In this study, researchers operated from cognitive and situated perspectives to understand how individual qualities and contextual factors influenced elementary special education teachers' learning in a multifaceted professional development (PD) project, Literacy Learning Cohort, focused on word study and fluency instruction. Grounded theory…

This article describes how a purposeful sample of 62 elementary schools from 17 states implemented a Response to Intervention (RtI) framework for reading. School informants answered surveys and were interviewed about differentiated instruction in Tier 1, screening/benchmarking, where Tier 2 interventions were located, typical group size and the…

This article provides a synthesis of note-taking research among students with learning disabilities or other high-incidence disabilities. A search of the professional literature between 1980 and 2010 yielded nine intervention studies, which were evaluated either in terms of effect size or percentage of nonoverlapping data. The studies examined…

Despite expectations for accommodations in inclusive classrooms, little guidance for effective practice is available. Most accommodations policies and evidence-based practices address assessments. High school regular and special educators collaborated in focus groups to articulate a model based on their practices and perceptions of best practice.…

The field of learning disabilities (LD) has a complex and complicated history. Tensions over definitions, eligibility criteria, service delivery models, and best practices, as well as epistemological debates, have been a part of that history from its inception. Given our collective struggles, as well as the current realities facing the field,…

This special series represents collective courage because what is willing to be risked may be profound. At center is a willingness to reach out and cultivate new conversations on disability. Indeed, the artists who contribute to Ware's article are key co-authors; their art ushers us into a new disability literacy that extends and challenges…

In this essay I consider the arts--created and performed by artists with disabilities--as a site of productive knowledge for educators willing to interrogate the limits of scientific ways of understanding disability. A sample of artists who deploy the arts for self-understanding and self-expression informed by their experience living with…

An e-mail survey of special education directors was conducted to ascertain practices related to implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) processes in North Carolina schools. The data indicate that special education directors have information about RTI as a method of identifying students with disabilities, but there is little consensus on…

Which children are most at risk of experiencing a Matthew effect in reading? We investigated this question using population-based methodology. First, we identified children entering kindergarten on socio-demographic factors (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) known to index the relative risks and resources available to them as…

Relatively little is known about the potential of web-based programs to support and scaffold the writing performance of students with disabilities. In this study, an experimental and control group of students planned and organized their ideas in order to write expository papers about self-selected topics. The experimental group used a web-based…

Changes in laws are reflected--even foreshadowed on occasion--by the field's scholarship. In the 1980s, there were few who recognized that adults with disabilities were an important resource in the education of students with disabilities or that issues of race and culture had consequence for identifying and delivering services to these children.…

As a special educator, the author finds herself in an ever-increasing "Mad Hatter-March Hare" sort of existence. This is true on many special education fronts: in curriculum, in classroom settings, and in the shear complexity of professional conversations. A Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee "rigor" issue in her current world is the widely accepted notion…

Well-being was assessed in 568 low-achieving Dutch students (ages 7-15) by means of a self-image scale consisting of 39 statements and peer acceptance through sociometric nomination and rank-order procedures. Students in special education had a slightly better self-image and were more accepted by peers than low-achieving students in regular…

Secondary students with learning disabilities, behavior disorders, and health impairments (n=16) learned a self-advocacy strategy via an Interactive Hypermedia Program (IHP) or through live instruction. After instruction, each student ran his own Individualized Education Program conference. The IHP was as effective in teaching the students the…

This article presents the mission and conceptual framework of the REACH Institute, which is engaged in a five-year program of research on teaching for understanding with students with disabilities. It describes several common features of the institute research stands in social studies, language arts, science, and mathematics, and emerging themes.…