops a treatment plan for a sick child, the doctor uses objective data from diagnostic tests. Your child's individualized education program is similar to a medical treatment plan, and you need objective tests to know that your child is acquiring reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.
Individualized education program (IEP) goals cannot be broad statements about what a child will accomplish. Goals that cannot be measured are non-goals. Learn how to help the IEP team devise specific, measurable, realistic goals.
If a Title I school repeatedly underperforms, federal law provides opportunities for students to change schools or obtain additional instructional support. This parent advocacy brief looks at the information parents of students with disabilities need to know and understand in order to maximize these options.
This article provides an overview of the federal No Child Left Behind law and includes information to help parents use provisions of NCLB to ensure that their child has access to appropriate instruction.
IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) is our nation's special education law. Below you'll find important information about IDEA 2004, which went into effect on July 1, 2
This article discusses current research-supported instructional practices in reading and writing. It also reviews alternatives to ability-achievement discrepancy in identifying students for special education services, as well as introduces the idea that ability-achievement discrepancies should be based on specific cognitive factors that are relevant to specific kinds of learning disabilities rather than Full Scale IQ.
From annual goals to special education services, there are certain categories of information required by law to be included in a student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Learn what these categories are in this overview of the content of IEP's.
Problem Behaviors and Special Ed
Tools for Dealing with Challenging Behavior
Resources for behavior management range from classroom management to Behavior Intervention Plans.
Do We Need National Standards?
March 10th, National Public Radio featured a story on the release of the draft report on National Standards. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State Education Officers have put together a set of national educational standards. It has fewer standards than most state standards, and they are set higher. You can see the draft at the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
So, will they do any good? It has been argued that standards in and of themselves do not improve school performance. In fact, one way states have gotten around No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been to dumb down their standards and modify their tests until they got the results they wanted. That has been clearly illustrated by the difference between performance on state tests and the National Assessment of Educational Performance.
If the reauthorization takes the new standards seriously, and we have a national test, we might just end up in a great place, where we see states compared to one another, not just their own performance. It would make it clear that states that spend money on education actually have better performance than states who don't.
So, for me the jury is still out. I plan to spend some time looking over them (the link is above.) Let me know what you think!
What Kind of Teacher Are You Building?
Okay, I think I'm in love!! (don't tell my wife.) Today's New York Times Magazine (disclosure: they own me,) has a great feature article, "Can Good Teaching Be Learned?" about the work of Doug Lemov. A former teacher, administrator and charter school founder, Doug became curious as to what made a great teacher. Research has shown that excellent teachers are the single most important element in raising student performance. So, how do you get excellent teachers? And, can you make an excellent teacher? Can you build a better teacher?
What Doug discovered was that excellent teachers not only shared certain qualities, but they developed a certain set of skills, especially when it came to classroom management. He enumerated 49 techniques, which he will describe in detail in his upcoming book Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College. As I read, I went away with the conviction that I was a pretty good teacher. I use most of the techniques described, though a new one I really loved is "Cold Calling" which eliminates the problem of round robin reading without abandoning reading aloud entirely. I have always been a big fan of "Positive Framing," a technique where you describe what you want in a positive way and then begin to praise students for doing it. "Everyone clear your desk, please. Thanks for getting your desk cleared so nicely, Rodney. Oh, and I see Mary Beth has her's cleared, too. Thanks, Mary Beth."
I can't wait to get my hands on the book, which has a late April release date. With any luck, I'll convince the publisher, Jossey Bass, to get me an advanced review copy, so I can review it and give you a preview of the 49 techniques. In the mean time, check out the article online at the New York Times: it even includes video clip examples of many of the techniques! I'm hoping it helps you make yourself into the kind of excellent teacher that encourages excellent student performance and academic growth.
Scaffold or Crutch?
It's funny how the stars sometimes align. I have been talking to the people over at Ablenet, as I just reviewed their new special education math curriculum, Equals . At the same time I am working on the IEP for a new student from New York. She understands one to one correspondence and can count, though she creates very little independent language. I try hard not to write IEP goals that dictate instruction, but as I plan, I'm definitely thinking about using Touch Math.
I have seen students do really well with Touch Math. I do wonder if it doesn't become a crutch rather than a strategy that they can leave behind as they gain confidence. I like number lines rather than counters for that reason. Like prompt dependence, some strategies are hard for kids to leave behind. Is Touch Math one of them?
I know the touch math people market the program for all children, but I wouldn't use it with typically developing children, since typically developing children are capable of math fluency (the ability to remember and recall math facts quickly.) I think it's a good tool for children with learning disabilities, but I think it is still fraught: fraught with the danger of developing a dependency on a strategy that keeps them from memorizing math facts. Even though they do know that two plus two is four, they have routinized the way they do math. Much like finger counting, it can become a crutch that follows them through life. How many adults stand by while people take advantage of them because the only way they can check the math is with their fingers, and they don't want other people to see?
What do you think?
Where Are the Jobs?
I don't think I'm going to be able to answer this quickly, though you might be able to help (see my email under my picture.) Today I had coffee with my graduate adviser, Dr. Vicki McGinley, to talk about technology with her students at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. The topic of employment came up. Dr. McGinley is best acquainted with employment in the mid-Atlantic. She had two suggestions:
- Go west, young man (or woman,) go west. Western states still seem to need special education teachers. You will need to check their state departments of education for certification licensing, and be sure you find out what tests (Praxis or state tests) they require for certification. Some states have websites to inform you of their teacher needs, such as Nevada.
- Country Mouse or City Mouse? The two areas in more populous states that will be hiring recent graduates are inner city districts and rural school districts. Because of the glut of unemployed certified special education graduates, these areas should not be hiring teachers on emergency certifications, though some districts may still be counting on Troops to Teacher grants and Teach for America Interns to keep their costs down.
Good luck! If you have suggestions for employment opportunities for this spring's graduates please share them. But don't despair. Dr. McGinley says state departments of education were expecting huge retirement this year, but the economy means that many retirees are waiting for their retirement portfolios to recover. It's still coming guys! Hang in there, and substitute, if you must!
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