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Following is an assortment of useful online resources that we are aware of—just click on the links below to take you to that set of resources. Please notify us of resources you recommend that we can share.
Websites
KU Department of Special Education research and professional development websites
The Department of Special Education (SPED) faculty and staff operate a number of research and professional development centers and websites that benefit individuals with disabilities and their families and the professionals who serve them. Across the country and abroad, professionals and families rely on KU resources for up-to-date and research-based information regarding the educational needs of children, youth, and adults with disabilities. To explore a number of our sites, link to our Department of Special Education Professional Resources page.
Best site for free lessons and materials
Edutopia magazine, April 2006, included two articles that mentioned 4teachers.org as a favorite site for downloading free lessons and materials and for classroom freebies. 4Teachers.org is hosted by ALTEC, an Advanced Learning Technologies project of the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning.
4Teachers.org works to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom by offering FREE online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use; discover fun games that offer a powerful approach to learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary and thinking skills. Teachers will also find valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs students. A few of the website’s most popular tools include: RubiStar, TrackStar, QuizStar, and Arcademic.
A related ALTEC site you may want to check out is 4kids.org, which was recently selected as a 2006 American Library Association's Great Web Sites for Kids. 4Kids.org is a team of educators, writers, artists, technology specialists and students that produces a weekly newspaper article and maintains the www.4Kids.org website. Their vision is to pursue more effective ways of creating learning environments for all children through advancing technologies such as the Internet. Read more about 4Kids in this KU Oread article.
Transition Coalition site offers information, tools, training modules
Transition Coalition is a center within the University of Kansas, Department of Special Education that supports professional development in the transition of youth with disabilities. The Transition Coalition website is free of charge and offers numerous opportunities to obtain information, validated training, and resources that can assist secondary special educators, parents, community agency personnel, and others to improve transition results for youth with disabilities. Of the site’s over 1400 registered users, at least half are educators working with secondary age youth.
The site includes a resources section that can be printed and links to other sites, as well as a collaboration section in which the focus is on practitioners and families sharing information, practices and support with one another.
However, the bulk of the site is comprised of four self-paced training modules that are available to anyone at anytime. These four modules are: Best Practices in Transition Planning, Transition Assessment, Working With Families, and Secondary Transition and Cultural Diversity. Each training module consists of a pre/post test, three content sessions, and a portfolio which contains all of the resources and responses to activities in the sessions. The modules are case-based in that once content is presented, the users are asked to apply their new knowledge to case stories based on real students with a variety of disabilities. Users have ongoing access to their portfolio and can share their work on the online modules with others.
Users have reported an increased knowledge of the module contents, that the case-based activities as well as other features of the modules contributed to their learning, and that the modules are important resources for them in the future.
FREE teaching resources
If you’re not familiar with the FREE website, it’s definitely worth checking out. FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) is a website that makes teaching and learning resources from federal agencies easier to find. Resources include teaching ideas, learning activities, photos, maps, primary documents, data, paintings, sound recordings, and more on thousands of topics. Users can easily find out the site’s latest additions, which are added several times a week, or use the search function to find just the right resource. The site also offers an RSS feed through which users can get new resources delivered right to their desktop.
Tools
Beach Center on Disability Family Quality of Life Scale
A psychometrically valid scale developed by the KU Beach Center on Disability to measure a family’s quality of life is making an impact on family research throughout the world. In the last 12 months, the Beach Center has received more than 47 requests for permission to use the Beach Center Family Quality of Life (FQOL) Scale from researchers and practitioners interested in measuring how families who have a member with a disability view their quality of life. The Scale also has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Hindi. The Beach Center is even involved with an international working group on Family Quality of Life to engage in global studies to learn more about family quality of life for children with disabilities. For more information, view complete article in this issue of Special Education Connection.
National State Policy Database
The Regional Resource & Federal Center Network, in collaboration with NASDSE’s Project Forum, has developed a valuable search tool. Now, in one location—you can search, copy, and cite state and federal special education regulations—in the NSPD (National State Policy Database).
Custom table builder tool
On this edweek site we discovered a great resource for education data that you might find helpful.
Midway down the text titled "Education Counts," you'll see the link "Custom Table Builder." Click on that and you are on your way to building a broad array of tables to display a host of educational statistics that relate to finance, teacher quality, student achievement, special education, ELL, etc. You can do this for all of the states or for select states. Do you remember seeing Count on Sesame Street? Every time he saw a number, he would compulsively start to count because he was so turned on to numbers. Well, if you have those tendencies, you'll think you’re a child in a candy store. Build away!
New technical assistance materials for assessments for students with disabilities
John H. Hager, assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), U.S. Department of Education, earlier this year announced availability of the Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students With Disabilities, a collaborative effort of OSERS and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), to assist states in raising the achievement of all students with disabilities.
The Tool Kit provides up-to-date guidance on designing and implementing high-quality assessments for students with disabilities. Included is a set of technical assistance products that offer practical, research-based approaches to the challenges schools are facing in the areas of assessment, instruction, behavioral interventions and use of accommodations for students with disabilities. In addition, the kit includes information about research now under way to further expand our knowledge about how best to support teaching, learning and assessing.
To facilitate broad dissemination of these materials, a website has been launched, accessible through http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers, which includes the materials in the Tool Kit. The website will be updated with additional materials as they become available.
Department of Education releases model forms for IEP, procedural safeguards, prior written notice
In accordance with IDEA 2004, the Department of Education has released model forms to help states and local education agencies in developing individualized education programs (IEP), procedural safeguard communications and prior written notice communications. Congress had required the Department to issue such model forms in the reauthorization of IDEA to ensure that these communications are consistent with the requirements under Part B of IDEA.
The model forms for the IEP, procedural safeguard notification and prior written notice communications provide states and localities with sample documents that can be used to ensure compliance with IDEA 2004.
Reports
Principles for reauthorization of No Child Left Behind
The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Education Task Force has developed Principles for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. HECSE (Higher Education Consortium for Special Education) and TED (Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children) are two of 38 national organizations that have endorsed these principles. Both organizations provided considerable input in the development of these principles.
In preparation for the upcoming reauthorization of NCLB, CCD will be distributing this document to Members of Congress in the next couple of months.
NCLB Commission report
Earlier this year the NCLB Commission issued a report titled "Children with Disabilities and LEP Students: Their Impact on AYP Determinations of Schools." The report provides data from five states indicating that it is very rare for a school to fail to meet AYP because of students with disabilities. These data stand in stark contrast to frequent reports about special education students being the reason schools fail to meet AYP.
The report also raises the concern about how few students with disabilities are actually included in the accountability system. For example, in the state of California, only 9% of schools report students with disabilities as a subgroup for AYP purposes.
Reviewing this report and sharing this information with others will help correct some common misperceptions that exist about the involvement of students with disabilities and LEP learners in NCLB testing. Hopefully, better understanding of the issues schools face will help facilitate improved learning opportunities for all students.
New CSRQC resources on students with disabilities
New resources from the Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center:
Questions That Educators Can Ask About the Participation of Students With Disabilities in School Reform and Improvement Models is a considerations checklist that can be used by educators to assess the capacity of school reform and improvement models to address the needs of students with disabilities. This checklist supplements the CSRQ Center's Enhancing the Participation of Students with Disabilities in CSR Models, a guide that offers strategies to enhance the engagement of students with disabilities in school reform models.
Educators are also encouraged to use this checklist in conjunction with CSRQ Center Reports that provide guidance on the effectiveness and quality of widely implemented elementary, middle, and high school CSR models and Education ServiceProviders (ESPs).
For more information on these resources or to download other CSRQ Center Reports, visit the CSRQ website or contact them at (866) 544-8686, csrq@air.org.
New IDEA Regs - Federal Register version
The IDEA regs were published in the Federal Register on August 14. This version is 307 pages—down from about 1,500 pages!
News from Project Forum
Following is new Information from Project Forum @ the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) regarding issues related to ELL and disabilities, transition, and standards-based IEPs.
The following new Project Forum documents were prepared under Federal Cooperative Agreement H326F050001, H326F000001, H32F050001, and H326F000001.
English Language Learners with Disabilities: Identification and Other State Policies and Issues
This In-Depth Policy Analysis includes background information and data from interviews. Interviews were conducted with representatives from each special education unit in seven states regarding current state staffing and initiatives and policies that focus on identifying English language learners as students with disabilities. Background topics covered include prevalence data and disproportionality research; extant outcome data; and federal policy and court rulings. Findings include state staffing; state activities; state policies; state personnel preparation and certification; key challenges; and best practice and policy recommendations from states. A resource list is included.
National Longitudinal Transition Study-2: A Synthesis of Three NLTS2 Reports on Going to School, Youth Achievements and Services and Supports
This In-Brief Policy Analysis synthesizes three reports from the NLTS2. It describes students with disabilities’ school and classroom contexts, patterns of course taking, characteristics of classroom instruction; highlights student outcomes related to school programs and experiences and parent expectations; and discusses the importance and challenges of providing services and supports for youth with disabilities. A discussion of policy implications and next steps for future analyses of NLTS2 is given.
Standards-Based IEPs: Implementation in Selected States
This In-Depth Policy Analysis builds on previous Project Forum work, defines “standards-based IEPs and describes implementation in 18 states. The data collected confirmed the existence of significant policy changes in states and extensive investments in professional development. This document is an analysis of the most recent developments in some states that are implementing standards-based IEPs. It is written to further the recognition of this evolving movement and to stimulate additional sharing and conversation among states.
State and Local Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act study: SLIIDEA Series
This series of In-Brief Policy Analyses synthesizes three sections of the SLIIDEA report and provides implications for policy:
Increasing the Use of Positive Approaches for Addressing Behavioral Issues of Students with IEPs
Placing and Serving Children with Disabilities in the LRE
Increasing Involvement of Parents of Children with Disabilities
Each document in the series synthesizes findings from The Study of State and Local Implementation and Impact of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Final 2nd Interim Report (2002-2003 School Year), completed by Abt Associates.
Unified Early Childhood and Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Certification: State Approaches
States are increasingly offering what they describe as a “single certificate” for early childhood and early childhood special education (i.e., certification that covers children both with and without disabilities). This document describes states’ approaches to these single certificates based on a survey of 17 state staff members and an interview with seven of them. The findings are reported based on the purpose and nature of the unified endorsements including staffing, personnel preparation, certification procedures, barriers and outcomes from the implementation of these endorsements.
These documents, along with nearly 100 others, is available for download on the new NASDSE Project Forum website.
The new website includes a strong Boolean search engine to find any Project Forum document. These documents are designed to be useful for planning initiatives, developing technical assistance plans, designing policy, and much more. Also included on the site are sections for suggesting topics and adding yourself to the dissemination list, as well as links for accessing other important sites.
Contact person for Project Forum is Paula J. Burdette, Ph.D., Project Forum, NASDSE, 1800 Diagonal Rd Suite 320, Alexandria, VA 22314, (703) 519-3800 x335, fax (703)519-3808, paula.burdette@nasdse.org.
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Contact
Special Education
Joseph R. Pearson Hall,
Rm. 521
1122 West Campus Rd.
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045 3101phone: (785) 864-0556
fax: (785) 864-4149
kuseconnect@ku.edu
Related Info
Transition Coalition
University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning
Beach Center on Disability
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