National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality Connection
Bringing Together Special Education and General Education

Inclusive Practices Resources

Access to a high-quality education is essential for students to meet the academic requirements of both No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA). Opportunities for students to access and participate in the general education curriculum are both integral to this success and largely dependent on the relevant competencies of general and special education teachers. This topic area provides a resource that emphasizes instructional strategies designed to enhance access to the general education curriculum.

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The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
http://www.cast.org
This national center is designed to improve student learning through the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) via the use of technology, media, and materials. UDL improves access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities.

The Center on Instruction
http://www.centeroninstruction.org/
This national center is one of five content centers serving as a resource for the U.S. Department of Education Comprehensive Centers. This center offers information on K–12 evidenced-based instruction in reading, math, science, special education, and English language learners.

Association of Curriculum and Development (ASCD)
http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd
ASCD is a nonprofit organization that addresses teaching and learning and shares best practices in professional development, educational leadership, and capacity building.

The National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC)
http://www.cast.org/policy/ncac/index.html
The Office of Special Education Programs established NCAC in 1999. This center was created to provide guidance on how new curricula, instructional strategies, and policies can be combined to improve access and progress in the general education curriculum for students with disabilities.

Doing What Works
http://dww.ed.gov
The U.S. Department of Education created the Doing What Works website as a resource for teaching in the implementation of effective educational practices. This website offers practice guides developed to evaluate the research on educational practices.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP): Ideas That Work
http:www.osepideasthatwork.org
OSEP designed this website to provide easy access to information from research to practice initiatives that address the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. This website includes resources, links, and other important information that supports OSEP's research on practice efforts.

What Works Clearinghouse
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc
The U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences established the What Works Clearinghouse to provide educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public with scientific evidence of what works in education. This website provides a set of easily accessible databases and reports with reviews of what works in education.

Special Education Resources for General Educators (SERGE)
http://serge.ccsso.org/
The purpose of this project is to offer general education teachers quick access to the knowledge and skills required to provide access and progress to students with disabilities in the general education curriculum/classroom.

The Access Center

• Information and Resources on Coteaching
  http://www.k8accesscenter.org/index.php/category/co-teaching/
• Information and Resources on Differentiated Instruction
  http://www.k8accesscenter.org/index.php/category/differentiated-instruction/
• Information and Resources on Universal Design for Learning
  http://www.k8accesscenter.org/index.php/category/universal-design/

The Access Center was a national technical assistance center funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. Its mission was to improve educational outcomes for students with disabilities. Although the center is no longer funded, its resources available online and on the website continue to be maintained.

The Call for Collaboration in Teacher Education
Judith Wind and Linda Blanton
Focus on Exceptional Children, 38(2), 1–10. Reproduced by permission of Love Publishing Company, Denver, CO.
This article discusses the need for general and special educators to collaborate in educating students. The authors identify the barriers in higher education pertaining to collaboration, and they provide specific recommendations to improve collaboration in teacher education.

Collaborative Teaching at the University Level: Practicing What Is Preached
Faith H. Waters and Teri L. Burcroff
The Teacher Educator, 42(4) Spring 2007
This article describes the implementation of a coteaching model at a small state university in the Northeast. The authors describe the development of the program, the need to teach educators how to work in a coteaching environment, and the importance of the practice being modeled by professors.

National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators (NCITE)
http://idea.uoregon.edu/~ncite/
The purpose of this national center is to gather information about the use of technology, media, and materials to provide access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities.

Collaborating With Families OnLine Modules (IRIS Center)
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/fam/chalcycle.htm
These online modules provide information on strategies educators can use to engage all families in their school.

 

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