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Program Chair Invited Speakers
These featured speakers are internationally recognized experts in special and general education and related disciplines. They have been personally invited to speak by Lynn and Doug Fuchs, convention program chairs.
Included among the invited speakers are multicultural featured sessions, which provide convention attendees with additional opportunities to participate in sessions related to cultural and linguistic diversity. These sessions highlight new and emerging knowledge, issues, and trends impacting the education of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals with exceptionalities and provide a unique opportunity to dialogue with leading educators.
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Thursday, April 22, 9:45 – 11:45 a.m.
*Multicultural Featured Session*
The Shifting Landscape of School Desegregation: Practical And Policy Implications For Educators, Students, and School District Leaders
This panel examines recent developments pertaining to desegregation in American public education. Presenters will explore how social and academic priorities drive new district policies on racial and socioeconomic desegregation and student assignment. The significance of this discussion rests with the implications of new diversity policies on the allocation of resources, the demographic composition of schools, and the learning opportunities of children.
Leaders: Ellen Goldring and Claire Smrekar, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
Presenters: William Taylor, Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, D.C.; Ann Denlinger, Wake Education Partnership, Raleigh, N.C., Robert Rodosky, Jefferson County Public Schools, Ky.
Click here for more about this session from the leaders.
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Friday, April 23, 3:45 – 5:45 p.m.
*Multicultural Featured Session*
Key Root Causes of Black and Latino Students’ Disproportionate Representation in Special Education: The New York State Project
This session will focus on lessons learned from a six-year statewide project targeting 25 school districts with disproportionate representation of Black and Latino students in special education. Participants will gain an understanding of disproportionality as an outcome of policies, practices, and beliefs and will examine the root causes implicated in disproportionality patterns.
Leader: Edward Fergus, New York University
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Thursday, April 22, 8:30 – 9:30 a.m.
An Update from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of OSERS
Alexa Posny, the Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERs) will present an overview of the special education priorities of the Obama Administration. Topics will include the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ESEA reauthorization, IDEA appropriations, and the school reform initiatives of the administration.
Leader: Deborah Ziegler, Council for Exceptional Children, Arlington, Va.
Presenter: Alexa Posny, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.
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| Thursday, April 22, 1:15 – 3:15 p.m.
Including Samuel
Dan Habib will present his award-winning film, Including Samuel, and discuss the benefits and challenges of the educational and social inclusion of children with disabilities. Before his son Samuel was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Habib rarely thought about the inclusion of people with disabilities. Now he thinks about inclusion every day. Habib's film chronicles the Habib family's efforts to include Samuel in every facet of their lives.
Including Samuel aired on public television and was screened at universities, national conferences, and independent theatres across the country, and has been used throughout the world to support disability rights and inclusion.
Participants in this session will increase their understanding of the benefits and challenges of inclusion; learn new ways to support inclusion in school, family, and community; have an opportunity to share specific obstacles to inclusion in school and community and receive feedback and insight from Habib and other participants; and
obtain a deeper understanding of the benefits of inclusion for children without disabilities and the entire school community.
Leader: Dan Habib, University of New Hampshire (UNH) Institute on Disability
A film trailer, press coverage, upcoming screenings, related resources, and testimonials about the film from around the country can be viewed at www.includingsamuel.com.
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| Friday, April 23, 9:45 – 11:45 a.m.
Investigating Which Treatments Work for Which Children
This session will explore the methodological issues and findings of a program of research on child characteristics associated with the relative efficacy of two treatment methods on language development. The selected design logic will be contrasted with response to intervention (RTI) and single-subject design approaches, as they are commonly implemented.
Leader: Paul Yoder, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
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Friday, April 23, 3:45 – 5:45 p.m.
Project UNIFY: Broadening our Vision of Inclusion
Special Olympics was born out of the bold defiance, by one person, of the predominant world view of the insignificance of persons with intellectual disabilities. Nearly a half-century later, this cause continues through the work of thousands of people on behalf of hundreds of millions of people with intellectual disabilities worldwide. Pity, cruelty, indifference, and ignorance inexorably have given way to respect, acceptance, and inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities in all societies. The progress has been incremental, difficult, and essential to the survival, opportunity, and happiness of people with intellectual disabilities -- but the work is far from complete.
Timothy Shriver will describe how the core principles of the Special Olympics movement have stood the test of time and given rise to a new framework for the inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities. The Unified Sports initiative of Special Olympics, which began in Connecticut over 20 years ago, has become a beacon for youth with and without intellectual disabilities across the globe as they come together on the playing field.
Shriver will also provide an overview of Project UNIFY (a National Youth Activation Demonstration Program), which is now in its second year and is being implemented in over 1,000 schools in 48 states. At its heart, Project UNIFY, a new model of inclusion, seeks to activate young people to develop school communities in which all students are agents of change as they foster respect and dignity and advocate for people with intellectual disabilities. Project UNIFY focuses on youth, both with and without intellectual disabilities, as leaders where they can together offer the means for creating not just an inclusive classroom environment, but a unified school environment.
In addition, Shriver will provide perspective on school- and district-wide unified models of inclusion that involve a partnership between nongovernmental organizations and public education.
Leader: Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics, Washington, D.C.
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