News for the Special Education Community
by Gary KartonAuthor – When I was in third grade, a teacher I didn’t know walked into my reading class, called my name, and then led me down the hall and into her office. “Do you know why you’re here?” she asked, offering me a seat at a table next to her desk. I shook [...]
by Lyndsey Layton – A growing number of states are drawing a hard line in elementary school, requiring children to pass a reading test in third grade or be held back from fourth grade. Thirteen states last year adopted laws that require schools to identify, intervene and, in many cases, retain students who fail [...]
by David Erickson – Wendy Brassfield, director of the nonprofit Impact on Learning Inc. center in Hamilton, is acutely aware of what it’s like to struggle to learn in the classroom. She has battled Attention Deficit Disorder, and she couldn’t read as fast as her classmates growing up. “They thought I had a reading disability [...]
by Kaliya Franklin – Click on Easy News to go directly to this groundbreaking publication. Over the course of my career I began to realize how difficult it can be to ensure information is accessible to all. Some disabilities were relatively easy to provide accessible information for, by asking people to make transcripts of audio for people [...]
by Todd Engdahld – Members of the Colorado State Board of Education last week took their first detailed look at the proposed new system intended to improve the literacy levels of the state’s youngest students. The draft regulations reviewed by the board Jan. 10 outline an implementation plan for the 2012 READ Act, a law that sets [...]
by Angelique S. Chengelis – There is a brightness about Dennis Norfleet that belies some of the darkness he has already experienced in his young life. The 5-foot-7 Michigan freshman, who dazzled this season as a kick returner and made headlines in recent weeks with his move from tailback to cornerback as the Wolverines prepare [...]
While many charter schools contract out special education services with their local school districts, one such school in Louisiana is opening to specifically serve students with dyslexia. The state education board has granted tentative approval to a plan to establish a charter school in Baton Rouge that would serve students with dyslexia. The Advocate reports [...]
by David Bruce – Michelle Plazony first noticed her daughter Erica’s reading problem when she was in kindergarten. She was having trouble recognizing some of the sight words her class was learning. “Words like ‘what, that and come — Erica just wasn’t reading those words fluently,” Plazony said. It would take Plazony and her husband, [...]
by Emily K. Schwartz – At 16, Richard Branson embarked on his first business venture in publishing. Two years later, he set up an audio-record mail-order business, and then he founded Virgin Records, a chain of record stores that would later become one of the top six record companies in the world. Today, Virgin Group [...]
by Gretchen Phillips Students who get distracted in college and struggle to organize thoughts or finish tests in a timely manner are not alone, according to Dr. Rob Mapou, a guest speaker at the College of Southern Maryland earlier this month. These students do not necessarily have an undiscovered learning disability, either. In connection with [...]
