This article explores the difference between parental involvement, where parents' activity levels at school are primarily structured by schools, and parental engagement, where parents have a more active voice in how they take part in what goes on in schools. This difference is underscored as a means of illuminating ways of addressing the issue of…

Racial disproportionality in special education is a deep seated and complex educational inequity plaguing the United States educational system. In this article we outline how the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, although a civil rights based legislation, cannot sufficiently address racially disproportionate outcomes in special…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) represent a significant proportion of students enrolled in U.S. schools. Research suggests that students with LD in reading benefit from specialized reading instruction, and effective reading instruction can be characterized as explicit, intensive, and systematic. Examples of evidence-based interventions…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an instructional framework through which schools can provide early intervention for students experiencing academic and behavioral difficulties. It is also promoted as an alternative to the IQ-discrepancy model for identifying students with learning disabilities. Most states have developed, or are developing,…

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has become the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder among school-age children. For more than half a century, physicians have prescribed medications to help manage behaviors such as hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention. Today, there is a growing consensus that ADHD is a biologically…

The response to intervention model (RTI) represents a promising framework for the early identification and prevention of learning and behavior problems for students struggling in school. If RTI is properly implemented, it should reduce unnecessary referrals and placements into special education, and increase the accuracy of special education…

The emergence of Response to Intervention (RTI) anticipates a different future for all students, particularly learners from racial minority backgrounds and students with disabilities. RTI is being widely adopted in school districts as a viable alternative to enhance learning opportunities; hence, some education scholars argue it promises a…

To be academically successful in general education classrooms, English language learners (ELLs) with learning disabilities (LD) need instruction that is simultaneously responsive to their disability, English language status, and culture. Because the majority of students with LD have reading disabilities, ESL and classroom teachers must be familiar…

Teachers at all levels of education today struggle in their efforts to assign fair, accurate, and meaningful grades to students with disabilities, especially those placed in general education classrooms. Lacking specific policies or recommendations, most teachers apply informal, individual grading adaptations for such students. Although these…

Differentiating instruction, a comprehensive approach to teaching, enables the successful inclusion of all students, including the disabled, in general-education classrooms. As inclusive educators, we argue that disability is an enacted, interactional process and not an empirical, stable fact or condition. We recommend planning responsive lessons…