28 May 2008
After reading this blog for a while, you might be aching to become a hearing officer yourself. Although I have chronicled some of the trials and tribulations of my fellow hearing officers (for example, I have been at conferences where some people spit on the ground when told that I'm a HO; and I have contended that Rodney Dangerfield is the patron saint of due process HOs- "we don't get no respect"), I nonetheless continue to believe that the hearing officer plays a crucial role in the system of dispute resolution applicable to special ed law. Usually the only "trial" available to the parties is before the hearing officer. Wide discretion is generally available in terms of how to conduct the hearing process. To effectively perform this extremely important job requires a high level of integrity, intelligence, common sense and an ability to maintain an even temper. Most due process hearing officers I have met around the country meet or exceed these high level qualifications.
If you'd like to become a HO, Washington DC is hiring a number of full time and part time due process (i.e., special ed) hearing officers. If anybody is interested in reviewing the Request for Qualifications you should go to
www.ocp.dc.govthen click on Business Opportunities, and
click on List All Opportunities, there you should search for and click on
Request for Qualifications (RFQ) No.: RFQ DCGD-2008-R-0014. There you can download the RFQ.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 2:00 pm on June 23rd. Good luck to those who would join our unusual, yet important, fraternity.
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The UK incarnation of the Reading Reform Foundation provides a glimpse into some of the thinking supporting systematic and synthetic phonics. Here’s clip from it’s home page:
You are entering fascinating territory as these are very exciting times regarding the debate on how best to teach beginning reading in English-speaking countries. English is taught in many [...]
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Wheeeheee! Over on the Skeptic’s Dictionary, Robert T. Carroll has a take-down and pin of Brain Gym. The contemporary incarnation of some ideas that were thoroughly discredited in Learning Disabilities in the 1970s, Brain Gym is making something of a splash. Shoot, it even appeared in one of my Curry School colleague’s classes for a [...]
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27 May 2008
In a systematic review of the research about parent training, Jennifer Wyatt Kaminski and colleagues of the US Centers for Disease Control identified factors that contribute to the effectiveness of programs that help parents manage the problematic behavior of their children. Of the 18 factors that they examined, only five proved to be important. Parent [...]
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26 May 2008
What would you say if I told you that glasses could help your child's dyslexia? Yes, glasses. Dr. Robert Dahlem, in an effort to help his own dyslexic son, has created glasses (called RAD prism) to...
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Liz Ditz has a post noting today’s status as “International Dyscalculia Awareness Day, Today.” Read it here.
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April is Autism Awareness month. It’s a good time to stop and reflect on how much we have learned from systematic and dogged research over the time since I first became aware of Autism. In the mid 1960s, I was already working with some children who had received that diagnosis, but knowledge about it was [...]
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23 May 2008
HEAD, DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Position: The Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks a full-time tenured Professor of Special Education, who is an established scholar with effective leadership and administrative qualities, to serve as Head of the Department. ...
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The folks at The IRIS Center, a national center that provides resources for teacher educators concerned with students with disabilities, announced the availability of a dictionary of terms used in special education. It's online and free!
We at the IRIS Center are pleased to announce the re-launch of the IRIS Online ...
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The folks over at The Arc are searching for a senior administrator for TheArcLink, the organization's means of providing resources for individuals with disabilities and their families so that they can make informed decisions about services and participate actively in their communities. Here's a brief version of the announcement:
This key ...
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Lee Swanson passed along this announcement:
A four year Post-doctoral training grant funded by Institute of Education Science, U. S. Department of Education, has been awarded to the University of California-Riverside. The Post-Doctoral support focuses on Methodological Training in Instruction, Reading, Math and Cognition Research for Children with Learning Disabilities.
Abstract ...
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Virginia Institute for Autism (VIA) is searching for an individual to assume responsibility for programming educational environments for children and youths with Autism. Here's VIA's description of the position.
The Virginia Institute of Autism (VIA) in Charlottesville seeks a Chief Program Officer committed to evidence-based practice and the principles of applied ...
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B. Cook, J. Lloyd, M. TankersleyJanet Lerner, editor of Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, sounded a note of congratulations:
Congratulations to Bryan G. Cook and Melody Tankersley for receiving the James M. Kauffman Publication Award for their special issue of the journal, Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal. Bryan Cook and ...
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Here's a opportunity for professional development. It's slated for 10-14 June 10 at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland, Maine.
20th Annual Postsecondary Disability Training Institute
The objective of this Training Institute is to assist dedicated professionals to meet the unique needs of college students with disabilities. Participants ...
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The Council for Exceptional Children generated a graphic that allows one to see the relative US federal funding for research in various areas. It's a pretty clear indication of the importance attached to addressing the improvement of education, no? I've linked a larger version of the file to the image ...
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Here's a position announcement for someone to fill the duties of director of the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services.
The following OSERS vacancy announcement(s): Supervisory Education Program Specialist, GS-1720-15 located in the Office of Special Education Programs, Research to Practice Division, ...
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The IRIS Center, a resource for teaching about special education and disabilities, announced the availability of new materials.
The IRIS Center, in collaboration with the PACER Center, is proud to present the latest addition to its growing family of online interactive modules: Collaborating with Families.
Claire Morgan, principal of M. T. Watkins ...
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A multi-institution research team has discovered that rare mutations, which probably affect development in the human nervous system, may significantly increase the risk of schizophrenia. The researchers found that adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and youth with childhood onset schizophrenia (COS) were 3 to 4 times more likely to have rare structural variants that [...]
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Over on Teachers at Risk Elona Hartjes has a post worth a read. In “Strategies for dealing with kids who get physcially aggressive with teachers- Part 1- Establishing the classroom climate,” Ms. Hartjes explains the value of creating a positive environment with adolescents, including establishing rules (though she prefers to call them “agreements”). Read the [...]
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21 May 2008
Anthony Di Salvo, Executive Director for Sprout, sent this info about the annual festival of film related to the field of developmental disabilities. Others might want to know about it. Please pass the word along to them.
The Sprout Film Festival, showcasing films related to the field of developmental disabilities, will ...
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