Special Education Today newsletter 4(47)
What happened on SET the week that began 12 May 2025?
Welcome to the 48th issue for the fourth year of the Special Education Today newsletter. Thank you, Dear Readers—new and long-standing—for sticking with SET!
This issue recaps the week beginning 12 May 2025. Readers of the newsletter may read all the posts from this week just past. Paying subscribers have access to those same posts as well as those posts (n > 1200) in the archives.1 Readers who are familiar with the newsletters will find the structure familiar.
I hope you find this week’s trip down memory lane to be worthwhile, my readers. Thanks very much for subscribing and, especially, for what you do for kids with disabilities.
Photo
As some of you know, I spend time watching and listening to birds. Pat and I have shared our backyard watch dozens of species of birds, and over the last 5-6 years a pair of one of those species, the Great Crested Flycatcher, has nested in some piping surrounding the arm of a feeder off our back porch. Great Crested Flycatchers regularly nest in cavities that are high off the ground surface; these black pipes hang off the deck about 3-4 m above the ground.
This year there is a pair building a nest in the pipe just outside a window on the east side of our house. This pair or another before them have used this pipe in previous nesting seasons. The photo—really a very brief video; click to run it—shows the female of this year’s pair bringing a beak full of nesting material to the nesting site. At the end of the video, you can hear me saying, “There she is.”
In addition to being beautiful, Great Crested Flycatchers are pretty dang interesting birds. They—at least the males—have a fairly loud, piercing, whistle-like song, making it easy to know where they are in the neighborhood.2 The female builds the nest while the male accompanies her on forays to gather material. She adds many materials in the nest, including snakeskins picked up from the neighborhood—we’ve found skins in used nests.
We haven’t yet witnessed fledglings leaving a nest of the Great Crested Flycatcher, (We also missed the fledging of a juvenile Pileated Woodpecker years ago…sigh.) Maybe this year we’ll get another opportunity to watch it happen for the Great Crested Flycatcher chicks.
On another birding note: I’ve been thinking of outlining an instructional program to teach people to identify a batch (say 30?) of common bird calls. It seems like it would provide a lot of opportunities to illustrate important aspects of instruction (e.g., selecting and sequencing examples, mass + distributed practice, etc.). Sounds like a helluva lot of work…sigh.
Status report
SET has continued its recent growth spurt. Substack reported 960 subscribers this past weekend. and a total of > 1200 subscribers-plus-followers. Among the new subscribers, 8%-10% come from outside the US. I find this encouraging because, as you dear Dear Readers know, my hope is that SET will become a global resource for folks who share our interests in students with disabilities and providing effective services for them.
Each day posts on SET are viewed about 1000 times (about 22K views over the first 18 days of May 2025). Now it might be the case that one or two of you, DRs, are sitting at your laptops and repeatedly hitting cmd-r or cntrl-r to refresh the pages, thereby artificially inflating the counts of page views…not. Even if there is some minor inflation, I’m guessing that the reason the number of page views is higher than the number of people opening the e-mail messages is because other people are reading the pages. So, please keep on sharing!
ReStacks
Apparently no one restacked a post from SET during the last week. I’m feeling a little bit weepy here…sigh. Restacking is a great way for Dear Readers to pass along a post quickly to people who follow you on Substack.
Comments
Hat tip to Paul C., Rhonda B. (sorry about the lost grant funding—ugh), Sally B., Tina C., Tom Z., and Clay K. It’s great to have you folks engaging with the content and adding value (more than 2¢ worth, for sure!) to the conversation. Thank you!
Welcomes
I am very pleased to welcome new paid subscribers in this brief list. Lucinda S. and Georgia L. joined the ranks that include (and not-exhaustive) Ann O, Ann R., Bob P., Bryan W., Clay K., Debbie R., Ed M., Ed P., Jane N., Jean C., Jean S., Joel M., John U., Keith L., Luanne D., Marilyn F., Meg D., Mike N., Paige P., Nancy S., Pam S. (both of you!), Paul C, Paula C., Rhonda B., Riley M., Sally. B., Tina C., Tom Z., Vicki W., and about 50 other folks. Along with Kathy M., Li-Yu H., and Mike G., you folks are helping to carry SET forward. Thank you.
Sharing
Jan H. has lost her lead in the race to be SET’s Super-Not-So-Secret Sharer℠. Jan was far out in front during the early years of SET, but five sharers have passed Jan in the last year. They are (in order from most shares): Kristin McM. Betsy T., Cheryl Z, Jennifer K., and Jean S. each of them has shared SET between ~150 and ~1000 times in the last year. They deserve a standing ovation!
Last week’s posts
So, OK (okay?), here’s a catalog of the posts from the previous seven days. A couple of these (#2 and #3) were for paying subscribers only.
Special Education Today newsletter 4(47): What about the past week on SET?
US funding of special education for 2025: What was in President Trump's recommendations?
Making a wheelchair at home: How could a DIY mobility device be possible?
Cuts to education research at NSF: Will the turmoil capture special education projects?
Recommendations for teaching factions—Oopsie!: What about teaching guidance that contains...uhm...errors?
Diana Diaz-Harrison nominated to lead OSERS: Where will the developer of charter schools for students with autism help US ED go?
Having a disability while studying medicine: Can people with disabilities go to med school?
Geoff Colvin on teaching appropriate behavior to students: What? Do you mean, there's a DI approach for social behavior?
Hey, that’s eight posts over seven days. I know that’s more than what y’all told me was the right number in a poll about a month ago. Sorry.
Comments
This past week I posted a note about the nomination of Diana Diaz-Harrison as US Assistant Secretary of Education. Upon confirmation by the US Senate, Mr. Diaz-Harrison will lead ED’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. That’s a huge job and, as noted in the earlier post, given the cross currents in public policy, she is likely to have an especially challenging tenure in the position.
By my count, Ms. Diaz-Harrison joins 13 people who have served in the position of Assistant Secretary. Here is a list with links to Wikipedia (and SET) articles about each one for whom I could find an article. If I omitted someone, please let me know!
Edwin W. Martin Jr. (1979–1981; also see SET’s photos from Ed’s 90th birthday)
Jean S. Tufts (1981–1983)
Madeleine C. Will (1983–1989)
Robert R. Davila (1989–1993)
Judith Heumann (1993–2001; see also SET’s remembrance of Judy Heumann)
Robert H. Pasternack (2001–2004)
John H. Hager (2004–2007)
Tracy R. Justesen (2007–2009)
Alexa E. Posny (2009–2012)
Michael K. Yudin (2012–2016)
Johnny Collett (2017–2020)
Mark Schultz (2020–2021)
Glenna Gallo (2023–2025; also see SET’s post about her nomination)
I created this list to provide context for Ms. Diaz-Harrison’s appointment. She has some big shoes to fill. The individuals who have served as the lead for OSERS have had substantial influence on the direction of special education and rehabilitation in the US. One may agree and disagree with the policies and procedures they have championed, but one must respect their leadership in times that changed our business. Even if we disagree with them on issues, I believe they deserve our thanks for filling the position.3
There is an entire raft of dedicated individuals who have served in positions closely related to that of the Assistant Secretary. There is, for example, the role of deputy assistant secretary who has considerable influence on special education in the US. Maybe we should identify those in a future post?
For those who are interested in reading about these individuals, their actions, and related historic data, please search the catalog of the US National Archives. I consulted, for example, the records about OSERS at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10533855)
Just as I want to acknowledge the special educators who have served as assistant secretary, I also what to express appreciation for the contributions of those Dear Readers who contribute to special education and kids with disabilities in your own endeavors. Thank you for that work, and thank you for subscribing to SET. Please remember to take care of yourselves, those with whom you are close, and we random humans into whom you bump as you go through your days…oh! and please remember to teach your children well.
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.,
UVA Professor Emeritus,
Founder & Editor, Special Education Today
Please do not confuse SET with a product that uses the same name and is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades. Despite my appreciation for CEC, this product is not designed to promote that organization nor should the views expressed here be considered to represent the views or policies of that organization.
Footnote
Some of the posts in the archive (e.g., the weekly newsletter) are also available for free, but most are available only to readers with paid subscriptions.
There are other songs, too. Birds of North America provided recordings of three different songs-calls for the Great Crested Flycatcher. The one marked #2 is the most familiar to me, but I can readily recognize the others, also.
I am honored to note that three of these people subscribe to SET.