Human Rights in the Classroom

Inclusion, including students with disabilities in the general education classroom, has become the norm in the United States due to Public Law 94-142 (P.L. 94-142). The requirements of P.L. 94-142, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), are explained in this chapter. Additionally, school districts are required to provide students with disabilities assistive technologies. Twenty-first century classrooms are now using Apple's iPad on a regular basis, with all students, in place of other assistive technologies. Apple's App Store offers numerous applications that can be used by students with disabilities. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of special education laws in the United States, while offering educators, parents, and specialists an overview of applications that have been developed for a variety of disabilities. Each application is categorized and briefly explained. The cost and compatibility with Apple devices is also provided.

A Primer on the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act and Advocacy for Students Who Are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse

Well prepared educators are essential to the identification and delivery of services to students who have disabilities, most especially when it comes to students who are culturally and linguistically diverse (C/LD). Professionals must be aware of the requirements in IDEIA and assure that multiple and appropriate assessments are used in determining whether C/LD students are, in fact, disabled before being assigned to special education. This chapter identifies current issues such as the under and over identification of certain students who are C/LD in special education, second language acquisition, and the evaluation of children whose primary language is not English. It is a tool to assist professionals in assessing students who are C/LD and in educating families and guiding them to advocate for the provision of supported interventions in general education, appropriate assessment, and educational planning. Recommendations for advocating for students who are C/LD are presented and discussed.

Putting rural communities at the center: A conversation with Sky Marietta

Sky Marietta, co-author of Rural Education in America: What Works for Our Students, Teachers, and Communities, talks with Kappan about her experiences as a rural student, teacher, and scholar. She describes some of the misconceptions about rural schools and communities and shares some of the assets of living and going to school in a rural environment. As an advocate for a more rural-centered approach to education improvement, she urges researchers, funders, policy makers to learn more about these communities and partner with them to develop leaders within the community.

Study of the values of the social workers in Bulgaria

The purpose of this article is to study the priority motivation values of the social workers in Bulgaria and the factors influencing them. The study covers 205 social workers, participating voluntarily and anonymously. The Schwartz questionnaire: The Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) was used, adapted by Karandashev (2004). The factor influences between the most significantly manifested values of the social workers and the parameters age, sex, education, improvement of the qualification, work experience, choice of profession and need for specific knowledge and skills were verified. It has been found out that only the parameter ‘choice of profession’ has an influence on the value of “benevolence”. The results of the study show that the priority values of the social workers coincide with the mission and purpose of the social work and confirm the results of other researchers.

Educated in conspiracies? Specific (non) conspiracy beliefs and rationality as predictors of future teachers’ generic conspiracy beliefs and meta-beliefs across three countries

A few studies have examined endorsement of conspiracy beliefs in cohorts of future teachers. We aimed to compare endorsement of conspiracy beliefs in future teachers, as well as the teachers’ beliefs about their students’ conspiracy beliefs in three countries. We recruited 1118 students in England, Greece and France, trained to become middle school teachers. We measured future-teachers’ generic and specific conspiracy beliefs, rationality/objectivity, beliefs in non-conspiracy explanations and their perceptions about the average student’s generic conspiracy beliefs. Differences per subject across countries and dependent measures were identified. Specific conspiracy beliefs, rationality/objectivity and official non-conspiracy explanations predicted teachers’ generic conspiracy beliefs. Teachers’ generic conspiracy beliefs, rationality/objectivity and specific conspiracy beliefs predicted teachers’ perceptions about the average student’s generic conspiracy beliefs. Discussion focuses on the role of teachers’ conspiracy beliefs in mapping out critical thinking and teaching strategies for education improvement.

An urgent call to raise the bar in oncology

Important breakthroughs in medical treatments have improved outcomes for patients suffering from several types of cancer. However, many oncological treatments approved by regulatory agencies are of low value and do not contribute significantly to cancer mortality reduction, but lead to unrealistic patient expectations and push even affluent societies to unsustainable health care costs. Several factors that contribute to approvals of low-value oncology treatments are addressed, including issues with clinical trials, bias in reporting, regulatory agency shortcomings and drug pricing. With the COVID-19 pandemic enforcing the elimination of low-value interventions in all fields of medicine, efforts should urgently be made by all involved in cancer care to select only high-value and sustainable interventions. Transformation of medical education, improvement in clinical trial design, quality, conduct and reporting, strict adherence to scientific norms by regulatory agencies and use of value-based scales can all contribute to raising the bar for oncology drug approvals and influence drug pricing and availability.