The relationship between students' living in poverty and academic underachievement challenges schools across the nation. Poverty is particularly prevalent among children with disabilities. One detrimental condition of poverty that directly affects student development and academic achievement is food insecurity and hunger. With the increasing…

Teachers are responsible for using evidence-based practices to improve students' academic and behavioral outcomes. Although teachers have access to a variety of resources on evidence-based practices, poor implementation can adversely affect their effectiveness. However, an inadequate student response to intervention may also be the result of…

Two diametrically opposed beliefs are held concerning the meaning of the least restrictive environment (LRE) when determining the class placements of students with disabilities. One group adheres to the placement philosophy that the LRE is always the general education setting. The other group believes that the LRE is where the students' needs…

This article provides recommendations for teachers to better prepare 3rd through 12th grade students with learning disabilities for large-scale writing assessments. The variation across large-scale writing assessments and the multiple needs of struggling writers indicate the need for test preparation to be embedded within a comprehensive,…

Student response systems, often called clickers, have become more popular and visible in the K-12 classroom in recent years. There are numerous competing systems on the market, but all perform the same function: to allow the student to use a small hand-held device (i.e., a clicker), or even web browsers on laptops or mobile phones, to respond to…

In East Asia, Taiwan is one of only a few countries that has a clear definition of learning disabilities (LD) as well as operational criteria for the identification of LD. In Taiwan, special education services for students with LD are mandated in the Special Education Act of 1984. According to the official statistics from the Taiwanese Special…

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (1996) estimated that 10% of the United States population has a disorder of speech, language, or hearing, with proportional distribution among members of racially and ethnically diverse groups. Individuals of Hispanic origin are the fastest-growing minority group in the country. Current national…

Multiracial families make up the fastest growing demographic in the United States. Approximately 9% of the U.S. population is multiracial, and it is estimated that the numbers will climb to 21% by 2050. With this increasing population, educators have a new responsibility to meet the needs of these families. Education must begin to form…

Determining what constitutes good writing is difficult, though many say they know it when they see it. Although this approach may have support in the literature, there are other efficient and valid ways to assess students' writing. To obtain a complete picture of a student's writing skills, it is important that teachers take a balanced approach to…

Anxiety! Stress! Fear! Everyone lives in a time of escalating accountability in terms of state, district, and city-wide examinations that measure student growth in the acquisition of skills and content area knowledge. All students feel increased pressure to constantly demonstrate improved levels of academic performance. For students with cognitive…

A major tenet of both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act is the identification and use of evidence-based practices, or those instructional techniques shown by research as most likely to improve student outcomes meaningfully. However, much confusion exists regarding the meaning and potential…

There has been an increasing focus on evidence-based practices in special education with efforts underway to authoritatively identify those practices that are evidence based. However, the identification of evidence-based practices is only the beginning of the process of implementing evidence-based special education. The professional wisdom of…

Using evidence-based practices, or those instructional techniques shown by research to improve student outcomes meaningfully, increases the performance of students with disabilities and should therefore be a priority for special educators. But how does a practice come to be considered evidence based? The unique characteristics of group…

In response to recent trends and legislation, the concept of implementing evidence-based practices has become a critical component of contemporary schooling. It is important that teachers and families of students with disabilities understand the role that qualitative research plays in determining whether a practice is in fact evidence based.…

Research in the field of special education often incorporates single-subject designs to investigate the effectiveness of educational practices for students with disabilities. As such, it is important that educators and educational professionals understand the characteristics of single-subject research methodologies and how those characteristics…