Title: 7 Tips for Achieving Equity in Special Education - Rethink Education
Headings: 7 Tips for Achieving Equity in Special Education
7 Tips for Achieving Equity in Special Education
Why equity? Why now?
Tip 1: Principal Leadership
Tip 2: Develop Truly Individualized and Quality IEP’s
Tip 3: Use Online and Blended Learning Options
Tip 4:  Let Data Drive Instruction and Intervention
Tip 5: Thorough and Individualized Lesson Planning
Tip 6: Establish High Standards for Each Child
Tip 7: Motivation and Enthusiasm
Conclusion

Content: Whether before school, during an intervention period, during small group instruction, or in an after-school tutorial, all students with deficits can benefit greatly from truly personalized learning with diagnostic assessment elements. In order to catch up with their own-age peers, students with disabilities often need more supports and intervention approaches. We need to move beyond only considering the curriculum provided as one-size-fits all, and begin to customize and extend learning for those that truly need it. One way to achieve this is by taking advantage of the growth of educational technologies that enable us to provide truly personalized learning supports. Tip 4: Let Data Drive Instruction and Intervention
The heart of special education is rooted in the cyclical process of assess, intervene, instruct, and re-assess. If we are to truly provide children with equity in education, we must engage in proactive, high-leverage, research-based best practices and avoid reactionary, ‘de minimis’ practices that fall short of maximizing a child’s true learning capacity. Today there is certainly no lack of data available to assist us in this endeavor. The boom in the EdTech industry has created solutions that allow schools to garner copious amounts of student data. Whether academic or behavioral, tracking performance, evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, making adjustments, and differentiating instruction are made easier by diagnostic learning tools that allow schools to make data-driven instructional decisions.