Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Occupational therapy for special-needs students moves online

All of the exercises that OTs use with students in a face-to-face setting “can happen in a virtual environment,” too, says occupational therapist Robyn Chu.

A young girl sits at a computer, wearing headphones. Her image appears in a box on the left side of the screen, and above it she can see the smiling face of her female instructor. On the main part of the screen is a black-and-white drawing of a girl performing an exercise called the “side-step dance.”

“We’re going to do … that side-step [dance] first,” the instructor says. “Ten times, opposite arm and leg.”

“OK,” the girl replies. She removes her headphones and stands in front of her computer, still visible on the screen, then performs the exercise as her instructor—a licensed occupational therapist—watches closely from hundreds of miles away.…Read More

Inadequate teaching may soon become a thing of the past for many special needs kids

The Department of Education has just made their largest investment ever in improving education for students with disabilities, TakePart reports. With the goal of establishing a cohesive system to effectively train teachers who work with disabled children, the department’s Office of Special Education Programs has granted $25 million over the next five years to the University of Florida’s College of Education. Starting in January, the CEDAR Center will work with select states to help them bolster training for special education teachers, general teachers, and school district leaders—all of whom work directly with special needs children…

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Key assistive technology group closes its doors

NCTI helped researchers and educators develop assistive technology solutions for students.

After 10 years in the assistive technology and educational technology fields, the National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) closed operations with the end of its federal funding on Sept. 30.

NCTI served as a resource for special-education advocates, researchers, and ed-tech stakeholders. The organization helped bring together those different groups to create innovative assistive technologies and learning resources for students, especially those with special needs.

NCTI has received a no-cost extension through Dec. 31, after which time the grant that funds the center will expire. Officially, the center’s grant from the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) expired Sept. 30, but the no-cost extension lets NCTI staff make upgrades to the organization’s Tech Matrix and close out any current work.…Read More

How to cut special-ed spending without sacrificing quality

It is challenging, but not impossible, to reduce special-ed spending while increasing student achievement, a new primer says.

As school districts grow accustomed to doing more with less, special-education programs are dealing with their own unique set of challenges—and one expert has proposed several solutions to rein in special-ed spending without reducing program quality.

The recently published “Something Has Got to Change: Rethinking Special Education,” a primer from Nathan Levenson, a former superintendent of public schools in Arlington, Mass., and the American Enterprise Institute’s Future of American Education Project, offers practical solutions to tame out-of-control spending on special-education programs while serving special-needs students better.

Levenson, who is managing director of the District Management Council, argues that schools are often wary of cutting special-ed costs because they fear retaliation from the parents of special-needs students. Special-ed spending has increased steadily, sometimes without regard for program effectiveness. But through a handful of steps, school districts can increase the effectiveness of their special-education programs while cutting costs at the same time, he said.…Read More

Panel: How to improve special ed

 

About 6.6 million students with disabilities are learning alongside their peers at a neighborhood school, up from 1.7 million in 1975.

 

As the push for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) increases, leaders in the field of special education recently debated whether the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) should be reworked to further align with ESEA, and how else the law might be improved to better meet the needs of students with disabilities.…Read More