This book provides a comprehensive and practical guide to using the project approach when teaching young children with special needs. While focusing on children's individual strengths, which include their interests, intelligences, and unique styles of learning, this resource demonstrates teaching strategies that address multiple areas of…

In spite of theoretical validation and legal mandates in special education for parent participation, many studies have indicated that parents' roles in the Individualized Education Programs (IEP) process are still not noticeable and influential and that too often they are not being treated as an equal partner with school professionals. In…

This 5-year multisite mixed-methods evaluation study chronicles the field-testing of the planning process Guidelines for Selecting Alternatives to Overreliance on Paraprofessionals in 26 schools (Grades K-12) in six states. Evaluation of the utilization and outcomes of the guidelines process was based on data from 472 study participants. Findings…

Achieving positive postschool outcomes continues to be a challenge for many students. These challenges are compounded for students with disabilities, even years after the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (1990; IDEA) required systematic transition planning. In this era of accountability through high-stakes testing, schools and families…

Youths with disabilities are at risk of failing to complete high school and face considerable uncertainty as they attempt to transition toward a productive adulthood. One potential tool to help more of these youths to stay in school and provide them with information as to suitable post-school careers is the use of vocational assessments. This…

Perhaps no topic has as thoroughly vexed officials who oversee the nation's leading test of academic progress as the wide variation among states and cities in the proportion of students with disabilities and limited English proficiency whom they exclude from taking the exam or provide with special accommodations for it. The board that sets policy…

The present study examined the effect accommodations have on test results of students with and without disabilities and documented experts' judgments about the appropriateness of testing accommodations. Test score data were collected from 218 fourth-grade students with and without disabilities on mathematics and science performance tasks and from…

How do professionals address accountability mandates that are derived from the No Child Left Behind Act and the overall educational needs of students who are visually impaired during the school day? Meeting state and federal mandates while maintaining the individuality of educational programs is challenging for all educators. Teachers of students…

This guide is intended to help individuals with deaf-blindness or other severe disabilities and the people involved with them to plan positive futures. An introduction notes that Personal Futures Planning is different from other planning meetings in that all participants are there voluntarily, there are no rules, and the planning is done…

This packet of information focuses on innovative practices related to supported living for people with disabilities. It opens with an article by John O'Brien, "Supported Living: What It's Not," which summarizes common misunderstandings of supported living. The next section describes eight innovative agencies in the area of support…

Alternate Living, Incorporated (ALI) is a nonprofit agency supporting people with developmental disabilities in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which includes Annapolis and some of the development south of Baltimore. In 1987, in partnership with the Human Services Institute (a private training and consulting organization in Maryland) and with a…

This document presents an instrument to help families of special needs children to identify their resources and their concerns, for use in development of the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). The first part of the instrument includes a series of open-ended questions that provide families an opportunity to identify their concerns, in…

This report describes a 1988 site visit to Pride Industries, a private, nonprofit agency which operates an apartment program for individuals with developmental disabilities in Bismarck, North Dakota, through a contract with a regional office of North Dakota's Department of Developmental Disabilities. Pride Industries supports 34 people living in…

The philosophy of the open classroom is examined in detail by constructing two ideal typical classrooms to summarize both the open and closed classroom models, demonstrating how the open education approach responds favorably to three major areas of criticism for the present system: the classroom environment, teaching and learning, and…