California CEEDAR

Glossary

Accommodations

Adaptations or changes to educational environments and practices designed to help students overcome the challenges presented by their disabilities and to allow them to access the same instructional opportunities as students without disabilities. An accommodation does change the expectations for learning or reduce the requirements of the task.

Assessment

The process of gathering information, both formal and informal, and identifying a student's strengths and needs through a variety of instruments and products; the data used in making decisions.

Assistive Technology

"Any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability."

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

Alternative methods of communication, which may include communication boards, communication books, sign language, and computerized voices, used by individuals unable to communicate readily through speech.

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

An educational initiative originally sponsored by the National Governors Association designed to create consistent educational standards to prepare students across the United States either for college or for post-secondary employment.

Culturally Relevant Practices

Instruction that incorporates the diverse cultures of the students in order to provide content relative to students’ experiences.

Culturally Responsive Teaching/Instruction (CRT)

Instructional modifications or adjustments made by culturally responsive educators to meet the individual needs of their diverse classrooms and students.

Curriculum-Based Measurement

"A method of evaluating student performance by directly and frequently collecting data on their academic progress."

English Language Development (ELD)

An instructional method used with English Language Learners (ELL) that focuses on learning the formal structures of language (grammar); another term for English as a second language (ESL).

Explicit Instruction

Instructional approach in which teachers clearly identify the expectations for learning, highlight important details of the concept or skill, offer precise instruction, and connect new learning to earlier lessons and materials.

Formative Assessment

A form of formal or informal evaluation "used to plan instruction in a recursive way," providing regular assessment of student progress. Formative assessment enables teachers to "diagnose skill, ability, and knowledge gaps; measure progress; and evaluate instruction. Examples … include curriculum-based measurement, curriculum-based assessment, pretests and posttests, portfolios, benchmark assessments, quizzes, teacher observations, and teacher/student conferencing."

Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)

A systematic approach to address a student’s specific behavior to identify the behavior’s function using informal and formal methods of observation. Following the FBA, the IEP team develops an individual behavior support plan.

Heterogeneous Grouping

To place students of varying abilities (i.e., lower achieving, typically achieving, higher achieving) together in a small instructional group.

Homogeneous Grouping

To place students of similar abilities together into groups; can be used by teachers to provide more intensive instruction to students who are working at a similar level and who can benefit from instruction that is designed for their specific learning needs.

Inclusion

In education, a state of inclusivity in which all students are educated so as to reach their fullest potentials, regardless of ability or disability.

Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

A written statement for the child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in a meeting in accordance with federal law and regulations. The IEP must include a statement of the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, a statement of measurable annual academic and functional goals to meet the child’s needs and enable the child to make progress in the general education curriculum.

Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)

A means of providing early intervention services for children with developmental delays or disabilities, from birth through age 3. The IFSP is based on an in-depth assessment of the child’s needs and includes information on the child’s level of development in all areas, outcomes for the child and family, and services the child and family will receive.

Individualized Transition Plan (ITP)

A statement, included in a high-school student's IEP, outlining the transition services required for coordination and delivery of services as the student nears adulthood.

Intensive Instruction/Intervention

Additional instruction designed to support and reinforce classroom skills characterized by increased intensity and individualization based on data.

Metacognition

The processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance.

Modifications

Any of a number of services or supports that allow a student to access the general education curriculum but in a way that fundamentally alters the content or curricular expectations in question.

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

A “prevention framework that organizes building-level resources to address each individual student’s academic and/or behavioral needs within intervention tiers that vary in intensity.” The intention is to enable “the early identification of learning and behavioral challenges and timely intervention for students who are at risk for poor learning outcomes. It also may be called a multi-level prevention system. The increasingly intense tiers … represent a continuum of supports.”

Progress monitoring

Used to assess a student’s performance and improvement in response to intervention. Allows teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and adjust instruction to meet students’ needs. Progress monitoring can be implemented with individual students or groups of students (e.g., whole class).

Reinforcement

Method through which a classroom instructor attempts to either sustain or dissuade the continuation of certain student behaviors.

Restorative Justice

A practice that empowers students to resolve conflicts on their own and in groups using a peer-mediated process.

Scaffolded Instruction

Instructional technique in which teachers offer support for students learning new skills by systematically building on their experiences and knowledge.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE)

A teaching approach that uses curriculum focused strategies to teach academic content to ELL students.

Summative Assessment

"An evaluation administered to measure student learning outcomes, typically at the end of a unit or chapter. Often used to evaluate whether a student has mastered the content or skill."

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

A research-based framework for teachers to incorporate flexible materials, techniques, and strategies for delivering instruction and for students to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways.

Additional Resources

Words in the Glossary can be found on the following sites: