Virginia Department of Education's Training and Technical Assistance Center at Virginia Commonwealth University

Schools across the country are experiencing a growing push toward inclusive education for students with disabilities, making today’s classrooms more diverse than ever before. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2024), 67% of students with disabilities spend 80% or more of their school day in general education classes. Current research suggests the need […]

As you plan how middle and high school teachers can unpack curricula in the coming year, consider the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) Course Organizer Routine (Lenz, Schumaker, Deshler, Bulgren, 1998). This evidence-based practice helps new and veteran teachers work efficiently as a team to unpack a curriculum in just a couple of hours–a task that […]

Have you noticed students who increasingly struggle to stay focused on tasks, find face‑to‑face interactions challenging, experience difficulty retaining new learning, and exhibit reduced stamina for sustained thinking? A growing body of evidence supports that the rise in the use of digital tools is reshaping students’ cognitive development, attention, and social skills. Research indicates that […]

Proficient readers can simultaneously decode words in a text while integrating information from those words for comprehension. Students who struggle with decoding in the early elementary years often have difficulty accessing meaning due to limited word recognition skills. As students advance beyond second grade, word-reading instruction decreases while the complexity and volume of texts increase. […]

During the formative early childhood years, the classroom serves not only to teach letters and numbers but also functions as an important environment for developing essential life skills, especially social-emotional growth. One of the most effective mechanisms for fostering this growth, widely recognized in early childhood research and practice, is play. Play is not just […]

Many instructional practices are recommended to support students with disabilities (SWDs), but they are often taught in isolation. In their article “Approaching Explicit Instruction Within a Universal Design for Learning Framework,” Foxworth et al. (2022) share how explicit instruction and universal design for learning (UDL) can work together. UDL is a framework that accounts for […]

In today’s classrooms, students are expected to read, listen, and process new information as they work toward identified learning targets. You’ve probably seen students, especially those with disabilities, struggle to understand, remember, and apply new information presented during instruction. Skills such as connecting new information to prior knowledge and identifying main ideas and supporting details […]

What are “math aids?” Math aids, as defined by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) (Virginia Department of Education, 2024), are specialized tools that provide students with disabilities equitable access to mathematics instruction and assessments. These accommodations are not designed to improve performance beyond access; rather, they help ensure that students can meaningfully participate in […]

Many schools are actively working to strengthen their Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports; however, teams frequently report feeling overwhelmed by the numerous interventions, tools, and processes required. This challenge often arises because schools treat each intervention as an isolated initiative. Implementation research indicates that the primary focus should be on constructing the Advanced Tiers […]

In the field of special education, Assistive Technology (AT) is frequently viewed through a purely functional lens: a tool to help a student see, hear, write, or communicate. However, there is a profound, often-overlooked relationship between the implementation of AT and a student’s behavioral presentation. Understanding this relationship requires careful consideration to ensure accessibility options are appropriate, […]