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

• Supporting Rural Special Educators Working Toward Licensure: Creation of Virtual Professional Development

  Rural Special Education Quarterly · 2025-02-13 · 2 citations

  article

  The article describes a promising new, fully virtual, multicomponent professional development intervention to support special education teachers in rural U.S. schools who enter the profession without full state licensure. The intervention seeks to strengthen special educators’ self-efficacy in relation to classroom and behavior management, and their desire to stay in the profession, by focusing on three specific special education high-leverage practices. The iterative design and development process was completed over three school years with diverse stakeholders, culminating in a feasibility trial and demonstration of the intervention’s promise of effectiveness. The 6-month intervention, which includes virtual coaching and an online community of practice, and is accompanied by a website for resources, is designed to reduce attrition among rural special educators who are not fully licensed, increase their skills, and ultimately result in higher engagement for the students with disabilities who they serve.

  PublisherDOI

• Brown et al. (1983): A Legacy of Lessons

  Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities · 2025-02-06

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Mixed-Methods Quality Analysis of Behavior Intervention Plans for Students With Extensive Support Needs

  Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities · 2024-11-05 · 4 citations

  article

  Students with extensive support needs are at risk of demonstrating challenging behavior due to inadequate support of their individual needs or class-wide factors such as low quality of instruction. Students with extensive support needs are also among the students who are most likely to experience aversive interventions and be placed in segregated educational placements. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate behavior intervention plans (BIPs) written for students with extensive support needs to understand their structural features and technical adequacy, trends across components of plans, and the alignment of the BIP with the student’s individualized education program (IEP). We analyzed BIPs that were developed by IEP teams including a teacher candidate enrolled in a master’s program, a mentor teacher, or a colleague. We found BIPs were of low technical adequacy with patterns of errors reflecting harmful assumptions about students, lack of operational definitions, and intervention procedures that were not aligned with other components of the plan. BIPs and IEPs were not well-aligned, a finding that reflected overall poor planning for students with extensive support needs. Implications for research and practice are presented with a focus on the critically important nature of effective behavior supports for students with extensive support needs.

  PublisherDOI

• Developing High-Quality IEPs for Students with Intellectual Disability

  2024-08-02

  book-chapter

  The development and implementation of a high-quality Individualized Education Program (IEP) is necessary to ensure students with intellectual disability receive a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. To this end, this chapter describes all eight required IEP components to document their mandated content and indicators of quality. We also describe research documenting the extent to which quality is evident for each component. Existing research suggests that, for students with intellectual disability, all IEP components tend to be of low quality and often fail to include required content and research-based practices. We conclude the low-quality IEPs developed for students with intellectual disability jeopardize their ability to be implemented in a consistent or coherent manner, and likely deny students with intellectual disability a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. We provide recommendations for change.

  PublisherDOI

• Making Sense of the Rural Special Education Teacher Shortage

  Journal of Education Human Resources · 2024-10-01 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Long-standing shortages of well-prepared special educators, especially within rural areas, have jeopardized positive outcomes for students with disabilities. In this multiple case study of administrators and special educators, the authors examined how individuals make sense of the special education teacher shortages in relation to the challenges of working in a rural school. Local contextual factors intersected with salary and state policies, highlighting how external, political factors affected districts’ ability to attract and retain special education teachers. Chief among implications for research, policy, and practice is the need to attend to multipronged approaches that have the potential to mitigate economic barriers to special educator recruitment and retention in rural school districts.

  PublisherDOI

• Instructional Content and Self-Determination in Individualized Education Program Annual Goals for Students With Extensive Support Needs

  Intellectual and developmental disabilities · 2024-01-28 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author

  Under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, individualized education program (IEP) annual goals are required to enable students with disabilities to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum and to address other educational needs. This study reports findings from a content analysis of the annual goals in 88 IEPs for K-12 students with extensive support needs. Results reflect a lack of comprehensive academic content goals to promote involvement and progress in the general education curriculum, and limited opportunities for students to develop skills associated with self-determination. Findings also show a focus within goals on student compliance rather than the development of meaningful skills and knowledge. Implications for research and practice are provided.

  PublisherDOI

• Rural Inclusive Education for Students with Disabilities in the United States: A Narrative Review of Research

  The Rural Educator · 2023-01-01 · 30 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Despite a long history of overrepresentation in segregated settings (Brock, 2018), students with disabilities who require extensive supports are more likely to receive inclusive placements in rural schools. In this paper, we present findings from a narrative literature analysis of inclusive education for students with disabilities in rural schools located in the United States. Our search yielded 24 articles, published between 2002 and 2019, which reveal three storylines: (a) perceptions about inclusive education in rural schools and communities, (b) inclusive placements are common for students with disabilities, and (c) access to resources is a factor for rural schools to provide inclusive education programs. The National Rural Education Association (NREA) has prioritized “building capacity to meet the needs of diverse and special populations” and so this review thoroughly examines special education practices in rural schools and describes how the diverse qualities and contexts of rural schools contribute to inclusive education practices.

  PublisherDOI

• Curricular Philosophies Reflected in the Chinese Special School Curriculum Standards for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

  International Journal of Disability Development and Education · 2022-12-05 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author

  Although curriculum standards define educational requirements that students are expected to learn and teachers are expected to teach, little is known about the curricular philosophies of the Chinese Special School Curriculum Standards for students with intellectual disabilities. This study uses content analysis to examine how different curricular philosophies are reflected in the 2016 Special School Curriculum Standards and their alignment with the 2011 Compulsory General Education Curriculum Standards. Results show that most curriculum learning items reflect general curriculum access philosophies, but only 13.59% of them are required for typically developing students at the same grade levels. There is a significant difference across curricular philosophies regarding the alignment of the special and general curriculum standards. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Unravelling the Narratives

  Journal of Disability Studies in Education · 2022-10-07 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract In this qualitative study, we analyzed the language used by professionals within iep documents for students with disabilities. Viewing the iep as a narrative, and using positioning theory as guiding framework, statements of present levels of academic and functional performance in iep s for 88 students in grades K-12 in the United States were analyzed. Findings revealed that students were negatively positioned through the skills that were reported, the data that were reported, and problems located in the student rather in the environment. Implications for policy, practice, and research are provided.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• High Leverage Practices and Students with Extensive Support Needs

  2022-10-06 · 14 citations

  bookSenior author
  PublisherDOI

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…