Greetings!
Almost holiday time! And almost time for 2009, believe it or not. This edition of News You Can Use keeps both of these just-around-the-corner events in mind, as well as connects you with a small sampling of the latest material available to you at www.nichcy.org as well as from the OSEP TA&D Network and beyond. 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. p.s. Past issues of the enewsletter are viewable on our Newsletter Archive Page. |
NOVEMBER is American Diabetes Month
Throughout the month, the American Diabetes Association will conduct activities and encourage others across the country to get involved in efforts to raise awareness about diabetes and its serious complications. |
And It's Going to Be December...
|
Perhaps you're interested in these opportunities in December? (Yes, and we snuck one in for January 2009...)
English Language Learners and RTI (Webinar)
Tuesday, December 2 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET
National Center on Response to Intervention
Dr. Janette Klingner will discuss the challenges of incorporating English Language Learners (ELL's) in RTI and provide examples of how schools have addressed these challenges.
Learning Strategies and RTI (online discussion)
Begins on Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Join the discussion on RTI and learning strategies, hosted by the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. The discussion will be the TQ Center's 7th on RTI implementation.
Formative Assessment (Webinar)
Thursday, December 4, 2008, 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time
Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center (AACC)
Would you like to know how formative assessment can improve student learning? Here's a Webinar that will provide information on the knowledge base for formative assessment, ways to elicit evidence to guide instruction, how to provide effective feedback to students, and how to involve students in the assessment process.
Early Childhood Conference (face to face!)
December 8-10, 2008, Washington, DC
The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
Technology, Reading and Learning Diversity Conference
January 22-24, 2009
San Francisco, CA
TRLD is a conference integrating technology interventions with expert literacy strategies to help students of all ages (K-12 through adult) succeed. |
It All Starts in Families and Communities
|
|
Free Web Site launched to help immigrants learn English The U.S. Department of Education today launched U.S.A. Learns, a free Web site to help immigrants learn English. The Web site provides approximately 11 million adults who have low levels of English proficiency with easily accessible and free English language training.
Positive behavioral interventions & IDEA 2004
This curriculum introduces families to a new way of thinking about their child's behaviors and about the need to advocate for behavioral instruction. Professionals will also find very useful. Available from the Technical Assistance Alliance for Parent Centers (the Alliance) in English or Spanish. Cost $15 @ CD. Contact: 1.888.248.0822.
Strategies for parents: Working with students with intensive social, emotional, and behavioral needs
Project REACH is a National Center, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, to work with students with intensive social, emotional, and behavioral needs. They've taken the most effective interventions from the research and translated them into easy step-by-step directions for implementing them in the home setting.
Trainings for families
The Early Childhood Center is one of seven centers at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Indiana University-Bloomington. Here are several online trainings for families you may find helpful.
|
The Little Ones: Early Intervention/Early Childhood
|
Developmental screening and assessment instruments for young children (birth to 5)
NECTAC compiled this list of instruments through a review of the infant mental health literature, state information, screening and assessment texts, and publishers' Web sites. The information for each instrument includes a description, the age range for which the instrument was validated, the time to administer, the scoring procedure, psychometric properties, and requirements for administrators, and a link to, or address for, the publisher or source of more information.
Turning 3 - Ready, Set, Transition!
Online training, also from the Early Childhood Center.
Ensuring effective teaching in early childhood
A November 2008 white paper from the National Center for Research in Early Childhood Education.
|
Reducing behavior problems in the elementary school classroom
Designed for elementary school educators and school- and district-level administrators, this guide from IES offers prevention, implementation, and schoolwide strategies that can be used to reduce problematic behavior that interferes with the ability of students to attend to and engage fully in instructional activities. Released by IES, September 2008
Strategies for teachers: Working with students with intensive social, emotional, and behavioral needs
Project REACH is a National Center, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, to work with students with intensive social, emotional, and behavioral needs. They've taken the most effective interventions from the research and translated them into easy step-by-step directions for implementing them in classrooms.
Autism 101
The Professional Development in Autism Center (PDA) provides training and support for school districts, families and communities to ensure that students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have access to high quality, evidence-based educational services. Autism 101 provides an overview of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and how the characteristics associated with ASD may impact learning for children with this diagnosis in school, community and home environments.
RTI Reporter
If you're interested in RTI (response to intervention), then consider signing up for this newsletter. Explore the Web site of the National Center on Response to Intervention while you're there.
RTI Action Network
This initiative supports the implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) in school districts nationwide. NASDSE (National Association of State Directors of Special Education) was a founding partner in the initiative, which was launched by the National Council on Learning Disabilities (NCLD).
Preventing dropouts
From the Institute for Education Sciences, August 2008
Geared toward educators, administrators, and policymakers, this guide provides recommendations that focus on reducing high school dropout rates. Strategies presented include identifying and advocating for at-risk students, implementing programs to improve behavior and social skills, and keeping students engaged in the school environment.
|
Final regulations are published for NCLB!
At the very end of October, Secretary Spellings announced final regulations to strengthen and clarify No Child Left Behind (NCLB), focusing on improved accountability and transparency, uniform and disaggregated graduation rates and improved parental notification for Supplemental Education Services and public school choice.
Tool Kit on Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
In a classroom using a universally designed curriculum one might find books on tape, interactive software, magnifiers, or highlighted materials. UDL can be used operationally to provide access to the general education curriculum and maximize learning for the greatest number of students. This tool kit comes from the U.S. Department of Education, released in September 2008.
Federal guidance on Coordinated Early Intervening Services
OSEP has released guidance to provide states with information regarding the appropriate use of funds to develop and implement coordinated early intervening services (CEIS) for students who are not currently identified as needing special education.
Federal policy document on charter schools
To engage the charter school community in a discussion of key issues, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement held the National Charter School Policy Forum (Forum) in May 2008. Drawing on discussions from the Forum and 15 years of research and experience with chartering, the Department released Commitment to Quality on October 21, 2008. The report summarizes its vision of the future of the charter sector in the U.S. and what needs to happen to achieve that vision.
And while we're talking about charter schools...
Have you heard of the Primers? They provide critical knowledge and resources for the shipbuilders of charter schools. Aim? To facilitate the successful inclusion of students with disabilities in charter schools.The Primers were developed under the Special Education Technical Assistance for Charter Schools Project (SPEDTACS) funded by the Department and conducted at NASDSE.
Preventing Disproportionate Representation: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Prereferral Interventions [K-12]
This practitioner brief from NCCRESt discusses four key elements of culturally and linguistically responsive prereferral intervention for culturally and linguistically diverse students: (1) preventing school underachievement and failure, (2) early intervention for struggling learners, (3) diagnostic/prescriptive teaching, and (4) availability of general education problem-solving support systems.
Alternative assessments for special education students in the Southwest region states
The U.S. Department of Education issued regulations in 2003 allowing states to develop alternate standards and assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. This 2008 study reviews and summarizes alternate assessment policies and practices and their implementation and impact for the most significantly cognitively disabled students, across the five states in the Southwest Region: Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas.
Compendium of strategies to reduce teacher turnover in the Northeast and Islands region
The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center) developed this compendium as a companion to its database of reducing teacher turnover of retention strategies implemented in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
Interested in outreach and service to the Hispanic population?
Building Blocks for Hispanic Outreach and Service is now available online, courtesy of by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start. The series is available in both English and Spanish. It consists of a viewer's guide and four 15-minute videos, which are of interest to governing bodies, program administrators, staff, parents, and community partners:
- The Hispanic Population in the United States
- Understanding the Hispanic Community in Your Area
- Meeting the Needs of Hispanic Families
- Meeting the Needs of Hispanic Children
English language proficiency standards and assessments
From the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center (AACC), this 2008 brief is an introduction to a Framework for High-Quality English Language Proficiency Standards and Assessments (Framework). It presents the intended purpose, uses, and organization of the Framework, as well as key background information and assumptions. The expected release of the complete Framework document is Winter 2009.
| |
| Comments on our new 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. | | |
|