K-12 Equity and Inclusion Training and Technical Assistance

All behavior is a form of communication. Utilizing high expectations and best practices in communication supports for individuals with significant disabilities, behavior can be examined to understand what learners are trying to communicate in order to replace challenging behavior with functional communication strategies.

Teachers share the responsibilities of planning, instructing, and assessing diverse groups of students.

Educators and administrators focus their instructional and school-improvement decisions by collecting and analyzing different types of data.

Differentiation means tailoring instruction to meet individual student needs. Whether teachers differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, the use of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction.

Understanding how education practices and initiatives are adopted, implemented, and spread is key to achieving desired outcomes and sustaining effective practices in education. District and schoolwide implementation in action aims to examine the effectiveness of and barriers to implementation of practices and initiatives as they are adopted among a variety of environments by multiple collaborators.

According to the US Department of Education, all children who require special education services should be appropriately identified and supported. No child should be inappropriately identified for special education services, segregated from his or her peers, or disciplined more frequently or harshly simply because they are a student of color with a disability. Unfortunately, children with disabilities are often disproportionately and unfairly suspended and expelled from school and educated in classrooms separate from their peers.

Trusting family partnerships contribute to positive student outcomes when family members and school staff have respectful, mutually beneficial relationships with shared responsibility for student learning; when family members have options for meaningful involvement in their children’s education and in the life of the school; and the school responds to family interests and involvement in a culturally responsive manner.

Friendships and meaningful social relationships are essential elements for achieving successful outcomes for students with and without disabilities. Friendship matters for everyone and making peer relationships a priority is a critical strategy for addressing communication, academic, and behavior goals. The CIE offers technical assistance, consultation, and resources related to supporting a sense of belonging and authentic social relationships between students with and without disabilities.

Deciding which instructional practices will result in the most significant achievement for all students is a key to great teaching. Whether your focus is a student with a disability, a high-achieving learner, or a child from poverty, practices like having focused goals, providing explicit instruction, student engagement and specific feedback focused on effort and correction shows high effect on student achievement.

MTSS is a comprehensive, integrated educational framework with a prevention-oriented, tiered delivery approach to instruction and assessment that uses data to help match academic, behavioral and social-emotional support to students’ need. Equity-based MTSS values and welcomes each and every student as a full member of their school and provides the support students need when needed, as long as needed.

A special education paraprofessional, sometimes called a teacher’s aide or assistant, can be a real right-hand person to the classroom teacher. The paraprofessional provides support to the teacher, class, and students.

Forty years of research shows improved academic, behavior, communication and social outcomes for students with significant disabilities educated in inclusive settings. Promoting students’ membership, participation and learning in general education classrooms is achievable when educators work in collaborative teams, with families, and are supported to use effective and efficient strategies.

Teaming defines the roles and communication strategies involved in carrying out whole education system transformation and the supportive transformation in action practices.

UDL is an an educational framework used to design and deliver flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences. With an aim to develop expert learners, UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that promote engagement and multiple means of representation and expression, that is, approaches that are flexible and can be customized and adjusted for each and every learner.