In the field of special education there are so many terms that we need to understand. Thus, I have created this list of terms and information that may be helpful to the Special Education Teacher. Also, this list is a helpful study sheet for the NTE. I used it to study and it helped lots. I encourage you to print it out and keep it handy! (New terms will be added often.)

Curriculum Based Assesement - Evaluation of a students progress in terms of his/hers performance on the skills that compromise the curriculum of the local schools.

(IDEA) The Individulas with Disabilities Acts - The IDEA mandates that all children with disabilities between the ages of three and twenty-one, regardless of the type of severity of their disabilities, shall recieve a free, appropriate public education. This education must be provides at public expense - that is, without cost to the parents of the child.

Community Based Instruction - Helping students learn and practice functional living skills and job skills in the actual settings where they must be used.

(LRE) Least Restrictive Environment - The educational setting that most closely resembles a regular school program and also meets the child's special education needs. For many students with disabilities, the regular classroom is the LRE; however, the LRE is a realative concept and must be determined for each individula student with disabilities.

The education for the Handicapped Act Admendments of 1986 (PL 99-457) - This required states to provide special education services to all preschoolers with disabilities aged 3-5 by 1991 or lose all future federal funds for preeschoolers with disabilities. This law also makes available federal money to encourage states to develope early intervention programs for disabled and at risk infants and toddlers from birth to age 2.

Applied Behavior Analysis - The cience in which procedures derived from the principles of behavior are systematically applied to improve socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree and to demonstrate experimentally that the procedure s employeed were responsible for the improvement in behavior. (Cooper, Heron, & Heward)

Standarized Test - Consits of the same questions and tasks always presented in a certain way , with the same scoring procedure used each time the test is administered.

Task Analysis - breaking down complex or multiple-step behaviors or skills into small, easier to teach subskills that are squenced, either in natural order or from the easiest to most difficult.