On February 17, 2016, NCWD/Youth and CAST hosted a webinar for post-secondary institutions on how to use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to improve retention and graduation rates. The webinar provided an orientation to UDL and explained how post-secondary education professionals use evidence-based UDL practices to facilitate engaged learning for all students. This webinar is part of a series for post-secondary education faculty and staff hosted by NCWD/Youth. Thefull recording and transcript are available online.

Join NCWD/Youth, Boston University for a congressional briefing: Using Individualized Plans to Guide Students Toward College & Careers: Learn from the Practitioners

When: February 23rd, 10:30 – Noon
Where: Hart Senate Office Building, Room 216

Nearly 40 states currently use some sort of individualized planning tool to assist middle and high school students to prepare for college and careers.

In 2013, the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) in collaboration with the American Youth Policy Forum held a Congressional Briefing to share the results of a policy guide for designing and implementing individualized learning plans (ILPs). As a college and career readiness strategy, most states are using ILPs to help youth understand the relevance of high academic performance and develop the social emotional learning skills that will enable them to enter and complete post-secondary programs and degrees. ILPs achieve this by helping youth develop self-exploration, career exploration, and career planning and management skills.

IEL and Boston University are hosting a Congressional Briefing to share how states, districts, and schools are using ILPs to assist students in their transition from school to college and careers. Many strategies to be discussed are highlighted in the recently released State Career Development Guide.

State and district leaders as well as school counselors from Colorado and Wisconsin will discuss their respective ILP strategies and activities as well as challenges they experience in implementing ILPs. School counselors will highlight the impact ILPs are having on their youth and families as well as the experiences and challenges of engaging in whole-school ILP implementation. State leaders will share the types of resources they have developed and innovations they are implementing to support district efforts.

IEL and Boston University are part of the National Collaborative on Workforce & Disability for Youth (www.ncwd-youth.info), a national technical assistance center supported by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.

Please RSVP to Jason Farr at farrj@iel.org, by COB Feb 19^th including if you require any reasonable accommodations to participate in this briefing. 

NCWD/Youth Webinar: Improving Student Outcomes in Post-secondary Education through Universal Design for Learning

Wednesday, February 17, 2016, 2:00 to 3:30 pm EST

Post-secondary education institutions can improve retention and graduation rates by implementing an inclusive learning strategy, known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Every student learns differently, so post-secondary education faculty and staff need to appeal to a variety of ways students think, learn, and problem solve independently and effectively. UDL promotes a framework to make course instruction, materials, and content accessible and engaging for students of all learning styles. The UDL model promotes:

• Multiple Means of Representation, which provide learners various ways to acquire information and knowledge;
• Multiple Means of Expression, which provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know; and,
• Multiple Means of Engaging, which taps into learners’ different kinds of interests and motivations.

These instructional strategies provide both physical and cognitive access to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards for all students.
This webinar provides an orientation to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for post-secondary education professionals as a strategy for increasing student success. Presenter Sam Johnston with CAST will explain how post-secondary education professionals can use UDL to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all students based on scientific insights into how humans learn.

REGISTER HERE: https://iel.adobeconnect.com/udl2016/event/event_info.html

This webinar is part of a series of webinars for post-secondary education faculty and staff being hosted by NCWD/Youth. Recordings of other webinars in this series are available online at: http://www.ncwd-youth.info/webinars#Postsec.