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15 Years After “Making It Happen: Using

Differentiated Instruction, Retrofit

Framework, and Universal Design for

Learning”: A Brief Update of These Concepts

By Stacy Reeves

Fifteen years ago, the author and a colleague wrote about differentiated instruction, retrofit
framework, and universal design for learning. The concepts of differentiated instruction and
universal design for learning have become more important in the classroom than ever. The
author provides a brief discussion of these three concepts.

Fifteen years ago, when my colleague and I wrote “Making It Happen: Using
Differentiated Instruction, Retrofit Framework, and Universal Design for Learning”
(Stanford & Reeves, 2009), I had no idea that it would be read hundreds of times. We
were trying to find the language to explain and explore that teaching was changing in
ways that no one could yet imagine. Not only were teachers going to instruct children
who had disabilities in their general education classrooms, but these children were
going to stay in their classrooms all day. Children with differing strengths would no
longer be placed with the traditional education teacher for a few hours a day—i.e.,
only to go to music, physical education, or library—but instead these children would
be embedded within the classroom and included as part of the classroom community.
The times were changing with the passage of two pieces of U.S. legislation: No
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001) and Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA, 2004). IDEA stressed that children with disabilities be granted a free
and appropriate public education (FAPE) and educated in the least restrictive
environment (LRE). Both Acts required that schools and teachers treat children with
disabilities with the same care and attention shared with their traditional learning
(and traditional looking) counterparts.

Differentiated Instruction
At the time of the original article in 2009, “differentiated instruction” (DI)
was a buzzword that was making its way around educational circles. The term and
conceptualization of it had been in print since Tomlinson (2000) began writing
about it in the 1990s. Tomlinson (2000), for all intents and purposes, developed the
concepts that became “differentiated instruction.”
DI was in practice in the classroom of every teacher who changed the way she/
he taught so that the students learned in the best way possible for themselves. DI
meant that teachers would be required to do things differently than they had in the
past. Prior to DI, many classrooms had one assignment and assessment for all the
students to follow and complete, and there was no adaptation for the child who
worked more slowly—or more quickly—than the other students. Teachers told
students to “do your best,” and many compassionate teachers would allow those

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