This document provides research on the benefits of and design considerations for effective instructional coaching. It uses evidence from across the field of education to demonstrate how coaching supports successful initiative implementation.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This article supports the Professional Learning Domain, Element 4, which focuses on providing job embedded professional learning opportunities. Coaching ensures that educators are provided the best opportunities to successfully transfer new skills into classroom practices that meet the needs of all learners.

How might you use it?

• This resource could help coaches and school leaders develop a common understanding of effective coaching to support UDL implementation.
• School leaders can use this document to design an effective coaching model to support UDL implementation.

This CAST webinar features the authors of the book, Supercharge your Professional Learning, Nicole Tucker-Smith and Kasia Derbiszewska. Nicole and Kasia share strategies for designing effective professional development. They focus on using the UDL Framework to remove barriers,  reduce fatigue and energize adult learning.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This webinar aligns with the Professional Learning Domain, Element 2, which focuses on school leaders using the UDL framework to provide professional learning opportunities to their educators that are personalized, job-embedded and promote professional growth. Element 2 of this domain stresses the importance of providing professional learning that is flexible to address staff variability. It emphasizes the need to meet school-wide and individual staff goals by providing flexible pathways with options and choice.

How might you use it?

• School leaders can incorporate the strategies reviewed in this webinar in staff meetings, professional learning experiences, etc.
• School leaders can share this webinar with staff responsible for professional learning so that they can design learning experiences that are flexible and meet the needs of all staff.

This post on the ISTE website contains an article that explores ways UDL can be used to guide professional development and professional learning. The article identifies five (5) ways UDL drives professional learning, keeping in mind concepts like learner variability, options for engagement and leveraging technology. Additional concepts are also discussed.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This article supports the Professional Learning Domain, Element 2, which focuses on school leaders using the UDL framework to provide professional learning opportunities to their educators that are personalized, job-embedded and promote professional growth. Element 2 of this domain stresses the importance of UDL professional learning that is flexible to address staff variability.

How might you use it?

• This article can be used as a guide for developing professional learning experiences that considers adult learners’ interests and preferences as they engage in professional development
• Individuals responsible for designing and delivering professional development can explore recommendations of this article to integrate elements of UDL in both the design and delivery of professional learning opportunities.
• Elements of the article can be used to empower educators to develop a growth mindset as it relates to UDL implementation in their classroom.

This series of 12 short videos explores a variety of topics educators should consider when designing school spaces. They focus on ideas for designing spaces that promote collaboration, creativity, choice, and student agency. Other topics include consideration of light, color, sound and maximizing flexibility on a budget.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This video series supports the School Culture and Environment Domain, Element 4 (D1.E4). It focuses on designing community, classroom, and digital spaces to support teaching and learning variability. The intent of this element is to intentionally design school spaces that respond to the anticipated variability of staff, students and school community.

How might you use it?

• Use this video series to provide choice during a professional learning experience that focuses on the intentional design of classroom physical and digital spaces to support learner variability. Ask teachers to select an area of focus, then reflect on how they can create spaces that support learner variability.
• Use this video series to jumpstart a school leadership team discussion about designing community spaces that support the variability of the school community. 

This playlist of YouTube videos contains information on why assessments are important and how they can be used to support student learning and teacher instruction. The videos describe the type of learning, barriers or challenges in assessing student learning, and ways assessment data can be used to teach and design instruction.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

These informational videos support the Teaching and Learning Domain, Element 4 (D2, E4), which focuses on educators ensuring that learners gain intended skills, habits, and knowledge from learning experiences.

How might you use it?

• Provide professional learning around this video and additional modules within to series to ensure educators understand the type of assessments that exist, the barriers to these assessments and ways assessments can be designed to eliminate unintentional barriers.
• Have school-wide professional development on the tips for designing “good” assessments and provide examples and non-examples to aid teachers in their assessment development.
• Provide discussion around commonly used assessments in the building and how they may or may not be universal designed and what can be done to ensure that aspects of the assessments do not contain barriers or challenges to students.

This tool provides a step by step process for examining systems within a school to determine how current policies and practices support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) implementation. It guides user to identify elements of the systems such as:

• the anticipated learners
• the varied learning goals 
• the barriers within the design, and 
• built-in flexible options 

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This tool aligns with the Leadership and Management Domain, Element 3 (D3, E3). School leaders collaborate to design school processes, procedures and structures that anticipate learner variability and promote equity, inclusion and expert learning.

How might you use it?

• Review school data to determine which school processes/procedures present a barrier to supporting equity, inclusion and expert learning. 
• Use this tool to evaluate and redesign identified processes/procedures.
• Use this tool to guide the design and development of new processes/procedures.
• Share this tool with other school level and/or district administrators to support them in evaluating their processes/procedures with UDL in mind.

This article focuses on the preparation phase of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) implementation by describing processes that ensure readiness to begin implementation. Within this article, there is a review of preparation activities of a large suburban school district where UDL is being implemented with fidelity across multiple schools. 

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This article aligns with the Leadership and Management Domain, Element 2 (D3, E2), which focuses on school leaders leading, supporting, and monitoring UDL implementation across the school community.

How might you use it?

• School leaders can review this article with leadership teams to identify similarities that may exist between schools described in the article and their own school to move through the preparation phase of UDL implementation.
• School Leadership teams can use aspects of the article (including proposed “Preparation Timeline”) to determine whether their school is ready to begin the UDL journey.
• School Leadership teams can identify steps and activities discussed in this article to prepare the team and school to begin UDL implementation.

This tool helps school leadership teams assess, plan for and monitor the school’s status related to key implementation drivers that support systemic implementation of new practices. Regularly using this tool throughout the implementation process, keeps implementation drivers in the forefront as implementation practices develop and grow. It provides teams with a practical, repeatable, and useful tool for action planning as innovations in practice develop.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This tool aligns with the Leadership and Management Domain, Element 2 (D3, E2), school leaders collaborate to design a systematic, school-wide UDL implementation process that is intentional, collaborative, iterative, and data-driven.

How might you use it?

• School leadership teams use this tool at the beginning of their UDL implementation to determine which of the necessary implementation drivers they have in place, and to make plans to add or improve implementation drivers as needed.
• School leadership teams use this tool periodically (e.g. each semester), to monitor progress toward installing and using implementation drivers to support UDL implementation.

In this article, author, Bill Wilmot, explores how school leaders can apply UDL to support personalized learning. The article explores ways principals, as instructional leaders, can create school structures and environments that help educators  focus on student learning.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This article aligns with the Leadership and Management Domain, Element 1 (D3, E1), and it explains how school leaders actively lead, support and monitor UDL Implementation across the school community ensuring systematic, intentional and sustained UDL implementation.

How might you use it?

• School leaders can use the article to reflect on how these elements exist within their school.
• Principals can reflect on how their practices promote conditions for the growth of UDL in supporting new mindsets, envisioning teachers as expert learners, and implementing structural changes.
• School leaders can solicit feedback from educators at their school to discover elements of the three areas discussed in this article, supporting new mindsets, envisioning teachers as expert learners, and implementing structural changes, and how their practices support these ideas.

This Instructional Methods module from the IRIS Center provides a comparison of traditional instructional methods used in the classroom to methods that have been universally designed. Barriers inherent to traditional methods and possible UDL solutions are identified. An example of how this is implemented in a school is provided for context.

How does it relate to the UDL-SICC?

This informational module supports, Teaching and Learning Domain, Element 3 (D2, E3), educators intentionally select and use curriculum methods and materials designed to anticipate learner variability and reduce barriers to learning.

How might you use it?

• After viewing this module, ask staff to identify common methods used across the school. Then, support staff to highlight barriers inherent in these methods and potential solutions.
• Focus on the information related to instructional methods. Ask staff to identify and discuss the differences between traditional methods and those where UDL guidelines have been applied.
• Explore the case study provided in the resource. Determine what parallels can be found between aspects of the schools represented in the case study and your school. Discuss how you might address identified barriers.