In elementary mathematics instruction, teachers often compromise access and cognitive demand in pursuit of one or the other. I explored how five different co-teaching models impact students' access to cognitively demanding mathematical learning opportunities (MLOs) in elementary classrooms. Through ethnographic lesson observations, artifact…

School administrators' support is vital in changing the culture of any educational setting. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how school administrators describe their support of co-teaching practices in high school inclusive classrooms in the northeastern Tri-state region of the United States. The Social Justice…

Research and understanding of principals' definitions of inclusion, along with the leadership competencies they identify as necessary in supporting this definition, is lacking and has not been done in this study's context previously. The purpose of this study was to understand how school principals define inclusion as it pertains to students with…

Every educator needs a toolkit of strategies to ensure that students of different abilities, backgrounds, and learning profiles achieve success in the classroom. Rather than requiring busy educators to read copious amounts of research and theory first, "Practical Strategies for Managing a Diverse Classroom" flips the script, providing…

Our nation has declining participation in science and technology fields, even though in the United States we have seen an astounding collection of innovations in technology, communication, the Internet, and financial products. This lack of participation is even more noticeable for students with learning disabilities (SWLD) when compared to general…

While virtual and online schools for students in grades K-12 gained in popularity before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and served a wide variety of student populations, including students with disabilities during the pandemic virtual teaching became the reluctant norm. As online school sites have begun to welcome students with…

Co-teaching is the most popular model for supporting students with disabilities in the general education setting. However, the limited research that supports this framework as effective for increasing outcomes for students with disabilities may indicate co-teachers have difficulty providing students with specialized instruction to meet individual…

As schools reopen their doors and students return to the classroom, what will the "new normal" of special education look like? The pandemic exposed educational inequities and areas of urgent need--and now, schools have a unique opportunity to press pause and reimagine their practices. This book helps K-12 school leaders and educators…

Classroom teachers are responsible for creating inclusive classrooms wherein every learner has the opportunity to succeed. Challenges include insufficient training and education in the areas of student exceptionalities, changing funding models and potential budget cuts, and effective coteaching. Steps must be taken to bridge the gap between what…

When Dan Damelin was a high school chemistry teacher, he always asked for the lower-level science classes with a high portion of students on individualized education plans (IEPs). He felt these students could do as well as everyone else with the right approach and technological supports, and wanted to explore how an inquiry approach using…

Students with and without learning disabilities in high school chemistry classes, either co-taught or self-contained, received instruction on calculating molar conversions using universal design for learning (UDL) or business-as-usual techniques. For Study 1, posttest scores of students with and without learning disabilities (LD) in co-taught…

Too many students still experience the factory model evident in most U.S. high schools, which were designed to put young people on a conveyor belt and move them from one overloaded teacher to the next, in 45-minute increments, to be stamped with separate, disconnected lessons 7 or 8 times a day. While these factory-model designs may have worked…

School organization is a key driver for meaningful inclusion for students with disabilities. While there are promising examples of how schools organize for inclusion with intensive technical assistance, little is known about how high schools organize without such supports. In a case study of two high schools, we compare school organization by…

This case study of two fourth-grade teachers explored teachers' literacy instructional practices and perceptions of their professional agency during the hybrid synchronous teaching of the COVID-19 pandemic. In anticipation of the challenges of hybrid synchronous instruction, these teachers combined their classes to co-teach 39 students. Analysis…

Before there were children with disabilities in typical schools in North America, there was only hope and need. Before the creation of highly specialized plans of education, individualized instruction techniques, methods of differentiating group instruction or regulations mandating the adherence to government regulations, there were only families,…