Andrea Ruppar

About

Andrea Ruppar, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research focuses on inclusive education and access to the general curriculum for students with autism and developmental disabilities, as well as on special education teacher preparation and practice. She investigates the social and organizational contexts that influence decisions in special education. Dr. Ruppar has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and practitioner resources, and her work has been supported by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs, the Institute for Education Sciences, and the Spencer Foundation. She is an active leader in TASH, a research and advocacy organization dedicated to individuals with the most significant disabilities, and serves on the editorial boards of several prominent journals in the field. Dr. Ruppar is the inaugural co-editor of the journal Inclusive Practices published by TASH. She co-authored the book 'Equitable and Inclusive IEPs for Students with Complex Support Needs' and has contributed to other significant publications in the area of special education. She is currently accepting Ph.D. students for the upcoming academic year.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Social Science
• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Political Science
• Mathematics education
• Computer Science
• Medical education
• Social psychology
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Conceptualizing Teacher Agency for Inclusive Education: A Systematic and International Review

  Teacher Education and Special Education The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children · 2020 · 135 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Teachers can and should play a powerful active role in promoting societal inclusion and equity for all learners. There is an emerging interest among teacher education scholars in teacher agency and its importance; however, a theoretical and empirical understanding of teacher agency remains elusive. The purposes of this systematic review are to synthesize existing theories of teacher agency and summarize factors enhancing or constraining teacher agency for inclusive education. Implications for te…

  PublisherDOI

• Considerations in Placement Decisions for Students With Extensive Support Needs: An Analysis of LRE Statements

  Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities · 2019-02-01 · 92 citations

  articleOpen access

  Special education consists of specially designed services available for students with disabilities, and should be available across placements. Students with the most significant disabilities continue to be taught in restrictive settings, despite accumulating evidence suggesting their special education services can be delivered effectively in general education settings. Every individualized education program (IEP) must contain a statement describing how the student will be provided a free and app…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Teacher agency for inclusive education: an international scoping review

  International Journal of Inclusive Education · 2020 · 78 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Inclusive education is contextualised within local systems and represents a continuous struggle to ensure access to meaningful and equitable education. The purpose of this scoping review was to examine international empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals from 1999 to 2019 focused on teacher agency for inclusive education for students with disabilities in grades K-12. The conceptual framework used for this research identified teacher agency for inclusive schooling as requiring a di…

  PublisherDOI

• A Framework for Preparing to Teach Students With Extensive Support Needs in the 21st Century

  Teacher Education and Special Education The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children · 2022 · 47 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Special education teachers for students with extensive support needs often and unwittingly make misinformed decisions. These decisions are situated within systems, which fail to support expertise development in teaching this population, resulting in decisions influenced by media, commercially available curricula, and outdated assumptions about possible student outcomes. We propose a framework for making and evaluating decisions about teaching students with extensive support needs to support teac…

  PublisherDOI

• A Description of Parent Input in IEP Development Through Analysis IEP Documents

  Intellectual and developmental disabilities · 2019-11-21 · 46 citations

  articleOpen access

  Parent input in individualized education program (IEP) development is the clear expectation in U.S. education law. Every IEP team must include parents, and their input must be equally considered when developing IEPs. The present study used content analysis of 88 IEPs of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to explore team membership, concerns parents raised during IEP meetings, and evidence that parent concerns and priorities are reflected in IEP goals and supplementary aids…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jennifer A. Kurth

  University of Kansas

  44 shared

• Jessica A. McQueston

  Sam Houston State University

  23 shared

• Katie McCabe

  Buffalo State University

  23 shared

• Samantha Gross Toews

  California State University, Northridge

  23 shared

• Russell Johnston

  21 shared

• Kathryn Burke

  Temple University

  17 shared

• Karrie A. Shogren

  16 shared

• Sheida K. Raley

  University of Kansas

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2005

• M.S., Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2001

• B.A., Psychology

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1998

Awards & honors

• Early Career Research Award , TASH, 2019
• Early Career Publication Award , Council for Exceptional Chi…
• Outstanding Student Research Award , American Educational Re…
• Student Research Award (Qualitative) , Council for Exception…

Similar researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Allison Lombardih-29
• Malachy Bishoph-26
• Aydin Balh-21