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…

This article challenges educational computing researchers and teacher educators to consider a merger between universal design for learning and technological pedagogical content knowledge to create a practitioners' model to prepare teachers to graduate with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to teach the full spectrum of learners.…

In this qualitative comparative case study, we drew from institutional theory and cultural historical activity theory to explore how educators wrote, used, and conceptualized the role of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students with specific learning disabilities within secondary inclusive settings. We found that students' IEPs were…

The educational policy Response to Intervention (RtI) was established in 2004 following the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA). In California, the policy has become known as Response to Intervention and Instruction (RtI[superscript 2]). RtI[superscript 2] represents an educational reform initiative that…

As recently as the 1970s, only a small number of children with disabilities were educated in public schools in the U.S. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) changed everything in 1975, mandating that states accepting public funds for education must provide special education services to children with disabilities. The 40th…

Placement decisions for students with severe disabilities have often been based less on the students' unique learning needs but more on beliefs and presumptions about student learning, entrenched school district policies that restrict program delivery options, and other variables unrelated to student needs. In light of the benefits associated with…

Placement decisions for students with severe disabilities have often been based less on the students' unique learning needs but more on beliefs and presumptions about student learning, entrenched school district policies that restrict program delivery options, and other variables unrelated to student needs. In light of the benefits associated with…

Schools should be safe, nurturing, and welcoming environments for all students. Frequently, exclusionary school discipline practices, which remove students from the classroom--even for minor infractions of school rules--through suspension or expulsion, prevent students from participating fully in their education. Suspensions, expulsions, and other…

High school computing education reform efforts have been ongoing across the United States, particularly in the past decade. Although national Computer Science (CS) for All initiatives are promising, states retain control over education policies. Recent computing education reform efforts in the state of Maryland (U.S.A.) focused on providing every…

The SWIFT Center will demonstrate how schools can be transformed to provide inclusive educational opportunities for all students. The SWIFT Center will address the key American goal of equal educational opportunity by assisting schools to reorganize in ways that enable them to fully deliver on inclusive, general education for all…

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) is a piece of federal legislation that directs schools and districts to provide students with disabilities a "free appropriate public education." It contains numerous legal tools that parents can use to compel schools to develop appropriate educational programming for their…

This dissertation focuses on the intersection of law and pedagogy in special education classrooms as constructed in the discourse of special education teachers. The fitful and sometimes merely symbolic implementation of the prescriptions of school reform laws in individual classroom settings is well known. This dissertation seeks to unpack this…

More than a decade has passed since the National Research Council described the common elements of effective educational programs for young children with autism. Since that time, few studies have attempted to understand the mechanisms of change and factors affecting the effectiveness of research supported interventions implemented in community…

This article presents the conceptual foundations and specific features of an ecologically oriented model of school-based organizational consultation. We begin by providing an overview of ecological theory. This is followed by a brief description of a model of school-based organizational consultation with a special focus on the ecological elements…

The aim of this essay is to advance understandings of current efforts to democratize disciplined approaches to educational innovation and improvement in the US and other countries, with a specific focus on the macro-level policy contexts of improvement research in education. In the US, earlier analyses examined these policy contexts from a…