With many states adopting new standards and evaluation systems, teachers must adopt effective instructional strategies and assessment methods aligned to the rigor of new standards and assessments. One way to improve student achievement is through supporting student ownership of learning, a core component of formative instructional practices. Teaching students to take an active role in their learning can benefit students by promoting student goal setting, self-assessment, and self-determination. As students become meaningfully engaged in their learning, they gain a better understanding of learning targets, how to collect and document evidence of their learning, and how to evaluate and clarify additional learning needs, leading to the ultimate goal of improving student achievement. This article (a) describes how promoting student ownership benefits students, (b) identifies some evidence-based practices that promote student ownership of learning, and (c) illustrates the important role student ownership plays in formative instructional practices.
As more states adopt the Common Core State Standards, teachers face new challenges. Teachers must unpack these standards and develop explicit learning targets to make these rigorous standards accessible to their students. This task can be especially challenging for special educators who must balance standards-based education with individualized instruction. This paper describes the value of clarifying learning targets, defines different types of targets, and provides strategies and resources to assist practitioners in unpacking standards to develop learning targets. In addition, the authors suggest how the standards can be used to drive individualized education program planning to maximize learning for students with disabilities and increase the likelihood of student success.
With many states moving toward increased accountability for all teachers, special educators, who have long been held accountable through the implementation of individualized education programs and the use of evidence-based practices, have much to offer. Formative instructional practices are evidence-based techniques that are familiar to special educators and can be implemented in classrooms filled with students of all skill and ability levels. Formative instructional practices are the way that teachers and students document evidence of student learning and make instructional decisions based on that evidence. These effective and versatile practices help teachers continuously assess their students, make data-based decisions, and ensure optimal learning. This article suggests that special educators are well positioned to make an important contribution as schools adopt more rigorous standards and the formative instructional practices necessary to guide students to mastery of these standards. An overview of these practices is provided.
Feedback provides a vehicle for integrating all components of formative instructional practices: clear learning targets, evidence of student learning, and student ownership in the process. Feedback is the keystone to formative instructional practices as it is one of the most powerful instructional tools available. This paper (a) describes the role feedback plays in formative instructional practices, (b) suggests some evidence-based instructional strategies practitioners can employ to increase opportunities for feedback about their instruction, and (c) recommends ways to enhance the effectiveness of the feedback students receive.
The relationship between students’ living in poverty and academic underachievement challenges schools across the nation. Poverty is particularly prevalent among children with disabilities. One detrimental condition of poverty that directly affects student development and academic achievement is food insecurity and hunger. With the increasing number of children identified as living in food-insecure households, it is inevitable that at some point, a teacher will work with a child suffering from hunger. With this article, the authors hope to assist educators in understanding poverty and its relationship to childhood hunger. Tips for identifying the signs and symptoms of hunger are shared. School- and classroom-level recommendations are made to aid in alleviating hunger in school-age children.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display impairments in social interactions and communication that appear at early ages. Fewer social engagements of children with ASD with peers often lead to long-term negative outcomes, such as social isolation and restricted language and cognitive skills. Although there is a clear need for social skills training for children with ASD, evidence-based practices are often not implemented for young children in school settings. The authors describe the Superheroes Social Skills program, a social skills intervention that combines multiple evidence-based practices, for use with young children with ASD. A case example is provided to describe the implementation and utility of the program for addressing social engagement skills of children with ASD and peers. Results of the case example suggest that the intervention contributed to greater engagement of children with ASD with peers during a free-play period.
Teachers are responsible for using evidence-based practices to improve students’ academic and behavioral outcomes. Although teachers have access to a variety of resources on evidence-based practices, poor implementation can adversely affect their effectiveness. However, an inadequate student response to intervention may also be the result of a mismatch between the practice and the student’s needs. As a result, it is important for teachers to determine the degree to which they implement evidence-based practices as intended to determine if an inadequate student response is due to poor implementation or inappropriate selection of intervention. The authors discuss the importance of fidelity of implementation. Methods teachers can use to measure implementation fidelity are reported. Suggested methods are discussed and examples are provided.
Many schools have adopted schoolwide intervention blocks as a component of response-to-intervention (RTI) implementation to ensure that students who need intervention are receiving it. However, virtually no peer-reviewed guidance exists for helping teachers manage this time effectively. This article presents a blueprint for organizing intervention block time so that all students benefit. Teachers and principals should consider (a) identifying appropriate assessment and intervention resources, (b) determining professional development needs to improve capacity for intervention delivery, (c) using personnel resources in the most effective way, (d) structuring the time to deliver interventions and engage students who are not receiving intervention, and (e) optimizing the physical space available to deliver interventions. Specific planning considerations are outlined and suggestions for monitoring fidelity of implementation are presented.
The WHAT’S UP? strategy is a type of interactive writing between a student with social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges and an adult. The written exchange serves as a technique for involving a student in "talking" about what can be better and engaging the student in a problem-solving process. The strategy encompasses components of problem-solving strategy skills, the self-regulated strategy development model, and interactive writing. The authors describe the strategy and how the strategy can be employed in the classroom.
Secondary-level content area teachers face unique challenges in helping their students successfully read, understand, and learn content from complex texts in their discipline. In this article, a set of research-based practices designed to provide effective and feasible instruction to improve students’ reading and comprehension of text and content is provided. Specific examples of each practice within a social studies unit are used to illustrate how to promote text reading and understanding that is integrated with the content.
How to address the educational needs of students with limited English proficiency (LEP) is a particularly challenging and often controversial endeavor. Failure to address the needs of students with LEP often results in denial of meaningful educational opportunities and leads to disproportionate representation in special education programs. This article reviews relevant legislation and litigation regarding students with LEP and provides recommendations for improved practice. The case law reviewed addresses (a) equal opportunities for all students, regardless of native language, English language proficiency, or disabilities, (b) nondiscriminatory assessments, (c) assessments done in a timely fashion, and (d) parental involvement.
Involuntary teacher transfer occurs whenever the reassignment of a teacher is initiated by a school or district rather than the teacher. These transitions are more likely to occur among special education teachers than among general education teachers. Although this type of transfer is not a new phenomenon, there has been surprisingly little scientific inquiry into this practice to determine its effect on teachers and students. This article describes the lack of scientific knowledge about the practice, especially for special education, why schools use the strategy, the effects of these transfers, and factors that lead to involuntary transfers. Going forward, more high-quality research is needed on the practice of involuntary transfer within the field of special education and the consequences of the policy. When policy makers ask to see the data that result from this research, the right questions must have been asked, especially as they pertain to special education.
Despite the popularity of co-teaching and widespread professional literature describing exemplary co-teaching practices, this instructional approach has yet to realize its potential. One way to increase the effectiveness of co-teaching is for special educators to contribute meaningfully by assuming the role of strategy leader in the co-taught classroom. This article provides examples of how special educators can define their role in co-taught classrooms by contributing purposefully through evidence-based strategy instruction.
This article introduces the Main Idea Strategy, a strategy to improve the performance of students with disabilities and students who perform poorly on reading comprehension tasks. The rationale, research background, and detailed implementation information are presented.
Practicum experiences, a crucial component of preservice teacher preparation, help establish the foundational knowledge and skills necessary for beginning special education teachers (SETs). Preservice SETs need cooperating teachers (CTs) who support preservice SETs in proper emotional development (i.e., feeling like a teacher), who can model and support preservice teachers in the development of effective practices (i.e., acting like a teacher), and who promote the cognitive processes involved in instructional decision making (i.e., thinking like a teacher). When CTs are mindful of the learning needs of beginning special education teachers while also embracing the knowledge and skills they can bring to the partnership, they are more likely to help preservice teachers develop the skills needed to succeed on their own. This article presents strategies from the literature that CTs can use to effectively support their preservice SETs as they begin to feel, act, and think like a teacher.
A large percentage of students with disabilities are being educated in the general education environment for a majority of the academic day. Many educators have chosen co-teaching as the most appropriate method of educational service delivery to meet the needs of this population of students. To ensure the success of this delivery method, co-teaching teams should engage in active communication, co-planning and preparation, shared instructional delivery and assessment, and conflict resolution. This article presents a variety of tools and resources that co-teaching teams might use to establish a successful classroom environment for all students.
Social skills instruction is as important for many students with disabilities as instruction in core academic subjects. Frequently, students with autism require individualized social skills instruction to experience success in general education settings. Literacy-based behavioral Interventions (LBBIs) are an effective intervention that instructors may use to increase positive social skills among students. This article describes LBBIs, provides step-by-step instructions for creating an LBBI, and describes the benefits of LBBIs.
This article provides recommendations for teachers to better prepare 3rd through 12th grade students with learning disabilities for large-scale writing assessments. The variation across large-scale writing assessments and the multiple needs of struggling writers indicate the need for test preparation to be embedded within a comprehensive, evidence-based writing curriculum. In addition, students with learning disabilities can benefit from instruction in self-monitoring and self-evaluation of their writing and in understanding writing test formats. Finally, teachers should support the affective needs of students when they are taking large-scale writing assessments. Teacher vignettes as illustrative examples are provided for each recommendation.
Disability-related legislation offers two different support systems for youth with disabilities: one of entitlement to services and one of eligibility for resources. This article offers guidance for individuals with disabilities, and the families and service providers who support them, as they prepare to navigate the transition between support systems and learn the rights and responsibilities involved in postsecondary education, employment, and adult living options. Also included are recommendations for instructing students in their rights and responsibilities.
During the 2008–2009 academic school year, nearly a million (956,914) students were reported by school districts as being homeless, a 41% increase over just a 2-year period year. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of national legislative efforts to address the education of children who are homeless, with a particular emphasis on students with disabilities. The McKinney–Vento Act is intended to provide some relief to the many challenges children who are homeless face. The act provides federal funding to the states and establishes requirements that expedite and in fact bypass bureaucratic documentation requirements for school enrollment and help create a stable school environment that provides the opportunity for these students to succeed in school.
When dealing with children who exhibit challenging behaviors there are no known interventions that work for all students or at all times. Thus, intervention for these students is often implemented in a trial and error manner. This article provides a logic for considering probability as a factor in selecting strategies. Understanding that some interventions are more likely to work than others and the fact that adult behavior is the main impetus for change in student behavior, the key is in considering which teacher behaviors offer the highest probability of student success. Suggestions and examples are provided.
The special education field is challenged by a lack of attention to and recruitment of well-trained language interpreters in schools. As such, special education teachers need to take a leadership role in working with interpreters to ensure diverse families are collaborative members of individualized education program (IEP) teams. Using the framework of collaborative family school partnerships, this article describes practical strategies for special educators when working with interpreters during IEP meetings with families. Taking a proactive role when working with interpreters can help improve the quality of service delivery for diverse students with disabilities and their families.