Interdisciplinary Frameworks for Schools

Common core standards and individual education plans specify learning goals for students. But when a student's performance falls short of these goals, it can be challenging - even for professionals with a range of training and disciplinary expertise - to determine the cause of the student's struggle and to plan the necessary supports. Individualized learning solutions are necessary, because one-size-fits-all interventions don't work. This landmark guide presents an evidence-based approach to assessment and instruction in K-12 education that takes into account individual differences in students. The guide identifies the developmental skills to be assessed and taught in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, and it provides principles for tailoring assessment and intervention to individual students, who exhibit sizable developmental, individual, cultural, and language differences. Importantly, it also explains how to facilitate communication and collaboration among interdisciplinary teams in educat

Virginia Wise Berninger , PhD, is professor of learning sciences and human development at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. She brings an interdisciplinary background to writing the interdisciplinary frameworks, which includes being a general education teacher (5 years in urban and suburban schools), special education teacher (3 years in a rural school), reading specialist (1 year in an urban school), clinical psychologist on interdisciplinary teams (predoctoral and postdoctoral training at Boston Children's Hospital and as a licensed psychologist in Washington), school consultant (33 years in Boston and Seattle), research psychologist (Harvard Medical School, Tufts-New England Medical Center, University of Washington), trainer of school psychologists (1989-2006), and trainer of educators in K-12 and academics (2007-present). Her research experience includes serving as a principal investigator on research funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development on normal and disabled reading, writing, and oral language development (1989-2008), as well as working at a multidisciplinary learning disabilities center, conducting research on genetics, brain systems, assessment, and instruction (1995-2006, 2001-present).