| accelerated programs | The more rapid promotion of gifted students through school.
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| advanced placement | Courses and programs in which younger students can earn college credit.
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| affective domain | The area of learning that involves attitudes, values, and emotions.
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| assistive (adaptive) technology | Devices that help the disabled to perform and learn more effectively, from voice-activated keyboards and mechanical wheelchairs to laptops for class note taking and personal scheduling.
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| bilingual education | Educational programs in which students of limited or no English-speaking ability attend classes taught in English, as well as in their native language. There is great variability in these programs in terms of goals, instructional opportunity, and balance between English and a student's native language.
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| classroom climate | The physical, emotional, and aesthetic characteristics, as well as the learning resources of a school classroom.
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| cognitive domain | The area of learning that involves knowledge, information, and intellectual skills.
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| digital divide | A term used to describe the technological gap between the "haves" and "have nots." Race, gender, class, and geography are some of the demographic factors influencing technological access and achievement.
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| emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) | Personality characteristics, such as persistence, can be measured as part of a new human dimension referred to as EQ. Some believe that EQ scores may be better predictors or future success than IQ scores.
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| enculturation | The process of acquiring a culture; a child's acquisition of the cultural heritage through both formal and informal educational means.
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| English language learners (ELL) | (Also referred to as limited English proficiency or LEP.) Students whose native language is not English and are learning to speak and write English.
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| Equal Educational Opportunities Act (EEOA) | Refers to giving every student the educational opportunity to develop fully whatever talents, interests, and abilities he or she may have without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or economic status.
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| exceptional learners | Students who require special education and related services in order to realize their full potential. Categories of exceptionality include retarded, gifted, learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, and physically disabled.
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| gifted learner | There is great variance in definitions and categorizations of the "gifted." the term is most frequently applied to those with exceptional intellectual ability, but it may also refer to learners with outstanding ability in athletics, leadership, music, creativity, and so forth.
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| immersion | This bilingual education model teaches students with limited English by using a "sheltered" or simplified English vocabulary, but teaching in English and not in the other language.
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| inclusion | The practice of educating and integrating children with disabilities into regular classroom settings.
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| individualized education program (IEP) | The mechanism through which a disabled child's special needs are identified, objectives and services are described, and evaluation is designed.
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| Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) | Federal law passed in 1990, which extends full educational services and provisions to people identified with disabilities.
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| language submersion | This bilingual education model teaches students in classes where only English is spoken, the teacher does not know the language of the student, and the student either learns English as the academic work progresses or pays the consequences. This has been called a "sink or swim" approach.
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| last mile problem | Geography contributes to a digital divide, in part because running fiber optic cables to rural schools is often an expense that telecommunications companies avoid.
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| learning disability | An educationally significant language and/or learning deficit.
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| learning styles | Students learn in different ways and have different preferences, ranging from preferred light and noise levels to independent or group learning formats.
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| least restrictive environment | The program best suited to meeting a disabled student's special needs without segregating the student from the regular educational program.
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| locus of control | Learners may attribute success or failure to external or internal factors. "The teacher didn't review the material well," is an example of attribution to an external factor and represents an external locus of control. In this case, the learner avoids responsibility for behavior. When students have an internal locus of control, they believe that they control their fate and take responsibility for events.
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| mainstreaming (inclusion) | The inclusion of special education students in the regular education program. The nature and extent of this inclusion should be based on meeting the special needs of the child.
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| maintenance approach (or developmental approach) | A bilingual model that emphasizes the importance of acquiring English while maintaining competence in the native language.
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| multicultural education | Educational policies and practices that not only recognize but also affirm human differences and similarities associated with gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, and class.
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| multiple intelligences | A theory developed by Howard Gardner to expand the concept of human intelligence to include such areas as logical-mathematical, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
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| nondiscriminatory education | The principle of nondiscriminatory education, based on the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, mandates that children with disabilities be fairly assessed, so that they can be protected from inappropriate classification and tracking.
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| portfolio | Compilations of work (such as papers, projects, videotapes) assembled to demonstrate growth, creativity, and competence. Often advocated as a more comprehensive assessment than test scores.
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| procedural due process | The right of children with disabilities and their parents to be notified of school actions and decisions; to challenge those decisions before an impartial tribunal, using counsel and expert witnesses; to examine the school records on which a decision is based; and to appeal whatever decision is reached.
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| regular education initiative | The attempt to reduce the complications and expense of segregated special education efforts by teaching special needs students in the standard educational program through collaborative consultation, curricular modifications, and environment adaptations.
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| special education | Programs and instruction for children with physical, mental, emotional, or learning disabilities or gifted students who need special educational services in order to achieve at their ability level.
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| zero reject | The principle that no child with disabilities may be denied a free and appropriate public education.
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