Meaningful Professional Development in Accommodating Students with Disabilities Lessons Learned

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe lessons learned from a series of professional development programs with inservice teachers (elementary through high school) designed to promote improvement of practices for instructing students with high-incidence disabilities in general education settings. initial professional development programs (n = 4) focused on exploring possibilities for effective formats and content. subsequent programs (n = 3) built on lessons learned and developed an intensive collaboration between university and school-based researchers in elementary classroom settings. pros and cons of each program are discussed as well as future directions for research.