Imagine, for a moment, that you are an elementary school student. You sit in your classroom, trying your best to make it through a lesson. The fluorescent lights overhead seem too bright, and they will not stop humming. Your teacher is talking, but it is impossible to listen. Behind you, one of your classmates taps their foot. There are countless posters on the front wall of the classroom, and you attempt to read them all. A fly buzzes around the lights. You stare down at your worksheet, trying to remember what it is you are supposed to be doing. Long division? Someone to your left is whispering. Definitely not long division. There are fourteen green tiles on the floor. The student in front of you drops her pencil. Mrs. So-and-so continues
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In recent years, many beneficial new approaches have been created to replace out of date methods of identifying, assisting, and instructing special education students.
As with the anecdote above, for many years students with non-physical disabilities were going unnoticed in public schools. This was due largely in part to the method used to identify students with exceptionalities, known as the discrepancy model. According to Paul Eggen and Don Kauchak, former teachers and educational psychologists, discrepancy models expose students that may have special needs by examining gaps in student effort in the classroom and scores on assessments. For example, if a student has a high IQ score but a low average test grade, they may have an exceptionality (Kauchak and Eggen 119).
Despite the simplicity of the discrepancy model method, it is impractical, due to the fact that students must first be struggling in order to be recognized as having a disability. In addition, in order for the discrepancy model to be successful in identifying students with exceptionalities, there must be a gap in achievement; however, there are many students that may require some form of special education services that will prove to have no achievement gap. In order to resolve some of these problems, the RTI, or Response to Intervention method was
In recent years, many beneficial new approaches have been created to replace out of date methods of identifying, assisting, and instructing special education students.
As with the anecdote above, for many years students with non-physical disabilities were going unnoticed in public schools. This was due largely in part to the method used to identify students with exceptionalities, known as the discrepancy model. According to Paul Eggen and Don Kauchak, former teachers and educational psychologists, discrepancy models expose students that may have special needs by examining gaps in student effort in the classroom and scores on assessments. For example, if a student has a high IQ score but a low average test grade, they may have an exceptionality (Kauchak and Eggen 119).
Despite the simplicity of the discrepancy model method, it is impractical, due to the fact that students must first be struggling in order to be recognized as having a disability. In addition, in order for the discrepancy model to be successful in identifying students with exceptionalities, there must be a gap in achievement; however, there are many students that may require some form of special education services that will prove to have no achievement gap. In order to resolve some of these problems, the RTI, or Response to Intervention method was