Educational Programming for Students With Disabilities in Urban Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 105345122110510
Author(s):  
Joseph John Morgan

Urban education is often defined as education provided to diverse students in communities with large populations, both in raw number of residents and in population density. Educational professionals often associate deficit-oriented perspectives about urban education. These perspectives are often developed due to systemic inequities that exist within urban environments and a narrative around the underachievement and lack of resources found within schools. However, schools in urban environments often have access to a wide variety of supports and opportunities that can expand and enhance the education provided to diverse students. A reframing of this deficit perspective can support special education teachers in identifying assets that exist within their community that can be integrated in culturally sustaining ways. This special issue features articles that focus on reconceptualizing urban education for students with disabilities in an assets-oriented way through teacher education, design of culturally sustaining intervention and instruction, and engagement of community stakeholders.

2021 ◽  
pp. 105345122110510
Author(s):  
Kamilah Akilah Bywaters ◽  
Acie T. Russell ◽  
Joseph Simmons ◽  
Joseph John Morgan ◽  
Tracy Griffin Spies

It is important for special educators in urban environments to have a deep understanding of the values, beliefs, and practices of diverse students with disabilities and their families. Research indicates, however, that educators are often underprepared to understand the perspectives of members of their school community and often center their own perspectives in curricular decisions in urban environments. Therefore, it is important for special educators to engage in knowledge generation that both provides them information about the assets and beliefs of their urban school community while also challenging their mindsets so that they can better center the perspectives of their students when making decisions. This column provides recommendations for special educators to prepare themselves by developing a deep understanding of their school community that they can use to subsequently link to the implementation of culturally-sustaining practices.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Peterson ◽  
Stephen Showalter

This paper describes why special education teachers are needed to meet the needs of the increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities in the United States.  The paper presents innovative approaches to recruiting and training culturally responsive special education teachers.


Author(s):  
Emily C. Bouck ◽  
Phil Sands ◽  
Holly Long ◽  
Aman Yadav

Increasingly in K–12 schools, students are gaining access to computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS). This access, however, is not always extended to students with disabilities. One way to increase CT and CS (CT/CS) exposure for students with disabilities is through preparing special education teachers to do so. In this study, researchers explore exposing special education preservice teachers to the ideas of CT/CS in the context of a mathematics methods course for students with disabilities or those at risk of disability. Through analyzing lesson plans and reflections from 31 preservice special education teachers, the researchers learned that overall emerging promise exists with regard to the limited exposure of preservice special education teachers to CT/CS in mathematics. Specifically, preservice teachers demonstrated the ability to include CT/CS in math lesson plans and showed understanding of how CT/CS might enhance instruction with students with disabilities via reflections on these lessons. The researchers, however, also found a need for increased experiences and opportunities for preservice special education teachers with CT/CS to more positively impact access for students with disabilities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 074193252110634
Author(s):  
Gena Nelson ◽  
Sara Cothren Cook ◽  
Kary Zarate ◽  
Sarah R. Powell ◽  
Daniel M. Maggin ◽  
...  

It is crucial that special education teachers are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Despite federal legislation and efforts of the field to identify and disseminate evidence-based practices for students with disabilities, it is uncertain whether all special education teachers provide instruction based on the best available research. To better prepare special education teachers, McLeskey et al. proposed 22 high-leverage practices (HLPs). We conducted this systematic review of meta-analyses to provide an initial investigation of the experimental evidence reporting on the effectiveness of the HLPs for students with, or at risk for, a disability. Results indicated the largest amount of evidence from meta-analyses related to intensive instruction, explicit instruction, and social skills, with few meta-analyses reporting on collaboration and assessment. The results highlighted disproportional evidence according to disability categories. Implications for future research, practice, and teacher education are discussed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Pennington ◽  
Channon Horn ◽  
Amy Berrong

Researchers have suggested that educational programming for students with low incidence disabilities in rural settings may be limited. In the current study, researchers surveyed special education teachers across Kentucky and collected demographic data on two exemplar districts. Results indicated that differences existed between urban and rural districts on several variables but that some rural communities in Kentucky were able to overcome barriers to the provision of educational programming for students with low incidence disabilities prevalent in other parts of rural America.


Author(s):  
Delinda van Garderen ◽  
Amy Scheuermann ◽  
Apryl L. Poch

In this article, we present findings that examined special education teachers’ perception of students’ with disabilities ability, instructional needs, and difficulties for using visual representations (VRs) as a strategy to solve mathematics problems. In addition, whether these perceptions differed by instructional grade or setting currently teaching was examined. Survey data from 97 in-service teachers revealed, regardless of instructional setting or grade level taught, that they believe students with disabilities have the ability to learn about and use VRs and need to be taught to use VRs. Furthermore, the special education teachers perceived students with disabilities to have difficulty with all aspects related to using VRs in mathematical problem-solving. Implications for teacher training and development are provided.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004005992110417
Author(s):  
Maggie A. Mosher

General and special education teachers report feeling inadequate in providing social skill instruction to students. Yet, researchers and government bodies (ASELA, 2015) report students receiving social skill instruction display marked improvements in: (a) motivation to learn, (b) commitment to school, (c) time devoted to schoolwork, (d) mastery of subject matter, (e) school attendance, (f) graduation rates, (g) grades, and (h) test scores. Numerous technology tools are available to assist educators in providing social skill instruction to students with disabilities. However, determining a student's social skill need and finding tools that utilize effective research-based interventions can be a time-consuming and daunting task for educators. In this article, the authors provide a streamlined process for determining an individual student’s social skill instructional need and present technology tools available that utilize high-leverage and evidence-based practices (EBPs) to provide instruction for these targeted areas.


Author(s):  
Lindsey A. Chapman ◽  
Chelsea T. Morris

Special educators dedicate their careers to caring for one of the most vulnerable and historically marginalized populations of students despite often working in environments that do little to reciprocate this care. Amidst an ever-changing education landscape, special education teachers are becoming increasingly stressed, experiencing burnout at alarming rates, and far too frequently leaving the field altogether. In this chapter, caring school leadership is examined in the context of special education. The authors seek to bridge a theoretical stance with practical application to the field. Three necessary conditions for caring are discussed and specific “transactions of care” are recommended. The chapter concludes by upholding the idea that ensuring special educators feel cared for by school leaders has the potential to mitigate issues of poor working conditions, teacher retention, and consequently, promote positive outcomes for students with disabilities.


Author(s):  
Jamie Mahoney ◽  
Carol A. Hall

This chapter examines the roles and responsibilities of general education and special education teachers in the inclusion model of teaching. Providing students with disabilities services within the inclusion model of services requires both teachers to use specialized strategies and methods such as the co-teaching models ensuring all students are successful within the classroom. These models include the one teach one observe, one teach one assist, station teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching, and teaming. Kagan provides collaborative teaching strategies to assist in helping students to learn to work together in during projects and other classroom activities. Students must learn to work in a cooperative manner to be prepared for future essential life skills and jobs. Employers are seeking students who can get along with others and work in group settings to accomplish tasks in a competitive field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Markelz ◽  
Jonte C. Taylor ◽  
Tom Kitchen ◽  
Paul J. Riccomini ◽  
Mary Catherine Scheeler ◽  
...  

Effectively managing a classroom is crucial in promoting positive student outcomes. Behavior-specific praise is an empirically supported strategy to reinforce desirable student behaviors. Following a review of the literature, we identified tactile prompting and self-monitoring as effective methods to increase teachers’ use of behavior-specific praise while sustaining intervention long enough until teachers contacted natural maintaining contingencies. We created electronic tactile awareness prompting with self-monitoring (eTAPS) by combining two applications on an Apple Watch. Using a multiple-baseline-across-participants design, this study primarily investigated the effects of eTAPS on special education teachers’ use of behavior-specific praise. Secondarily, this study investigated the impact that behavior-specific praise would have on the on-task behaviors of targeted students with disabilities demonstrating frequent off-task behaviors. Results indicated that eTAPS was effective in increasing and maintaining behavior-specific praise rates. Furthermore, significant increases in student on-task behavior occurred. Implications of results and future research are discussed.


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