Introduction: The learning media assessment (LMA) process is the mechanism professionals use to determine a student's optimal learning and reading media. Currently, no tool has been validated for the purpose of conducting the LMA process. Methods: A Delphi approach was used whereby a panel of identified experts in the LMA process went through…

This 20-year follow-up study examined elementary special educators' use of curriculum-based measurement. Elementary special educators (N = 1,077) in four Midwest states participated in the survey. Results indicated that the overall use of CBM was much higher than 20 years ago with reading CBM as the most prevalent area of monitoring with data used…

As states, districts, and schools plan to return for the 2021-22 school year, questions are raised about whether and how to test children with disabilities, including children with the most significant cognitive disabilities and English learners with disabilities. This FAQ addresses some common questions and provides links to useful resources.

Accessibility is a hot topic in online education these days. Despite the increased focus on accessibility, most discussions of creating "accessible" online courses and elearning simply focus on adding alternative text to images and captions to video. In this article, we argue that online educators and workplace learning professionals…

"Autism from the Inside Out" is the first book to focus on providing Irish parents, early childhood, primary, post-primary and special school teachers with effective strategies for supporting children with autism spectrum difference at home and in educational settings. Presenting contributions from a range of national and international…

The primary message of the Supreme Court's ruling in "Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District" (hereinafter "Endrew F.," 2017) was that school districts are obligated to "offer an IEP [individualized education program] that is reasonably calculated to enable the child to make progress appropriate in light of the…

This article shares the story of Jose, a student that presents an extreme example of what can happen to deaf and hard of hearing children in our nation's schools when assessment data is either inaccurate or ignored and parental input is absent. Presenting a unique challenge to the educational system, each deaf or hard of hearing child is at the…

For Wisconsin schools and districts, implementing an equitable multi-level system of supports means providing equitable services, practices, and resources to every learner based upon responsiveness to effective instruction and intervention. In this system, high quality instruction, strategic use of data, and collaboration interact within a…

What is Goal Attainment Scaling? In this article, Lee Ann Jung defines it as a way to measure a student's progress toward an individualized goal. Instead of measuring a skill at a set time (for instance, on a test or other assignment), Goal Attainment Scaling tracks the steps a student takes over the course of a year in a targeted skill. Together,…

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) strives to provide every student with a positive and productive assessment experience, generating results that are a fair and accurate estimate of each student's achievement. Further, Smarter Balanced is building on a framework of accessibility for all students, including English…

This report is an update of the assessment principles and guidelines for English language learners published in 2013 (Thurlow, Liu, Ward, & Christensen). That report, which was developed by the Improving the Validity of Assessment Results for English Language Learners with Disabilities (IVARED) project, presented essential principles of…

When schools in Pennsylvania and across the nation were suddenly shuttered in March due to COVID-19, teachers were faced with an enormous challenge: how to effectively teach and engage their students remotely when the vast majority had never done so before. In order to meet this challenge, teachers turned to an array of digital tools-such as Zoom,…

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) strives to provide every student with a positive and productive assessment experience, generating results that are a fair and accurate estimate of each student's achievement. Further, Smarter Balanced is building on a framework of accessibility for all students, including English…

This booklet has been developed in hopes that it may aid in keeping communication open and focused between families and schools. Building communication between parents and the school staff through letters offers a way of keeping records of ideas, concerns, and suggestions. This booklet provides general guidelines to writing letters as well as…

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) strives to provide every student with a positive and productive assessment experience, generating results that are a fair and accurate estimate of each student's achievement. Further, Smarter Balanced is building on a framework of accessibility for all students, including English…