Wrightslaw: No Child Left Behind

Although much has changed in schools in recent years, the power of differentiated instruction remains the same — and the need for it has only increased.

Today’s classroom is more diverse, more inclusive, and more plugged into technology than ever before. And it’s led by teachers under enormous pressure to help decidedly unstandardized students meet an expanding set of rigorous, standardized learning targets. In this updated second edition of her best-selling classic work, Carol Ann Tomlinson offers these teachers a powerful and practical way to meet a challenge that is both very modern and completely timeless: how to divide their time, resources, and efforts to effectively instruct so many students of various backgrounds, readiness and skill levels, and interests.

With a perspective informed by advances in research and deepened by more than 15 years of implementation feedback in all types of schools, Tomlinson explains the theoretical basis of differentiated instruction, explores the variables of curriculum and learning environment, shares dozens of instructional strategies, and then goes inside elementary and secondary classrooms in nearly all subject areas to illustrate how real teachers are applying differentiation principles and strategies to respond to the needs of all learners.

This book’s insightful guidance on what to differentiate, how to differentiate, and why lays the groundwork for bringing differentiated instruction into your own classroom or refining the work you already do to help each of your wonderfully unique learners move toward greater knowledge, more advanced skills, and expanded understanding. Today more than ever, The Differentiated Classroom is a must-have staple for every teacher’s shelf and every school’s professional development collection.

This 2007 book covers key legal topics — Who is a person with a disability under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act? What accommodations are required? What documentation is necessary? How do the ADA and RA apply in higher education and in the workplace? What are the courts deciding? What about state law? How to advocate for your position?

Written for educators who work with special children and teens, this second edition of a best-selling classic offers a practical guide to every facet of the special education teacher’s job, from teaching in a self-contained classroom or resource room to serving on a multidisciplinary team. This easy-to-follow format, takes you step by step through the various stages required to understand the referral process, parent intakes and conferences, evaluation, interpretation, diagnosis, remediation, placement, individual education plans, classroom management, medication, educational law, and more.

This book focuses on adults with severe learning disabilities (LD) and the educators who work with them. In this volume, experts in the fields of learning disabilities and adult literacy describe the characteristics, demographics, and educational and employment status of adults with LD and discuss the laws that protect them in the workplace and in educational settings. Combining cutting-edge research findings with firsthand instructional expertise, the authors examine the various screening procedures used to identify learning disabilities, present a range of instructional strategies and staff development programs for teaching literacy skills to adults, and showcase exemplary programs that assist adults with LD to find the right job and to be successful.

This is a unique handbook that teaches parents how to work with schools to achieve optimal learning situations and accommodations for their child’s needs. From IEPs and 504 Plans, to IDEA and NCLB, navigating today’s school system can be difficult for even the most up-to-date, education savvy parent. Special needs advocates Rich Weinfeld and Michelle Davis provide parents and professional advocates with concise, easy-to-understand definitions and descriptions of legal terms and school regulations, along with checklists, tips, questionnaires, and other tools.

The LD Teacher’s IDEA Companion Grades 6-12 is designed to help you translate the impact of IDEA into how you work with the students, their parents, regular educators, and the general curriculum itself. This book provides materials that correspond to the major IEP changes resulting from the reauthorization of IDEA.