Accommodating Student Variability

Question 1

Describe ability groupings in general:

Answer 1

Ability grouping is a form of separating and grouping students together based in skill level to get specific learning outcomes through peer help and teacher guidance.

Question 2

Describe Between-class (tracking) ability groupings:

Answer 2

The goal here is that each class is to be made up of students who are homogeneous in standardized intelligence or achievement scores. Common at the high school level

Question 3

Describe Regrouping ability groupings:

Answer 3

Students of the same age, ability, and grade but from different classrooms come together for instruction in a specific subject, usually reading or math.

Question 4

Describe Joplin Plan ability groupings:

Answer 4

Combines students across grade levels and from different classrooms to come together for subject specific instruction

Question 5

Describe Within-class ability groupings:

Answer 5

Most popular elementary school ability grouping that involves the division of a single class of students into two or three groups of reading and math instruction.

Question 6

What are the four major components of IDEA?

Answer 6

Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)

Pre-placement Evaluation

Individualized Education Program (IEP)

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

Question 7

Describe Free and appropriate public education in IDEA:

Answer 7

The basic purpose of IDEA is to ensure that all individuals from birth through age twenty-one who have an identifiable disability, regardless of how severe, receive at public expense supervised special education and related services that meet their unique educational needs.

Question 8

Describe Pre-placement evaluation in IDEA:

Answer 8

Before a child with a disability can be placed in a program that provides special education services, “a full and individual evaluation of the child’s educational needs” must be conducted.

Question 9

Describe individualized education program (IEP) in IDEA:

Answer 9

The IEP is a written statement that describes the educational program that has been designed to meet the child’s unique needs.

Question 10

Describe Least Restrictive Environment in IDEA:

Answer 10

A school district must identify a continuum of increasingly restrictive placements (instruction in regular classes, special classes, home instruction, instruction in hospitals and institutions) and, on the basis of the multidisciplinary team’s evaluation, select the least restrictive setting that will best meet the student’s special educational needs.

Question 11

Describe the idea of inclusion and Full-inclusion:

Answer 11

inclusion means keeping special education students in regular classrooms and bringing support services to the children rather than the other way around. Full inclusion refers to the practice of eliminating all pullout programs and special education teachers and of providing regular classroom teachers with training in teaching special-needs students so that they can teach these students in the regular classroom

Question 12

Describe Autism as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 12

Significant difficulty in verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction that adversely affects educational performance.

Question 13

Describe Deaf-blindness as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 13

Impairments of both hearing and vision, the combination of which causes severe communication, developmental, and educational problems. The combination of these impairments is such that a child’s educational and physical needs cannot be adequately met by programs designed for only deaf children or only blind children.

Question 14

Describe Emotional-behavioral disorders as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 14

Personal and social problems exhibited in an extreme degree over a period of time that adversely affect a child’s ability to learn and get along with others (prior to the 1997 amendments to IDEA, this category was called “serious emotional disturbance”).

Question 15

Describe hearing impairment as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 15

Permanent or fluctuating difficulty in understanding speech that adversely affects educational performance.

Question 16

Describe intellectual disability as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 16

Significant subaverage general intellectual functioning accompanied by deficits in adaptive behavior (how well a person functions in social environments). This category was formerly called mental retardation. The change to intellectual disability occurred in 2010

Question 17

Describe Multiple disabilities as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 17

Two or more impairments (such as mental retardation–blindness and mental retardation–orthopedic, but not deaf-blindness) that cause such severe educational problems that a child’s needs cannot be adequately met by programs designed solely for one of the impairments.

Question 18

Describe orthopedic impairments as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 18

Impairment in a child’s ability to use arms, legs, hands, or feet that significantly affects that child’s educational performance.

Question 19

Describe other health impairments as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 19

Conditions such as asthma, hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, epilepsy, heart disease, and diabetes that so limit the strength, vitality, or alertness of a child that educational performance is significantly affected.

Question 20

Describe specific learning disability as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 20

A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language that leads to learning problems not traceable to physical disabilities, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or cultural-economic disadvantage.

Question 21

Describe speech or language impairment as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 21

A communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, or a language or voice impairment that adversely affects educational performance.

Question 22

Describe traumatic brain injury as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 22

A brain injury due to an accident that causes cognitive or psychosocial impairments that adversely affect educational performance.

Question 23

Describe visual impairment/blindness as a disabling condition as covered under IDEA:

Answer 23

A visual impairment so severe that even with corrective lenses a child’s educational performance is adversely affected.