Parents of students with disabilities want the same access to educational opportunities as parents of students without disabilities. This "right" to particular services and learning environments is securely supported by federal regulations and policies in all schools, including charter schools. However, in the work of Fierros and Blomberg (2004)…

Perhaps one of the most long-standing concerns in special education is the over-representation of some groups of children in special education. In this issue, Fierros and Blomberg report that racial/ethnic representation of special education students in charter schools mirrors that in general education populations. These findings are not new and…

In addressing the problem of disproportionate placement of minority students with special education in charter schools, Fierros describes the commentaries of this issue's contributing scholars. The contributions expose a variety of topics to address the needs of inequities experienced by students with special needs. These topics include: the…

The education of special needs students continues to show a complete disregard for the lack of appropriate services for minority groups. The over-representation of African American learners in the more restrictive placement continues. The advent of charter schools have not changed this picture, and in some cases the discrimination of minorities in…

The importance of algebra instruction has increased in the United States in the past few years. Thus, in most states, middle school students are required to take Algebra 1. Middle school students with math difficulties in inclusion algebra settings may require a different instructional approach. The purpose of this research was to compare student…

One of the challenges to the transition to postsecondary education for students with learning disabilities is the ever-increasing gap between the assessment information that is collected at the secondary level and the demands for documentation prevalent at the postsecondary level. This article discusses the: (a) differences between secondary and…

This study involved a comparison between 30 children with Learning Disabilities (LD) and 30 typically developing peers, regarding their ability to resolve interpersonal conflict problems. It was hypothesized that the groups would show significant differences along the following parameters: (a) understanding of the components of the problems; (b)…

The purpose of this investigation was two-fold: (1) to gather descriptive information in the areas of salient student characteristics, level of participation in general education classes, current level of functioning, and student outcomes (e.g., GPAs, performance on state or national exams) for students with disabilities (SWDs) in high school…

This article provides a brief primer overview of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis. DIF analysis investigates a differential characteristic of a test item between subpopulations of examinees and is useful in detecting possibly biased items toward a particular subpopulation. As demonstration, a dataset from a 40-item math test in a…

Getting research-based instructional practices into the hands of professionals who teach students with learning disabilities is one of the most significant challenges for educators. This paper describes some of the major factors accounting for the gaps that exist between the special education research and classroom practice and presents four major…

The purpose of the present study was to profile, using a K-means cluster analysis, the cognitive, motivational, affective, and goal orientation characteristics of elementary school students with and without learning disabilities (LD). Participants were 58 fifth and 6 sixth graders (29 typical and 29 LD) selected using stratified random procedures.…

The overall purpose of this paper is to describe a practical and useful approach to mathematics assessment that is meaningful to teachers, students and families. The format is highly flexible, yet specifically designed to provide detailed information as to the performance characteristics of the student and a variety of curricula and instructional…

A proximal cause of reading disabilities is a deficit in phonological processing. A consequence of this deficit is inferior performance in one or more cognitive operations that use phonological information, including phonological awareness, lexical retrieval, and verbal memory. Some assert that these phonological processing difficulties are the…

Because of criticisms leveled at statistical hypothesis testing, some researchers have argued that measures of effect size should replace the significance-testing practice. We contend that although effect-size measures have logical appeal, they are also associated with a number of limitations that may result in problematic interpretations of them…