Educational Diagnosticians

Renowned literacy educator Timothy Rasinski discusses teaching reading fluency, morphology, and the art of combining science with artful instruction. He highlights the importance of phonological awareness, word recognition, and incorporating Greek roots for vocabulary acquisition. The podcast also explores controversies in reading instruction, challenges with scripted curriculum, and the need for continuous teacher training.

We wonder why RTI doesn't really take place in schools. Maybe it's because people would rather discredit the system rather than commit to actual school improvement? How do we assess in the context of a system that uses RTI by name only? What are the discussions around how to diagnose learning disabilities?

Dr. Schultz from MSU, Dr. Cavin from Tarleton State, Dr. Rueter from UT Tyler, and Becki Robertson from Region 10 join to tell us about some of benefits various programs offer and some of the challenges they are faced with.

CBM may not be the answer to bringing an intervention frame of mind to education, but they certainly are a step in the right direction! Nazzie Pater-Rov discusses reasons for using CBM in our FIEs, misunderstandings about CBM, and the various types of CBM that are available.

Dr. Nathan Clemens describes the concepts presented in his newest edition of a book he co-authored with his late mentor, Dr. Edward Sharpiro. The book, Academic Skills Problems, demonstrates how a good quality academic assessment has the potential to drive intervention.

Collaboration between the diagnostician and the Adapted PE teacher has the potential to add richness to Full Individual Evaluations. Dr. Linda Hilgenbrinck is a leader in her field at a national level.

In this episode we talk to Dr. Deborah Speece, a leading researcher in learning disabilities who later went on to be the commissioner of the National Center on Special Education Research under the Institute of Educational Sciences. She is introduced by Dr. Nathan Jones, the current commissioner.

Dr. Cecil Reynolds joins to tell us about how to prevent dyslexia through early and systematic screening and progress monitoring.

Dr. Ed Schultz tells us about the important features of C-SEP that we need to keep in mind to be sure that we are implementing C-SEP with fidelity.

In their book: Related Services in Special Education: Working Together as a Team, Dr. Bateman and Goran give guidance on making sure that related services are provided with good justification. Dr. Hope McCarroll, OT, gives her reflections as well on how to use our related service specialists to help all students in the school.