Introduction: The primary purpose of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is to ensure free appropriate public education for individuals with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. The statute also mandates student's access and services for students' access to devices and technology as part of the individual education…

One of the key concepts of the NCLB legislation was the improvement of student achievement in academics with the use of technology (NCLB, 2001). Ironically, the NCLB mandate of accountability has not provided the necessary resources for achieving its goals, and students with disabilities are, in fact, being left behind. Therefore, the law is…

This article chronicles the development of a portfolio system used primarily to assess special education high school students on a variety of traditional and non-traditional standards and skills. Developing, capturing, sharing, and assessing student learning can be problematic when traditional testing or classroom assessment methods are not an…

The last 20 years of federal legislation have seen a growth in the requirement that evidence-based practices be used to ensure improved student outcomes. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) and No Child Left Behind (2001) each require educators to research, develop, and implement new practices aimed at meeting this expectation.…

U.S. federal policies No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top resulted in a policy overlap that created unique challenges and opportunities for administrators. This study examined principals' perceptions of an overlapping accountability-innovation policy context and their sense of how the policies affected their role as leaders. Primary data for…

In recent years, the federal government (under Republican and Democratic administrations alike) has encouraged the outsourcing of core parts of public education's work, including testing and test preparation, teaching and tutoring, data collection, and human resources management. However, researchers have found little evidence to support policy…

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in English-Language environments offer practice time, motivates students, enhance student learning, increase authentic materials that students can study, and has the potential to encourage teamwork between students. The findings from this particular study suggested that students who used computer assisted…

Recent increases in high school graduation rates have been linked anecdotally to online course-taking for credit recovery. Online course-taking that supports high school completion could open opportunities for postsecondary education pursuits. Alternatively, poorer quality online instruction could diminish student learning and discourage…

Physical education is at a crossroads in the 21st century. With government mandates related to the No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2001) emphasizing core subjects, such as math and literacy, non-core subjects have been deemphasized. The most recent "Shape of the Nation Report" (National Association for Sport and…

There is a great need for new innovative tools to integrate individuals with intellectual disability into educational experiences. This multiple baseline study examined the effects of various adaptations for improving factual and inferential comprehension of non-fiction videos by six postsecondary students with intellectual disability. Video…

Science is a core curricular area of instruction for all students and the federal mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) and No Child Left Behind (2001) require that students with disabilities are educated in the least restrictive environment and have access to general education science content, based upon rigorous…

This article challenges educational computing researchers and teacher educators to consider a merger between universal design for learning and technological pedagogical content knowledge to create a practitioners' model to prepare teachers to graduate with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to teach the full spectrum of learners.…

"Data-driven" teaching and learning is common sense in education today, and it is common sense that these data should come from standardized tests. Critiques of standardization either make no constructive suggestions for what to use in place of the tests or they call for better, more scientifically rigorous, reliable, and…

Federal mandates require technology use in the classroom, but not all English language arts (ELA) teachers have implemented technology as an integral part of teaching. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate why ELA teachers in 2 local high schools rarely or never use technology as an instructional tool. The study was…

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions about the viability and benefit of using a digital music curriculum in the elementary music classroom. A survey was created that focused on three leading digital curricula providers: PK-5/8: "Quaver's Marvelous World of Music®", "MusicPlay Online®" by Themes and…