Blog

21 blog posts in 2016

What the Next Director of the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Needs to Do to "Right the Ship"

My “First 100 Days” if I was Appointed the New OSEP DirectorDear Colleagues,This is clearly a pivotal time for our country—politically, on all social and economic fronts, relative to our national and...

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When Character Education Programs Do Not Work: The Difference between “Being Aware” and “Behaving”

TEACHING Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills Requires Behavioral InstructionDear Colleagues,The marketing of “Character Education” curricula, programs, and materials is a big business in this cou...

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Beating Kids in Schools: How Corporal Punishment Reinforces Bias, Violence, Trauma, Poor Social Problem-Solving, and the Fallacy of Intervention

The Alternative? Eliminate Corporal Punishment by Preventing its Need, and Implementing Interventions that Actually Change Student BehaviorDear Colleagues,Early in my career—well over 30 years ago—I s...

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Braiding Five Critical Concerns for Children: Reading Instruction, Grade Retention, Skill Remediation, Response-to-Intervention, and Chronic Absences

Why Effective Practice Needs to Dictate Good Policy (Rather than the Other Way Around)Dear Colleague,There are times in education where we get so focused on the individual trees in our forest, that we...

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National Policies, State Procedures, and Local Practices: Avoiding Untested Traps and Unhelpful Trends

Links to My “Most-Liked” Blogs: Effective Practice, Questionable Policies, and Unproven BandwagonsDear Colleague,Since 2003, I have been writing this Blog. . . analyzing essential policies and critica...

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U.S. Department of Education Reminds Educators about Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports for Students with Disabilities

But… Watch Out for Their References and RecommendationsDear Colleagues,In this day and age where we are inundated by literally millions of news-related, job-specific, and social-media “feeds” each day...

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Political Doublespeak, Students with Disabilities, and Common Sense: A Legal Case Study on Students’ Rights and Standards-based IEPs

How Departments of Education Use Language, Fear, and Ignorance to Get their WayDear Colleagues,I now do a lot of Expert Witness work around the country- - usually helping parents and legal advocacy fi...

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From One Extreme to the Other: Changing School Policy from “Zero Tolerance” to “Total Tolerance” Will Not Work

Decreasing Disproportionate Discipline Referrals and Suspensions Requires Changing Student and Staff BehaviorDear Colleagues,As we begin the new school year, many districts and schools are appropriate...

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Effective School Discipline, Classroom Management, and Student Self-Management: The Five Components that Every School Needs

Reflections on a National Survey of Administrators and TeachersDear Colleagues,I hope you had a great summer. . . but (believe it or not), for some of you the summer is already over- - and school has...

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Rethinking School Improvement and Success, Staff Development and Accountability, and Students' Academic and Behavioral Proficiency

Using ESEA/ESSA’s New Flexibility to Replace the U.S. Department of Education’s Ineffective NCLB InitiativesDear Colleagues,In my last Blog post (July 9, 2016), I discussed:Why Students Don't Behave:...

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Why Students Don't Behave? Because We are not Teaching Them the Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills They Need

The Unfulfilled Promise of Education: Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral SkillsWhy the “Soft Skills” are the Hard Skills, and Why they are Essential for Students’ Academic SuccessDear Colleag...

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ADHD Students in School: Helping Them to be Successful in the Classroom

New CDC Report: Why Behavioral Interventions at Home and School are Needed to “Add Value” Even When the Medication “is Working”Dear Colleague,According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagno...

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How to Improve your Chronically Absent Students’ Attendance… During the Summer Break

Why Now is the Best Time to Analyze, Understand, Plan, and Implement Strategic Interventions for your Most-Absent StudentsDear Colleagues,Earlier this year, on March 20th, I asserted that (grade) Rete...

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The Difference between Social Stories and Social Skills Training? A BIG Difference!

If You Don’t Know, Get a Consult. . . Before You End Up in CourtDear Colleague, As most of you concluded or have near-concluded your school year, I spent most of this past week in Court. Not to wo...

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Student Engagement (Down), Teacher Job Satisfaction (Down), School Safety and Academic Expectations (Down)

Helping to Raise our Students and Schools UpDear Colleague,In today’s message, I am actually going to start with the “punch lines” and work backwards.In working backwards, I am going to weave together...

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School Resource Officers: Helping or Hurting Students and School Discipline?

Integrating Hiring, Training, and Deployment Criteria for School Resource Officers, School-based Police, and Security Guards into States’ ESEA-Required Bullying, Restraint, and Suspension PlansDear Co...

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Grade Retention is NOT an Intervention: How WE Fail Students when THEY are Failing in School

Improving Grade Retention Policy, Practice, and ResultsDear Colleagues,Last week, I was sitting in on a series of meetings between the multidisciplinary Student Assistance Team (involving the Principa...

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The New ESEA/ESSA: Discontinuing the U.S. Department of Education’s School Turn-Around, and Multi-tiered Academic (RtI) and Behavioral (PBIS) System of Support (MTSS) Frameworks

Using ESEA/ESSA’s New Flexibility to Purge the U.S. Department of Education’s Ineffective NCLB InitiativesDear Colleagues,Let’s start here:We DO need tohelp failingschools to turn-around and improve.W...

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Reviewing Mindfulness and Other Mind-Related Programs: More Bandwagons that Need to be Derailed? (Part II)

Why are Schools Wasting their Time and Resources on Fads with Poor Research and Unrealistic Results?Dear Colleagues,Over the past year or more, the educational community has become obsessed with a num...

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Reviewing Mindfulness and Other Mind-Related Programs: Have We Just Lost our Minds? (Part I)

Why Schools Sometimes Waste their Time and (Staff) Resources on Fads with Poor Research and Unrealistic ResultsDear Colleagues,It is amazing to me that some schools and districts claim that they do no...

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Building Strong Staff Relationships and Effective, Productive Teams- - The Ultimate Staff Strategies for School Success (Part II)

The 7 C’s of Staff Success: Building Strong RelationshipsDear Colleagues,Happy Belated New Year !!!! With the holiday season and our transition into a new year now passed. . . and at least two weeks b...

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