Inclusionary Practices

Best Practices, Strategies, and Recommendations for Improving School Climate and Culture
This report reviews resources for interventions or approaches that may help to improve school climate and culture. Each resource includes a list of best practices, strategies, or recommendations.
Publication Date: March 2018
Publisher: Southeast Comprehensive Center at American Institutes for Research 

Building Technology Infrastructure for Learning
This guide provides practical, actionable information intended to help both technical personnel and educational leaders navigate the many decisions required to deliver broadband connectivity to students. It presents a variety of options for school and district leaders to consider when making technology infrastructure decisions, recognizing that circumstances and context vary greatly from district to district.
Publication Date: June 2017
Publisher: U.S. Department of Education

Critical Components of Successful Inclusion of Students with Severe Disabilities: Literature Review
This review provides an overview of literature regarding effective practices for inclusion with a focus on critical components of successful inclusion that work effectively with students with disabilities in inclusive schools.
Authors: Turki Alquraini and Dianne Gut
Publication Date: 2012
Publisher: International Journal of Special Education

Educating Students with Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms
This study looks at the need for educators to make placement decisions considering the resources available in their school, in addition to the skill level of the students they work with, in order to make proper decisions regarding least restrictive environment.
Author: Jeremy Ford
Publication Date: Fall/Winter 2013
Publisher: Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Framework for Teaching
The Framework for Teaching has proven to accelerate teacher growth, improve student outcomes, and create a more rewarding and sustaining professional environment. Explore the 2022 updates in the Framework for Teaching with this interactive, digital resource that transforms the guide into a hands-on online tool to gain a deeper understanding of the domains, components, elements of success, and more.
Publication Date: 2022
Publisher: The Danielson Group

High-Quality Curricula and Team-Based Professional Learning: A Perfect Partnership for Equity
Three real-world examples illustrate how schools and school systems are working to support teachers to skillfully use high-quality, standards-aligned curricula, by providing teachers with the time and expertise to use those curricula well, with a focus on team-based, collaborative learning.
Publication Date: 2018
Publisher: Learning Forward 

How Family, School, and Community Engagement Can Improve Student Achievement and Influence School Reform
This literature review examines how family and community partnerships can promote school improvement efforts. Key components of promising family-school partnerships that support school and district level reform are identified.
Authors: Lacy Wood and Emily Bauman
Publication Date: February 2017
Publisher: American Institutes for Research and Nellie Mae Education Foundation

How Principals Affect Students and Schools A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research
This report addresses three main questions. Who are public school principals, and how have their characteristics changed over the past two decades? How much do principals contribute to student achievement and other school outcomes? and What are effective principals’ characteristics, skills, and behaviors?
Authors: Jason A. Grissom, Anna J. Egalite, and Constance A. Lindsay
Publication Date: February 2021
Publisher: Wallace Foundation

How the Science of Learning and Development Can Transform Education
This brief summarizes several initial lessons from contemporary research that have significant implications for those working to advance opportunity, equity, learning, and youth development.
Authors: Pamela Cantor, Linda Darling-Hammond, Bethany Little, Scott Palmer, David Osher, Karen Pittman, and Todd Rose
Publication Date: May 2020
Publisher: Science of Learning and Development Alliance

Introducing High-Leverage Practices in Special Education: A Professional Development Guide for School Leaders
This downloadable online guide provides school leaders, including administrators, principals, mentors and coaches, with practical tools for engaging their staff members in learning about how high-leverage practices in special education can enhance student learning in the school and district.
Publication Date: 2019
Publisher: Council for Exceptional Children and CEEDAR Center  

Principal Leadership: Moving toward Inclusive and High-achieving Schools for Students with Disabilities
This paper synthesizes research from both the general and special education leadership literature to identify critical research findings about effective practices and their implications for practice in supporting students with disabilities. An innovation configuration matrix is included for rating levels of implementation.
Authors: Bonnie S. Billingsley, James McLeskey, and Jean B. Crockett
Publication Date: June 2017 Revised
Publisher: University of Florida, Collaboration for Effective Educator, Development, Accountability, and Reform Center 

Professional Standards for Educational Leaders 2015
The 2015 Standards (formerly known as ISLLC Standards) have been recast with a stronger, clearer emphasis on students and student learning, outlining foundational principles of leadership to help ensure that each child is well-educated and prepared for the 21st century. They elevate areas of educational leader work that were once not well understood or deemed less relevant but have since been shown to contribute to student learning.
Publication Date: Updated November 2017
Publisher: National Policy Board for Educational Administration 

PSEL 2015 and Promoting Principal Leadership for the Success of Students with Disabilities
This document provides guidance on how the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders 2015 can be applied to support inclusive principal leadership for the success of students with disabilities and highlights key competencies toward that end.
Publication Date: 2017
Publisher: Council of Chief State School Officers

Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education: 2017 National Education Technology Plan Update
The National Education Technology Plan sets a national vision and plan for learning enabled by technology to help affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.
Publication Date: January 2017
Publisher: U.S. Department of Education

School Climate and Inclusion
This practice brief outlines school climate reform, an evidence-based strategy for K-12 school communities to promote supportive and engaging school environments.
Authors: Clement Coulston and Kaitlyn Smith
Publication Date: February 2013
Publisher: National School Climate Center

School Climate and Shared Leadership
This brief explains shared leadership and offers five strategies that lead to and sustain shared leadership in schools and addresses some of the challenges school leaders, teachers, students, and school community members may experience while co-creating positive school climates.
Authors: William Hughes and Terry Pickeral
Publication Date: February 2013
Publishers: National School Climate Center

School Practices and Accountability for Students With Disabilities
This report illustrates the findings of a study comparing school practices and accountability for students with disabilities. Among the findings, always accountable schools favored co-teaching, tiered instructional intervention, PBIS, and adopting reading across the curriculum.
Authors: Jenifer Harr-Robins, Mengli Song, Michael Garet, and Louis Danielson
Publication Date: February 2015
Publisher: Institute of Education Sciences

Supporting Integrated English Learner Student Instruction: A Guide to Assess Professional Learning Needs Based on the Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School Practice Guide
This guide is designed to help district and school site leaders assess the professional learning needs of elementary school teachers to implement research-based recommendations for the instruction of English learner students. It includes two tools and outlines a 10-step process to align professional learning decisions with data collected from the tools.
Authors: Lori Van Houten, Lenay Dunn, Molly Faulkner Bond, Jennifer Blitz, Reino Makkonen, and Kim Austin
Publication Date: December 2021
Publishers: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory West.

Supporting Principals as Leaders of Special Education
This position statement highlights the important role of principals in implementing inclusive and effective special education services and offers policy recommendations to support additional training and ongoing professional learning for school leaders.
Publication Date: July 2021
Publisher: National Association of Secondary School Principals

What Are the Roles of Principals in Successful Inclusive Schools?
The school principal is central to facilitating systemic change and leading faculty to adopt new attitudes and new practices. This article discusses the principal’s active participation and critical leadership actions.
Publication Date: August 2019
Publisher: Inclusive Schools Network