High-Leverage Practices (HLPs) in Special Education: Set of 6 guides

In partnership with the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR), the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) has developed a set of High Leverage Practices (HLPs) for special educators and teacher candidates. HLPs provide those involved in special education teacher preparation and professional development with a set of practices that were identified through consensus among special educators. These HLPs may be used to design a cohesive set of practice-based opportunities to support teacher candidates and practicing teachers in learning to put this know-how to use on behalf of the complex learners they teach.

The HLPs are organized around four aspects of practice:

• Collaboration
• Assessment
• Social/emotional/behavioral
• Instruction

From these four aspects of practice, there are 22 practices intended to address the most critical practices that every K–12 special education teacher should master and be able to demonstrate. The selected practices are used frequently in classrooms and have been shown to improve student outcomes if successfully implemented. This set includes one guide each for Collaboration, Assessment, and Social/Emotional/Behavioral, and three guides for Instruction, for a total of six guides.