Many teachers face the challenge of supporting students with a variety of needs and strengths.
As school districts begin implementing inclusion plans, the diversity in many classrooms has increased to encompass children with a variety of disabilities. Many teachers find that technology can facilitate the integrating of children with disabilities into general education classrooms, but useful approaches are often lost as children move from one grade to the next. The Pathways project, which is funded by the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs , is designed to improve outcomes for children with and without disabilities through professional development activities for teachers and systematic organizational support for those activities. The goal of this column is to describe our approach to professional development, and discuss findings from our collaboration with the Lawrence, New York school district, one of our two implementation sites. The Lawrence district is a small suburban district that includes seven schools serving approximately 4,000 students.