Deciding What to Teach by Identifying Priority Grade-Aligned Learning Outcomes for Students With Complex Support Needs

Deciding what to teach students with complex support needs requires an in-depth understanding of the general education curriculum and each student’s individual learning needs and goals. To help teachers identify priority grade-aligned learning goals to be taught in general education settings for students with complex support needs, in this quasi-experimental study, we developed a priority planning tool and piloted it with 41 special education teachers enrolled in licensure programs. We identified the general education content that the special education teachers prioritized, assessed the social validity of the priority planning training and tool, and measured the extent to which special education teachers reported that students learned prioritized goals when taught those goals in general education classrooms. Our findings revealed that special education teachers developed primarily math, communication, and academic vocabulary goals. Many students were reported to be successful in learning those prioritized goals, and special education teachers reported that the exploratory priority planning tool was helpful and efficient. We offer implications of our findings for research and practice.