Daily Archive for February 28th, 2007

Zig book redux

Good news for those who discovered too late that Zig Engelmann was publishing a history of his time in education. The chapters were available only briefly (2 weeks each) but Zig’s making the entire product available again briefly.

If you missed downloading any of the earlier chapters of “The Outrage of
Project Follow Through,” Zig is re posting ALL chapters on Monday, March 12
about 8am pacific and will leave them up until Monday, March 19, around 8am
pacific.

Bryan
Bryan Wickman,
Executive Director
Association for Direct Instruction

Save the dates. Get it while it’s free. Go to zigsite.com.

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More DC misdirection

Last week (21 Feb 2007), David Nakamura and V. Dion Haynes of the Washington (DC, US) Post wrote a story about recommendations for changes in special education in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Under the headline “Fenty Submits Plan for Special-Ed: Changes Would Be Part of Takeover,” they discussed Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s proposal to take over D.C. public schools, including his recommendations for special education.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday beefed up his proposal to take over D.C. public schools by promising to overhaul special education. If he gains control of the school system, the mayor said, he will expand the placement of disabled children in regular classes, bring special education into compliance with court rulings and cut transportation costs.

To be sure, these are interesting goals, but I have some problems with them.

  1. Expand placement regular classes—Good idea, provided that it appropriate for the individual students. That’s part of the reason we have Individualized Education Programs.
  2. Compliance with court rulings—Good idea, but see item a above.
  3. Cut transportation costs—Another good idea, provided that the cuts does not (i) cause failure to comply with court rulings or (ii) make students have longer bus rides.

What I’d really like to know, though, is whether Mayor Fenty and the people with whom he’s working or proposes to work on the overhaul of DCPS will take this important step: Require DCPS to employ educational practices that have been proven to promote high levels of student outcomes.

Link to the article by Mr. Nakamura and Mr. Haynes.

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Wing Institute

I am pleased to add the Wing Institute, a not-for-profit organization aimed at promoting evidence-based education, to the list of Web resources listed on Teach Effectively. I learned about the organization when I was invited to a pending meeting, the Wing Institute Annual Summit on Evidence-based Special Education 27 April 2007, and I am quite impressed with the scope and quality of its efforts.

Continue reading ‘Wing Institute’

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