How do we utilize UDL as a tool for systemic change – and in a way that deliberately addresses equity for all learners? Join us to for a conversation and learn more about how Teach For America has worked to embed learner variability, UDL, and our ability to dismantle ableism as it intersects with other forms of oppression in throughout our model – our teacher training, ongoing teacher support, structures for adult learners, and more. We’ll spotlight some key moments that have led to this change and what we’re planning to do next.

Session Video Recording
Slide Deck
Reflection and Planning Sheet

This panel presentation highlights the work of “UDLPartners”, a strategic collaboration between the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, a professional development K-12 service provider, and the Cabrini University School of Education. The session explains our cohort model design, framing UDL implementation with an explicit lens on CRT and social-emotional learning, with the primary goal of increasing practical and theoretical capacities to engage all learners. We will share components of our professional communities and introduce our new social media and web presence to share strategies and resources to the larger UDL community. The impact of our work both in K-12 and teacher preparation will also be featured.

Session Video Recording
Resources

This research examines UDL framework applications among teacher candidates pursing their initial or cross endorsement certification in special education at a regional comprehensive university in Connecticut. Research results examine their progression in knowledge and application of the UDL framework in the K-12 settings. Along with the UDL Reporting Criteria (Rao et al., 2019), this presentation highlights explicit examples of our program’s implementation of UDL-focused preparation including instructor modeling, embedded supports, scaffolded progression, lesson planning, and classroom applications. Participants are encouraged to engage in our interactive discussions, exploratory activities, as well as multi-media and sample resources with colleagues from different disciplines.

Session Video Recording
Wakelet

Today’s learner variability includes an increasing number of first-time collegiate students enrolled in classes. How can the UDL framework help us design K-12 experiences that better prepare students who aspire to postsecondary success? How can higher education institutions use the UDL framework to meet the needs of first-generation students?

We will share how stories from our teaching experience, emerging data from higher education, and research into what really impacts student success rates have convinced us UDL can be a tool to boost first generation student success.

Session Video Recording

Session Resources:

• First Generation Data and Research
  • Academia is often a family business. That’s a barrier for increasing diversity (Science 2021)
  • Stats in Brief: First-Generation and Continuing-Generation College Students: A Comparison of High School and Postsecondary Experiences (USDE 2017)
  • The Unwritten Rules of College (The Chronicle of Higher Education 2015)
• Gould Evans Education Practice
  • Gould Evans Education 
  • Education meet the World of Work
  • Creating spaces for UDL
• The Reading and Writing Lab for International Students at Carroll University
• Interactive Notes Document

The mechanisms of engaging with TED content are not unique, and the content itself is often not new, but the manner in which TED connects content to its viewers draws many similarities to Universal Design for Learning.

How might we use what TED has accomplished, as metaphor and inspiration, to:

• Create content that is consumable by ALL learners, prompting students to ask for more.
• Create content that is easier to translate to many different access points, making differentiated engagement easier and more wide-spread
• Create content that is memorable… enhancing retainment and making learning FUN!

How can we create a learning experience that – using the TED approach as a metaphor – provides UDL outcomes, while also providing a streamlined path to multiple entry points?

Session Video Recording

Session Resources:

• Create “TED like” experiences:
  • TED Masterclass
  • How to Write a TED Talk

• Gould Evans Education Practice links:
  • Gould Evans Education Practice
  • Education meet the World of Work
  • Creating spaces for UDL

Come learn more about a new U.S. Department of Education federally funded National Center to Improve Faculty Capacity to Use Educational Technology in Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel Preparation and Leadership Personnel Preparation Programs. 

CIDDL is serving as the National Center to Improve Faculty Capacity to Use Educational Technology in Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel Preparation and Leadership Personnel Preparation Programs. We are primarily focused on the following activities: 

• Increasing knowledge, adoption, and use of a range of educational technologies that can be used for educator or leadership preparation programs; 
• Increasing capacity of faculty at institutions of higher education (IHE) to use a range of educational technologies in educator or leadership preparation programs; 
• Sustaining professional learning networks related to educational technology in educators and leadership preparation.

Our Mission is to influence change that supports the appropriate use of educational technology in all Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) and K-12 learning environments to improve outcomes for all students, especially those with disabilities.

Our Approach is to empower all (special) education faculty members to understand and utilize Universal Design for Learning (UDL), educational technology, and innovations through multiple forms and pathways of professional learning and micro-credentialing. We are committed to exploring effective ways of translating IHE faculty’s capacity of using educational technologies in educator or leadership preparation programs into improved practices to support all students.We are housed at the University of Kansas, School of Education and Human Sciences, Department of Special Education. Our lead partners include the Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute (TJEEI), CAST, and the Metiri Group.

Session Video Recording

Come learn more about a new U.S. Department of Education federally funded National Center to Improve Faculty Capacity to Use Educational Technology in Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel Preparation and Leadership Personnel Preparation Programs. 

CIDDL is serving as the National Center to Improve Faculty Capacity to Use Educational Technology in Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel Preparation and Leadership Personnel Preparation Programs. We are primarily focused on the following activities: 

• Increasing knowledge, adoption, and use of a range of educational technologies that can be used for educator or leadership preparation programs; 
• Increasing capacity of faculty at institutions of higher education (IHE) to use a range of educational technologies in educator or leadership preparation programs; 
• Sustaining professional learning networks related to educational technology in educators and leadership preparation.

Our Mission is to influence change that supports the appropriate use of educational technology in all Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) and K-12 learning environments to improve outcomes for all students, especially those with disabilities.

Our Approach is to empower all (special) education faculty members to understand and utilize Universal Design for Learning (UDL), educational technology, and innovations through multiple forms and pathways of professional learning and micro-credentialing. We are committed to exploring effective ways of translating IHE faculty’s capacity of using educational technologies in educator or leadership preparation programs into improved practices to support all students.We are housed at the University of Kansas, School of Education and Human Sciences, Department of Special Education. Our lead partners include the Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute (TJEEI), CAST, and the Metiri Group.

Session Video Recording

Goalbook, in conjunction with WestEd and D.C. Public Schools, conducted an impact evaluation to examine how the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework influences instructional design and facilitates differentiated lesson planning utilizing instructional coaching support. UDL is a framework that guides educators to differentiate instruction by designing lessons that offer multiple means of access to rigorous learning objectives. Goalbook provides instructional resources within a technology platform that empower teachers to align their planning to rigorous learning standards. Goalbook uses the principles of the UDL framework to guide the support and resources provided to educators. This investigation addressed the following questions: (1) What impact does the UDL framework have on classroom practice and (2), how can districts support teachers’ use of UDL in classrooms?