Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) Made Simple

Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) is frequently misunderstood to mean differentiation, modification, and accommodations. However, this is not true! SDI is actually an intentional and individualized instructional plan to ensure that students have access to, can engage with, and make progress within the general education curriculum by specifically targeting their IEP goals. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits, challenges, and strategies effective for SDI implementation.

What is SDI?

While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines special education as “specially designed instruction,” the Council for Exceptional Children clarifies it as “instruction that is tailored to a particular student and addresses their IEP goals, accounting for disability” and learning needs. The ultimate goal is for students to make consistent progress toward their IEP goals so that they gain access to grade-level content.

What are the Benefits of SDI?

Specially Designed Instruction provides personalized learning opportunities for students that are customized to their unique and specific learning needs and gaps. Leveraging performance from formative and summative assessments can help to set achievable and purposeful goals for students which contribute to improving access to academic content and overall achievement. Increased access also lends itself to enhanced student motivation and overall engagement behaviorally, cognitively, and emotionally. Lastly, implementing SDI increases inclusion and equity within a classroom and school, which better prepares students for having choice-filled lives and careers.

What are common challenges of SDI?

Upon first hearing about SDI, it can easily sound overwhelming and cumbersome to educators, however, it does not have to be. Concerns related to time constraints, resource limitations, and a limited amount of support are other challenges that educators face when tackling SDI. Given the current landscape of education with tenured educators leaving the field and being replaced with new and inexperienced teachers can create natural barriers to executing SDI due to lack of skill and experience to do so. Mindset challenges can also serve as serious barriers preventing educators from executing SDI at all and with fidelity.

What are the best strategies when creating and implementing SDI?

To ensure that SDI is aligned to specific student needs, it should be data-informed. Educators should review multiple sources of data which may include school test performance, exit ticket data, and observational notes, in addition to special education evaluations such as psychoeducational evaluation, speech evaluation, education evaluations and others. Analyzing qualitative and quantitative data sources will assist educators in writing specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely (SMART) goals that align with student knowledge gaps. It will also help educators understand learning barriers that may exist, to inform the strategies and methods of instruction that they utilize. Click here to gain access to our Interventions and Strategies Playbook which shares 100+ strategies that are organized by subject and disability.