Blog
17 blog posts in 2023
Seven Suggestions to Help Districts Avoid Special Education Hearings: A Short-Term Win May Be a Long-Term Loss
New Blog discusses seven suggestions not just to help districts avoid special education litigation, but to help them to (a) truly educate all students with disabilities; and (b) collaborate with their...
Read Full ArticleResearch Does Not Support Growth Mindset Strategies in the Classroom
New Blog summarizes new meta-analytic research showing that growth mindset interventions’ effects on students’ academic achievement are likely due to inadequate study designs, reporting flaws, and inte...
Read Full ArticleWhen High School Students Have Significant Academic Gaps: More Concerns and Common Sense Solutions (Letters to the Editor)
New Blog revisits the instructional dilemma of having to choose between (a) providing critical intervention opportunities to high school students with significant prerequisite skills gaps in literacy,...
Read Full ArticleWhen State Policy Undermines Effective Practice: Too Much of Anything Often Results in Nothing (or Worse)
New Blog resolves the instructional dilemma of having to choose between (a) providing critical intervention opportunities to high school students with significant prerequisite skills gaps in literacy,...
Read Full ArticleIs the Restorative Discipline Bandwagon Rolling Back? Five Reasons Why Its Roll-Out Wasn’t Warranted in the First Place
New Blog analyzes current research, concluding that Restorative Discipline (a) has largely been a media-fed bandwagon that (b) has never been validated through methodologically-sound research, (c) inc...
Read Full ArticleNew Paths to Address Disproportionate Discipline with Black Students: New Directives, Research, Solutions, and Another Example of Racial Hate
Blog discusses solutions for disproportionate disciplinary referrals of students of color and with disabilities in our schools today. Two new research studies and their implications to school practice...
Read Full ArticleUsing “Flipped Learning” in a School’s Professional Development Initiative: Engaging Teachers and Support Staff in Outcome-Based PD—Even in a Virtual World
Blog describes an 18-month virtual PD initiative to enhance the multi-tiered (MTSS) services in the largest virtual school network in a mid-Atlantic state. A unique Flipped Learning approach with scho...
Read Full ArticleEnsuring that Post-Tenure Teachers Remain Actively Engaged as Collaborative Contributors in their Schools (Part IV)
Blog discusses the four Pillars of Teacher Proficiency. This last of a four-part series focuses on Pillar IV: how schools align their continuous school improvement processes with activities that put p...
Read Full ArticleMaintaining Teacher Motivation and Effectiveness After Tenure: Accountability, Growth, Coaching, and Continuous Improvement (Part III)
Blog discusses the four Pillars of Teacher Proficiency. This Part III focuses on Pillar III: how schools help teachers continue to grow and contribute to instructional processes in their classrooms, m...
Read Full ArticleNew Teacher Induction and “Tenure with Teeth”: Improving Hiring and Staffing in a Nation Where Teaching is At Risk (Part II)
Blog discusses the four Pillars needed to address continuing gaps in teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. This Part II focuses on how schools train and support three types of newly-hired teachers...
Read Full ArticleImproving Hiring and Staffing in a Nation Where Teaching is At Risk: If Student Success Depends on Teachers, Why is the Selection Process so Simplistic? (Part I)
Blog discusses the four Pillars needed to address continuing gaps in teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. This Part I focuses on how schools prepare to recruit and interview new candidates, and w...
Read Full ArticleHow the “System” Forces Schools into Decisions that Harm Struggling Students: The “Groundhog Day” Impact of Fear on Staff Mental Health and Job Retention
The movie Groundhog Day is metaphorically used to describe recurring experiences with MTSS Teams across the country who continue to use “mystifying” procedures, practices, and strategies—typically wit...
Read Full ArticleJudy Heumann, Special Education’s History of Litigation, and the Continuing Fight: Complacency and Defensiveness Still Stand in the Way of Students with Disabilities’ Rights
The passing of Judy Heumann, a special education advocate and legend, prompts this Blog’s review of the history of special education. The author reflects on his interactions with the advocates and lit...
Read Full ArticleSolutions for Selectively Mute Students and Educators: The Long-Term Adverse Educational Effects When Inappropriate Behavior is Ignored
Two variations of being “selectively mute” in education are discussed in this Blog. The first involves a case study of a student who is selectively mute, and the assessment to intervention approaches...
Read Full ArticleWas a First Grade Virginia Teacher Shot Because Her Student was Denied Special Education Services?
Blog describes how some districts do not have access to a continuum of special education services for students with behavioral challenges—including self-contained special education, day treatment, or...
Read Full ArticleWhy “Do” SEL If It Doesn’t Improve Student Behavior in the Classroom and Across the School?
Blog describes the components, social skills, instructional approach, and implementation characteristics to help schools teach students behaviorally-observable interpersonal, social problem-solving, c...
Read Full ArticleEbony and Ivory: Education’s “Racial Divide” Cannot be Crossed Until We Can “Talk Like Friends”
Blog describes and links to effective ways to help Black and White educators bridge the “racial divide” that exists in many schools—on behalf of increased collaboration and instructional effectiveness...
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