As state education agencies turn their focus to preparing students for both college and careers, work-based learning is becoming an increasingly popular strategy for students to reinforce and deepen their classroom learning, explore future career fields and demonstrate their skills in an authentic setting. While much of the hard work to identify,…

Legislation and policy lead to action. In the absence of law or policy, situations are addressed on a case-by-case basis or they are sometimes ignored. Legislation and policy become extremely important when they relate to groups that have traditionally been marginalized, such as students with disabilities or students with gifts and talents, and…

As the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is implemented, the Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation (CSAI) has received queries regarding accountability requirements, particularly in regard to reporting data for subgroups of students. CSAI recently sought to answer this latter question by reviewing the ESSA. Additionally, CSAI reviewed…

Response to Intervention (RTI) has become the gateway to identification for many students with specific learning disabilities. Those include students in the 17 states that require RTI as the source of eligibility data as well as many students in the 33 states that allow districts to choose RTI among other options (e.g., discrepancy). There is…

Young children with disabilities may be at elevated risk for behavior problems as well as maltreatment. preventive approaches that can be infused into early intervention services are needed to support parents, build competencies among young children, and enhance protective factors that may temper risk. Two interventions--Stepping Stones Triple P,…

Dyslexia is a neurologically-based, lifelong condition that affects a person's ability to process language, which in turn can make reading and writing more difficult. Between 10 and 20 percent of all people are dyslexic. Providing appropriate reading instruction and intervention for young children by second grade could reduce the percentage of…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) contains procedural safeguard provisions for parents [20 U.S.C. section 615]. Among these safeguards are (1) dispute resolution, (2) mediation, and (3) administrative hearing. Getty and Summy (2004) contend that some district litigation could be prevented if districts were…

This study focused on terms anchored in special education and associated stigma of disability in schools. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ensured the right to education in US public school systems for students with disabilities. An associated term asserted that children with disabilities must be educated in the least restrictive…

Raising academic standards and eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are America's prime national educational goals. Current federal and state policies, however, largely ignore the fact that the childhood poverty rate in the United States is 21%, the highest in the industrialized world, and that poverty…

This individual profile provides information on South Carolina's high school exit exam standards and policies. Some of the categories presented include: (1) State exit exam policy; (2) Type of Test; (3) Purpose; (4) Major changes in exit exam policy since the 2009-10 school year for financial reasons; (5) Subjects tested on exam; (6) Grade exam…

Since the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; 1997) through the current reauthorization (IDEA 2004), disciplinary procedures and functional behavioral assessment (FBA) have been widely used in school districts to assist in the prevention and amelioration of problem behaviors. Although researchers have…

The "National Dropout Prevention Newsletter" is published quarterly by the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Policy Matters; (2) A Conversation With A State Policymaker (Stephen Canessa); (3) Policy Matters at the School Level (Steven W. Edwards); (4) EEDA: Promise or Peril? (Sam…

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between special education confidence, knowledge, and selected demographics of agricultural education student teachers in the American Association of Agricultural Education southern region. A significant, low, positive association existed between total confidence and knowledge of providing…

The intent of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all their students achieve mastery in reading and math, with a particular focus on groups that have traditionally been left behind. Under NCLB, states submit accountability plans to the U.S. Department of Education detailing the rules and…

The intent of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all their students achieve mastery in reading and math, with a particular focus on groups that have traditionally been left behind. Under NCLB, states have leeway to: (1) Craft their own academic standards, select their own tests, and define…