Week in Review - September 23, 2022


 

NASET

WEEK IN REVIEW

National Association of Special Education Teachers

September 23, 2022                 Vol 18 Issue #38


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Dear NASET Members and Guests,

Welcome to NASET's WEEK in REVIEW.  Here, we provide you with the latest publications fromNASET to read and or download, as well as some of the most interesting articles that have happened this week in the field of special education. We hope you enjoy this publication.  Feel free to send us articles for this publication or let us know your thoughts about the WEEK in REVIEW at news@naset.org. Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

 

WHATS NEW AT NASET

NASET’s LD Report

They Sing Their Way to Reading

 

By Matthew Glavach, Ph.D.

This issue of NASET’s LD Report was written by Matthew Glavach, Ph.D. Listening to, playing, reading, and creating music, involves practically every part of the brain.   Musical rhythm and language rhythm are the same.  Music and literacy are a natural fit.  Songs with lyrics complement literacy activities. Music with lyrics can give children a head-start on reading; they may also help children with reading problems including dyslexia. 

Read More


NASET ADVOCACY - Board Certification for Advocacy in Special Education (BCASE)


U.S. Department of Education Disperses Funds to Support Parents of Children with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education is announcing an additional $2.5 million investment to centers that serve a critical role for parents and families of students with disabilities across the nation. These supplemental grants to Parent Training and Information Centers (PTIs) ensure that all families have the information and training they need to participate effectively in helping their children and navigating the special education system. Two additional grants have been awarded to new Community Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs) in Arkansas and New York. These programs are part of the national network of 27 existing CPRCs and 65 PTIs. With the goal of supporting parents of the more than 7 million children with disabilities of all ages, from birth through age 26, parent center programs began as a single experimental center more than 45 years ago and have grown into a robust technical assistance program that directs more than $30 million in fiscal year 2023 across the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US territories. Read More

 

High School Students with Disabilities Achieve Better Outcomes in Inclusive Academic Settings

Indiana high school students with disabilities who spent 80% of their educational time in general education classrooms scored higher on state reading and math assessments and were better prepared for postsecondary education and employment opportunities than their peers in less inclusive settings, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers. "We are currently in a time when the experience of 'community' is being stressed in multiple ways in our society," said Hardy Murphy, study co-author and a clinical professor in the School of Education at IUPUI. "Changing and elevating our expectations of what students with disabilities are capable of lies at the heart of people with disabilities contributing to and benefitting from being a part of our community experience, beyond K-12 education. Including students with disabilities in their school communities with their general education peers is an important place to begin this transformation. These results show that it is as much a moral and ethical question as it is an educational one." Read More

 

In 2020, COVID Was Leading Cause of Death for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

For a new study, the researchers looked at 2020 death certificate data to examine death patterns for people with or without an intellectual and developmental disability (IDD). They found that for those without an IDD, COVID was the third leading cause of death, following heart disease and cancer. But for those with IDD, COVID was the number one cause of death. IDD are conditions characterized by life-long impairments in mobility, language, learning, self-care, and independent living. Examples include Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disabilities. The study confirms earlier predictions that COVID-19 would be deadlier among people with IDD, says Scott Landes, associate professor at Syracuse University and lead author of the paper in Disability and Health Journal. “Even when we adjusted for age, sex, and racial-ethnic minority status, we found that COVID-19 was far deadlier for those with IDD than those without,” says Landes. “Furthermore, people with IDD were dying at much younger ages.” Read More

$2M Contract Expands Access to Free Training to Support Students with Disabilities

Parents and educators can access free, online training to support the executive functioning skills of elementary school students with autism or ADHD, under a $2 million contract that will allow Children’s Hospital Colorado to make the training widely available. According to Children’s Hospital Colorado, it teamed with Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., and The Institute for Innovation and Implementation at the University of Maryland to pilot the online training and tele-support system for Unstuck and On Target. The program is an established in-person curriculum aimed at improving executive functioning skills such as flexible thinking, emotion regulation, planning and organization. Read More


 


Ways to Activate Student Engagement

Across grade levels and multiple disciplines, academic research supports a strong correlation between student engagement and student achievement. Academic engagement is often defined as students actively participating by focusing on a task or activity. In Visible Learning, a meta-study of what works in education, researcher John Hattie writes, “No manner of school reform will be successful until we first face and resolve the engagement problem.” Often as part of my coaching work, I’m requested to model teaching strategies with students, and I see disengagement that prevents learning. Colleagues frequently ask, “How do we engage younger kids who don’t want to be here or do their work?” I think it’s deeper than selecting high-yielding engagement strategies in these cases. Read More

 

Teens Now Turn to TikTok More Than Google — But Not for Schoolwork

TikTok is coming for Google’s gig, as the kids might say. Translated, it means that the video-based social media platform is biting into the search engine’s popularity. Last fall, TikTok surpassed Google as the most-visited site on the web. A top Google leader said during Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference this summer that nearly 40 percent of young people—ages 18 to 24—are turning to visual-based social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram for their internet searches. About two-thirds of teens say they have used TikTok with 16 percent of those saying they use it almost constantly, according to a recent Pew study of 13- to 17-year-olds. That makes it second only to YouTube in social media popularity. Read More

 

What Does It Mean If Someone is Neurotypical?

Neurodiversity is an idea that can be boiled down to a simple point: we are all human regardless of how our brains work. It is a reconceptualization of what is "normal" and "abnormal." In fact, the concept proposes that it is normal for people to vary in brain development, per Psychology Today. Neurodiversity aims to normalize neurological differences in the brain — as seen in conditions like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, Tourette's, and synesthesia — by respecting and celebrating the differences of neurodivergent people, rather than "pathologizing" them within the confines of the medical system (per Healthline). According to Cleveland Clinic, many neurodivergent people have unique strengths. For example, neurodivergent people may have enhanced memory, attention to detail, and mathematical abilities. They also have unique challenges — neurodivergent people may struggle in some social situations. Read More

Yes, There’s a Shortage of Special Education Teachers. And That’s Nothing New

For all the headlines proclaiming and debunking reports of a national teacher shortage, few have picked up on the issue’s third rail: Educators qualified to teach students with disabilities have been in short supply for half a century — since, essentially, the creation of special education. There are numerous reasons why special educators are in perennially short supply, as well as evidence that strategies to increase their ranks are within reach. But those efforts will remain scattershot so long as special education’s second-class status persists, say disability advocates. “It’s a part of a continuum of special education being treated as secondary,” says Lauren Morando Rhim, executive director of the Center for Learner Equity, which advocates for children with disabilities. “All teachers work hard, but absent a sense of being part of a community, or considered central to the community, the paperwork burden and the challenges of their job just make it unfulfilling and unsustainable” to teach special ed. Read More



TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

This week's trivia question: Under the federal special education law, IDEIA, the initial evaluation of a child for a suspected disability must be conducted within how many days of receiving parental consent?

If you know the answer to this week's trivia questions, email it to us at contactus@naset.org by 9/26/22. If you are correct, you will be acknowledged in next week's NASET's Week in Review


Colorado School Choice Law Discriminates Against Students with Disabilities, Complaint Alleges

Abram Sisneros was excited to go to kindergarten at the same school his older brother attended and where he had just completed two years of preschool. But at a meeting before the start of kindergarten, his parents were told that Abram, who has Down syndrome, needed more services than the school could provide. He wouldn’t be able to attend the school his parents had chosen for him. The district was able to turn Abram away because Colorado’s school choice law — which allows most students to attend any school that has room for them, regardless of boundaries — also allows school districts to reject students with disabilities if administrators say the school can’t meet a particular student’s educational needs. Read More

Can Artificial Intelligence Detect Autism Doctors Miss? Duke Study Wants to Find Out

When most toddlers diagnosed with autism sit still, their heads sway very slightly back and forth. That movement is an extremely reliable way to distinguish between a neurotypical and autistic child, research has shown. But it’s almost imperceptible to even a seasoned clinician. For a computer trained to see it, though, the movement is obvious. “A computer just gives you a beautiful readout of how many times the head moves back and forth,” said Geraldine Dawson, director of Duke University’s Center for Autism and Brain Development. Dawson and her colleagues are testing an app that Duke has patented to harness that power. It uses artificial intelligence to analyze toddlers’ movements, eye positions, and facial expressions, among other things, to help predict who has autism. Read More

 

Ways to Promote Disability Awareness in the Workplace

Ongoing disability awareness in the workplace is essential for enterprises striving to achieve full digital accessibility for their customers as well as their employees. Without a structured and intentional advocacy plan in place, full digital accessibility compliance efforts can derail. In other words, if disability awareness is never adopted into the ethos of a company, accessibility initiatives can quickly become just another task to keep management happy. Digital accessibility should be driven by the desire to create products and services that support equal opportunity among marginalized communities. Achieving this shift in values requires a top-down investment into culture building, where executives take measured and intentional steps to support disability awareness training. Read More



How Telehealth Can Keep People with Disabilities Out of the Emergency Room

Emergency departments should be a last-stop medical option, but for people with disabilities, who visit EDs at a disproportionate rate compared with those without disabilities, this last stop becomes more commonplace. Virtual care has inherent advantages that help prevent excess visits to the ED for all populations, including people with disabilities. Catching medical problems earlier on is vital to cut the flow of people into EDs. Offering individuals with disabilities quality care from their homes can help prevent avoidable visits. Ophir Lotan, vice president of product and customer success at telemedicine technology vendor TytoCare, believes virtual care needs to provide comprehensive diagnostic exams and focus on a simplistic overall user design to achieve a reduction in ED visits for populations with specific considerations, such as people with disabilities. Read More

 

When a Child Has ADHD and Dyslexia: Treatment for Complex Symptoms

Dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often travel together. (About 25% to 40% of the time, according to some estimates.) For individuals with ADHD and dyslexia, routine treatment protocols and approaches for each condition may not be effective. ADHD symptoms might affect therapies for dyslexia, and vice versa. And addressing only one condition – a common error – often results in subpar outcomes all around. If a child has both ADHD and dyslexia, it is important to understand the dynamic interplay between these conditions and how it affects the application of treatments and interventions. Read More

 

Only 67% of 3rd Graders Performed at Grade Level in Reading this Spring

Although schools focused on learning recovery during the 2021-22 school year, new research suggests students didn’t fully regain ground lost during the pandemic in reading and math achievement. The largest differences in learning outcomes came in the formative years, the early elementary and middle school years when students are building and solidifying foundational reading and math skills. Only 67% of 3rd-grade students assessed on reading performed on grade level in spring 2022, which was only a tiny increase from 66% in spring 2021 and still below the historical rate of 72%. The study, conducted by Curriculum Associates, looked at nearly 2 million students in grades 1-8 who took the i-Ready online assessment. Read More  

 

Children’s Sleep Linked to Brain Development

Scientists have long recognized that getting enough sleep during childhood can benefit developing brains. However, the underlying brain mechanisms are not well understood. And although experts say that children ages 6 to 12 should get at least nine hours of sleep each day, it’s been unclear how less sleep might affect a child’s brain. To get some answers, a research team led by Dr. Ze Wang of the University of Maryland set out to see how lack of sleep affects brain structure and other outcomes. They took advantage of data being collected in NIH’s ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. ABCD has enrolled nearly 12,000 volunteers at ages 9 or 10 from research sites across the country. Participants’ health, brain structure and function, and other factors will be followed for a decade as they move from adolescence into young adulthood. Read More

 


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JOB POSTINGS

* School Principal - We strive to give our clients support, resources, and the ability to heal through the work of animal-assisted therapy and nature-based learning all while developing the skills and confidence to grow into independent young adults. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher (Sign on Bonus) - The Special Education Teacher works closely with all members of the dedicated, inter-disciplinary therapeutic team supporting the students and classroom. Teachers also collaborate with parents and guardians to ensure the greatest wrap around services, school -to-home communications, and understanding of the student. Collaboration with our partnering school districts is also essential. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Hope Learning Academy in Springfield, IL is seeking a full-time Special Education Teacher to develop and implement assessment-based IEP goals, objectives, and education routines that provide a functional age-appropriate curriculum for the students. The teacher will prepare lesson plans based up on the students’ IEP goals and objectives and shall provide educational instruction to students as well as guidance and direction to educational specialist. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Hope Learning Academy in Chicago is seeking a full-time Special Education Teacher to educate students with low-incidence disabilities. The Special Education Teacher will work closely with the general education and special education school team to teach students according to their Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and help students develop to their full academic potential while systematically increasing their social and independent functioning skills. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher, Learning Disabilities - Provides and is accountable for the planning, assessment, instruction, communication, human relations, safety, and management of a classroom or assigned instructional setting. Supports FCPS mission to "inspire, enable, and empower students to meet high academic standards, lead ethical lives, and demonstrate responsible citizenship." To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher, Multiple Disabilities ES/MS/HS - Provides and is accountable for the planning, assessment, instruction, communication, human relations, safety, and management of a classroom or assigned instructional setting. Supports FCPS mission to "inspire, enable, and empower students to meet high academic standards, lead ethical lives, and demonstrate responsible citizenship." To learn more- Click here

* [2022-2023] Reading Intervention Specialist - Like all DREAM employees, the Intervention Specialist should demonstrate a strong commitment to the mission and values of DREAM and should have substantial expertise in all areas of responsibility. Candidates must also value DREAM's comprehensive approach to education and desire to make a lasting impact in underserved communities as part of a growing organization. To learn more- Click here

* [2022-2023] ELL Teacher - Reporting to the Academic Dean, the ELL Teacher will be responsible for designing and leading ELL instruction, and collaborating with school staff to provide English language support. This is an exciting opportunity for a dynamic educator who is passionate about improving student outcomes for all students, and eager to apply their vision for rigorous, whole-child education in a growing, collaborative school community. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher Preschool - Provides and is accountable for the planning, assessment, instruction, communication, human relations, safety, and management of a classroom or assigned instructional setting. Supports FCPS mission to "inspire, enable, and empower students to meet high academic standards, lead ethical lives, and demonstrate responsible citizenship." To learn more- Click here

* [2022-2023] Middle School ELA Learning Specialist - Reporting to the Academic Dean, the Middle School Social Studies Teacher will be responsible for building meaningful relationships with students, implementing a Common Core-aligned curriculum, and working with their grade team to analyze data to drive instruction. This is an exciting opportunity for an educator who is passionate about improving student outcomes by leading excellent instruction and building a positive school culture. To learn more- Click here

* [Immediate Hire] Middle School Math Learning Specialist - Reporting to the Academic Dean, the Middle School Math Learning Specialist will be responsible for building meaningful relationships with students, implementing a Common Core-aligned curriculum, and working with their grade team to analyze data to drive instruction. This is an exciting opportunity for an educator who is passionate about improving student outcomes by leading excellent instruction and building a positive school culture. To learn more- Click here

* Tenure Track Faculty - School of Education (Special Education) - We value the ability to serve students from a broad range of cultural heritages, socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, ability and orientations. Therefore, we prioritize applicants who demonstrate they understand the benefits diversity brings to a professional educational community. The successful candidate will be an equity-minded individual committed to collaborating with faculty, classified staff, administration, and students who are also committed to closing equity gaps. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher-(Elementary, Middle, or High School) - The EC Teacher plans and provides for appropriate learning experiences for students with disabilities in a variety of educational settings. To learn more- Click here

* [2022-2023] Middle School Learning Specialist - Reporting to the Academic Dean, the Learning Specialist will be responsible for providing tailored support to students with special education needs, through integrated co-teaching, in small group settings, or a combination of both. This is an exciting opportunity for a seasoned educator who is passionate about ensuring all students succeed and thrive in school. To learn more- Click here

* Student Learning Support (SLS) Teacher (Immediate Opening) - Rochambeau is committed to a diverse workforce representative of our students, one that embraces cultural competency and an international community. Diversity is the hallmark of Rochambeau, with over 80 nationalities represented in the student body. We are dedicated to fostering a culture where diversity, equity, and inclusion remain at the core of who we are. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher $2,000 sign-on bonus! - BASIS is seeking an experienced Special Education Teacher who is eager to develop leadership skills by serving as a member of the school’s administrative team. This is a teacher/administrator hybrid role whose primary responsibilities include the provision of special education services and supporting special education program operations as part of the administrative team at a school site. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Assistant $2,000 sign-on bonus! - BASIS.ed offers an incredible opportunity to be deeply involved in an academic community that is dynamic, exciting and unpredictable. You'll join others in a highly social, supportive and collaborative environment. To learn more- Click here

* Learning Specialist/IDD Program Manager (Grant) - The Full-Time Learning Specialist/ IDD Program Manager reports directly to the Director, Center for Accessibility and Inclusive Education. The Learning Specialist/ IDD Program Manager performs administrative level functions to support the daily activities of the Adult Transition Program and in doing so, contribute to the success of grant implementation. To learn more- Click here

* Special Education - Elementary Teacher - Career opportunities where you can choose your path. From coaching to administration, there are many options to grow your career, while pursuing your interests and passions. We are hiring immediately for a full-time Special Education - Elementary Teacher. Come grow your career with the Clark County School District! To learn more- Click here

* Special Education Teacher and Paraprofessional Positions – District Wide - The purpose of these positions is to help each student learn subject matter and skills that will contribute to his/her development as a mature, capable, and responsible adult. Provide a positive, healthy, and safe environment in which the student can achieve his/her maximum potential. To learn more- Click here

If you are an Employer looking for excellent special education staff - Click here for more information


FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Sometimes there's not a better way. Sometimes there's only the hard way.

Mary E. Pearson

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