4 March 2010
Sorta building a better teacher, maybe
In “Building A Better Teacher,” Elizabeth Green presents cases personifying two perspectives on teaching effectively—one we often hear referred to as “classroom management” and the other regularly called “good content.” She uses Doug Lemov and Deborah Ball, respectively, as her exemplars of the cases.
Professor Ball, dean of the University of Michigan’s school of education, [...]
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RIF funding opportunity
Reading is Fundamental, the US nonprofit organization devoted to promoting reading and literacy, is soliciting proposals from university graduate students who would be willing to help conduct some research. The student who receives the award must analyze data and write a report of a study being conducted at Brooklyn (NY, US) Public Library. The study [...]
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Should Private Schools Be Covered by the New Seclusion & Restraint Law?
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The Council For American Private Education, an umbrella group representing a large percentage of private schools in the United States, has written a letter to Congress asking that private schools be exempted from HR 4247, the new Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act.In response, the group called the Alliance to Prevent Restraint and Aversive Intervention and Seclusion, an umbrella group of groups that advocate for parents and children with disabilities, issued their own letter to Congress opposing the CAPE letter. Here is an analysis of the controversy by the Disability Scoop blog.
We have run a number of posts about this issue. I believe that seclusion and restraints is the hot button issue of special education law for the current decade. For example, this is a prior post from this blog with a number of links to resources about the current house bill.
The Senate has not yet taken up this bill. Of course the Senate was recently held hostage by the Senator from Kentucky. (This dates me, but I remember Jim Bunning as a pitcher in the major leagues. It is unfortunate that he will now be remembered as the great enemy of the unemployed rather than the Hall of Fame hurler that impressed so many of us. ) In any event, the Senate is currently tied in knots on other issues. It may be a while before education issues surface there.
But in addition to the pending bipartisan House bill, a larger issue is whether IDEA reauthorization should deal more with behavior issues. IDEA currently only requires positive behavior supports after a proposed disciplinary change of placement is blocked by a finding that a manifestation of the child's disability. There is also a more general and somewhat vague section in the IEP development section that requires the IEP team to consider appropriate strategies if the student's behaviors impede the learning of the student or others. For citations, etc, see this previous post.
Many people think that these provisions need to be beefed up. What do you think?
We have run a number of posts about this issue. I believe that seclusion and restraints is the hot button issue of special education law for the current decade. For example, this is a prior post from this blog with a number of links to resources about the current house bill.
The Senate has not yet taken up this bill. Of course the Senate was recently held hostage by the Senator from Kentucky. (This dates me, but I remember Jim Bunning as a pitcher in the major leagues. It is unfortunate that he will now be remembered as the great enemy of the unemployed rather than the Hall of Fame hurler that impressed so many of us. ) In any event, the Senate is currently tied in knots on other issues. It may be a while before education issues surface there.
But in addition to the pending bipartisan House bill, a larger issue is whether IDEA reauthorization should deal more with behavior issues. IDEA currently only requires positive behavior supports after a proposed disciplinary change of placement is blocked by a finding that a manifestation of the child's disability. There is also a more general and somewhat vague section in the IEP development section that requires the IEP team to consider appropriate strategies if the student's behaviors impede the learning of the student or others. For citations, etc, see this previous post.
Many people think that these provisions need to be beefed up. What do you think?
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Thanks for subscribing! Jim Gerl
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16 States Make First Cut in $4 Billion Race to the Top Competition
Finalists were chosen based on a peer review process and will now have to provide an oral presentation of their applications in mid-March, a process that will be on video and publically available, prior to receiving awards for this first phase of the RTTT competition. Forty states and the District of Columbia submitted applications earlier this year. States that were not chosen to move forward in the RTTT process can review comments to their application and reapply for consideration by the second phase deadline of June 1, 2010.
In their applications, states were asked to document past education reform successes, as well as outline plans to: extend reforms using college and career-ready standards and assessments; build a workforce of highly effective educators; create educational data systems to support student achievement; and turn around their lowest-performing schools.
The Race to the Top competition (RTTT) was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – better known as the economic stimulus package – and President Obama has recommended that the program receive an additional $1.35 billion in fiscal year 2011.
Read the U.S. Department of Education’s Press Release.
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Restraint & Seclusion Legislation Passes House
CEC still needs your help to move this important legislation. It is imperative that we secure more co-sponsors of the legislation in the Senate. Advocate for the Keeping All Students Safe Act—Visit CEC’s Legislative Action Center and ask your Senator to Support Preventing and Reducing Inappropriate Restraint and Seclusion.
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