13 February 2008
Brain-based learning
At lunch the other day, my friend Dan and I agreed that there really had to be something to brain-based learning…as in, try learning without a brain. But, the readers of Teach Effectively! surely seem to consider brain-based learning as the most bogus of the four reform movements that are compared in the current Bogus [...]
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NJCLD Jan 08
Last weekend on behalf of the Division for Learning Disabilities, I attended the semi-annual meeting of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD). The NJCLD has a long and distinguished history, one that I ought to describe in a page or post, but that’s the basis for another post, but not this one.
The [...]
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MS tiff about funding
Mississippi (US) Governor Haley Barbour and the state legislature for Mississippi appear to be at political loggerheads about education funding, according to an article entitled “Gov. Haley Barbour: Version 2.0 — Katrina still in his sights: Ongoing hurricane recovery, funding Medicaid and education gains top Barbour’s agenda” by Sid Salter of the Clarion Ledger. Mr. [...]
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NIMH Autism publication
The US National Institute of Mental Health has maintained a page about Autism for many years. It recently reviewed that page and the updated version is on-line now. Here is an outline of the contents of the page.
Autism Spectrum Disorders (Pervasive Developmental Disorders)
Introduction
What Are the Autism Spectrum Disorders?
The Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Treatment Options
Adults [...]
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12 February 2008
NZ gets started
In an article entitled “NZ ‘failing kids who struggle to learn,’” Lane Nichols of the Dominion Post reported about a critical evaluation of New Zealand schooling. It seems that NZ schools have been failing to address the problems of students with Learning Disabilities and some parents of those students have complained. Shades of Eli Tash [...]
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11 February 2008
Keillor on Reading First
In a column distributed by the Tribune Media Services, entertainer Garrison Keillor makes a clear pitch for teaching reading effectively and sustaining the Reading First initiative. Mr. Keillor, who has consistently supported politicians in the Democratic party, argues that Democrats should not discard the RF program on political grounds when there are children who need [...]
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ABA Autism conf registration extended
The acompanying notice may be of interest to some readers:
Since there has been considerable interest in the 2008 Autism Conference, the Association for Behavior Analysis International is extending the pre-registration deadline to Sunday, January 20th at 12:00 AM (EST). The advantage of pre-registering for the conference, titled “Issues and Recent Advancements in the Behavioral [...]
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10 February 2008
Insurance policies
This is not really a an educational story, but one that reveals another gap in the care received by individuals with disabilities. It's the story of the Denney family and a child, David, who has such substantial disabilities that he requires extensive nursing care. Perhaps most surprisingly, it is the ...
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NCLD on FB
Thanks to Nancy Mamlin, I learned that the National Center on Learning Disabilities (NCLD; the well-financed, not-for-profit, lobbying group based in New York, NY, US; see earlier entry about Carrie Rozell’s valuable contributions) has a presence of Facebook. I joined.
It’s good to see that this cause has a presence in that venue. Though I [...]
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Enhanced Reading Opportunities I
The National Center for Education Evaluation released a report yesterday (28 January 2008) describing preliminary findings from an evaluation of the effects of two supplemental literacy programs focused on improving reading comprehension and school performance of ninth-grade students who have achievement problems. The report, “Enhanced Reading Opportunities: Early Impact and Implementation Findings,” describes the effects [...]
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9 February 2008
Autism treatment recommendations
Alert readers will know that I have found fault with the recommendations on about.com about Learning Disabilities, so this post endorsing an article on about.com may come as a surprise. In “How to Choose the Wrong Treatment for Your Child with Autism,” about.com’s Lisa Jo Rudy got a lot right. Ms. Rudy provides an extensive [...]
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Fluency on LD Blog
I dropped an entry into LD Blog about reading fluency that one or two (of the two or three) readers here might find worthwhile. It’s essentially an incomplete catalog of resources about fluency, along with some editorial comments.
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Consortium to Prevent School Violence
Dear Colleagues,
The new Consortium to Prevent School Violence website is up and running at: http://www.preventschoolviolence.org (alternate URL: http://www.ctpsv.org).
Consortium Mission: The Consortium to Prevent School Violence is committed to assisting educators and schools in the reduction of school violence.
Consortium Goals: The Consortium seeks to foster high quality research on school violence ...
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WWC again
The US Department of Education What Works Clearinghouse released new reviews of practices last week. One is about “New Chance” and the other is about “First Things First.” Here are the descriptions of the interventions from the WWC pages (based on what WWC could obtain from publicly available documents).
New Chance:
New Chance, a program for [...]
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8 February 2008
New CLD Web site
The Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) has launched its revised Web site. CLD, which has been an active and affirmative force in support of Learning Disabilities for many years, sent this message to its members last week.
We are proud to announce the launch of our new website! This website was designed to provide [...]
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Is special education a taxing entitlement?
In a 20 December editorial entitled "The Special Education Bridge to Nowhere" published by Vermont Tiger, Curtis Hier published the accompanying editorial.
The recent study by the Joint Fiscal Office on our tax burden in Vermont reminds me of another JFO study done a few years ago. In 2001, the ...
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Seen TZP?
This is the lead from an editorial praising a movie the movie, “Taare Zameen Par.” The movie is generating multiple entries in my Google news searches.
Eagle’s Eye: Every child is special
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par (TZP) focusing on the saga of a dyslexic child, possibly is one of [...]
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7 February 2008
Stern backs toward instruction
Sol Stern, who writes regularly about schooling as a contributing editor of City Journal and has long championed school choice alternatives such as vouchers, appears nearly ready to embrace the idea that the problems with education in the US (and perhaps elsewhere, too) have more to do with curricula and teaching than with incentives for [...]
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6 February 2008
NAEP and accommodations
Are accommodations for students with disabilities compromising the integrity of scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress? According to a story by Elizabeth Green in the New York (NY, US) Sun, educators are considering that question closely. Ms. Green reported that, "Responding to mounting concerns about the validity of ...
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RTI in Ed Week
Everyone’s talking about it, but not everyone’s convinced that response to intervention will prove as helpful as we hope. In “‘Response to Intervention’ Sparks Interest, Questions: Critics say approach depends on too many complex factors,” Christina A. Samuels of Ed Week presents some of these concerns. In a news piece that is unusual in its [...]
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