Strategies to Enhance Access to the General Education Curriculum for Students with Disabilities

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Strategies to Enhance Access to the General
Education Curriculum for Students with
Disabilities

• Amanda Schwartz
• Virginia Association of
• Elementary School Principals
• October 23, 2003

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Presentation Outline

• Access Center Overview
• Defining Access
• Strategies for Improving Access
• Question and Answer Session

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What is the Access Center?

• National Technical Assistance Center
• Five year project 2002-2007
• One of over 40 TAD projects
• Funded by the U.S. Department of Education
• Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
• Our Partners
• Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
• Regional Resource Centers (RRCs)
• Mountain Plains Regional Resource Center (MPRRC)
• Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), and
• An Expert Knowledge Bank of Recognized Content
  Experts

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Access Center Mission

• The mission of the Access Center is to provide
  technical assistance that strengthens state and
  local capacity to help students with disabilities
  effectively learn in the general education
  curriculum

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Access Center Goals

• To achieve our mission we will
• Increase Awareness
•  
• Assist Educators in becoming Informed Consumers
•  
• Facilitate implementation and evaluation

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We Offer Three Types of Services

• Web-based Services
• Ongoing Direct Assistance from Technical
  Assistance Liaisons
• Information Sharing Communities

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What is Access?

• Active engagement in learning the content and
  skills that define the general education
  curriculum
• Supports to Improve Access
• Instructional and Learning Goals
• Instructional Methods and Practices
• Research-based Materials and Media
• Research-based Supports and Accommodations
• Appropriate Assessment and Documentation

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Our Bridge to Effective Access

• Connecting research to practice to progress
  through services and supports

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Our Learning

• Literature Analysis
• Interviews with stakeholders
• Use of advisory group and knowledge bank
• Review of programs and cases
• Feedback from Access Center audiences

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• What does Research-Proven mean?
• rigorous and systematic
• objective
• empirical
• strong research design and follows an
  experimental or quasi-experimental design
• reliable data
• valid data
• rigorous data analyses
• peer-reviewed  
• No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No.
  107-110,Sec.9109 (37). (2002)

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• Research-Proven Practices
• Prevalence
• Green-light practices vs. yellow light practices

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Strategies to Improve Access

• Variations
• Low tech vs. high tech
• Levels of intensity
• Requirements or costs
• Location of implementation

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Strategies

• Mnemonics
• Adapted Books
• Functional Behavioral Assessment

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Mnemonics

• Mnemonics is a memory enhancing
• instructional strategy that involves
• teaching students  to link new information
• that is taught to information they already
• know

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Keyword strategy

• Think back to the keyword (car),
• Think of the picture (a car),
• Remember what else was happening in the picture
  (a witch was in the car), and
• Produce the definition (witch).
• (Scruggs Mastropieri, n.d., p. 2)

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Pegword strategy

• To represent order for the Sugar Act of 1764 is
  represented by a bowl of sugar being poured on a
  hamburger bun (bun one)

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Letter strategy

• IT FITS
• I dentify the term (vocabulary word, e.g.,
  impecunious).
• T ell the definition of the term (e.g., having
  no money).
• Fi nd a keyword (e.g., penniless imp). Think
  about the definition as it relates to the
  keyword, and imagine the definition doing
  something with the keyword. For example, an imp
  tried to buy something but found that his pockets
  contained no money.
• S tudy what you imagined until you know the
  definition (Foil Alber, 2002).

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Adapted Books

• Books are modified using low (i.e.,
• stickers, fabric, glue) and high (i.e., talking
• switches, communication devices, talking
• books software) technology to ensure
• students are able to focus on goals and
• interact with general curriculum materials

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Functional Behavioral Assessment

• Teachers, specialists, and families select
• target behaviors to observe and record.
• Information collected informs positive
• behavioral support plans.

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Functional Behavioral Assessment Chart
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Strategies to Improve Access

• Remember
• Special education
• is a service,
• not a place

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Visit our Website!

• www.k8accesscenter.org
• We welcome your suggestions and ideas
• to continuously improve
• our resources and services

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The Access Center Improving Outcomes for All
Students K-8American Institutes for
Research1000 Thomas Jefferson St. NW
Washington, DC 20007Ph 202-403-5000 TTY
877-334-3499 Fax [phone]e-mail
accesscenter_at_air.org website
www.k8accesscenter.org
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• This content was developed by staff at The Access
  Center Improving Outcomes for All Students K-8,
  funded by U. S. Department of Education, Office
  of Special Education Programs and housed at the
  American Institutes for Research. Retrieved
  today's date, from the World Wide Web
  http//www.k8accesscenter.org