Access for All: Six Principles for Principals to Consider in Implementing CCSS for Students with Disabilities
This short article published by the National Association of Elementary School Principals says that under various state-developed standards and assessments, accommodations for students with disabilities have not been adequately addressed or have been ignored. It claims that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative provides an historic opportunity to improve access to rigorous academic content standards for students with disabilities. However, the author says that implementation of CCSS must begin with the characteristics of these students clearly in mind and that while no single method or approach provides all students with access to the Common Core, the two most important areas that need to be addressed in implementation are instruction and assessment. The article outlines six principles for principals and schools to consider in successful implementation of the CCSS.
Written by a leading expert in the field of special education, the content of this article is of very high quality, written in concise, easy to understand text, and should be very useful to school principals as well as others. The author makes excellent use of examples to support each key point; each point is valuable. Perhaps the only small criticism is a lack of references; however, even in that case, the author includes solid referrals within the text to other sources that can be easily found. Highly recommended for all school principals.