Should We Train All Teachers to Work With Autistic Students?

John McLaughlin joins me to discuss the notion that schools should be training all teachers to work and understand students who are on the Autism Spectrum. McLaughlin also discusses what questions teachers should be asking about Autism to better inform the understanding and approach with both students and parents.

Previous episodes of CoffeED focused on the dropout issue. Check out our CoffeED episodes with Bill Milliken of Communities in Schools and a follow-up conversation with Milliken, Dan Domenech of the AASA and Mark Claypool of ChanceLight Behavioral Health and Education and McLaughlin’s co-author of We’re In This Together: Public-Private Partnerships in Special and At-Risk Education.

CoffeED Episode

John M. McLaughlin, Ph.D., directs the Research & Analytics unit of ChanceLight Behavioral Health and Education (client of MindRocket Media Group). Dr. McLaughlin holds a BA, MA and Ph.D. from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota respectively.

He was a certified geography teacher and secondary school administrator in Tennessee where he served as a teacher. He then spent the last ten years of his work in that state as principal in an alternative high school.In 1977, he founded Benton Hall Academy, a school in the Nashville area for students in need of a small and caring environment.From 1993 to 2000 he published The Education Industry Report, a monthly summary of investment activity in the education arena.

He has been interviewed by virtually every major newspaper, magazine and broadcast media in the U.S. for his insights on the interface of public education and free enterprise. He has been published several times throughout his career. His most recent writing includes an article, Alternative Education’s Impact on Office Disciplinary Referrals (with Eva Gillham) in The Clearing House, September 2012; a book of fiction, The Last Year of the Season, 2014, North Star Press; and We’re In This Together: Public-Private Partnerships in Special and At-Risk Education (with Mark K. Claypool), 2015, Rowman & Littlefield Education.