BackgroundI was asked by a supervisor once if I would be willing to collaborate with another school psychologist, a school administrator, and the supervisor to help modernize and improve one of our elementary-level "functional" education classrooms. This process included conducting classroom observations, researching high-quality curriculum, talking to stakeholders, conducting a physical redesign of the classroom, and providing guidance to the teacher and classroom paraprofessionals who worked in the classroom. My primary role within this committee to was to conduct classroom observations to determine what academic needs were present, then to research curriculum and assessments which would help to shape the academic nature of this program. The following is a summary of my findings related to functional and academic curriculum and assessment practices.Before we go much further, I think it would be useful to define a few terms: "adaptive", "functional", and "low-incidence". I use the term "functional" to refer to content and curriculum which is designed for life skills instruction. Students who are in functional academic programs are sometimes referred to as "low incidence", meaning that there is only a small percentage of students who share similar disabilities. These students are typically not capable of being successful in traditional general education settings, and would likely not be successful in resource classrooms designed for students with higher-incidence disabilities. These students have individualized education plans which tend to focus on life skills, rather than academic skills. Because the focus of these classrooms are not purely academic, a specialized curriculum and set of resources are often used in these settings. Some schools also offer "adaptive" classrooms. Adaptive classrooms are one step closer to traditional resource rooms. Students with adaptive needs likely have physical impairments which would require physically adapted equipment (think: wheelchair, harness, etc.) to allow them to participate in learning experiences. Adaptive classrooms tend to focus less on life skills (such as toileting, housekeeping, hygiene, etc.) and instead have a higher level of academic instruction paired with career skills development and transition planning for life after graduation. There is no magic dividing line that separates functional from adaptive programs. Some schools don't offer either of these settings. Other schools may offer only one classroom which contains both functional and adaptive students and curriculum. It is left up to the student's IEP team to determine the appropriate placement for the student. Students with low incidence disabilities may spend some time with functional content and some time with adaptive content. Regardless of the model of classroom used, each student should have specially designed programs and services which are developed to meet his or her
needs in the least restrictive environment possible to maintain their
success. I certainly do not intend to represent that this is an exhaustive review of resources on the topic. Information below may no longer be current, especially regarding pricing. You may know of other content, curriculum, and assessments which would be appropriate for this page. If you care to share your suggestions for other content, feel free to contact me and let me know. Curriculum-Only Options
Curriculum and Assessment Options
Assessment-Only Options
Other Resources and Principles to Consider
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