Students with disabilities have many obstacles to overcome and challenges to address as they go through the educational system. Besides challenges with academics, behavior, and social situations, these students also need to be able to transition throughout their educational careers from different grade levels to post-school outcomes. Transition…

A growing number of high school students with disabilities are planning to continue their education in postsecondary schools, including vocational and career schools, 2- and 4-year colleges, and universities (U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2011). The transition from secondary settings to postsecondary settings presents…

Based on the theory of inclusion, the present 3-year pilot program (2013-2016) deals with narrative speech, role play and creative writing as a useful tool to build resilience in primary school students with and without Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the mainstream classroom. The specific aim of the program was to help students develop a…

Conceptually, learning progressions hold promise for improving assessment and instruction by precisely outlining what students know and don't know at particular stages of knowledge and skill development. Based upon a synthesis of the literature, a rationale for the use of learning progressions maps to clarify how learning progresses in English…

The accountability movement and high-stakes testing fail to attend to ongoing instructional improvements based on the regular assessment of student skills and teacher practices. Summative achievement data used for high-stakes accountability decisions are collected too late in the school year to inform instruction. This is especially problematic…

This webinar presented strategies to make the curriculum, instruction, and assessment more accessible for students with disabilities, including significant cognitive disabilities. This Q&A addressed the questions participants had for Dr. Jacqui Kearns following the webinar. The webinar recording and PowerPoint presentation are also available.

The CHOICES Project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education, addresses the need for ready access to information for parents, students, school, and community agency personnel regarding transitional and community support programs. At this time we have created two databases (student information and community…

This document reflects work that began prior to the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act. In 2015 the Arkansas Department of Education began engaging with stakeholders to determine how the Department could better support students, educators, school and district leaders, and communities in their efforts to improve student outcomes. The…

The term "twice-exceptional (2E)" is representative of a diverse group of individuals who have a wide range of gifts, talents, and accompanying disabilities. These children have the characteristics of gifted students along with the characteristics of children with disabilities. The gifted characteristics can mask the disability, or the disability…

This column provides brief summaries of transition-related articles published in 2010 in other professional journals. The 64 articles included descriptive, experimental, and qualitative research as well as program descriptions, conceptual articles, and practitioner pieces. Addressed were all areas of Kohler's (1996) taxonomy for transition…

The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the second in their latest series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This series explores afterschool and: the Common Core State Standards, students…

With the current emphasis in educational policy on improving teacher effectiveness, states and school districts are quickly developing and implementing new models of teacher evaluation. However, few models address the unique challenges in accurately measuring achievement growth of students with disabilities (including those participating in…

This paper presents the recommendations by the Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc. (CASE) for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). CASE is a non-profit professional organization which provides leadership and support to approximately 5,000 members by influencing policies and practices to improve…

Describes the enrichment perspective, an alternative or supplementary approach formulated in Norway to the diagnostic-therapeutic model of special education. The enrichment perspective is a strengths- and ability-based model that involves assessment of what both the child and school can do as the basis for adapting learning environments. Examples…

The scope of this article is to discuss the impact of underrepresentation of girls in separate, self-contained special education classes for preschool children in a large school district in the southeastern United States. On a regular basis, preschool girls identified with special needs are being placed in self-contained classes where there they…