With respect to High Leverage Practices, "high leverage" refers to the advantageous condition of implementing a basic, foundational teaching behavior which yields a relatively high result (maximizing the positive outcome).

High-Leverage Practices are defined by TeachingWorks, at the University of Michigan, as “...the basic fundamentals of teaching. These practices are used constantly and are critical to helping students learn important content. The high-leverage practices are also central to supporting students’ social and emotional development. These high-leverage practices are used across subject areas, grade levels, and contexts. They are “high-leverage” not only because they matter to student learning but because they are basic for advancing skill in teaching.”

In partnership with the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR), the Council for Exceptional Children also developed and published a set of high-leverage practices (HLPs) for educators working with students who have disabilities and/or struggling learners. The HLPs are organized around four aspects of practice:

• Collaboration

• Assessment

• Social/emotional/behavioral

• Instruction

From these four aspects of practice, there are 22 practices intended to address the most critical practices that every K–12 educator, working with students with disabilities, should master and be able to demonstrate. The selected practices are used frequently in classrooms and have been shown to improve student outcomes if successfully implemented.

McLeskey and Brownell (2015) noted that (a) many of the Teaching Works general HLPs are appropriate for all teachers (general education and special educators), and (b) many of the HLPs identified for special education vary only in intensity and focus. The following link illustrates commonalities and distinctions across the two sets of HLPs. CEC HLPs and TW HLPs

Understanding these increasingly intensified practices is critical, as we move instruction from theory to practice. Becoming familiar with the correlation between Teaching Works HLPs and Special Education HLPs will improve overall understanding and practice.

Although the teaching actions that occur when implementing high leverage practices have been in use by effective teachers across time, the term “high leverage practices” was coined by Deborah Ball at the University of Michigan. Ball’s work shifted the focus of teacher preparation from that of knowledge and beliefs to focus on judgment and action. Ball identified 19 core HLPs in an effort to provide multiple opportunities to fine-tune crucial design, interaction, and analysis skills.

Reaching an agreement as to which specific high leverage practices are most impactful on the outcomes of learners with disabilities was a lengthy process. The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) partnered with the CEEDAR Center at the University of Florida and CEC’s Teacher Education Division (TED) to form an HLP writing team tasked with establishing criteria for identifying HLPs, selecting the practices, and writing the final document.