Catherine Cobb Morocco

TEACHING FOR UNDERSTANDING WITH STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH ON ACCESS TO THE GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Research on students with disabilities has only recently begun to investigate the challenges that teachers face when they include these students in standards-based curricula and instruction focused on goals of understanding in complex domains. This article presents the mission and conceptual framework of the REACH Institute, which is engaged in a five-year program of research on teaching for understanding with students with disabilities. The institute is investigating the premise that students with disabilities will improve their understanding when they engage in instruction that reflects a rigorous application of four research-based principles of teaching for understanding: instruction designed around authentic tasks, opportunities to develop cognitive strategies, learning that is socially mediated, and engagement in constructive conversations. In addition to discussing these principles, this overview describes several common features of the institute research strands in social studies, language arts, science, and mathematics, together with emerging themes in the research findings. This overview frames the four articles that follow, each of which describes research on teaching for understanding in a major content area.

Cultures of Excellence and Belonging in Urban Middle Schools

AbstractOver a three-year period, Education Development Center, Inc. selected and studied three urban middle schools that intentionally set out to serve all of their students, including those with identified disabilities, those acquiring English proficiency, and those recently immigrated to the United States. The three schools share the philosophy that all students are academically competent when they are given the tools for constructing knowledge. All three schools have strong records of progress on various measures of academic learning, including standards-based, statewide tests. Although these schools have developed different cultures around academic excellence, they share a number of common features. This paper discusses seven features of the cultures of excellence and belonging that characterize these schools, drawing on a case study of one of the schools to illustrate how the features interact and mutually support one another.