Special Educator - February 2012

The Utah Special Educator is a bi-annual publication of the Utah Special Education Consortium. The consortium board members are: Dawnne Casey, Kay Clark, David Forbush, Glenna Gallo, Ted Kelly, Chris Kupfer, Michelle Marchant, Peggy Milligan, Susan Ord, Lowell K. Oswald, Helen Post, Suraj Syal, and Deanna Taylor.

In this issue we highlight Salt Lake City School district (p. 12-21) for addressing the need to improve both the content knowledge and instructional skills of their teachers.  Special educators and general educators are working together with district coaches to improve outcomes in mathematics for all students.  Their collaborative model shows that a common focus and appropriate support can help students succeed in a district with very diverse demographics. 

Educators in Granite School District have also worked hard to ensure that all students will achieve success in mathematics. Thanks to Becky Unker for sharing the Granite multi-tiered system of support and the elementary scope and sequence (p. 22). John Woodward recommends professional development opportunities that include demonstration and problem solving activities on p. 49.  Articles that share Zig Engelmann’s perspective (p.40-45) will give you much to think about as he passionately advocates for direct instruction as the way to help all students excel. We are also grateful to educators from the Utah State Office of Education, Utah Personnel Development Center, Washington County School District, Tooele School District, Jordan School District and John Hancock Charter School for contributing to this issue focusing on numeracy. I encourage you to take time to read each article and to keep this issue as a reference.