On December 16th, The Ability Challenge’s Founder, Sarah Sandelius, spoke at the Building Connectivities Conference, sponsored by the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools and the El Dorado Charter SELPA. The session, entitled, 5 Steps to Building More Collaborative, Equitable, and Inclusive Classrooms, provided educators from across the country with an overview of “targeted collaboration.” Targeted collaboration is ABC’s innovative approach to the daily interactions educators have with each other to identify, share, […]
Entries by Sarah Sandelius
Overview The COVID-19 pandemic has unearthed challenges in educating young people with disabilities in Washington DC and across the country. The DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), seeking to build ecosystem capacity to deliver high-quality special education services, hired ABC to canvas local needs and launch a community of practice to support its continuous education initiative. ABC canvased existing national, state, and local guidance materials, identifying a key need to translate compliance-focused […]
This fall, ABC is working with the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to convene and facilitate a special education Community of Practice (COP) to address these urgent needs. Consistent with our process on all engagements, ABC is seeking community input and design support prior to officially launching this exciting opportunity. We’re asking D.C. public school educators and administrators, as well as anyone who works for an organization supporting D.C. educators to […]
This year is likely a year of multiple transitions for students. So why not plan for the inevitable?
We are at a critical moment in time – the COVID-19 crisis has forced us to take a close look at the inequities created by our current educational systems. With historically inertia-driven policies at a standstill, we have an extraordinary opportunity to think radically and re-design those systems to ensure our schools foster growth and potential for all learners, such as students with disabilities and other diverse learning needs. On May 29, 2020, The Ability […]