Greetings!
Now 2009 is truly rolling. Month 2, already! NICHCY is pleased to connect you with valuable resources in OSEP's TA&D Network and beyond, with a special focus this month on English language learners (ELL) and culturally responsive practice. You'll find resources on the subject throughout this News You Can Use as well as in its final section. We hope you find this information useful and valuable. As always, we are eager to hear your feedback. Please feel free to contact us at nichcy@aed.org. Best wishes for February! Your friends at the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities |
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We're on Facebook!
With over 150 million users worldwide, Facebook is the world's largest social network and offers a safe and trusted environment for people and groups to interact online. This makes it an ideal place to connect and easily share information with like-minded others!
If you don't already have a free account, you'll need to create one, and once you're on board you can connect with a growing list of fans at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Dissemination-Center-for-
Children-with-Disabilities-NICHCY/34938844586
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...and Twitter!
Really? That's great. Um...what's Twitter?
Twitter's a free social messaging service for friends, family, and professionals to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick and frequent information blasts. If you find yourself counting the days between our monthly "News You Can Use" transmissions, following us on Twitter could be just what you're looking for to stay up to date! Like Facebook, you'll first need to create a free account which will then allow you to follow us at: http://twitter.com/DrNichcy
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| It All Starts in Families and Communities |
New! The Family Support Center on Disabilities: Knowledge & Involvement Network (KIN).
Welcome KIN to the scene! KIN operates a toll-free family support telephone hotline in English and Spanish to connect individuals with developmental and other disabilities and their families with helpful resources in family support. The national center will also be developing State Action Teams to improve family support services in every state and territory and build capacity in advocacy and leadership. Funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Toll-free number and TTY: 1.877.535.7575. Email: familysupport@aed.org. Web: www.familysupportclearinghouse.org
New! National Center for Parents with Disabilities and Their Families.
The new Center's activities focus on priority issues facing parents with disabilities and their families: custody and parental evaluations; family roles and personal assistance; paratransit; and intervention with parents with cognitive and intellectual disabilities and their children. This National Center is funded by NIDRR at the U.S. Department of Education. http://lookingglass.org/ncpd/index.php
Parent Driven Schools.
Visit this grassroots organization's online resource that provides tools and support for parents to make sure their children receive an education that prepares them to succeed. Toll-free number: 1.800.893.6199.
Web: http://www.parentdrivenschools.com/
Anxiety and anxiety disorders in children: Information for parents.
IEP team meetings: A guide for participation for parents.
Psychological evaluations: What every parent should know.
Guidelines for parents: Addressing culturally and linguistically diverse student overrepresentation in special education.
From NCCRESt, the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems.
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The Little Ones: Early Intervention/Early Childhood
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For child care professionals working with children who have disabilities. Check out the wealth of online trainings on disability for child care professionals at the Center For Inclusive Child Care. It's really incredible. http://www.inclusivechildcare.org/c_learning.cfm
2009 Train the Trainer schedule and information.The Center for Inclusive Child Care has also announced its 2009 schedule for its Train the Trainer online courses. Topics include sensory processing disorder, challenging behaviors (including autism and AD/HD), children's mental health, child development (both typical and atypical), and inclusion in general. http://www.inclusivechildcare.org/learning-tot.html
Building early literacy: Practice guides especially for parents. Do you have an infant, toddler, or preschooler with disabilities? Try CELL's practice guide for parents, which will show you how to use everyday home and community activities to encourage your child to listen, talk, and learn the building blocks for early literacy. http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/pgparents.php
Defusing violent behavior in young children: A guide for principals.
From the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). http://www.nasponline.org/resources/handouts/
revisedPDFs/defusingviolbehavior.pdf |
RTI and multi-tier interventions for students struggling with math.
This annotated bibliography of nine key studies identifies and describes the most current research available on the use of RTI to help students struggling to learn math.
http://centerforinstruction.org/files/Summary%20of%209%20studies%20
on%20RTI%20math%20and%20struggling%20math%20students.pdf
Who qualifies for alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards?
This tool is designed to be used during a study group or stakeholder meeting to learn more about
the characteristics of students who may qualify to participate in an alternate assessment based
on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS).
http://cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/AA-MAStool.pdf
Autism: From assessment to classroom intervention to social supports.
The Autism Internet Modules Project (AIM) provides comprehensive information to assist those working and living with individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
http://www.autisminternetmodules.org/user_mod.php
Preventing bullying in a positive behavior support middle school.
The PBIS Center offers this manual, among others, to address bullying prevention. http://www.pbis.org/files/newwebfiles2008/BullyPrevention_PBS_MS.pdf
Cultural and linguistic differences: What teachers should know.
This IRIS module examines the ways in which culture influences the daily interactions that occur across all classrooms and provides practice for enhancing culturally responsive teaching. http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/clde/chalcycle.htm
Understanding ELL's needs and the process of language acquisition.
From the National Institute for Urban School Improvement.
http://www.urbanschools.org/pdf/understanding_ell.pdf?v_document_name=Understanding%20ELL
Resources for teachers of ELLs in grades 4-12.
Colorín Colorado and the American Federation of Teachers collaborated to develop new tip sheets focused on reading instruction for teachers of English language learners in grades 4-12. These tip sheets include information on what to do first, vocabulary instruction, and age-appropriate reading strategies. They are available in English and Spanish.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/guides/teachertips
Culturally responsive pedagogy and practice: A professional development module.
The National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational systems (NCCRESt) has released a new professional learning module, "Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practice," designed to help educators understand and create a classroom atmosphere and curriculum that integrate and respond to the vast diversity of cultures present today in our schools.
http://nccrest.org/professional/culturally_responsive_pedagogy-and.html
PALS for reading.
The IRIS Center has released two new training modules on Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) - A Reading Strategy for Grades K-1 and A Reading Strategy for High School. Both modules provide teachers research-based information and strategies for implementing PALS techniques in their classrooms.
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/iris_new_materials.htm
How multiple intelligences theory can guide teacher practices with students with disabilities.
A 20-page brief from the National Institute for Urban School Improvement.
http://www.urbanschools.org/pdf/onPOINTS.multiple.intelligences.
DOCUMENT.style.LETTERSIZE.pdf?v_document_name=Multiple%20Intelligences%20Theory
New video on physical activity for children with visual impairments.
Teaching Children with Visual Impairments is a 35-minute-long free online video on physical activity instruction for students who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf-blind. The video covers the following topics: types of visual impairments, child-specific considerations, instructional techniques, safety considerations, running techniques, equipment and game modifications, and 8) teaching children who are deafblind.
www.campabilitiesbrockport.org/Camp-Video.html
Helping youth with disabilities learn to lead.
The National Consortium on Leadership and Disability/Youth offers two new self-assessments (one for youth and another for staff) for those working to improve youth development and leadership experiences for youth with disabilities in both generic and disability-specific programming.
http://www.ncld-youth.info/Resources_final.htm#youth_assessments
Graduation and college entrance requirements in 50 states and DC.
Through an interactive map, The National High School Center makes it easy to find out about high school improvement initiatives in the USA, including what your state requires for high school graduation and getting into college.
http://www.betterhighschools.org/map/default.asp
National transition report.
Strategies for improving high schools.
This report offers lessons from a conference sponsored by MDRC, the Council of the Great City Schools, and the National High School Alliance. Leaders from 22 midsize school districts describe their reform initiatives and discuss ways in which research and evaluation can inform and complement school change, including helping students transition successfully into high school, stay on track to graduation, and be prepared for moving into postsecondary education, training, or the workforce.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/498/preface.html
Evaluating the effectiveness of teachers.
This research synthesis, Approaches to Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness, examines how teacher effectiveness is currently measured and provides practical guidance for how best to evaluate teacher effectiveness.
http://www.tqsource.org/publications/teacherEffectiveness.php
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28th Annual Report to Congress on IDEA.
Hot off the press from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/osep/2006/index.html
Joint guidance on the application of the FERPA and HIPAA to student health records.
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/doc/ferpa-hippa-guidance.pdf
FERPA Final Rule!
Final regulations have been published for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy (FERPA).
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-28864.pdf
Quality Counts 2009: Special focus on ELLs.
This annual report card for the nation on efforts to improve schools K-12 has English-language learners as its special theme, for the first time detailing state policies to support this diverse group of students.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2009/01/08/index.html
National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics.
The Task Force was established in May 2004 for the purpose of identifying major educational challenges facing Hispanic children throughout the United States from birth through the primary grades and making recommendations for actions.
http://www.ecehispanic.org/
Preventing disproportionate representation: Prereferral interventions.
From NCCRESt, the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems.
http://www.nccrest.org/Briefs/Pre-referral_Brief.pdf
Staffing patterns of 5 state special education units.
This In-Brief Policy Analysis describes five states' current special education unit structures, changes in their structures, triggers for changes, and corollary changes. The states were chosen for interview because they either had already restructured or were in the midst of restructuring. These states were Delaware, Washington, DC, Maryland, New Hampshire and New York.
http://www.projectforum.org/
RTI: Research for your practice.
This document from the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) responds to concerns about a lack of a research base for RTI. It is a compilation of 25 of the most important articles of research for each topic regarding traditional LD diagnostic practices and RTI. http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/RTI%20Research%20for%20Practice.pdf
Increasing response rates to post-school outcome surveys.
Collecting Post-School Outcome Data: Strategies for Increasing Response Rates is a practice guide from the National Post-School Outcomes Center (NPSO) at the University of Oregon. The guide provides an overview of the IDEA requirements for collecting post-school outcome data, the challenges faced by states in collecting these data, and some recommended strategies from the literature as well as from state and local practice for securing sufficient response rates, especially from youth who have dropped out of school.
http://www.ndpc-sd.org/documents/Practice_Guides/Collecting_PSO_Data.pdf
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| Special Focus: More on Teaching English Language Learners |
Woven throughout the resources listed above are links to information and guidance on teaching English language learners. Here are yet more resources we hope you'll find interesting, insightful, and helpful.
Teaching academic English to ELLs.
Teaching academic English to those learning English is considered a key to academic success. From the Southeast Comprehensive Center.
http://secc.sedl.org/resources/newsletter/ebulletin/secc-ebulletin-v2n1.pdf
Equity and ELLs.
The Education Alliance is working with states, districts, schools, and teachers to ensure that all ELLs have access to an equitable and excellent education.
http://www.alliance.brown.edu/ae_ells.php
Diversity kit.
This three-part kit aims to bridge the gap between research and practice with insights on language acquisition and the effects of students' cultural backgrounds on the learning process. The interactive content of the kit can be used as a starting point for discussions in classrooms, teachers' lounges, schools, state and district offices of education, colleges of education, and communities at large.
http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/diversity_kit/
Instructional practices.
This publication is part of a three-guide series developed by the National Council of La Raza to help schools develop their capacity to provide appropriate curricula, instruction, and assessment for ELLs. This guide is designed for teachers, academic coaches, staff developers, and school leaders and provides instructional strategies, techniques, and guidelines helpful for engaging ELLs and other diverse learners.
http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/nclr/edells_impinstprct.pdf
A DVD set on ELL and LD.
In 2004, NCCRESt hosted a conference on English Language Learners Struggling to Learn: Emergent Research on Linguistic Differences and Learning Disabilities. Here's the DVD set, which includes presentations from leading experts on issues for ELLs. http://www.nccrest.org/publications/dvd.html
Practical guidelines for ELL education: Instruction and academic interventions.
From the Center on Instruction.
http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/ELL1-Interventions.pdf
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| Comments on our newsletter? Suggestions for future topics? Please feel free to contact us at nichcy@aed.org. We're here to help you help children with disabilities. | |
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Concerning Ourselves with Disproportionality.
Our special focus this month is on teaching English language learners (ELL) using culturally responsive practices. In keeping with that theme, you may wish to know more about the emphasis that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), places upon addressing the disproportionate representation of minorities in special education.
To find out all: Read NICHCY's training module called Disproportionality and Overrepresentation, available online at:
http://www.nichcy.org/
Laws/IDEA/Pages/
BuildingTheLegacy.aspx
#disp
This module is part of our Building the Legacy curriculum on IDEA. | |
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