Students w/ disabilities

MAEOPP Center 2015 Best Education Practices Directory

MAEOPP Center 2015 Best Education Practices Directory

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Copyright ©2015 by Mid-America Association of Educational Opportunity Program Personnel (MAEOPP) and the University of Minnesota by its College of Education and Human Development, Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, Minneapolis, MN.

MAEOPP is pleased to release the 2015 directory of peer-reviewed education practices approved by the MAEOPP Center for Best Education Practices.  Each practice has undergone a rigorous external review process.  This directory contains those approved at the promising and validated levels.  Readers can use this publication as a guide for implementing the evidence-based education strategies contained within it.  Detailed information about the education practice purposes, educational theories that guide the practice, curriculum outlines, resources needed for implementation, evaluation process, and contact information are  provided by the submitters of the practice who have practical experience implementing it. Consider using them with current programs and in grant submissions that require evidence-based practices to improve student success.

The thirteen practices approved thus far by the MAEOPP Center represent each of the five major TRIO grant programs: Educational Talent Search, Upward Bound, Educational Opportunity Centers, Student Support Services, and Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Programs.  One practice is from a GEAR UP program.  For readers unfamiliar with TRIO programs, a short history is provided.  While the education practices come from TRIO and GEAR UP programs, they could be adapted for use with nearly any student academic support and student development program.  These programs are incubators of best practices to serve the needs of historically underrepresented students and the general student population as well.

Best Education Practice: Tutoring College Students with Disabilities

Tutoring for Students with Disabilities.  Wichita State Univesity (KS)  (approved Promising Practice 10/15/13)  Taken from the abstract:  "TRIO DSS tutors are trained to work with students with disabilities, whether the disability is physical, psychological, neurological, or other.  Their training includes specific workshops on different types of disabilities and how to work with students with disabilities in individual situations.  Tutors are given the student’s learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or a combination) and work with a student’s learning style, adapting their tutoring methods to match the student’s learning methods.  The tutoring program model of student academic support is designed to assist students with disabilities at the college level pass courses in which they face academic hardship due to their disabilities, and to help them move forward toward their goal of a four-year degree while experiencing new and innovative learning strategies".  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]  

Best Education Practice: College Visit for High School Students with Disabilities

Access College Today Program Wichita State University (KS) (approved Promising Practice  9/25/13)  Taken from the abstract:  "The Access College Today program provides students with disabilities, in their junior or senior year of high school, a customized field trip to Wichita State University where they learn what they need to do for successful transition from high school to a postsecondary institution with special attention to the needs of students with their needs.  This approach is unique among the common campus tour offered by most colleges for similar students.  The goals of the ACT program: 1) expose high school students with disabilities to a four-year university, 2) learn what is required to be admitted to college, 3) learn about financial resources available to eligible students for college, 4) learn of services available to them at the university based on their needs as a student with a disability, and 5) meet current or former college students and learn of their experiences at college."  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]

We Connect Now, Website for Issues Related to College Students with Disabilities

Our Mission – We Connect Now is dedicated to uniting people interested in rights and issues affecting people with disabilities, with particular emphasis on college students and access to higher education and employment issues. [Click on this web link to access the We Connect Now web site.]

One of the goals of this site is to help college students with disabilities to succeed in their studies by getting the information and support they need, both through resources, links, blogs latest news, studying existing laws and regulation and through personal contacts. Through this website people can also share and read other people’s stories as a source of support and comfort. We also want people using our webpage to take action by writing blogs, hosting an event or becoming involved in politics by knowing about upcoming legislation.  Also, every month our webpage will focus on a particular disability or condition to bring our visitors more information and support related to our focus of the month. Through our jobs section, we also hope to help empower people with disabilities find employment through job posting and job searching tips, and  if people have any questions we encourage them to contact us. The goal of this site is that people leave it having gained knowledge, a support system and having taken action. We were founded in 2008.