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falling behind some extra time and practice to master a skill or concept, but this
remediation was not required. Every child was expected to work at the same pace,
doing the same lessons, at the same time, although, of course, some worked slower
or faster than others. What DI did was alert school personnel that what had happened
in the past—everyone doing the exact same things at the same time—was no longer
acceptable. Instead, teachers needed to modify the processes, content, products,
and learning environments for each child until he/she was successful (Tomlinson,
Stacy Reeves, PhD, is 2000). Eventually, DI came to include other concepts such as continual assessment,
Associate Professor in response to intervention (which also fits into several of these other concepts), and
the School of Education
at The University of tasks that build social-emotional learning (Differential Central, 2016).
Southern Mississippi.
She taught elementary Retrofit Framework
students and has worked Our original article (Stanford & Reeves, 2009) used the term retrofit framework.
in higher education Retrofit framework was a term used by teachers of the past to continue to teach
since 2001. Her focus
areas include literacy, in the ways that they were already teaching but to blend it with what was needed
effective teaching, and to allow children who were disabled to fit into that instructional framework. The
classroom management. goal was for children who had exceptional needs to be as successful as possible,
Further interests include including accommodating their assistive technology and their learning capacity.
graduate courses in the With retrofitting, barriers were to be removed as much as feasible, but such was to
teaching of literacy and
international cooperative be done after the fact, not prior to working with students with disabilities. Today,
teaching and learning inclusive classrooms in the United States have been retrofitted, at least as far as
strategies. She serves fitting children into the physical spaces that classrooms maintain and, hopefully,
on various local, state, with the intellectual requirements as well.
and national boards and
has been state president
of Mississippi Reading/ Universal Design for Learning
Literacy Association As with DI, universal design for learning (UDL) has developed into a system for
as well as Mississippi including all children in the classroom and meeting their educational needs. Adapted
Professional Educators. from architecture and the design of buildings to accommodate all people (Centre for
She has been an active Excellence in Universal Design [CEUD], 2024), it has become a way of altering the
member of Alpha Gamma
Chapter in Mississippi material to be learned, the ways it is learned, and the demonstration of that learning.
State Organization since UDL is a way of making sure that every child has a chance to be a learner, a doer,
2022. and a leader in the classroom. UDL encompasses multiple means of engagement,
representation, and action and expression (CAST, 2018; Fovet, 2022). Engagement
Stacy.Reeves@usm.edu
refers to “recruiting interest” (CAST, 2018, chart) where a child’s interests are piqued
about a topic. Additionally, engagement refers to “sustaining effort and persistence,”
and “self-regulation” is to manage oneself in order to better regulate personally one’s
emotions and the environment of learning (CAST, 2018, chart).
In UDL, representation refers to perception or how the information is received and
perceived (CAST, 2018). Also, language and symbols used in a piece of information
are defined for students, and comprehension of the content is explored (CAST, 2018).
Lastly, UDL requires action and expression, which encompasses physical action of
accessing the materials, expression and communication, and executive functions
(e.g., goal setting and planning; CAST, 2018). The final goals are for students to be
“purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-
directed” (CAST, 2018, chart).

36 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators