Earlier entitlements for students with disabilities focused principally on specialized curriculum and instructional practices (special education) tailored to meet unique needs resulting from the disability. IDEA’97, represents special education as a system of services, supports and ancillary aids enabling students to make effective progress in general education. This law also allows students with disabilities to participate in standards-based reform by prohibiting exclusion from state and district-level accountability systems. Individualized educational programming, as revealed in the IEP for students with disabilities, now begins with an analysis of each student’s current level of performance in the general curriculum. This is in stark contrast to the earlier approach to IEP development, which began with an assessment of each student’s unique needs arising from the disability. Not such a subtle distinction, the new approach enables IEP team members to identify services, supports and ancillary aids that not only address disability but also enable the student to make effective progress in the general curriculum. curriculum frameworks in separate content areas contain standards that are often specified sequentially, including prerequisites and benchmarks. A critical task of the IEP team is to determine the entry points for each student engaging in the general curriculum. The team must examine standards of performance in broad ways, identifying authentic, culminating products as outcomes of instruction. The team must then identify a minimal range of accommodations that allow the student to participate in the curriculum in ways that reduce the impact of disability without altering standards. Where entry points appear to be far below standards, the team must design curriculum modifications that allow the student to advance toward the standard in increments more appropriate to the student’s capabilities. A variety of techniques exists for modifying curriculum so that targets that address the student’s disability-related needs can be embedded in the general curriculum. In either case, whether the student’s curriculum is modified or the student’s disability is accommodated, the general curriculum sets the focus for educational programming. With the ongoing infusion of technology in education, it is now crucially important for stakeholders and decision-makers to consider just how technology solutions can assist with this challenging process. Hopefully, this document will provide much-needed help in this connection. Approach Technology can support much of the effort toward curriculum access, participation and progress. Technology increases independence, personal productivity and empowerment. It can facilitate the kinds of interactions that occasion instruction, and it can transform static curriculum resources into flexible digital media and tools.
Earlier entitlements for students with disabilities focused principally on specialized curriculum and instructional practices (special education) tailored to meet unique needs resulting from the disability. IDEA’97, represents special education as a system of services, supports and ancillary aids enabling students to make effective progress in general education. This law also allows students with disabilities to participate in standards-based reform by prohibiting exclusion from state and district-level accountability systems. Individualized educational programming, as revealed in the IEP for students with disabilities, now begins with an analysis of each student’s current level of performance in the general curriculum. This is in stark contrast to the earlier approach to IEP development, which began with an assessment of each student’s unique needs arising from the disability. Not such a subtle distinction, the new approach enables IEP team members to identify services, supports and ancillary aids that not only address disability but also enable the student to make effective progress in the general curriculum. curriculum frameworks in separate content areas contain standards that are often specified sequentially, including prerequisites and benchmarks. A critical task of the IEP team is to determine the entry points for each student engaging in the general curriculum. The team must examine standards of performance in broad ways, identifying authentic, culminating products as outcomes of instruction. The team must then identify a minimal range of accommodations that allow the student to participate in the curriculum in ways that reduce the impact of disability without altering standards. Where entry points appear to be far below standards, the team must design curriculum modifications that allow the student to advance toward the standard in increments more appropriate to the student’s capabilities. A variety of techniques exists for modifying curriculum so that targets that address the student’s disability-related needs can be embedded in the general curriculum. In either case, whether the student’s curriculum is modified or the student’s disability is accommodated, the general curriculum sets the focus for educational programming. With the ongoing infusion of technology in education, it is now crucially important for stakeholders and decision-makers to consider just how technology solutions can assist with this challenging process. Hopefully, this document will provide much-needed help in this connection. Approach Technology can support much of the effort toward curriculum access, participation and progress. Technology increases independence, personal productivity and empowerment. It can facilitate the kinds of interactions that occasion instruction, and it can transform static curriculum resources into flexible digital media and tools.
ncac-curriculum-access-technologies-supporting-2009-08.docx