In partnership with the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR), the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) has developed and published a set of high-leverage practices (HLPs) for special educators and teacher candidates. The HLPs are organized around four aspects of practice which include Collaboration, Assessment, Social/Emotional Behavior, and Instruction.

High-Leverage Practices

https://highleveragepractices.org/

From these four aspects of practice, there are 22 practices intended to address the most critical practices that every K-12 special education teacher should master and be able to demonstrate. The selected practices are used frequently in classrooms and have been shown to improve student outcomes if successfully implemented.

Reading

Evidence for ESSA
Clear and authoritative information is provided on reading programs that meet ESSA evidence standards for both elementary and secondary levels.

IRIS Center
The IRIS Center is a national center dedicated to improving education outcomes for all children, especially those with disabilities, birth through age twenty-one, through the use of effective evidence-based practices and interventions. 

The National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL)
The National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL) is a partnership among literacy experts, university researchers and technical assistance providers, with funding from the United States Department of Education. The mission of this center is to increase access to, and use of, evidence-based approaches to screen, identify and teach students with literacy-related disabilities, including dyslexia.

The National Reading Panel Report
The National Reading Panel (NRP) was convened by Congress in 1999. Congress asked the panel to review all the available research on how children learn to read, determine the most effective evidence-based methods for teaching children to read, describe which methods of reading instruction are ready for use in the classroom, recommend ways of getting this information into schools and suggest a plan for additional research in reading development and instruction. The results of the NRP’s analysis were put into a report that made it clear that the best approach to reading instruction is one that incorporates explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, systematic phonics instruction, methods to improve fluency and ways to enhance comprehension.

• Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read - Kindergarten Through Third Grade
  The National Reading Panel's research findings and conclusions have been summarized in this document. This document was a collaborative effort between the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education to create a guide for teachers written by teachers that explores the specific strategies and skills needed to successfully teach children to read.

The National Early Literacy Panel Report
The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) was convened in 2002 to conduct a synthesis of the scientific research on the development of early literacy skills in children ages zero to five. NELP was established for the express purpose of summarizing scientific evidence on early literacy development and on home and family influences on that development. The panel’s primary purpose was to synthesize research to contribute to decisions in educational policy and practice that affect early literacy development and to determine how teachers and families could support young children’s language and literacy development.

National Center on Intensive Intervention
The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) provides a series of reading lessons to support special education instructors, reading interventionists, and others working with students who struggle with reading.

National Center on Intensive Intervention—intervention tools chart
This tools chart presents information about academic intervention programs. 

Reading Universe
The Reading Universe is a creation of the Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI) devoted to improving significantly pre-literacy and reading skills.  For almost two decades, BRI has worked in K-3 classrooms with elementary teachers and principals to align early literacy instruction with up to date cognitive and educational science.

Scarborough’s Reading Rope—A groundbreaking infographic
Hollis Scarborough is a leading researcher of early language development and its connection to later literacy.  The Reading Rope consist s of lower and uppoer strands.  The word-recognition strands work together as the reader becomes accurate, fluent, and increasingly automatic with repetition and practice.  Concurrently, the language-comprehension strands reinforce one another and then weave together with the word-recognition strands to produce skilled readers. 

The Reading League
The Reading League’s mission is to advance awareness, understanding, and use of evidence-based reading instruction. 

• The Reading League—YouTube Channel

The Simple View of Reading
The Simple View of Reading shows that, while reading is a complex activity, it can be represented as two interdependent processes:  word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. 

Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science by Louisa Moats
This foundational report reviews the reading research and describes the knowledge base that is essential for teacher candidates and practicing teachers to master if they are to be successful in teaching all children to read well. 
   The PAST Test
The Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST) can be used a few times a year to track student’s progress. 

Cool Tools
This product was created by Project CENTRAL and designed to serve classroom teachers' needs for informal, sequential measures of student's reading abilities across the five areas of reading instruction identified by the 2000 report of the National Reading Panel:

• phonological awareness
• phonics
• fluency
• vocabulary
• text comprehension

Division of Learning Disabilities (DLD)
The Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) is one of 17 special interest groups of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, including both students with disabilities and the gifted ’s website that provides explanations and research base for implementing evidence-based interventions. 

International Dyslexia Association (IDA)
A plethora of resources and information about dyslexia and associated topics for families and educators including Perspectives on Language and Literacy, an official publication of the IDA focused on the identification and intervention for dyslexia and other related learning differences. 

Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets is a national public media literacy initiative offering information and resources on how young children learn to read and the best research-based strategies for teachers, parents, administrators, librarians, childcare providers, and anyone else involved in helping a young child become a strong, confident reader. Their goal is to bring reading research to life — to spread the word about reading instruction and to present "what works" in a way that parents and educators can understand and use.  A free reading 101 course is available on this website. 

FreeReading
FreeReading provides a library of activities and other curricular resources for literacy development. The resources presented on this site are intended to be used by educators, helping guide both instruction and intervention with students who are building their literacy skills.

Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR)
This website offers free student center activities in the five components of reading.

Institutes of Education Sciences (IES) Practice Guides
The IES Practice Guides, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, are guides for implementing evidence-based academic and behavioral interventions across K-12.

Mathematics

Evidence for ESSA
Clear and authoritative information is provided on mathematics programs that meet ESSA evidence standards for both elementary and secondary levels.

Five Evidence-Based Recommendations for Teaching Math to Young Children
This practice guide summary provides an overview of the guide’s five practical, evidence-based recommendations, examples of innovative tools and strategies teachers can use in their classrooms, and a brief discussion of the evidence that supports the guide’s recommendation.

Institutes of Education Sciences (IES) Practice Guides
The IES Practice Guides, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, are guides for implementing evidence-based academic and behavioral interventions across K-12.

IRIS Center
The IRIS Center is a national center dedicated to improving educational outcomes for all children, especially those with disabilities birth through age twenty-one, through the use of effective evidence-based practices and interventions.

National Center on Intensive Intervention—mathematics intervention materials
The National Center for Intensive Intervention (NCII) developed a series of mathematics lessons and guidance documents to support special education instructors, mathematics specialists, and others working with students who struggle with mathematics.  These lessons and activities are organized around six mathematics skills areas that are aligned to college-and career-ready standards, and incorporate several instructional principles that may help intensify and individualize mathematics instruction to assist teachers and interventionists working with students who have difficulty with mathematics. 

National Center on Intensive Intervention—intervention tools chart
This chart presents information about academic intervention programs.

Ten Key Mathematics Practices for All Elementary Schools
This document, created by The Meadow Center, provides ten key mathematics practices for all elementary schools with strong evidence of effectiveness from high quality research.

Ten Key Math Practices for All Middle and High Schools
This document, created by The Meadow Center, provides ten key mathematics practices for all middle and high schools with strong evidence of effectiveness from high quality research. 

Virtual Instructional Resources

The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII)
The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) supports educators who are providing virtual, in-person, and hybrid intervention with an ongoing need to engage with and support parents and families. While the context and environment may have changed, the focus on providing high-quality interventions with validated practices, monitoring student progress, and adapting and intensifying supports based on student data continues to be applicable across virtual, in-person, or hybrid models. These resources include example lessons, implementation videos, tip sheets, and data collection strategies.  ​

Additional Instructional Resources

• Evidence-Based Practices in Interventions for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
  Evidence-based practices (EBPs) are the basis on which teachers and other service providers design educational programs for learners with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).  This research identified 24 practices with sufficient evidence. 
   
• Evidence-Based Practices for Students with Severe Disabilities
  This paper features an innovation configuration matrix that can guide teacher preparation professionals in the development of appropriate evidence-based practices (EBPs) for students with severe disabilities.
   
• Intervention Central 
  Intervention Central is the leading resource for Response to Intervention (RtI) tools and resources, including academic and behavior interventions in the classroom. 
   
• Science for Students with Disabilities
  This website provides strategies and resources for making science accessible for all students, including those with disabilities.