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Key Flexibilities
In many states, charter schools are provided key flexibilities as part of their charters. For those charter schools that operate as their own Local Education Agency (nearly half of all charter schools) these autonomies—including autonomies in budgeting, designing the school calendar, choosing curriculum, hiring, staffing, and culture—could be used to include or exclude students with disabilities from rigorous, 21st century learning. The schools above leveraged their flexibilities toward the former, creating greater inclusion around 21st century learning practices. The steps they took could go a long way in informing practice in traditional public schools, which can take policy actions to learn about and empower many of the same sorts of flexibilities.
There is a strong rationale for focusing on 21st century skills for students with disabilities, as well as practices that contribute to the development of these skills—also considering past institutional inequalities that were common to previous educational reform efforts. However, shifts in practice can’t be realized without action from local, state, and national policymakers. The time to take those actions is now.
The following actions for impact are based on the actions and steps identified through conversations with educators, experts, and policy leaders.
ACTION: Decision makers at the federal, state, local, and school level must set expectations and goals for all learners to achieve the full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to engage in educational transfer: the capacity to take understanding and skills developed in one context and apply it to a separate unique context or problem.
ACTION: Assessment, accountability, and school improvement systems should include multiple measures of achievement that gauge students’ 21st century learning success, measure the capacity and effectiveness of those who serve them, provide a clear picture of how groups of students are performing, and be well understood by stakeholders including students, families, educators, employers, and community members.
ACTION: In-school and out-of-school time should be leveraged strategically to facilitate high-quality 21st century learning experiences for students and collaboration among educators, including for academic credit. The experiences should be equally rigorous and equally available for all students.
ACTION: High-quality preparation, clinical practice, and training opportunities should be provided to school leaders, educators, and educational staff to help them effectively implement inclusive 21st century learning practices.
ACTION: Resources (including but not limited to time, money, and high-quality, effective staffing) should be dedicated to implementing inclusive and systemic 21st century learning, including resources to facilitate accommodations for—and inclusion of—students with disabilities.
ACTION: A clear, transparent, and inclusive process for ongoing stakeholder engagement should be implemented to ensure that students with disabilities, other traditionally disadvantaged groups, and their families and communities are fully and regularly engaged in the conception, implementation, and evaluation of 21st century learning approaches.
Students with disabilities bring unique strengths and needs to 21st century classrooms. Educators and schools would be wise to be explicit in implementing strategies that address their unique needs while also benefiting their peers. Through this project, NCLD and partners identified five key strategies to promote this vision of inclusive 21st century learning.
Empower students with opportunities to facilitate and lead key meetings and decisions related to their learning and goals.
Read what actions students, educators, school leaders, district leaders, and policy makers can take to create an environment that supports expanded student voice and choice here.
Provide explicit instruction and intentional learning opportunities inside and outside the school so students have opportunities to develop key knowledge, skills, and dispositions essential to 21st century success through intentional curriculum selection and lesson design.
Read what actions students, educators, school leaders, district leaders, and policy makers can take to create an environment that supports powerful, engaging instruction here.
De-stigmatize supports and ensure that they address a full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions by integrating the development of these skills into RTI and MTSS systems.
Read what actions students, educators, school leaders, district leaders, and policy makers can take to create an environment that facilitates comprehensive interventions and supports here.
Use explicit measures of essential 21st century skills and dispositions so schools and districts can ensure that students understand the measures—and that the measures reflect a holistic assessment of their success.
Read what actions students, educators, school leaders, district leaders, and policy makers can take to create an environment that supports holistic measurements of student success here.
Facilitate a growth mindset culture in schools in order to provide students an opportunity to see learning as a process rather than an end.
Read what actions students, educators, school leaders, district leaders, and policy makers can take to create an environment that supports an empowering culture here.
NEW:Distance learning toolkit: Key practices to support students with learning differences during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread virtual and hybrid learning. As a result, educators, families, and students have been struggling to adapt to distance learning, particularly for students with learning and attention issues. The Distance Learning Toolkitwas created to share how educators can apply these evidence-based mindsets and practices in virtual and hybrid settings during the pandemic.
Helping educators unlock the power of students who learn differently
One in 5 students in the United States have learning and attention issues. This includes those with identified specific learning disabilities, diagnosed ADHD, or related disorders that impact learning. Despite often having above average or average intelligence, the majority of these students are achieving below grade level. This equates to millions of students across the nation whose strengths and potential are going untapped.
This systematic failure has a devastating ripple effect. Individuals with learning and attention issues often face lifelong challenges, frustration, and failure as they are currently less likely to graduate high school, enroll in and complete college, and hold a job compared to their peers. Schools and districts will continuously seek goals for student achievement and development that are beyond reach if the learning needs of the “1 in 5” go unmet. And our workplaces, communities and greater society will lose out on valuable talent that hasn’t been recognized nor nurtured.
At NCLD and Understood, we set out to unpack and address this problem. We partnered with teachers—often the most consistent touchpoint for students after their caregivers—to understand their experiences and insights. We rooted these experiences in rigorous research focused on general education classrooms, where the majority of the 1 in 5 spend most of their time.
Research shows that teachers can be successful with the 1 in 5. There is evidence of specific critical teacher mindsets and key practices that can improve outcomes and learning for students with learning and attention issues, and for all students.
But to truly move the needle on student achievement, teachers can’t do it alone. Policy makers, teacher preparation leaders, district, network and school administrators, general educators, special educators and caregivers need to break the silos that are ultimately hindering student learning and development.
It will take all of us, working together, to create an education system that better prepares and supports teachers as professionals–so they can better support the 1 in 5 and all students.
Teacher Perspectives
More than 70% of children with learning disabilities and ADHD spend more than 80% of their day in general education classrooms, right alongside their peers without disabilities. Through 13 focus groups and a survey of 1,350 educators, we reached teachers who have different levels of experience, come from a variety of backgrounds, and have worked with different student populations. We captured what general education teachers currently know and believe about teaching students with identified disabilities and/or learning and attention issues. While many feel unprepared to teach the 1 in 5, many are committed to learning more and improving their abilities.
Research Findings
What works for the 1 in 5 can benefit all students.
A literature review of empirical studies, along with input from members of Understood’s Educator Advisory Council, NCLD’s Professional Advisory Board, and other experts, identified and captured:
Three critical mindsets appear to have a positive influence on the learning and development of the 1 in 5:
Educators can implement eight key practices to improve achievement of the 1 in 5 in a general education classroom:
Take Action Now
General Educator. Special Educator. Principal. District Administrator. Teacher Prep Leader. State or Federal Policy Maker. Families and Caregivers. It’s time for all of us to act.
There are shared commitments we can make and steps we can take no matter what role we play. Of course, there are also role-specific actions for leading your organization, schools, and classrooms to more effectively reaching and teaching 1 in 5 and all students.
For School Leaders
If you are a school leader who has read the Forward Together report and is ready to take the next steps in ensuring that your school is well-positioned to serve the 1 in 5, this Guide is for you. By addressing key topics related to establishing common beliefs, creating an inclusive culture, and implementing effective instructional practice, this Guide helps school leaders identify and enact key practices for effectively serving the 1 in 5, and all students.
What Others are Saying
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The report, which was made possible by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, highlights research-based steps students, families, educators, policy makers, and other key stakeholders in our education system can take to ensure all students are equipped with self-advocacy skills and the capacity for self-determination: elements we know are critical to their success in personalized learning settings.
NCLD developed resources to ensure that every stakeholder knows the important role they can play in helping students develop essential self-advocacy skills and the capacity for self-determination. Here are some of the activities each stakeholder can engage in to make a difference:
Students: Learn about strategies that can help you take ownership of the process, like using a personalized learning plan, engaging in IEP and transition meetings, and learning more about your disabilities and rights.
Families: Find out how you can be engaged in supporting your student’s development of self-advocacy skills, like participating in school meetings and advocating for instruction that helps students develop self-advocacy skills and self-determination.
Educators (Teachers and Leaders): Learn about strategies to foster self-advocacy skills in the classroom and throughout the school, like using explicit instruction and assessments to measure students’ progress or encouraging participation in mentoring programs.
School Counselors: Find out how you can integrate a focus on self-advocacy skills into your work through personalized learning plans and focusing on student experiences that can lead to developing self-advocacy skills and self-determination.
Higher Education Faculty: Learn about actions faculty at institutions of higher education can take to help students with disabilities develop the self-advocacy skills and self-determination they need to be successful.
Postsecondary Leaders: Find out what actions postsecondary leaders at colleges and universities can take to empower every student to achieve their potential by enabling students with disabilities to practice greater self-advocacy skills and self-determination.
Policymakers (State and Federal): Understand how policies can offer opportunities for schools to focus on or students to develop self-advocacy skills, like policies that support out-of-school learning opportunities or changes in federal education laws.
NCLD believes the future of education is one where all children play an active role in their own education, whether they have a disability or not. We look forward to continuing this important work and strengthening partnerships with organizations and stakeholders across the field to ensure innovative approaches to learning fully include students with disabilities.
Student participation in voucher programs has more than doubled since 2010. Despite the increasing popularity of school vouchers, education savings accounts (ESA), and tax incentive programs, many parents of children with disabilities struggle to find quality information and are left with important questions about how these programs work and might impact a child with a disability.
After examining more than 60 programs across the country — including school vouchers, education saving accounts, and tax incentive programs — we identified three major hurdles facing families of students with disabilities: the potential loss of federal civil rights protections; lack of access to information; and added costs.
To help parents and policymakers navigate discussions about these programs and make decisions for their child, NCLD’s new series provides a number of resources:
NCLD’s priority is ensuring that parents and policymakers have access to accurate information, enabling them to make informed decisions. We look forward to continuing to provide parents and educators the tools and information necessary to enable the 1 in 5 children with learning and attention issues to succeed.
On this page, you will find downloadable tips and recommendations for implementing personalized learning systems at both the state and national levels. NCLD has prepared roadmaps for individuals, schools and systems, as well action steps for all states to successfully integrate students with disabilities into personalized learning systems successfully.
This work reflects one of the first deep analyses of personalized learning on the 6.4 million students with disabilities across the nation. We are grateful for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in supporting our effort to elevate students with disabilities in this national conversation.
Seeing the exponential growth of personalized learning across the nation, NCLD set out to bring the voice of students with disabilities and their families into the discussion and determine how personalized learning systems can meet their needs. NCLD initiated a process to help educators, families, and policymakers understand these systems and to identify strategies for educators and leaders at all levels to better meet the needs of and appropriately include students with disabilities in personalized learning.
Over the course of a year, NCLD gathered top special education and personalized learning experts from across the country – including educators, advocates, researchers, state and district leaders, school leaders, and parents of children with disabilities – and engaged them in discussions to learn and explore ways to ensure that personalized learning systems integrate and benefit students with disabilities. NCLD also conducted one-on-one expert interviews and participated in site visits to schools using personalized learning.
Considering the needs of students with disabilities in the design of the personalized learning systems requires honest conversations and dedicated action, not only about the benefits personalized learning can offer these students, but also about the challenges. To identify the challenges and opportunities inherent in personalized learning, NCLD set out on a yearlong exploration of personalized learning in three states: New Hampshire, Colorado, and North Carolina.
These states not only reflect geographic and demographic diversity, but are at different stages of implementing personalized learning. New Hampshire has had over two decades of experience in implementing their competency-based initiatives, while efforts in Colorado and North Carolina are more recent. Each state reflects different histories, contexts, and policy environments.
Horowitz, S. H., Rawe, J., & Whittaker, M. C. (2017). The State of Learning Disabilities: Understanding the 1 in 5. New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities.
Acknowledgments
President & CEO
Mimi Corcoran, M.P.A.
Authors
Sheldon H. Horowitz, Ed.D.
Julie Rawe
Meghan C. Whittaker, J.D., MSW
