The COVID-19 pandemic initiated an unprecedented shift in special education practice from brick-and-mortar instruction to online learning. This manuscript explores factors related to the shift and argues the COVID-19 disruption creates an opportunity for systemic educational reform. The Universal Design for Learning framework is presented as a…

Recently, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported that although countries around the world must ensure that students with disabilities receive free, inclusive, and appropriate education, students with disabilities are less likely to complete primary or secondary school in many countries. Though this…

This article addresses the important topic of culturally proficient/responsive school administrators for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with learning disabilities (LD). Culturally proficient/responsive school administrators with knowledge and strong leadership skills in multicultural education are essential to impact school…

This article provides a brief primer overview of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis. DIF analysis investigates a differential characteristic of a test item between subpopulations of examinees and is useful in detecting possibly biased items toward a particular subpopulation. As demonstration, a dataset from a 40-item math test in a…

Getting research-based instructional practices into the hands of professionals who teach students with learning disabilities is one of the most significant challenges for educators. This paper describes some of the major factors accounting for the gaps that exist between the special education research and classroom practice and presents four major…

One of the challenges to the transition to postsecondary education for students with learning disabilities is the ever-increasing gap between the assessment information that is collected at the secondary level and the demands for documentation prevalent at the postsecondary level. This article discusses the: (a) differences between secondary and…