Michael Faggella-Luby

The Effect of Choice-Making as an Intervention for Problem Behavior: A Meta-Analysis.

Supporting people with disabilities in expressing preferences and making choices is a core value in positive behavior support. Indeed, in recent years, the field has increasingly focused its attention on the importance of making choices and the potential benefits of choice-making opportunities in enhancing the quality of life of people with disabilities. In addition, an emerging database is suggesting that providing opportunities to make choices can serve as an intervention for decreasing problem behavior. The authors of this article examine the efficacy of the use of choice-making as an intervention for reducing problem behavior through a meta-analysis of single-subject research studies using choice-making as an intervention. A search of the PsycINFO and ERIC databases yielded 13 studies that met the meta-analysis criteria, with interventions affecting 30 participants. The impact of choice interventions was evaluated using the percentage nonoverlapping data and percentage zero data metrics. Overall, providing choice opportunities resulted in clinically significant reductions in the number of occurrences of problem behavior. The authors discuss the benefits of utilizing choice as an intervention and provide future directions for research in this area.

Adolescent Literacy—Reviewing Adolescent Literacy Reports: Key Components and Critical Questions

There is growing concern that adolescent learners are not adequately prepared to meet the literacy challenges of school and life. To address this concern, a proliferation of reports related to adolescent literacy has attempted to synthesize and translate related research for a variety of stakeholders including educators, administrators, and policy makers. Such reports are essential to recommend components of successful programs and practices but are potentially overwhelming in scope and volume for practitioners. The purpose of this essay review is to identify key components and pressing critical questions from a variety of adolescent literacy reports that will direct improvement in reading for older students. This article serves as a primary review, presenting common threads across the reports related to core instruction for all students, supplemental instruction for adolescent struggling readers, the infrastructure necessary to support improved outcomes, and critical questions for moving forward as a field. Following this core review, three responses highlight perspectives from research, practice, and policy. First, Elizabeth Moje invites readers to consider the historical and sociocultural dimensions of the topic, discussing both overlooked research that has been conducted, and overlooked topics that have yet to be addressed by research. Next, Lori Digisi provides a practitioners viewpoint, looking at literacy practices and results in her state, district, and school. Finally, Kris Gutierrez calls for the development of a broad federal literacy policy, one that is inclusive of individuals across the lifespan and is sensitive to the needs of students from non-dominant communities.

A Schoolwide Model for Service Delivery Redefining Special Educators as Interventionists

General and special education are confronting tremendous change resulting from legal mandates related to closing the achievement gap under No Child Left Behind and a focus on early intervention and prevention in the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, 2004. As a result, schoolwide intervention approaches are under rapid development, evaluation, and implementation across the country. Based on these approaches, the authors present a conceptual model for redefining special educators as interventionists who focus on the adoption and use of evidence-based, schoolwide academic and behavioral interventions. Examples of the roles and responsibilities for interventionists within the schoolwide model are provided.

Embedded Learning Strategy Instruction: Story-Structure Pedagogy in Heterogeneous Secondary Literature Classes

The effects of using the Embedded Story-Structure (ESS) Routine in a literature course were investigated. A heterogeneous group of 79 ninth graders, including 14 students with LD, were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, with instruction occurring in groups of 12 to 14 students in general education literature classes over a nine-day period. ESS instruction focused on three reading strategies: (a) student self-questioning, (b) story-structure analysis, and (c) summarizing. Instruction for the alternative condition, called comprehension skills instruction (CSI), was comprised of a package of research-based reading interventions. Statistically significant differences were found between groups in favor of the ESS Routine on measures of strategy use, story-structure knowledge, and unit reading comprehension. Moreover, results indicated equivalent gains for ESS students regardless of disability versus nondisability category.

RTI IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL: FINDINGS AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A TIER 2 READING COMPREHENSION STUDY

Response to intervention (RTI) has received considerable attention from both researchers and practitioners as a schoolwide model for service delivery. However, research is limited on RTI applications in middle and high schools. The purpose of this article is to describe the outcomes of an experimental examination of a secondary (Tier 2) literacy intervention for at-risk fifth- and sixth-grade students in an urban middle school assigned to one of three conditions: Story Structure (SS), Typical Practice delivered by reading specialists (TP), and Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). Results indicated a statistically significant difference between the mean posttest cloze scores of the SSR group and both the SS and TP conditions. Study findings support the growing body of research indicating that at-risk students need intensive and explicit instruction in addition to opportunities to practice reading.

Direct Instruction of Comprehension: Instructional Examples From Intervention Research on Listening and Reading Comprehension

This article examines the role of direct instruction in promoting listening and reading comprehension. Instructional examples from 2 programs of intervention research focused on improving comprehension; the Story Read Aloud Program and the Embedded Story Structure Routine are used to illustrate principles of direct instruction. An analysis of these 2 approaches suggests that direct instruction principles are effective in supporting students with varied achievement levels and that these principles can be used to enhance comprehension among students at very different points in reading development. These evidence-based approaches also illustrate that direct instruction can be designed to support complex learning and the development of higher order cognitive strategies.

Planning for Adolescent Tier 3 Reading Instruction

working at Central High School. In addition to supporting students on her caseload, she was recently asked to plan Tier 3 reading intervention for two ninth graders, Dominic and Mia, who have not responded to previous attempts at intervention. Mrs. Silverman wants to ensure that the Tier 3 reading instruction they receive consists of evidence-based practices effective for adolescents at risk of reading failure. Central High, however, has only recently implemented the response to intervention (RTI) model and has provided few resources to help her identify what this type of instruction looks like. Mrs. Silverman is concerned that she will not be able to plan instruction that really makes a difference for these students. She wonders if any other resources are available to help her with the challenge of planning such urgent intervention.

Higher Education and Disability: A Systematic Review of Assessment Instruments Designed for Students, Faculty, and Staff.

In this study, the literature in disability and higher education was examined, with a specific focus on assessment instruments. Published articles (n = 203) on development of new or refinement of existing instruments were reviewed for traits measured and psychometric rigor reported. Findings showed instruments are intended for professionals and students, and of the student instruments, broad categories are academic, nonacademic, and specific to a disability diagnosis. Not all instruments are limited to students with disabilities; many of the reviewed instruments can be utilized in higher-education settings on all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of disability. The implications of the findings undergird the urgency to prioritize disability as a facet of diversity within higher-education scholarship, and furthermore aid this prioritization by providing a catalogue of robust instruments to researchers and practitioners.

Thirty-Five Years of Transition Topics A Review of CDTEI Issues From 1978 to 2012

A systematic review was conducted of 581 articles published in 76 issues of Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals from the journal’s initial issue in 1978 to the final issue of its 35th year in 2012. Articles were coded based on inclusion of original or secondary data and if not, what type of information the article contained. In the case of articles that presented data, statistics were collected related to sample demographics and the location of the study. In addition, the topic of each article was coded. The most common topical areas were program descriptions and professional development. Trends throughout the analysis are discussed to forecast topical areas needing study as the journal goes forward.

Cooperating Initiatives: Supporting Behavioral and Academic Improvement through a Systems Approach.

it difficult to work toward multiple schoolwide goals simultaneously. They describe the effort as almost schizophrenic because attention and energy must be constantly shifted and compete between very different initiatives and mandates, each of which seems to place unrealistic demands on teachers’ limited time and capacity. Although this scenario is all too familiar in schools, the question is whether educational initiatives with different goals have to compete. This article presents a model in which educational initiatives do not compete but cooperate. We provide examples of efforts designed to improve behavioral outcomes and examples designed to increase academic achievement to illustrate how seemingly very different initiatives can be conceptualized and implemented within the same coherent and coordinated model of schoolwide improvement. This article provides a conceptual framework that outlines guiding principles that should anchor all school improvement efforts as well as model descriptions for conceptualizing and implementing schoolwide initiatives that share a common language and logic. We also provide examples of beginning reading and SWPBS to illustrate how this model can accommodate multiple efforts with different goals.