Trying to improve special education is challenging and effort-taking. Different schools and colleges for special education hope to achieve the best outcomes in special education, but their strategies and resources are not usually aligned with their achievement plans. Their plans are less effective in achieving these objectives. But still, many reasons can give you hope. Several best practices and strategies in special education exist, making you achieve all of the objectives related to special education at childhood level and special education at adulthood level. The use of these practices with a system thinking approach can make the schools and colleges get dramatic gains in special education achievements. Here we will discuss all those practices and strategies to deal with special students with minor or fewer disabilities or disabilities. Let’s discuss those strategies.
- Ensure all students may able to read:
In special education, there is a big problem related to the reading of different special students. They cannot read entirely, and this difficulty leads to a poor understanding of Science, Maths, and English in their sixth grade. At that level, students feel difficulty in learning things. For this, the teachers should be able to teach them the reading skills properly. Because when their basics are set firm in the initial level, they will perform better in the later classes. There are many best apps for special education nowadays which work very well on their reading skills. Teachers can take help through that apps too.
- Effective general education should be a key:
Different best special education schools are using effective general education as a key for special education. National assessment of educational programs has shown that higher performance of general education is positively correlated with children with disabilities. Their general education classroom teacher should provide core instructions to them to meet all of their needs. In many places, now the culture is changing. Exceptional education staff is taking the lead towards serving the particular students in their abilities.
- Primary focus on student’s outcome, not on input:
In different districts, there are not enough special educators or paraprofessionals for exceptional students. Suppose things remain like this, then there will be no beneficiary outcome in special education. So the best practice in this respect would be hiring different educators and paraprofessionals to help the particular students get the education without any problem. This approach would be best for gifted education.
- Promote opportunities for high-quality in-district programs for children with special needs:
There were many issues related to promoting the district educational programs for children with special needs. There was not enough support for districts to have all the facilities and opportunities of serving special education in particular children. But this should not be the scenario. There should be some arrangements made inside a district when there are at least three special students in that area. Arrangements related to their teaching staff or education cost should be made. This is how special education can be spread everywhere.
- Provide maximum social, emotional, and behavioral support:
Taking care of student’s social, emotional, and behavioral needs is essential. Especially when it comes to special education, taking care of every bit of a student’s need is mattered. For this purpose, there should be many numbers of social workers, paraprofessionals, and counselors to deal with the students in an effective manner. If any student lacks social, emotional or behavioral needs, these staff members must communicate to them within an adequate period. Because an investment in education pays the best interest.
- Give paraprofessional support on behavioral and safety needs as compared to academic needs:
There should be an increase in several paraprofessionals everywhere in special education schools and colleges. These professionals work on each student’s different behavior manners, such as autism and different behavior issues, which includes working on expanding the inclusion. But other than this, paraprofessionals are also serving a big part in giving those students all the academic needs. However, this is not a suitable approach. When a content-centered teacher comes to know about those paraprofessionals’ aid, he might use this thing as giving less knowledge and less effort to his academic needs. So the point of discussing these things here is that a paraprofessional staff should work on behavioral, emotional and social needs. At the same time, an expert on a subject related to academics should work on special students’ academic needs.
- Allow special educators to use their strengths:
Well, this strategy is very well known in many special education schools and colleges. But it is less applicable to most of them. It’s about allowing special educators to use their specific abilities or expertise in a particular subject or area. Different educators have different approaches to deal with the children, and they should given the space for performing them accurately. Some common approaches or expertise in special education teaching are;
- Content-specific expertise
The instructors who have their abilities in academic content areas such as maths instructions or reading instructions should give their maximum time in these areas.
- Pedagogical expertise
Those who have pedagogical expertise should tell general teachers about accommodating the student’s needs for dealing with their disabilities. They should teach them scaffolding, universal design for learning(UDL), differentiation, chunking, and other teaching strategies.
- Case management expertise
Some people are good at handling the IEP process, so they should handle the case management process and tell other teachers to communicate things and studies effectively with students.
- Social, emotional expertise
Teachers who are good at providing social, emotional support should focus on this area and provide them with this essential support.
- Ensure that intervention and support should be provided by content strong staff:
In special education programs, the paraprofessionals are instructed to tell some knowledge about academic subjects, but this is not the right thing to do in giving special education. In every special education program, content-based teachers should be hired to give students in-depth knowledge of their subjects and areas. This is how those students can learn things in their academic needs.
- Give extra instructional time every day to students who struggle:
Some students are slow in picking the instructions of their teachers. These students should be provided with some extra instructional time. But in many special education schools, at the higher or secondary level, those students are forced to sit in low generation education classes to have less work to do, but this is not the right solution. They need some extra instructional time to fulfill the given task properly.
- Take care of the time usage by the staff in giving guidance and effectiveness:
There should be some active authorities on the checking balance of staff workings inside a school. If things are not doing correctly or the services are not being given at the proper time, this cannot be very pleasant in achieving the best outcomes related to special education. All the authorities should help each other keep the balance for seeing the. effectiveness of strategies and teaching practices
Implementing all these practices in special education schools can give you a hugely positive result at a considerable level. After all, education is a significant step towards their successful and independent life.