Howdy, colleagues!

This is the 49th issue of the first volume-year of SET. Regular readers will see familiar organization of the content. As usual, there will be a brief status report for the site and the newsletter, acknowledgement of readers who interact with the content, references to articles recently published on the site, and some commentary at the end. The organization should sound familiar to regular readers, but look for special paragraphs explaining paid vs. free subscriptions near the end.

Status update

Two parts here: Total number of subscribers and recognition of contributors.

Total

I’ve left a chirp or two this past week, but I’m not sure from which account. Sigh, maybe @SpecialEdToday? When y’all chatter about SET with colleagues and others interested in special education over there on Twitter, you help generate buzz about SET. Thank you for supporting the effort to build a community of people who think carefully about special education and how to improve it.

We lost a subscriber but we picked up several, so there’s a net gain. A special thank-you to those subscribers have upgraded to the paid level of subscription. You folks are carrying us!

Recommend SET! Parents, please tell your friends. Professionals, please share with parents, colleagues, and students for whom you think the posts might be of interest. I’ll write the content and hope that what I write is attractive enough that folks decide to subscribe!

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Flashes of the electrons

Thanks to Clay K., MK, Michael G., Dan H., Mike N., Anita A. and others for interacting with content last week. It’s great to have y’all chipping into the community.

Thanks, too, to Joel M., Dan H., Paul M., Charlie K., and Pat for alerting me to potentially important story ideas. Those notes are quite valuable, as they tell me not only what’s hot, but what y’all think is worthy of reporting.

This Week’s ToC

There were six posts last week on the site. Here’s a ToC. They cover quite diverse content, I’d say. What do you think?

• Hey, hey! HB, Kristy Somerville-Midgette!: How about what she’s done?—https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/hey-hey-hb-kristy-summerville-midgette

• U.S. ED to host discussion about students’ mental health: Helpful?—https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/us-ed-to-host-discussion-about-students

• NZ students with autism and school suspensions: Does increased funding reduce suspensions?—https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/nz-students-with-autism-and-school

• Keeping up with Samuel: Can you go as far or fast as Samuel Habib?—https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/keeping-up-with-samuel

• Virtual workshop on children with disabilities and the current pandemic slated—Will the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine provide helpful guidance?—https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/virtual-workshop-on-children-with

• NY Times reported changes in Lucy Calkins’s work on early literacy: Dana Goldstein presented a rich story about the forthcoming version of “Units of Study.”—https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/ny-times-reported-changes-in-lucy

Commentary

This issue is one of the last issues for the first year of SET. On 15 May 2021, I launched SpedTalk https://www.spedtalk.com/p/whats-the-story-with-spedtalk. At that time, I wrote that “I hope SpedTalk proves valuable to readers. So that you will not miss the latest, please subscribe and tell friends and acquaintances, those who share an interest in these topics, that you’ve been reading SpedTalk.” Our community had about a dozen or so free subscribers.

1. On 19 June 2021, I explained that SpedTalk was in a coma and readers would find future content on SET. Those who have subscribed since the time of that post are getting this 49th issue of the newletter. The newsletters run something like 1000 words each (mas or menos), so that’s pressing up on 50,000 words this year. That’s pretty dang close to a book…and that’s counting just the newsletters, not the newsletters and the posts.

2. On 29 Mary 2021, I published 1(2) of this newsetter. I dunno why there wasn’t a 1(1). I guess that presents me with a choice about whether to declare the next issue of the newsletter 2(1) or to ride out one more week and make the first issue in June 2022 the 2(1) issue. I expect that I’ll do the latter.

Whatever? In the meantime, watch for forthcoming posts about Direct Instruction, research methods, behavior management, choosing curricula, technology (interactive), and more!

About paid subscriptions

Creating and maintaining SET requires a good bit of work. I’m hoping I can turn it into a sustainable community of people who give a damn about disability and special education. I’ve generated this first year of SET using my own time and effort. It’s been fun (thank you!).

Therefore, I have created a means for subscribers to pay for access. I hope to secure enough paying subscribers that SET will become a source that provides trustworthy content about special education and disability. Paid subscriptions will sustain SET, making it available to people around the world.

As of 1 June 2022, paid and free subscribers will have access to different content. In honor of their contributions, paid subscribers will have immediate access to all content.

I do not want to create a pay-only solution; doing so would reduce access to people concerned about disabilities and special education who live in impoverished parts of our planet from having access to SET’s content. I want to create a way where those of us who have privilege can chip in a little $$ to help keep SET afloat...and accessible to the world.

My primary goal is to spread content that people readers can trust. I hope readers are willing to “buy into” this effort by creating a paying subscription, which, right now, is available at the “early-bird discount!

Meanwhile, the usual entreaties

Please remember to take appropriate actions to thwart the spread of COVID, to protect yourselves (and your loved ones—e.g., good car seats!) when traveling, and to employ effective teaching practices. That is, stay safe, wear your seatbelts, and (of course) teach your children well!

JohnL
SET Editor
Charlottesville

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SET should not be confused with a product with the same name that is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades. Nor should it be confused with a blog maintained by a law firm known as KCS, LLP. Despite my appreciation for CEC and admiration for advocacy companies, this product is not designed to promote either organization.