This Library is a searchable data base of over 1000 research based articles for providing instructional and behavioral supports to students with disabilities in age-appropriate general education environments. The Library compiles current published research around the topics that make up the NIUSI Systemic Change Framework. Articles around professional effort, school organizational effort and district effort and support focus on student learning and effort within the contest of families and communities. These articles can be easily searched and shared with school personnel.

Simply click on a topic to access a list of articles and abstracts related to that topic, or enter a keyword in the "Search" box to search for more specific content.

Systemic Infrastructure & Organizational Support

• Understanding Culture
  This paper was produced by the National Institute of Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). It is about developing a complex and dynamic understanding of culture.
• Beyond Convictions: Interrogating Culture, History, and Power in Inclusive Education
  The article presents a critical exploration into various foundational conceptions and ideologies behind the inclusive schools movement in U.S. educational policy.
• Swimming: On Oxygen, Resistance, and Possibility for Immigrant Youth under Siege
  Researchers have shown that in today’s fast changing world and globalized economies, bilingualism and hybrid cultural identities of immigrant students may make them more successful in the U.S. and around the world.
• Leadership Academies - Module 3, Inclusive Schools
  This module was developed by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI) This module introduces the inclusive model of education, which proposes that, with support structures in place, all students are able to successfully learn in the general education classroom. Rather than teach students with special needs separately, general and special educators collaborate to address the needs of all students to allow them to learn together.
• Special Schools, Inclusion and the World Wide Web-the emerging research agenda
  This article addresses the students' lack of usage of Internet at United Kingdom's special schools. A comprehensive survey of UK special schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) has shown that the rapid increase in Internet use on the part of mainstream schools has not been mirrored in special education.
• Transition Services for Youth with Disabilities
  This On Point was produced by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). The authors of this On Point reviewed the literature on the outcomes of transition services for students with disabilities.
• School-Wide Behavior Support Through District-Level System Change
  Successful educational practices can create exemplars for the other school systems and schools and researchers. In this article, the authors described what the Eugene School District in Oregon have learned about the role that school districts can play in the coordination, implementation, and evaluation of school-wide behavior support efforts.
• Investigating leadership practice: Exploring the entailments of taking a distributed perspective
  This paper is about distributed perspectives on educational leadership. It applies to all educational leaders.
• School-Based Management: Reconceptualizing to Improve Learning Outcomes
  The authors examined educational decentralization efforts in both developed and developing countries, guided by two questions: (1) under what conditions does school-based management (SBM) produce best results and (2) what are the roles and relationships of the school/community and of the region/center. The authors summarized, from recent literature, reasons for the usual failure of SBM and identify the conditions under which SBM works, noting school/community relations and external infrastructure as important factors.
• Leading coherent professional development: A comparison of three districts
  This article is about the relationship between professional learning/development programs and teachers’ instructional practices. It applies to educational leaders interested in implementing effective professional learning/development programs.
• Preventing DISPROPORTIONALITY by Strengthening District Policies and Procedures - An Assessment and Strategic Planning Process
  This document includes a rubric produced by the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt) for looking at district practice. The authors designed the document to help State and Local Education Agencies address institutional and systems issues that may affect students from culturally and linguistically diverse populations who continue to experience a wide variety of achievement gaps.
• Disproportionate Representation in Special Education: A Synthesis and Recommendations.
  The authors summarized historical perspectives and existing knowledge about disproportionate representation of minority students in special education. They discussed definitions and extent of disproportionate representation, responses to disproportionate representation and changes in disproportionality and minority student outcomes.
• School organizational structures: Effects on teacher and student learning
  In this study, the authors attempted to explore the relationship between teacher learning and student learning under different school structural conditions. Some 1,330 teachers from twenty nine secondary schools of different community backgrounds and student academic abilities in Hong Kong were surveyed, using instruments from diverse conceptual sources.
• Building inclusive school cultures using school-wide positive behavior support: Designing effective individual suppport systems for students with significant disabilities.
  This article is about school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) and its applications for students with significant disabilities. It applies to all teachers, educational leaders and parents of children with significant disabilities.
• Technical Assistance and Professional Development Planning Guide
  This Technical Assistance (TA) - and Professional Development (PD) guide was designed by the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt). It structures a five-step process for the development of TA/PD Plans for State Education Agencies (SEAs) and Local Education Agencies (LEAs).
• Inclusion as social justice: Critical notes on discourses, assumptions, and the road ahead
  This article applies to all teachers both in general education and special education who are to teach students with disabilities alongside their peers without disabilities. This is generally called inclusion.
• A Self-Study Guide to Implementation of Inclusive Assessment and Accountability Systems
  The authors of this self study guide focused and clarified stakeholder discussion on essential components of inclusive systems state by state and district by district and to provide an impetus for revisiting basic assumptions and beliefs about emerging state and district systems. This guide can be used to: determine the current status of implementation of the systems identify positive consequences of the systems identify unintended negative consequences of the systems develop an action plan that will result in more positive and fewer negative outcomes for students with disabilities These principles reflect best practice, not simply compliance with legal requirements.
• Cultural Identity and Teaching
  The authors of this practitioner brief suggested that understanding your own cultural background, and connecting that background to that of the students in your classroom as you explore the connections you have and the different ways you might look at things creates a rich learning environment in which the teacher and students can all participate, be valued, and learn.
  Download the document here.
• Schools on move: Stories of Urban Schools Engaged in Inclusive Journeys of Change(JC Nalle Elementary School in Washington, DC).
  This paper is one of the brief practitioner oriented pamphlets produced by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). This story depicts a school in the midst of exciting changes and renewal.
• New Lessons for Districtwide Reform
  The authors of this article examined the components of effective leadership for educational change at the district level; function of a coalition of district leaders; and role of an area instructional officer. The authors also listed the external partners that help build the district's professional capacity.
• Professional development for urban principals in underperforming schools
  Principals in America's lowest performing urban schools face many challenges, including public scrutiny as a consequence of being identified as such by state and federal legislation. These special circumstances have implications for the professional development of the leaders of these schools.
• Leadership Academies - Module 1, Building Leadership Teams
  This professional learning module was developed by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). The academies in this module promote inclusive systems and schools by coaching Building Leadership Team members in both leadership skills and team collaboration.
• On Time and How to Get More of It
  This paper is one of the brief practitioner oriented pamphlets called On Points produced by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). It is about systemic change and educational improvement.
• Addressing Homelessness in Urban Schools
  This paper is one of the brief practitioner oriented pamphlets called On Points produced by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). This On Point is for all teachers who want to explore issues around homeless children.
• Schools on the move: Benito Martinez Elementary El Paso, Texas
  This booklet is a one of the Schools on the Move stories produced by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). It applies to all educational leaders, teachers, and families who are interested in learning about creating successful and sustainable change in schools.
• Schools on move : Stories of Urban Schools Engaged in Inclusive Journeys of Change(Kepner Middle School in Denver, Colorado)
  This paper was produced by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI).The authors provided a story depicting school in the midst of exciting changes and renewal. Through the voices of parents, students, teachers, and administrators, this School on the Move is making fundamental and enduring changes in the work of schools and in the results that such changes make in the lives of children and youth.
• The sustainability of comprehensive school reform models in changing district and state contexts
  This article is about school reforms. It applies to all educational leaders who are interested in the sustainability of comprehensive school reform (CSR) models in the face of turbulent district and state contexts.