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Professional DevelopmentEducatorsK-12K-12 TeachersExecutive FunctionedLeadersAdministratorsCurriculum and Instruction

Curriculum Planning for Students with Additional Needs

by Barbara R. Blackburn
written by Barbara R. Blackburn 5 minutes read

Curriculum planning for students with additional needs can be particularly challenging. Analyses of textbooks for students with disabilities show that many are too fast-paced with too many difficult concepts and alternative strategies presented without mastery of any of them.

Objectives should be simplified and tied together from one concept to the next. Moreover, the pacing of the textbooks must be such that students learn one concept before tackling the next. While this may seem logical, too many textbooks revisit topics intermittently throughout a year without allowing mastery.

In order to take a textbook and make a curriculum, we share the OPTIMIZE approach. In order to improve the practice format within the curriculum, we propose a mix of blocking and interleaving practice.

OPTIMIZE Curriculum Planning

Since there is no one textbook designed to meet the needs of all students, it is inherent upon teachers and administrators to analyze and amend the curriculum. The OPTIMIZE approach by Brad Witzel and Paul Riccomini (2007) provides eight steps to improve a textbook and make a full curriculum that presents key strategies for students with disabilities.

  • Order the skills of a textbook unit before teaching
  • Pair your sequence with that of the textbook
  • Take note of the similarities and differences
  • Inspect earlier chapters to see if they cover the differences. Check later chapters to see if they cover differences
  • Match supplemental guides to see if they cover the differences
  • Identify additional instructions to complement the current text
  • Zero in the optimal sequence with your new knowledge
  • Evaluate and improve the sequence every year

Curriculum Application Example

After teachers reviewed three research-based resources, two textbooks, and the Florida state lesson database, the 6th-grade math team developed a list of 10 lessons within the unit. It is longer than either of the original two textbooks. Still, with the additional information on model-based problem solving and integer computation, the team concluded that more time is needed to bring students to mastery of this more difficult topic.

With the sequence of the instruction set, the team wanted to build learning over time. They reviewed how textbook pages were designed so that they would scaffold information from one step to the next. One area that they focused time was on how practice was conducted: blocking versus interleaving.

Blocking Practice

Blocking is a process of practicing what has just been taught, grouping similar problems together. This is an important approach because it helps activate working memory and provides the potential to put what is practiced into long-term memory. Simply, blocking is typical of textbook lessons because practice problems are grouped by complexity, typically ordered from easier to harder.

One concern with blocking surrounds the level of complexity per the questions that students must answer. Typically, the first blocked problems to be answered include little complexity as they are straightforward. With reading comprehension, the first questions are often direct in that the answer requires remembering part of the passage. In mathematics, easy problems are typically part of the first problems listed. As the questions and problems progress, however, they include more complexity.

Example- Reading Comprehension

With reading comprehension, the most complex inferential questions occur near the end of the practice. With mathematics, this is where more confusing word problems exist, or, for the sake of secondary mathematics, rational numbers include factors and exponents.

It is important to match the complexity of the instruction to students’ needs. You’ll also want to consider the order of the questions provided to students. Have students practice complex problems with you present so that they receive needed support. Also, having more direct or less complex questions for homework will allow more independent work during these times.

Interleaving Practice in Curriculum

Interleaving problems is a practice strategy of mixing-up problems. This means that students answer multiple types of problems with mixed problem complexity, not in any precise order. Have students revisit topics that have been previously mastered while practicing homework from the day’s lesson. Designate space for interleaving constructs that were most recently learned and practiced with those previously learned, which improves retention of those concepts.

This means that students would answer a mix of problems addressing different constructs requiring them to analyze each problem before answering. It may increase the cognitive load initially but would help on cumulative reviews and tests where problems are inherently mixed.

In studies comparing the effects of interleaving and blocked practice, students who experienced only blocked practice performed better on immediate measures of constructs just learned. However, students who only experienced interleaved practice performed better on measures taken days after the construct was learned. This means that blocked practice is more helpful in practicing what was just taught, but interleaving improves the retention of information.

When designing a curricular approach, it is important to strategically incorporate blocking practice on difficult skills that were just taught. This helps develops mastery of that exact concept. However, students must receive interleaving practice frequently throughout each week so that the student learns how to attack different types of practice as well as improve long-term retention of key concepts within the curriculum.

A Final Note

When planning for curriculum use for students with additional needs, there are three tools that are helpful. OPTIMIZE planning, blocking, and interleaving practice can ensure your instruction is most effective for your students with additional needs.

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InformED ReportHigher Education

InformED Report: Rihanna Named Harvard’s Humanitarian Of The Year

by EdCircuit Staff
written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 36 (1 minute 31 seconds)

The InformED Report: Episode 361 min 31 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The InformED Report for May 5, 2017 began at Harvard University, which had named Rihanna its 2017 Humanitarian of the Year for her foundation’s work in education and health. It then went to Australia, where a record number of international students had enrolled in 2016. The edition closed with a Supreme Court ruling for Ehlena Fry, a Michigan girl with cerebral palsy whose school had refused to let her bring her service dog, Wonder.

In this edition

  • Harvard named Rihanna its 2017 Humanitarian of the Year and gave her the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award for her education and health work.
  • Australia enrolled a record 554,179 full-fee-paying international students in 2016, up more than 10 percent on the year before.
  • The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Ehlena Fry’s family could pursue its lawsuit against her former school district over her service dog.

Rihanna named Harvard’s Humanitarian of the Year

People’s Brianne Tracy and Refinery29’s Suzannah Weiss reported that the Harvard Foundation had named Rihanna the 2017 Harvard University Humanitarian of the Year, with the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award presented at a ceremony on campus in late February. The foundation’s director, S. Allen Counter, cited the oncology and nuclear medicine centre she had built to diagnose and treat breast cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados. Refinery29 noted that she was being honoured largely for her work promoting education and health care.

Much of that work runs through the Clara Lionel Foundation, which Rihanna founded in 2012 to fund education and health programs around the world. In 2016 it launched a scholarship program for students from Brazil, Barbados, Cuba, Haiti, Grenada, Guyana and Jamaica to attend college in the United States. Speaking of that program, Rihanna said higher education would “provide perspective, opportunities, and learning to a group of kids who really deserve it.” For educators, the award was a reminder that celebrity philanthropy can carry real weight in education when it funds something specific and sustained, such as scholarships, rather than a single appearance.

A record year for international students in Australia

ABC News political reporter Julie Doyle reported federal Education Department figures showing 554,179 full-fee-paying international students in Australia in 2016, more than half a million and an increase of more than 10 percent on 2015. Higher education had the largest share, at 43 percent, and the largest numbers came from China and India. Education Minister Simon Birmingham called international education Australia’s third-largest export sector, generating more than $21 billion in economic activity.

In The Sydney Morning Herald, Matthew Knott added that those students generated 712,884 enrolments in all, and that there were hopes the political uncertainty unleashed by Donald Trump and Brexit would draw still more students to Australia. That part was a forecast, not a finding. For American colleges, the figures were a useful comparison: a competitor country was treating international students as a major export industry and planning for growth.

InformED Report spotlight: Ehlena Fry and her service dog, Wonder

The spotlight went to the Supreme Court. USA Today’s Richard Wolf reported on the case of Ehlena Fry, a 13-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, and her goldendoodle, Wonder, which helped her through the school day. Her Michigan school district had refused to let her bring the dog to school, and her family sued. In February 2017, in Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools, the Court ruled unanimously that the family could pursue the lawsuit, in a case the disability community had watched closely.

The legal question was narrow but important. The district argued that the family first had to go through the special education hearing process under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The Court, in an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, held that this step is required only when the core of a complaint is about the denial of an appropriate education. A claim of disability discrimination, such as being refused a service animal, can go straight to court. The case was sent back to the lower courts to apply that test, so the family had won the right to bring its claim, not yet the claim itself.

For school leaders, the ruling widened the ways families could challenge decisions about students with disabilities, and it drew attention to how schools handle accommodations that sit outside a student’s education plan. Clear, written policies on service animals, made with the federal disability laws in view, were the practical response.

Further reading from that week

Sources

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on May 5, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

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GlobalInformED ReportSpecial Education and IEPsK-12

The 13 Countries With The Best Education, According To Expats

by EdCircuit Staff
written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 34 (1 minute 42 seconds)

The InformED Report: Episode 341 min 42 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The InformED Report for April 21, 2017 opened with a survey of people who live and work abroad, and the countries they rated highest for their children’s education. Its main news was from Washington: in March, the Supreme Court had ruled unanimously in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, setting a higher standard for the progress public schools must plan for students with disabilities. The edition closed with PHIT America, a charity putting sports equipment and physical education support into schools that had cut back on both.

In this edition

  • In an InterNations survey of 14,300 expats, Finland, Singapore and Switzerland ranked top for quality of education.
  • The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Endrew F. that a student’s education program must be “appropriately ambitious,” in a case that could affect 6.5 million special education students.
  • Advocate John McLaughlin called Endrew F. the most important Supreme Court special education decision in 35 years.
  • PHIT America and Under Armour donated sports equipment to four schools, and PHIT America said it had helped nearly 300 schools in two years.

The countries expats rate highest for education

Business Insider’s Will Martin reported on a survey by InterNations, a network for people who live and work abroad. It asked 14,300 expats, representing 174 nationalities and living in 191 countries or territories, to rate 43 aspects of life abroad on a scale of 1 to 7, and the article ranked the 13 countries whose education expat parents rated best. Finland came first, with 70 percent of expat parents there calling the quality of education excellent, against a global average of 21 percent. Singapore and Switzerland followed, then South Korea, Hong Kong and Israel.

The survey measures the views of a particular group: internationally mobile families, whose choices and expectations may differ from those of local parents. It is a guide to how those parents experience a country’s schools, and it is a different kind of evidence from a test such as PISA. Its value for educators is as a reminder of what families notice first when they judge a school system, including quality, cost and how easy it is to find a place.

The Supreme Court rules on special education

NPR’s Anya Kamenetz and Cory Turner reported the ruling. In Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, a Colorado family had asked their district to pay for private school tuition because they felt their son Endrew, who has autism and ADHD, was not making enough progress in public school. On March 22, 2017, the Court ruled unanimously, setting aside the appeals court’s decision and sending the case back. Writing for the Court, Chief Justice John Roberts held that schools must meet a more demanding standard than “merely more than de minimis” progress, and that a child’s educational program must be “appropriately ambitious” in light of the child’s circumstances. The Court declined to set out a single formula for what appropriate progress looks like.

Families and advocates welcomed the decision. Amanda Morin, a parent and advocate with Understood.org, said she could now tell a school system that her child was “legally entitled to make progress.” John McLaughlin of Autism IDEA called Endrew F. the most important Supreme Court special education decision in 35 years. In his account, the Court’s 1982 Rowley decision had come to be read as requiring only a floor of opportunity, especially for children with more severe disabilities, and that reading had made relations between parents and schools more combative.

Some public school groups made a quieter point to NPR: that “appropriately ambitious” planning was already the norm in many districts, so the ruling might change less in practice than its supporters hoped. For district leaders, the practical work was the same either way. Individualized education programs would be judged on whether their goals were genuinely challenging for the individual student and whether the school could show progress toward them. Reviewing goal-setting practice, and the training special education teams receive, was the obvious place to start.

InformED Report spotlight: PHIT America puts schools back in motion

The spotlight went to Jim Baugh, founder of PHIT America, whose name stands for Personal Health Investment Today. WTOP’s Kristi King reported that Baltimore-based Under Armour had sponsored donations of sports equipment to four schools: Kelly Miller Middle School and Ross Elementary School in Washington, D.C., and New Song Academy and Jeffers Hill Elementary in Baltimore. PHIT America uses money from corporations and individual donors to support school physical education with equipment, curricula, training and, in some cases, transportation, and said that with the nonprofit Kids in the Game it had helped nearly 300 schools in the past two years.

Baugh argued that “the sit-and-learn approach to education is failing us,” and said that nearly half of American high schools offered no gym class while many schools had cut recess. He pointed to research linking daily activity with better school performance. Those are an advocate’s figures and summary, but they point to a real choice in school scheduling: when time for physical activity is cut to make room for academic work, schools may be giving up something that supports the academic work itself.

Sources

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on April 21, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

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African secondary school students in white shirts sharing textbooks at crowded wooden desks in a simple brick classroom, daylight from windows
InformED ReportK-12

InformED Report: Educating Out of Poverty

by EdCircuit Staff
written by EdCircuit Staff 6 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 28 (1 minute 25 seconds)

The InformED Report: Episode 281 min 25 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The InformED Report for February 27, 2017 covered three stories about what schools owe the students in front of them. In Uganda, where around two-thirds of young people were out of work, a program called Educate! was teaching secondary students to start businesses. In the United States, the Supreme Court was weighing how much progress public schools must offer students with disabilities, at a time when special education enrollment had risen for the fourth year in a row. The edition closed in West Michigan, where a high school band director had been honoured for doubling the size of his band.

In this edition

  • In Uganda, with youth unemployment around 66 percent, Educate! mentors were teaching secondary students entrepreneurship, leadership and problem-solving.
  • The Atlantic asked whether the bar was too low for special education while the Supreme Court considered Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District.
  • About 5.9 million students ages 6 to 21 received special education services in fall 2015, the fourth annual increase in a row.
  • The Catalyst Education Awards honoured West Michigan teachers, including Niles High School band director Josh Doe.

Educating out of poverty in Uganda

Al Jazeera’s Rebel Education series looked at a problem that many school systems describe and few solve: young people leaving school into an economy with no jobs for them. Uganda’s youth unemployment rate was around 66 percent, the highest in Africa, and more than 70 percent of its population was under 30. Emmanuel Kalyebi, a programme coordinator with Educate!, described the core of it as a mismatch between the number of graduates and the jobs available.

Educate! responded by changing what secondary school asked of students. A mentor works in a school with a group of 40 “scholars,” running sessions on entrepreneurship, leadership, critical thinking and problem-solving. The teaching relies on games, group work and public speaking. Scholars set up businesses that are open to the whole school, run them on limited funds that can only grow from their own profits, and are encouraged to respond to the needs of their communities. Al Jazeera reported that the program was working in more than 350 Ugandan schools, with another 100 planned.

The program’s own goals were ambitious, and the report described them as goals rather than results. What it offered school leaders elsewhere was a clear question to ask of their own secondary programs: whether students leave with any practice at the skills an uncertain job market rewards, such as planning, presenting an idea and managing money, and not only with the content of their courses.

Is the bar too low for special education?

In The Atlantic, Laura McKenna told the story behind a case then before the Supreme Court. In fourth grade, a Colorado boy with autism and ADHD, whom the article called Drew, was regularly removed from his suburban classroom outside Denver because of severe behaviour, and court documents said he made only marginal academic progress. His parents moved him to a private school that specialised in autistic children and used applied behaviour analysis, an intensive but standard therapy his public school had not offered. There, at 17, he had made what the documents called significant progress. His family then asked the district to pay the private tuition.

The case, Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, turned on what the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires. Federal law promises students with disabilities a free appropriate public education, and since the Supreme Court’s 1982 Rowley decision, courts had disagreed about how much benefit that means. The appeals court in Endrew’s case had accepted a plan that offered benefit “merely more than de minimis.” The justices heard argument in January 2017 and had not ruled when this edition aired.

Education Week’s Christina A. Samuels explained why the answer would reach so many schools. In fall 2015, about 5.9 million students ages 6 to 21 received services under the act, up from about 5.8 million a year earlier, and students with disabilities made up about 8.8 percent of that age group. The rise was driven by more students identified with autism or “other health impairments.” Samuels noted that these figures track identification, which is sensitive to state and local policy, so they do not by themselves show a change in how many young people have disabilities.

For district leaders, the two stories pointed at the same pressure. A growing special education population, and a court that might raise the standard for an appropriate program, meant that individualized education programs would be read more closely for whether they set real goals for progress. Districts that already wrote plans with measurable, demanding goals had less to fear from the ruling than those relying on the old, minimal reading of the law.

InformED Report spotlight: West Michigan’s Catalyst Education Awards

The spotlight went to teachers. WWMT’s Christine VanTimmeren reported on educators honoured at the Catalyst University event in West Michigan, teachers recognized both for their use of technology and for the relationships they build with students. Among them was Niles High School band director Josh Doe, who had doubled the size of the band in four years, in part by reaching students who did not think they could play an instrument.

His students said what that meant to them. “I don’t think of him as just a teacher,” said 11th grader Brian Patterson, describing Doe as a role model. Recognition of this kind is local and modest, but it records something any principal knows: a program grows when one adult makes students believe they belong in it.

Further reading from that week

Sources

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on February 27, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

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Three apples in a row on a black reflective surface, two shiny red apples flanking one dull gray apple in the middle, dramatic top light
InformED ReportSpecial Education and IEPsK-12

InformED Report: Are Special Education Services Being Ignored?

by EdCircuit Staff
written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 26 (1 minute 31 seconds)

The InformED Report: Episode 261 min 31 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The InformED Report for February 18, 2017 began in Texas, where federal officials were preparing a second round of investigation into whether the state had held down the number of students receiving special education. It then turned to Turkey, where UNICEF reported real progress in enrolling Syrian refugee children but warned that hundreds of thousands were still out of school. The spotlight went to chefs in the United Kingdom heading into classrooms to teach children about food.

In this edition

  • Federal officials planned site visits to Texas districts the week of February 27 to examine whether the state had capped special education at 8.5 percent of students.
  • The Houston Chronicle’s “Denied” series reported that Texas had set a target in 2004 for how many students should receive special education.
  • UNICEF said more than 40 percent of Syrian refugee children of school age in Turkey, about 380,000, were missing out on education.
  • More than 45 chefs from the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts planned 55 food education sessions in 26 U.K. schools during the first National Adopt a School Week.

A second round of federal investigation into Texas special education

Federal officials told the Texas Education Agency in a letter on January 19, 2017 that they would return to the state the week of February 27 to visit specific districts and schools, Aliyya Swaby reported in The Texas Tribune. The visits followed a listening tour of five Texas cities, where U.S. Department of Education officials heard from the public about special education. The investigation was examining whether the agency violated federal law in the way students were evaluated for special education.

The inquiry grew out of the Houston Chronicle’s investigative series “Denied,” which reported that in 2004 Texas set a figure for the share of students who should receive special education, and that tens of thousands of children had paid the price. The investigation would determine whether the agency had in effect capped special education services at 8.5 percent of students, after the Chronicle reported that eligible students were being purposely excluded. TEA officials repeatedly denied capping services. In a November letter to federal officials, they said districts may have misunderstood the 8.5 percent rate as an absolute maximum. Federal officials said they needed documents, site visits and interviews with agency staff before reaching a decision.

Parents were also speaking out. At a listening session in the Rio Grande Valley, parents described educators who had not been trained on what services the law requires, and Spanish-speaking families said they had not been given resources to advocate for their children. For district leaders well beyond Texas, the case was a warning about how an accountability indicator can become a ceiling in practice. A measure meant to flag unusual identification rates can, once it carries consequences, discourage schools from evaluating children who need help.

Syrian refugee children in Turkey and the risk of a “lost generation”

Nearly half a million Syrian refugee children were enrolled in schools in Turkey, UNICEF said on January 19, 2017, after an increase of more than 50 percent since the previous June. Even so, more than 40 percent of school-age Syrian children in the country, about 380,000, were still missing out on education. “For the first time since the start of the Syrian crisis, there are more Syrian children in Turkey attending class than there are out of school,” said Justin Forsyth, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, after visiting UNICEF programs in southern Turkey.

Forsyth praised Turkey for the achievement but warned that “unless more resources are provided, there is still a very real risk of a ‘lost generation’ of Syrian children, deprived of the skills they will one day need to rebuild their country.” Al Jazeera reported that, according to the Turkish government, close to half a million of the 1.2 million Syrian children in Turkey were enrolled in its schools. The figures showed real progress and a gap that was still very large.

InformED Report spotlight: chefs go back to school

Members of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts were preparing to return to the classroom for the charity’s first official National Adopt a School Week, from February 6 to 10, 2017, Amanda Afiya reported in The Caterer. More than 45 chefs would deliver 55 food and front-of-house education sessions in 26 schools across the U.K., reaching more than 1,500 children. Among those taking part were Gary Jones of Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Phil Howard of Elystan Street and Giorgio Locatelli of Locanda Locatelli.

The academy’s Adopt a School program teaches children about food, cooking, healthy eating and where food comes from, including growing it, and the charity estimated it had reached hundreds of thousands of children since it began. For schools, the appeal was clear. Professional chefs bring skills and enthusiasm that a busy timetable rarely allows, and a lesson about where food comes from can support work on health and nutrition across the year.

Further reading from that week

Sources

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on February 18, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

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InformED ReportDigital CitizenshipK-12

Students Using Social Media to Become Online Influencers

by EdCircuit Staff
written by EdCircuit Staff 4 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 23 (1 minute 28 seconds)

The InformED Report: Episode 231 min 28 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The InformED Report for February 2, 2017 looked at students using social media to become online influencers, and at how colleges and universities were adapting. The edition also covered the spread of flexible seating in early grade classrooms and featured Megan Gross, a Poway special education teacher named one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year.

Taken together, the stories described classrooms changing in two directions at once: in how young children sit and work during the day, and in what older students hope to do with the media skills they bring to school.

In this edition

  • Teachers such as first-grade teacher Sheremy Haas of Harvey Dunn Elementary School replaced rows of desks with flexible seating so young students can move while they learn.
  • Syracuse University professor Corey Takahashi told NPR that many of his students now aspire to be online influencers rather than writers or filmmakers.
  • Northern State University opened Twitter conversations with President Timothy Downs to engage students and the community.
  • Poway special education teacher Megan Gross was named one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year.

Flexible seating in early grade classrooms

Many early grade teachers were moving away from rows of desks and chairs. The Argus Leader reported on Sheremy Haas, a first-grade teacher at Harvey Dunn Elementary School, whose students choose where they sit. Some use cushions on the floor, while others sit on yoga balls or wobble chairs, which tip gently from side to side. Her colleague, second-grade teacher Kelly Allen, described the purpose as helping students find ways to wiggle while they work.

Teachers who adopted flexible seating reported that their students were more engaged. The evidence at the time came mainly from teacher observation rather than controlled studies, so principals considering the approach would do well to treat it as a classroom management choice to be tested, with attention to cost, durability and the needs of students who work best at a traditional desk.

Students using social media to become online influencers

Corey Takahashi, who teaches multimedia storytelling at Syracuse University, told NPR about a change he was seeing in his students. His classes were once filled with students who hoped to become writers and filmmakers. Now many wanted to become online influencers. Takahashi said that teaching these students had been as much a learning experience for him as for them, since they often arrived knowing platforms and audiences better than their instructors.

Institutions were also using social media to reach students directly. KSFY reported that Northern State University in South Dakota opened its Twitter account so that anyone could put questions to the new university president, Timothy Downs. The exchange went well enough that the university hoped to bring the president and other staff back for more. Justin Fraase, the university’s new director of marketing and communications, said the aim was to engage with students in as many ways as possible, including social media. For high school and college leaders, both stories pointed to the same need: students who build an online audience also need instruction in judgment, credibility and the responsibilities that come with being widely read.

InformED Report spotlight: Megan Gross, National Teacher of the Year finalist

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Megan Gross, a special education teacher in Poway, California, was one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year. Gross had spent nine years teaching special education. In her classroom, students are encouraged to be brave and to feel a sense of belonging.

The honor could make Gross an ambassador for the profession and an advocate for welcoming students with developmental disabilities into mainstream classes. Gross said she was shocked but thrilled by the news and saw the award as an opportunity. Her selection drew national attention to inclusive practice at a time when many districts were expanding it.

Further reading from that week

Sources

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on February 2, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

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