Our Philosophy
Our professional efforts have sought to answer the call from Christ to serve those with needs in our society. In our efforts to answer this call, we have sought to develop, research, and implement effective practices that educators can apply in the support of ALL learners. Likewise, we have worked to facilitate inclusionary practices as teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and as parents. Below, we share a summary of LRN Scholarship in the form of recent publications, awards, leadership positions, and locations of professional presentations.
Special Issue - Journal of Catholic Education
Special Issue on Inclusion in Catholic Schools for the Journal of Catholic Education
Author – Michael Faggella-Luby, Sean J Smith, and Colleagues
Inclusion in Catholic Schools: An Introduction to the Special Issue
Overview – Special Issue for the Journal of Catholic Education on Inclusion in our Catholic Schools. Drs. Faggella-Luby and Smith co-edited this Special Issue.
Why Inclusion Isn’t Coming, It Is Already Here: Catholic Schools and Inclusive Special Education
Michael Faggella-Luby and Colleagues
Catholic school personnel are increasingly recognizing that many of their students, including students with disabilities, need and benefit from inclusive educational practices. These oftentimes ad hoc practices are motivated by the Catholic identity and mission of the school, as well as the diverse educational needs of students. This article responds to these recognized realities, arguing that Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and the practical reality of academically diverse students requires understanding disability as being unique to each student, though within categories recognized in the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA) that serve as starting points for interventions. CST and the recognition of student needs necessitate that teachers be equipped with the appropriate intervention skills, and convincing school communities to embrace this responsibility. To this end, current educational terms are defined and explained, models of inclusion are summarized, and five common misperceptions about inclusion of students with disabilities in Catholic schools are debunked.
Defining Inclusionary Practices in Catholic Schools
Sean J Smith and Colleagues
The purpose of this article is to provide Catholic educators, administrators, families, and broader parish communities an understanding of critical elements required to effectively include all students, particularly those with disabilities, in Catholic schools. With an understanding that Catholic schools enroll and will continue to add not only students with disabilities, but also other students who may struggle with learning in some manner, the Catholic school community needs to keep abreast of effective practices that facilitate meaningful inclusion. This is especially relevant for those Catholic families who desire a Catholic education for their children with disabilities, as well as their typically developing children. This article seeks to: (a) offer a rationale for the need to include all learners in our Catholic schools through the reinforcement of Catechetical teachings, (b) define inclusion in Catholic education, (c) outline characteristics of high quality, inclusive schools, (d) review relevant research on inclusion that is applicable to the needs of our Catholic school environments, and (e) provide a case study of an effective, inclusive Catholic school to further contextualize to the field what is not only possible, even given limited resources, but what is happening in today’s Catholic school settings.
A Framework for All: Building Capacity for Service Delivery in Catholic Schools
Michael Faggella-Luby and Colleagues
The challenge to include students with disabilities in Catholic schools requires a comprehensive system of service delivery to meet student need and avoid pathologizing individuals as problems. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), a framework for organizing resources, delivering services, and measuring success that directly addresses the mission of Catholic Schools to truly serve all students. MTSS is a research-based and systematic service delivery model that provides tiered supports based on individual learner need. MTSS is defined and contextualized to address both academic and behavioral supports for all students. A brief review of evidence to support the framework is provided. Finally, specific features of the framework are presented with examples to illustrate how Catholic educators might implement across the entire school.
Evidence-based Practices to Promote Inclusion in Today’s Catholic School
Sean J Smith and Colleagues
The purpose of this article is to present inclusionary practices for Catholic education classrooms that emphasize the integration of evidence-based practices (EBPs). Practices that have been developed to address the needs of all students, particularly learners who are at-risk as well as their peers with an identified disability. Over the past two decades, educational reforms and corresponding effective practices have evolved to correspond with the growing expectations that all student should be given the opportunity to participate in the general education experience. Applying the evidence-based practices presented in this article can provide Catholic educators with the needed support and strategies to help ensure the successful inclusion of students with disabilities, if not all students, in Catholic schools. This article will: 1) define evidence-based practices (EBPs) in order to contextualize their use in Catholic schools and 2) offer an explanation of the various EBPs currently shown to facilitate inclusion into the general education environment.
Sean J Smith Recent Publications
Aligning an Editing and Revising Writing Strategy to Technology Supports for Students With Learning Disabilities
Sean J Smith and Colleagues
Editing and revising is a necessary, yet complex, stage of the writing process that is challenging for students with and without disabilities. One solution to improve overall writing outcomes is with strategy instruction, such as the Strategic Instruction Model for writing. More specifically, strategies such as the Error Monitoring Strategy, that support editing and revising. Additionally, with the increase in access to devices, and the continued development of tools that support writing, these strategies should be aligned to technologies to further support students with learning disabilities and other struggling writers. Simply providing teaching strategies to students and providing them with devices is not enough to improve writing outcomes. Rather, explicit instruction in the strategy and the tool, along with how to use them together, is necessary.The purpose of this article is to offer an example of how educators can combine effective writing strategy instruction with readily and easily available technology tools to support the needs of students who struggle with writing.
Professional development with universal design for learning: supporting teachers as learners to increase the implementation of UDL
Sean J Smith and Colleagues
Although the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework has been effective in designing tools and lessons, implementation of the Framework to design entire learning environments possesses its own limitations in research. This paper describes a quasi-experimental study of the effects of a professional development program on teachers’ implementation of the UDL framework. The study examines a weeklong Summer Institute as the professional development intervention. The Summer Institute meets many criteria shown to make PD effective: (a) content-focused training, (b) active learning, (c) modelling of effective practices, (e) feedback and reflection and (g) sustained duration. Participants included teachers across all academic levels and roles who attended the Institute (n = 73) and teachers who had not attended the Institute (n = 70). Teachers were evaluated by building administrators using an annual Teacher Success Rubric observation, a measuring tool developed to measure teachers’ efficacy in UDL implementation. Those attending the Institute increased their implementation of UDL in the classroom more than those who did not attend the Institute, F(1, 141) = 4.87, p = .03., suggesting that the Institute positively affects participants’ UDL implementation. The authors conclude that the Institute models effective professional development for other districts implementing the UDL Framework.
Exploring and Implementing Available Writing Educational Technology for Students with Disabilities and Their Peers
Sean J Smith and Colleagues
Written expression is an area of the curriculum with which many students with disabilities (SWDs) struggle. One solution to mitigate the barriers associated with this topic is to use educational technology supports such as speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and predictive text. Even though there has been an increase in technology access in the classrooms, challenges still exist with regards to determining which tools support which students, training educators to use the tools, and training students to use the tools. This can be attributed to the time investment required for educators to learn new technologies. This article provides educators with the steps to introduce and implement an intervention where SWDs support the special educator in teaching general education peers to use Google’s Voice Typing.
Michael Faggella-Luby Recent Publications
An examination of college students with disabilities perceptions of instruction during remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Michael Faggella-Luby and Colleagues
The purpose of this article is to provide Catholic educators, administrators, families, and broader parish communities an understanding of critical elements required to effectively include all students, particularly those with disabilities, in Catholic schools. With an understanding that Catholic schools enroll and will continue to add not only students with disabilities, but also other students who may struggle with learning in some manner, the Catholic school community needs to keep abreast of effective practices that facilitate meaningful inclusion. This is especially relevant for those Catholic families who desire a Catholic education for their children with disabilities, as well as their typically developing children. This article seeks to: (a) offer a rationale for the need to include all learners in our Catholic schools through the reinforcement of Catechetical teachings, (b) define inclusion in Catholic education, (c) outline characteristics of high quality, inclusive schools, (d) review relevant research on inclusion that is applicable to the needs of our Catholic school environments, and (e) provide a case study of an effective, inclusive Catholic school to further contextualize to the field what is not only possible, even given limited resources, but what is happening in today’s Catholic school settings.
It’s only a matter of meaning: From English learners (ELs) and emergent bilinguals (EBs) to active bilingual learners/users of English (ABLE)
Michael Faggella-Luby and Colleagues
The challenge to include students with disabilities in Catholic schools requires a comprehensive system of service delivery to meet student need and avoid pathologizing individuals as problems. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), a framework for organizing resources, delivering services, and measuring success that directly addresses the mission of Catholic Schools to truly serve all students. MTSS is a research-based and systematic service delivery model that provides tiered supports based on individual learner need. MTSS is defined and contextualized to address both academic and behavioral supports for all students. A brief review of evidence to support the framework is provided. Finally, specific features of the framework are presented with examples to illustrate how Catholic educators might implement across the entire school.
A univeristy-lab school writing partnership project: Benefits of curriculum-based measures and intervention for students with learning differences.
Michael Faggella-Luby and Colleagues
The purpose of this article is to present inclusionary practices for Catholic education classrooms that emphasize the integration of evidence-based practices (EBPs). Practices that have been developed to address the needs of all students, particularly learners who are at-risk as well as their peers with an identified disability. Over the past two decades, educational reforms and corresponding effective practices have evolved to correspond with the growing expectations that all student should be given the opportunity to participate in the general education experience. Applying the evidence-based practices presented in this article can provide Catholic educators with the needed support and strategies to help ensure the successful inclusion of students with disabilities, if not all students, in Catholic schools. This article will: 1) define evidence-based practices (EBPs) in order to contextualize their use in Catholic schools and 2) offer an explanation of the various EBPs currently shown to facilitate inclusion into the general education environment.
Books
Inclusive Instruction: Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching Students with Disabilities (What Works for Special-Needs Learners)
Sean J Smith and Colleagues
Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools
Sean J Smith and Colleagues
Awards
Dean’s Research and Creativity Award
TCU College of Education
(2018-2019, 2022-2023)
The Beacon Award for Leadership in Scholarship and Service
Beacon College
(2015)
2015’s 40 Under 40: Professors Who Inspire
Nerdscholar
(2015)
Annual Dissertation Award, Division of Learning Disabilities
Council for Exceptional Children
Outstanding Researcher Award
Council for Learning Disabilities
Gordon Alley Center for Resarch on Learning Award
Center for Research on Learning
University of Kansas Service to the Field Award
University of Kansas
School of Education Service to the Field Award
KU School of Education
National Down Syndrome Congress Educator of the Year Award
National Down Syndrome Congress
Graduate of Distinction
Canandaigua Academy
Leadership Positions
Representative, National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities
(NJCLD; 2020-2021)
President & Past-President, Council for Exceptional Children, Division on Learning Disabilities
Elected Executive Board Committee (2019-2021)
Director, Alice Neeley Special Education Research and Service (ANSERS) Institute
(2017-2022)
Secretary, Council for Exceptional Children, Division on Learning Disabilities
Member Elected Executive Board Committee (2016-2018)
Representative, Higher Education Consortium for Special Education (HECSE)
(2008-2013)
President & Past-President, Council for Exceptional Children, Innovations in Special Education Technology (ISET)
Elected Executive Board Committee (2018-2021)
Secretary, Council for Exceptional Children Innovations in Special Education Technology (ISET)
Elected Executive Board Committee (2018-2021)
President, National Down Syndrome Congress
(2023-Present)
Board Member, National Down Syndrome Congress
(2014-2024)
Co-Chair, EdCon, National Down Syndrome Congress
(2016-2024)
Research Funded by
National Science Foundation
US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Program
Connecticut State Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education
Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education
Kansas State Department of Education
Providence Public School District
Past preK-12 School Professional Learning Locations
Recent National and International Presentations
2023
- International Conference of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Louisville, KY
- International Society on Technology in Education, Philadelphia, PA
- 60th National Conference of Learning Disabilities Associattion of America (LDAA), Las Vegas, NV
- National Conference of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, Long Beach, CA
- Assistive Technology Industry Association Annual Conference, Orlando, FL
- OCALICON, Columbus, OH
- UDL-IRN, Orlando, FL
2022
- International Conference of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Orlando, FL
- National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA
- Excellence in Teaching Conference, Alliance for Catholic Education, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
- Convocation 2022, The Holy Cross Institute, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX
- 59th National Conference of Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDAA), New Orleans, LA
- XII Coloquio de Estudiantes de la Maestria y el Dectorado en Psicologia con Orientacionen Calidad de Vida y Salud Conferencia Inaugural, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
- International Society on Technology in Education, New Orleans, LA
- Assistive Technology Industry Association Annual Conference, Orlando, FL
- ACCEL Conference, Dharan, Saudi Arabia
- OCALICON, Columbus, OH
- American Education Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA
- National Conference of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, Richmond, VA
- Council for Learning Disabilities, Richmond, VA
2021
- National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) Annual Conference, Chicago, IL
- Division of Learning Disabilities (DLD) at Night, Fort Worth, TX
- Teacher Education Division (TED), Fort Worth, TX
- International Virtual Conference of Inclusive and Supportive Education Conference (ISEC), London, England
- International Society on Technology in Education, Virtual
- OCALICON, Columbus, OH
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