Category: Updates

Of the 74 state vocational rehabilitation agencies that responded to GAO’s survey, most reported expanding services to help students with disabilities transition from school to work as required under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, enacted in July 2014. Most state agencies reported serving more students and providing work-based learning experiences and other activities, referred to as pre-employment transition services.  READ MORE

Starting Strong is a practical resource for preservice instructors and experienced professionals of early-development classrooms looking for ways to more effectively build foundational literacy skills. As an easy-to-navigate compilation of research-based strategies and the theoretical foundations that support them, it is designed to be adapted for various classroom settings: whole groups, small groups, play-based centers, independent practices, etc. The authors also acknowledge an imperative to provide resources especially for instructors of struggling readers and of children living in poverty, and Starting Strong’s utility certainly extends to providing strategies for instructors of multilingual classrooms.  READ MORE

Nasrin Jafari feels fortunate to be teaching in a school where educating students to develop critical thinking skills is considered more valuable than correct answers to standardized test questions. As a humanities teacher at City School of the Arts in New York City, Jafari sees tremendous value in taking missteps and failing. She wants to support the middle school children she works with so they know how to handle the stumbles that will happen not just in their educations, but throughout their lives.  READ MORE

Some kindergartners and first-graders suspended from school can find it challenging to reverse the negative trajectory in their academic life, says a University of Michigan researcher. These young suspended students — especially boys — are likely to be suspended again later in elementary school, according to Zibei Chen, a research fellow at the U-M School of Social Work, and colleagues at Louisiana State University.  READ MORE

One of the frustrations for teachers and parents of kids with ADHD is getting a child to stop, listen and understand what is being taught or asked of him. These tips and strategies will improve listening skills in children with ADHD — enabling students to listen, learn and contribute in school and at home.  READ MORE

The Senate has approved a spending package that contains funding increases for prominent education programs focusing on disadvantaged students and special education, among several others. Senators voted overwhelmingly in favor of the legislation, which was crafted and approved by House and Senate appropriations leaders last week. The bill for fiscal 2019 includes a $581 million increase in total U.S. Department of Education spending over current levels for fiscal 2018.  READ MORE

The nation’s top special education official is setting a new agenda for the U.S. Department of Education as it works to address the needs of students with disabilities. A framework details a commitment from the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to “rethink anything and everything” in a quest to meet the office’s mission “to improve early childhood, educational and employment outcomes and raise expectations for all people with disabilities, their families, their communities and the nation.”  READ MORE

Hi, everyone. Now before I begin, I am going to give you all a head’s up and let you know this is not going to be the typical article that you are probably used to reading here, but bear with me… I have quite the story to tell. My name is Amy Temple and I have learning disabilities. I was diagnosed when I was 5 years old, but before that, a few members of the medical community sure did try to figure out what was wrong with me. I mean … there had to be something!  READ MORE

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has published the Trauma-Informed Classrooms Technical Assistance Bulletin.

The impact of students’ life experiences on their behavior has garnered increasing attention as schools strive to develop more supportive academic environments that address the needs of at-risk youth and facilitate continued academic engagement. Few events outside the classroom have as profound an impact on multiple domains of student development as traumatic life experiences. Traumatic events can include domestic violence, abuse and neglect, school violence, loss of loved ones, and community violence, just to name a few. The range of student responses to trauma can vary from yelling to isolation. Students who have experienced trauma often have a distorted perception of the world and sense of not being safe. Creating an environment that fosters resilience and offers support to students who may experience a traumatic life event can potentially prevent unwanted disruptive behaviors in the classroom.

This technical assistance bulletin provides a basic understanding of the impact of trauma and adverse life experiences, how those experiences can impact behavior in the classroom, learning how to recognize trauma, and strategies for creating trauma-informed classrooms.
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As the new school year moves into gear, one familiar mantra should be self-evident, but is easily put aside: you must build relationships with your students. In the rushing stream of teaching, grading, testing and reporting it is easy to forget that without those connections, you are not likely to get the best out of a student — and probably get much worse.  READ MORE