In an article published in the December 2019 issue of Principal Leadership, a publication of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), PCG’s special education subject matter expert Ashley Quick explores the power of presuming competence in students with significant intellectual disabilities. Touching upon her own experiences providing professional development to teachers and administrators throughout Indiana aimed at improving outcomes for students with significant disabilities, Ms. Quick urges educators to look past their own preconceived notions of what students with significant intellectual disabilities are capable of achieving.

“Our students can achieve so much more if we stop letting preconceived notions guide our teaching and instead commit to presuming competence and making the least dangerous assumption.”

Ms. Quick’s published piece supplements a presentation she made in March 2019 at the annual South by Southwest EDU (SXSW EDU) conference in Austin, Texas. In her session, titled “Think Big: We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know,” Ms. Quick encouraged educators to broaden their views on how the outcomes of students with significant intellectual disabilities can be improved simply by presuming competence in them. This topic was also the focus of an earlier article authored by Ms. Quick and published by PCG here in the days leading up to SXSW EDU as part of our “PCG at SXSW EDU” thought leadership series.

Read Ms. Quick’s full article, “The Transformative Power of Presuming Competence,” from the December 2019 issue of Principal Leadership via the NASSP website here.