The newsletter put out by Support for Families of Children with Disabilities (SFCD) this Fall has a special insert called ED Speak. StudyBuddy has permission to share it with you. It's subtitled "Making Sense of Terms Educators Use" and it's often where our talks with parents begin. SFCD has put this list together from a number of web sources, which I'll give you at the bottom.

General terms. You probably know most of these, like "pedagogy". It means how you go about teaching something. I hope you know "charter schools" --deregulated, autonomous public schools that receive money from a school district or a state department of education but are not held to the standards or mandates of that district or state. "Small schools" is a recent term for the community efforts to see that elementary schools of 350 students and high schools of 500 students or less are available all across the country. "Title One" is the federal funding to provide extra services for students who are at risk of falling behind: it requires parent-participation in spending the funds.

Testing terms. "Performance exams" test what you know. "Standardized tests" are given to large numbers of students under similar conditions. "Alternative assessments" allow students to use methods other than multiple choice to show their skills. They usually target students who need special help. "Rubrics" describe what work must look like to be considered excellent or satisfactory. "Norm-referenced tests" compare each persons score against the scores of the people who have already taken the test.

Special Education terms. "Individual Education Plan" (IEP) is the detailed plan stating goals and objectives for the child, and what services the school will provide. By law the IEP team includes parents. It may also.include the student and special service-providers. "Individual s with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA) is the law Congress passed to guarantee children with physical and mental disabilities a free and appropriate public education.

Information here came from many sources, among them:

Fairtest Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University Applied Research Center's ERASE project Rethinking Schools Political Research Associates Activist Resource Kit National Institute for Urban School Improvement