This article argues that test takers are as integral to determining validity of test scores as defining target content and conditioning inferences on test use. A principled sustained attention to how students interact with assessment opportunities is essential, as is a principled sustained evaluation of evidence confirming the validity or calling…

Early reading literacy is foundational to all other academic learning. It is imperative that elementary students with and without disabilities be provided with evidence-based reading instruction. Elementary students with developmental disabilities (DD) and complex communication needs (CCN) benefit from evidence-based reading instruction that…

Tens of thousands of students begin each new school year with the hope that they will finally find "the" teacher who will help them succeed as readers, writers, and learners. This book shows how teachers can provide the type of differentiated instruction that struggling readers need by drawing on students' individual and cultural backgrounds, as…

Competency education is attracting significant interest as a promising way to help meet our national priority of ensuring that all young people are ready for college and careers. In competency-based schools, students advance at different rates, based on their ability to demonstrate mastery of learning objectives. Teachers provide customized…

The department editors, joined by classroom teachers from Wisconsin and reading specialists from Tennessee, examine across geographical and school boundaries the current practices of teachers who are initiating Response to Intervention (RTI) instruction. They address three goals of RTI that focus on providing systematic instruction of student…

Differentiated instruction is an educational approach that adjusts instruction to accommodate individual students' needs, rather than beginning at a predetermined set point. This approach is meant to increase both student learning and motivation. Because traditional instruction tends to "teach to the middle," or primarily focus on reaching average…

The last three decades of the twentieth century will witness a drastic change in the business of providing instruction in schools and colleges. The idea of "individualized instruction" has been pursued in a desultory fashion by American educators for most of the century. There have been several different concepts of individualization, the most…

This study synthesizes published and unpublished research on the effects of adaptive education on student outcomes. The study found adaptive education affects student outcomes positively and suggests that tailoring instruction to individual students is more effective than traditional educational methods. (MD)

The paper offers a four-tiered model of public school inservice programs including: (1) generic training content; (2) parent and community training; (3) training in assessment, behavior management, and instructional strategies; and (4) training in a clinical supervision model. Inservice training formats and incentives are also addressed. (DB)

This book is divided into two parts: a discussion of the role of individualized instruction in today's schools, and a detailed description of objectives and implementation of the Duluth Individualized Mathematics Program. In the first part, the author argues that schools should not be preservers of tradition but agents of change; diversity should…

The Individually Prescribed Instruction (IPI) Project incorporates minute facilities for evaluating and improving its effectiveness constantly, where necessary, so that it may achieve its desired goals. A field test of IPI on 25 schools in the school year 1967-8 comprising three areas of inquiry emphasized this feature. The schools were tested and…

This article describes some ways counselors can use their skills to help teachers individualize instruction. The author describes the four basic components of most programs of individualized instruction, suggesting tasks counselors could perform relating to each component. The author concludes that the interested counselor is able to contribute…

The "Armstrong Diagnostic and Prescriptive Technique" of curriculum modification involves modifying the curriculum, first, to accommodate the shared learning characteristics of gifted students and, second, to accommodate individual differences. Use of the technique and checklist are illustrated by a case study. (DB)

A Colorado elementary school used its assessment program to measure everything that affected student performance; they then changed or cut anything that did not improve achievement. Teachers routinely instructed and pretested each child at his/her achievement level. The result: high gains on the 1998 Colorado State Assessment. (MLH)