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  TIP #26: Making Universal Supports (Tier 1) within a Schoolwide Positive Interventions and Supports More Accessible for All Students

  This TIP provides recommendations regarding actions that schools can take to make participation in universal behavior supports accessible and meaningful for all students, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

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  Reconsidering LRE: Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities and the Persistence of Separate Schools

  This report serves as a guide for local school districts and state education agencies to consider whether the present level of educational inclusion of their students with the most significant disabilities is fully consistent with what the law requires, and most importantly, is ultimately in the best interest of the students they serve.

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  TIP #30: Behavior is Communication

  Behavior is often an attempt to communicate. Behaviors that are challenging often result from communication failure. Reframing what is viewed as an interfering behavior to be a student’s attempt to communicate, provides more positive options for intervening by teaching the student more effective means to communicate their wants and needs. This TIP includes an animated short video that demonstrates this concept.

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  TIP #29: Creating Communication Opportunities and Tracking Progress

  Teaching and tracking communication opportunities present some challenges, as communication is not as simple as answering a question correctly or responding to typical assessment strategies. It is unique to the individual and requires informed communication partners (adults, peers, families). The tools in this TIP can help teams identify and capture those opportunities to ensure growth in communication skills.

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  TIP #25: Preparing the AAC User for the Next Grade

  For students who are non-speaking and communicate using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), it is important to support their communication needs during grade level transitions to ensure that the academic, social, and communication gains continue into the next grade. This TIP provides concrete ideas to plan for successful grade level transitions for ACC Users.

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  TIP #24: Learners with Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) and Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC)

  Students with Cerebral/Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI) may have difficulty processing the images their eyes see, which can affect many areas of basic visual functions. This TIP focuses on students with CVI and how it relates to learners with significant cognitive disabilities who use Alternative and Augmentative Communication or AAC, with a particular focus on inclusive environments.

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  TIP #28: Social Support for AAC Users

  Students with complex communication needs who are using or are beginning to use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) benefit from social support from peers and adults. This TIP describes circles of social support and the many communication strategies that the AAC communicator might use with partners who know them best. It also describes strategies that the AAC communicator may use with less familiar communication partners. Being able to use a variety of strategies helps the student communicate in many types of situations for different purposes.

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  PI #2: 5 Back to School Positive Behavior Strategies

  Now that we are back to school, it is important to remember how to positively support behavior. It is especially important to consider those students who might need more support after being away from the school building last year. 

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  Paraeducator's Roles in Supporting Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PreK-12 Settings

  This study involved efforts to elicit the perspectives of paraeducators who were enrolled in an online professional development course at one university. Using the Council for Exceptional Children standards for paraeducators, this study sought to identify the extent to which CEC-defined practices were in use. The study administered a researcher-designed survey to gather data, followed by interviews with selected survey respondent. This study appears to demonstrate the value of training and experience as ways to promote paraeducators’s development of practices that align with CEC standard. The training received by these paraeducators, judging from the interview data, however, was not systematic. Additional research into the effectiveness of training in cultivating mastery of the practices specified in the CEC standards seems needed. In fact, given the relatively small body of related studies and the large numbers of practicing paraeducators, the need for such research seems urgent.

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  Communication Competence in the Inclusive Setting-A Review of the Literature (TIES Center Report #103)

  This report presents findings from a literature review that was conducted to identify evidenced-based approaches to supporting the development of communicative competence for K-8 students in inclusive educational settings. Specifically, the review examined whether communication programming employing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is being successfully used in inclusive elementary and middle school settings, and what elements of the communication program are most likely to affect students’ communicative competence.

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  This Is Who We Are and What We Do: A Case Study of Two Districts Exemplifying Inclusivity

  This study investigated districts that are positive outliers, that is, districts that have implemented inclusive education in a particularly robust and effective way. Two questions guided the research: (1) What are the experiences and viewpoints of district personnel and community members in exemplary districts? (2) How do district personnel and community members in exemplar districts perceive the community’s influence on inclusive education for students with significant cognitive disabilities? Interviews in two exemplar districts revealed that implementing an inclusive model of education for students with significant cognitive disabilities is not only feasible but results in positive outcomes for all students. Further, strong system-level practices and policies made an inclusive approach successful, but the specific policies and practices differed somewhat across districts as these were grounded in the particular district context. The particularity of context points to another key finding: that attentiveness to the community–in particular, enacting an inclusive model with community buy-in–proved essential in each district’s experience.

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  How Preparation Programs for Moderate-Severe Disabilities in Ohio Incorporate High-Leverage Instructional Practices

  This study addresses the incorporation high-leverage practices or HLPs into higher education programs for preservice and practicing teachers who receive preparation in inclusive education at Ohio colleges and universities. Data were collected through four types of research activities: (1) a survey of Ohio faculty members from educator preparation programs, (2) focus-group interviews with Ohio in-service special education teachers, (3) an analysis of syllabi from Ohio educator preparation programs, (4) and focus-group interviews with Ohio parents. Findings suggest, overall, that responding faculty and institutions of higher education are inconsistently teaching HLPs. Those faculty and instructors who incorporated HLPs more consistently tended to include the easier-to-teach HLPs. Because the ability to use HLPs may be an important prerequisite to competence and comfort with inclusion, this inconsistency represents a serious setback for Ohio students with significant cognitive disabilities. Based on the findings, the report makes recommendation for both practice and research.

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  Prioritizing Teaching and Learning

  The central mission of schools and districts is teaching and learning. In effective systems, all participants are learners--both the students and the adults.

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  TIP #6: Using the Least Dangerous Assumption in Educational Decisions

  The least dangerous assumption holds that in the absence of conclusive data, educational decisions ought to be based on assumptions that, if incorrect, will have the least dangerous effect on the student outcomes and learning. This multi-media TIP outlines ways to make sound educational decisions for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. This TIP also includes an example, as well as implementation strategies and learning activities.

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  Expert Learning is for All | Impact | Winter 2018/19 Volume 31, Number 2

  Describes how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the idea of the expert learner can be used to adapt and redesign curriculum to meet the needs of all students.

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  System Wide Learning

  For a district to build an effective and inclusive system, it must adopt and sustain  system-wide learning practices grounded in effective data use.

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  Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District: Inclusive Practices and Lessons Learned | Impact | Winter 2018/19 Volume 31, Number 2

  The former Director of Student Support Services for Cottonwood-Oak Creek District (Arizona) shares seven lessons learned in making inclusive practices work with a focus on the school district level.

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  The Hope of Lessons Learned: Supporting the Inclusion of Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities Into General Education Classrooms | Impact | Winter 2018/19 Volume 31, Number 2

  Presents ten lessons learned through working toward inclusive education systems, focusing on the systems-level changes that are needed to make inclusion work for students.

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  Helping Your Child with Routines at Home

  This video describes ways that parents of school-age children with significant cognitive disabilities can develop home routines that support learning and behavior when the child is at home. 

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  Helping Your Child by Checking Progress at Home

  This video describes easy ways for parents to check on their child's progress in academics and behavior while learning at home