Despite significant increases in funding, staffing, and dedicated effort from educators, the achievement gap between students without and with disabilities persists. This disparity is not for lack of trying. School districts nationwide have poured resources into special education; educators and specialists often go above and beyond to support students with special needs.
Yet, students with mild to moderate disabilities continue to lag behind their peers in academic achievement, graduation rates, and post-secondary success. This gap affects individual students' futures and has broader implications for educational equity and societal progress.
It raises several pertinent questions:
What are we missing in our approach to special education? How can we ensure that our efforts and investments yield meaningful results for students with disabilities?
Best practices do exist and have been proven to work. Putting these best practices into action in a systemic way is arduous work but can dramatically improve the lives of students and can result in more effective and efficient use of resources. In this article, we will explore ten key lessons that can help guide educators, administrators, and policymakers in improving special education outcomes.
Ten Key Lessons to Help Guide the Way
- Rigorous general education is key
- Reading is the gateway to all learning
- Ensure extra time to learn
- Make scheduling a priority
- Ensure content-strong teachers deliver targeted interventions
- Make time for collaboration to better support students
- Focus on student outcomes, not inputs
- Maximize time with students The number-one priority of teachers and service providers is to help students. Psychologists, social workers, counselors, and behaviorists often spend too much of their time in meetings and doing paperwork. Keep the focus on spending time with students by setting guidelines and streamlining meetings and paperwork.
- Use data to track progress and inform improvement
- High expectations and rigor matter
Too often, good intentions result in the primary responsibility for learning shifting away from the general education teacher to special education teachers or paraprofessionals. Students are best served academically when their general education teacher has primary responsibility.
Many referrals to special education are, at their root, due to reading difficulties. Elementary students should receive 90 minutes a day of literacy instruction. Systems should be in place to identify struggling readers at each grade level beginning in kindergarten.
Students who have difficulty achieving grade-level standards need extra instruction time. Elementary students who have difficulty with reading should receive at least 30 minutes of additional reading instruction, and secondary students who struggle with grade-level content should receive 60 minutes per day of extra instruction in the relevant subject area.
Time is a highly valuable resource. Entrust a skilled scheduling expert and/or leverage technology to ensure the precious resource of student and staff time is being used efficiently and effectively. Scheduling these best practices can be challenging, but it is possible.
Interventions should be tightly connected to core curriculum and instruction and targeted to address students’ specific skill gaps. It is essential that content-strong teachers deliver these interventions.
General education teachers, special education teachers, and principals should meet and plan together to support students as a team. By meeting regularly, staff members can monitor student progress and update plans and interventions to ensure each student's needs are well understood and addressed effectively throughout the school day.
Don’t just add more staff or more hours of service with the hope of improving outcomes. Use short-cycle assessment data to monitor progress and make adjustments with a focus on results. Better results may be achieved by investing in coaching and/or professional development or by implementing some of the other best practices.
If current practices are not delivering the desired results, adding more staff, more paraprofessionals, and more hours of service is the path of least resistance. Still, this approach seldom yields significant improvement for students. Use data to track progress and inform improvements to deliver results for students.
Research says that when teachers held high expectations for students with disabilities and provided challenging instruction, students demonstrated significant gains in academic achievement. Believing in students’ capabilities and providing the necessary supports to help them meet high expectations is vital to success.
The Path to Better Results in Special Education is Within Reach
These best practices offer a roadmap for closing the persistent achievement gap and maximizing the potential of every special education student. However, knowing these strategies is just the first step. The opportunity lies in implementing them effectively within your unique district. It requires commitment, collaboration, and, often, a shift in longstanding practices and mindsets.
Are you ready to move from insight to action? Our team is here to support you. We can help you assess your current practices, develop a tailored implementation plan, and provide the ongoing support and resources you need. Contact us today for a personalized consultation.