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Literacy instruction is a powerful determinant of children's academic and school outcomes. Teachers' training for literacy instruction is therefore critical for children's reading learning. The present study examined the contents of 130 courses related to literacy instruction from a representative national sample of primary teachers' undergraduate programs (N =81), to address the following issues: which courses, related to literacy instruction, are included in the curriculum of undergraduate training programs? Which is the weight of the courses in undergraduate programs? What are the contents of the courses? The results show that most critical features of literacy instruction are included in the course contents of most programs (e.g. phonics, theory of literature). Still, some other critical features are underrepresented (reading/writing comprehension skills) or apparently missing (assessment and intervention in reading/writing problems). Moreover, the time allocated to literacy instruction seems to be scarce. Still, wide differences across university programs and courses were found.

Classrooms are increasingly more diverse, and student success can be enhanced through family engagement, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. Too often teachers are stymied by how to engage CLD families of children with disabilities. Common practices of parent involvement are ineffective and fail to appreciate families as members of the educational team. Family engagement seeks to establish and maintain authentic family-school partnerships based on mutual respect and shared agency for student academic and social success. This column provides specific family engagement strategies that teachers and schools can implement in an effort to provide reciprocal collaboration.

Across the United States, the popularity of dual language education (DLE) has grown considerably over the past several decades, but finding qualified bilingual teachers to staff these programs is an ongoing issue for administrators. Using the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education as a framework, this chapter addresses this urgent issue by exploring dual language teacher recruitment and retention through the experiences and recommendations of teachers and administrators in Connecticut. Findings address participants’ perceptions of teacher recruitment and retention, staff selection, workplace climate, and staff evaluation. Cross-cutting themes include the value of shared responsibility and shared decision-making in addressing this complex issue, the need for creativity and flexibility to increase pathways to certification for dual language teachers, and the importance of positive working conditions.

Secondary school administrators increasingly include students with disabilities in general education classrooms with coteaching models. Theoretically, coteaching enables two educators to attend to the learning needs of students with disabilities while exposing them to grade-level content area instruction. However, our study on teachers’ perceptions of coteaching found that teachers often viewed their schools’ leadership decisions as adversely affecting their ability coteach effectively. The purpose of this article is to provide administrators with an overview of common coteaching models, summarize findings from our study on teachers’ perceptions of how their schools’ leadership influenced their coteaching practices, and provide a set of guiding questions to consider when seeking to support coteaching. © 2018 SAGE Publications.

In areas of emerging research, such as supporting teachers' classroom management, replication of research is critical to ensuring that recommendations for the field are based on sound science and appropriate for the contexts to which they are being applied. This article describes a replication of research on efficient professional development supports for teachers' classroom managements in a new context: high school classrooms. Data did not support a functional relation between teachers' use of specific praise and the targeted professional development and self-management in the high school setting. Results of this study highlight the critical importance of replication in education research. Based on our findings and our experience conducting this study, we suggest several possible adaptations may be necessary for successful replication at the high school level.

This study reports practices implemented in over 2,000 minutes by 16 middle school special education and general education co-teaching pairs in English language arts classes. We report the extent to which teachers integrated literacy activities that support reading comprehension, the co-teaching models used, and the frequency with which each teacher led instruction. We also report the types of grouping structures teachers used and the extent to which teachers interacted with students with disabilities. Finally, we report the types of text used. Observations revealed that more than half of time spent on literacy activities involved reading aloud or silently with no co-occurring literacy instruction that supports reading comprehension. Students with disabilities spent a majority of their time in whole-class instruction or working independently with little teacher interaction. Special education teachers spent most of their time supporting whole-class instruction led by the content-area teacher. Implications and directions for future research are provided.

In this study, the literature in disability and higher education was examined, with a specific focus on assessment instruments. Published articles (n = 203) on development of new or refinement of existing instruments were reviewed for traits measured and psychometric rigor reported. Findings showed instruments are intended for professionals and students, and of the student instruments, broad categories are academic, nonacademic, and specific to a disability diagnosis. Not all instruments are limited to students with disabilities; many of the reviewed instruments can be utilized in higher-education settings on all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of disability. The implications of the findings undergird the urgency to prioritize disability as a facet of diversity within higher-education scholarship, and furthermore aid this prioritization by providing a catalogue of robust instruments to researchers and practitioners.

This qualitative study used a sociocultural lens to examine how two bilingual Hispanic first-grade girls demonstrated bilingual reading practices (i.e., heteroglossia and translanguaging) as they discussed and read texts in Spanish and English. One girl predominantly received school reading instruction in Spanish, while the other received school reading instruction in English. They both participated in Spanish reading at home. The school reading instruction employed Spanish or English versions of Success for All, and emphasized word recognition strategies appropriate for the language of instruction along with meaning-making strategies. In April, the two girls scored mid- to end-of first grade on a curriculum-based reading assessment in the language of instruction. Neither of them received biliteracy instruction. Their reading levels in the instructional language and exposure to the other language appeared to be sufficient for them to develop and demonstrate heteroglossic practices. Bilingual dynamic reading assessments and home reading sessions with a bilingual researcher revealed that both girls utilized bilingual reading practices to discuss and comprehend texts in their non-instructional or alternate language. One of the girls also used bilingual reading practices to discuss texts in the instructional language. To read in the alternate language, they both employed word-recognition and meaning-making strategies, which had been emphasized in their school reading instruction. However, one girl’s attempt to use a decoding strategy she had learned in English (i.e., onset-rime) to decode unfamiliar Spanish words did not work effectively. Implications are delineated for the bilingual reading instruction and assessment of young bilingual children.

BACKGROUND: In the 21st century, information technology (IT) literacy is crucial for all students, and may better prepare students with disabilities for transition to postsecondary employment or education. OBJECTIVE: In this study, the potential of IT literacy embedded into an online transition curriculum is explored in the context of secondary special education. The curriculum aligns with Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts that are relevant to reading comprehension, writing, as well as searching for and analyzing sources of information online. METHODS: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was utilized in six high schools. RESULTS: Findings show that intervention group students improved in IT literacy; whereas, comparison group students did not make similar gains. CONCLUSION: Implications for embedding transition services into specific courses and curricula for secondary students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are discussed. © 2017-IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Although participation in extracurricular activities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities has been advocated, a limited number of students appear to be involved in such activities. Further, there is little empirical research on how extracurricular activities are valued, supported, and encouraged. This study surveyed a sample of special educators across five states to learn about their opinions regarding extracurricular activities. As reported in other research, the findings confirm that few students participated in these activities; few parents requested these services for their children; and few teachers believed that planning them is their responsibility, despite the fact that they thought these activities were of value and provided several benefits. The implications of these findings are discussed.

This personal editorial written by two education professors considers the Common Core State Standards and argues against the overuse of argument in the teaching of writing. © Kappa Delta Pi.

Twenty-five 4- and 5-year-old Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs) were tested in order to compare their English and Spanish performance in two phonological awareness skills: Rhyme awareness (RA) and beginning sound segmentation (BSS). The children had received formal instruction of phonological awareness, with an emphasis on RA and BSS for 1 year and in English only, using the Opening the World of Learning curriculum (Schickedanz & Dickinson, 2005). The results showed that the children scored higher on the English BSS than on the English RA tests (p ¡ .001), even though RA is generally considered to be an earlier developing skill than BSS among English-monolingual children. No significant difference was found between the English BSS and Spanish BSS tests despite the fact that the children had received English-only instruction in these phonological awareness skills for 1 year. The results are discussed in terms of the possible impact of the similarities and differences between the Spanish and English linguistic structures on the learning and cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness skills in young Spanish-speaking ELs.