Prologue
Introduction
The prologue presents information on several topics central to your understanding of appropriate school programming for students with disabilities.
- The federal law that mostly directs the provision of special education services, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), establishes the general education classroom as the default location for presenting instruction to students with disabilities. However, the law allows other placements if circumstances warrant. One circumstance is when a student needs individualized remedial instruction. In many instances, these competing considerations are the basis for contentious discussions.
- Special education involves individualized instruction that is not possible through general education. Accordingly, student-level programming is the focus of all the content presented in your course.
- The legal standard for measuring the effectiveness of special education services is the amount of progress a student makes, considering his circumstances. The standard is not whether the student is performing at grade level in all subjects and no longer needs special education services.
- Several conceptual schemas serve as important frameworks for discussing special education’s role in educating students with disabilities, preschool through grade 12. The schemas are explained and frequently referenced in your course.
Each of these four topics is discussed in more detail below.
Two Primary Competing Challenges Schools Must Address for Students with Disabilities
Schools are challenged to simultaneously address two somewhat competing matters that often work against each other in providing instruction to students with disabilities. One is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA) general least restrictive environment (LRE) requirement. It addresses the placement of a student with a disability, meaning the location where they will receive instruction. The default placement is the general education classroom. A student with a disability can receive instruction elsewhere, but only after schools exhaustively consider how the student can be educated satisfactorily in the general education classroom with special education and other services (e.g., universal learning design, supplementary aids and services, accommodations and modifications).
An important reason for instructing a student in the general education classroom is that doing so ensures they are exposed to the grade-level curriculum. In turn, this arrangement prepares the student for the annual statewide tests of academic achievement.
The second matter is providing individualized instruction, which often means teaching curriculum content that is several years or more below the student’s age-appropriate grade level. This instruction must be presented until the students demonstrates they have learned the skill, which means performing it with 90% accuracy or higher.
The instruction must involve numerous practice trials, considering that students demonstrating significant, persistent academic achievement deficits need many more trials than their typically achieving peers to master the same content. For instance, Gersten et al. (2008) noted that these students need 10-30 additional practice trials per skill, whereas Heward et al. (####) reported that they may need 20-40 additional practice trials. When discussing curriculum-based measurement and beginning reading instruction, Hosp (2026) commented that teachers must be prepared for the “mind-numbing” number of practice trials some students need to acquire basic reading skills.
Special Education is Individualized Instruction
Special education has been described as individualized instruction that cannot be provided through general education. In part, this means that special education may involve teaching a student with a disability curriculum content that is at his instructional level, which is well below his age-appropriate grade level. Furthermore, a special education teacher must spend the time needed for the student to learn the material, which means the teacher will not follow a scope-and-sequence timeline established for the core curriculum. A curriculum’s scope refers to the totality of its content, while its sequence refers to the order in which the content is taught. A school may establish a timeline for its curriculum’s scope and sequence, meaning designated content must be taught on a designated date. It is a common occurrence for general education teachers to have to teach specified curriculum content on a designated date because of the curriculum’s scope-and-sequence. Conversely, a special education teacher may present instruction about the same content across multiple instructional sessions rather than only the one or two sessions listed in the scope and sequence.
Another way that special education is unique from general education is when special education teachers target functional content, such as activities of daily living that include personal hygiene (e.g., handwashing, toileting) and independent living (e.g., grocery shopping, cooking) tasks that are not taught systematically in general education classrooms. A third way is when special education teachers routinely employ instructional arrangements (i.e., small groups, one-on-one), also referred to as instructional formats, that are only used sometimes in general education classrooms.
The various components of special education are applied to the unique circumstances of each student with a disability. Thus, it is not practical or possible to explain every – or even most – “if, then” scenarios. Consequently, the content presented in your course is intended to provide you with a straightforward explanation of special education that serves as a foundation for your lifelong learning about the topic. Through further study and experience working in Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 schools, you will develop more in-depth knowledge. This approach is in keeping with a profession that expects its members to be lifelong learners, recognizing that a teacher preparation program cannot teach anyone everything they need to know.
The Expected Outcome from the Receipt of Special Education Services
The United States Supreme Court (2017) ruled that the minimal outcome for every student receiving special education services is demonstrating progress appropriate to the student’s circumstances. This means that appropriate progress will be determined on a case-by-case basis. It also means that the Supreme Court dismissed a common, inaccurate criticism that has often been leveled at special education. This criticism is that special education has failed every time that a student with a disability has not overcome their need for special education services and performed on grade level in the general education classroom under the conditions available to all students.
Furthermore, the standard does not address the location where the student receives instruction. Thus, one’s philosophical stance that every student with a disability should receive all their instruction in a general education classroom is not germane to the content presented in your course.
Conceptual Schemas for Your Course
A conceptual schema answers the question, “What information matters, and how is it logically related?”
The information about three topics – the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), and systematic instruction (particularly an explicit instruction approach) – comprises several conceptual schemas for in-depth discussions about the design and operation of special education programming for students with disabilities. Hence, you must develop a deep understanding of these topics and remain cognizant of how they relate to all the other topics that are covered.
- The IDEA is the federal law that mostly directs the provision of special education services to school-age children with disabilities.
- An MTSS is a framework for organizing a school’s personnel and system of interventions, and matching them to each student’s instructional needs. An MTSS provides a way to account for each student’s performance.
- Systematic instruction involves teacher-directed, methodical, replicable approaches that involve various research-supported instructional behaviors. Archer and Hughes (2011) remarked that one type, explicit instruction, must serve as the basis for effective and efficient instruction for students with learning challenges and disabilities.
