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Affordable Assistive Technology

When teachers don’t use assistive technology, cost is often a factor. Are there good low tech solutions — or maybe some tools that are free or inexpensive that more teachers might consider?

Yes. If you look at reading, for example, we have multiple domains that students might struggle with. One domain is word reading — being able to recognize or decode individual words, and to do that reasonably fluently. To accommodate for that, text to speech is really the optimal technology. And you can spend $1400 for a program that can read out loud to you, but you can also use free tools. The Natural Reader is free on Macs, and on iPads, they have built-in text to speech, which is one of the best tools out there. It’s free if you have a recent version of the iPad.

Alliance for Excellent Education

African-American Students and U.S. High Schools

This fact sheet, prepared by the Alliance for Excellent Education, looks at statistics related to the graduation rates and college readiness of African-American students, as well as the quality of the teachers and schools that serve them.
After
Francine Prose

After

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
Middle Grade

The shootings at Pleasant Valley were fifty miles away, but at Central High a grief and crisis counselor is hired, security is increased, and privileges are being taken away. If you break the new rules, the punishment is severe. And the rules keep changing every day. It’s for the protection of the students, yet fifteen-year-old Tom Bishop learns that things are far more sinister than they seem. Students and teachers begin disappearing and, with few people aware of the danger lurking, Tom and his friends must make a decision that will change their lives forever.

After Tupac & D Foster
Jacqueline Woodson

After Tupac and D Foster

Genre:
Historical Fiction
Age Level:
YA

A common love of Tupac Shakur unites three preteens: two from comfortable lives and one, D Foster, who can really relate to Tupac’s lyrics.

Shadows of two students walking a down a hall with lockers.
Kelley Armstrong

Aftermath

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
YA

Three years after losing her brother Luka in a school shooting, Skye Gilchrist is moving home. But there’s no sympathy for Skye and her family because Luka wasn’t a victim; he was a shooter. Jesse Mandal knows all too well that the scars of the past don’t heal easily. The shooting cost Jesse his brother and also his best friend - Skye. Jesse and Skye are haunted by the unanswered questions of that terrible day. But the more they hunt for the truth of what really happened, the closer they get to a new killer.