What Works for Special Education and At-Risk Learners

A Framework for General Education Teachers and Administrators

Children with and without disabilities are increasingly more challenging in schools. Current legislation has increased accountability for the education of all children which has forced schools across the nation to redesign instruction for all children regardless of educational placement. What Works in Special Education and for At-risk Learners focuses on the implementation of general education initiatives in programs and schools serving all students including those with mild to severe disabilities. The book will provide strategies for improving the educational environment. The book will also look at issues that impact all levels of the school system emphasizing that in order to make effective changes the vision and goal setting must begin with the Superintendent and extend to the building administrator, the classroom teacher, the student and parent.What Works in Special Education offers a critical look at the current educational system and its impact on students while offering specific strategies for teachers and administrators to change the school climate in order to effectively teach all children. This book provides a framework, procedures and specific tools for assessing and implementing systems and strategies at all levels (from Central Office to the Classroom) in order to ensure that all children general grow and learn. These strategies can be used by general and special educators based on a district or a schools need to change the environment in order to increase positive student outcomes for all children regardless of abilities or disabilities. Tools and strategies are provided to cover topics including 1) Creating effective teams using strategies that increase communication, 2) Building leadership capacity among staff members 3) Developing, implementing , monitoring viable curriculum 4) Assessing engaged learning in special education classrooms and 5) Assessing school and teacher level factors for quality of implementation. The primary focus of the book is to assist teachers and administrators at all levels of a school system in implementing general education initiatives such as RTI/PBIS, general education curriculum and other strategies in order to include and not exclude students with disabilities or at-risk learners.