This article provides an overview of my experiences in special education as a teacher and subsequently as an intervention researcher providing background on where we were in providing instruction to individuals with disabilities 40 years ago (prior to legal protections and supports) compared with the present. This article acknowledges the progress…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders continue to challenge educators, and their progress in school has not been favorable. In my experience, we have failed to implement some of the most promising practices with this group of students. In this article, I discuss three approaches, positive supports, mentoring and relationship building,…

This essay describes major advances in educating students with severe disabilities. The authors propose that applied behavior analysis, the focus on functional life skills, and the promotion of academic content have been the major advances in the "how" and "what" of learning for this population. An increased focus on literacy,…

Valid, scientific research is critical for ascertaining the effects of instructional techniques on learners with disabilities and for guiding effective special education practice and policy. Researchers in fields such as psychology and medicine have identified serious and widespread shortcomings in their research literatures related to replication…

The disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in special education programs is a complex issue that has long troubled practitioners, educational leaders, and researchers. This article reports on a mixed-method collaborative case analysis that examined local patterns of disproportionality in…

This article reports findings from a literature review on literacy instruction for adolescents with significant cognitive disabilities. Nineteen empirical studies published between 1975 and 2011 were included in the review and analyzed based on characteristics of interventions. The results were examined to determine whether the state of research…

A university-school district partnership, Schools of Promise (SOP), was formed to improve elementary schools for all children through whole-school reform. This effort focused on the concepts of belonging and inclusion, positioning the needs of marginalized students at the center of the reform through a university-facilitated restructuring of…

In spite of recent education reform and reorganization efforts requiring the use of research-based methods, the fundamental elements of an effective program for children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have not been succinctly identified. This article presents the essential features of programs for students with EBD.…

The voices of Black male students labeled as having an emotionally disorder (ED) are seldom heard regarding their perspectives on education. By excluding their opinions, educators are missing an important aspect that could improve educational services for Black males with ED. This study was undertaken to determine the implications of web-based…

In this article, the authors discuss ways ecobehavioral assessment (EBA) has contributed to greater understanding of students' response to instructional intervention and its relationship to academic learning and achievement. EBA represents a proven effective way to conduct a contextual analysis of the instructional environments, teacher and…

In post-Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana, there is a growing concentration of charter schools. The Recovery School District (RSD) has oversight of the majority of these schools. To explore charges from community advocates that RSD charter schools restricted admission and provided inadequate services for students with disabilities, the following…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) seeks to address the inequality in schools and to correct achievement disparities prevalent in education, but little is known of NCLB's effect on students in special education. This study assesses the impact of NCLB on special education by asking educators, administrators, and staff who serve students in special…

Special education services are shaped by legal parameters developed over the past 30 years. Many of those services give priority to process and compliance rather than to focusing on student outcomes. Today, reform initiatives to special education programs are well underway, many of them shaped by fundamental changes occurring in local education…

Transitions are critical times for both teachers and students. Efficient between-task and within-task transitions can greatly improve academic learning time. The purpose of this article was to review one intervention, high-probability (high-p) task sequences, as a method to promote more effective transitions. High-p sequences involve presenting a…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has mandated sweeping accountability in public education. Low-performing urban schools find themselves in the crossfire of political and educational divergence. Comprehensive school reform (CSR) models predate NCLB, but the impact of their implementation has been even more pronounced since the passage of NCLB.…