Sean Lancaster

The Efficacy of an Interactive Hypermedia Program for Teaching a Test-Taking Strategy to Students with High-Incidence Disabilities

Increased demand for accountability in the public schools has led to an increase in the number of testing situations for all students, including students with disabilities. The purpose of this project was to develop and validate an interactive hypermedia (IH) program to teach a test-taking strategy to secondary-level students with disabilities. The program was designed to deliver a substantial portion of instruction needed for students to master the strategy. The strategy for which the IH was developed and tested in this study is The Test-Taking Strategy (Hughes, Schumaker, Deshler, & Mercer, 1988). With input from student, teacher, design, and technical consultants, the IH program was created. Students who have learning disabilities, behavior disorders, and other health impairments learned the strategy via the IH program. A multiple-baseline design was used to show the effects of the instruction. The effectiveness of the IH program in teaching students with learning disabilities to use the strategy was found to be comparable to live instruction. Further research is warranted to determine if this medium is feasible in inclusive classrooms and effective in teaching students other types of strategies.

Common Challenges and Experiences of School Districts That Are Implementing One-to-One Computing Initiatives

This article explores the implementation of various K–12 one-to-one computing initiatives to determine if patterns exist. These initiatives are funded in times of limited resources and constitute a serious investment in technology for the schools and districts adopting them. The goals of this study were to understand how and why one-to-one computing initiatives are being implemented, how these initiatives are funded and supported, and expectations or assumptions of stakeholders that are driving adoption of this type of technology. The results suggest that these school districts, and those like them, will face many challenges—some financial, some technical, and some procedural—as they work to integrate technology into instruction and assessment. Common themes or challenges identified from this work, and linked with previous research, include leadership and vision, funding, teacher professional development, and project evaluation.

Effects of a Computerized Program on Use of the Test-Taking Strategy by Secondary Students with Disabilities.

Students with disabilities must meet many testing demands, given the current emphasis on accountability and state competency testing. The purpose of this project was to develop and field test a computerized program to teach the Test-Taking Strategy (Hughes, Schumaker, Deshler, & Mercer, 1988) to secondary-level students with disabilities. The original instruction for the Test-Taking Strategy, validated by Hughes and Schumaker (1991), was transformed into a computerized format based on input from students, teachers, design experts, and technical consultants. A quasi-experimental design utilizing intact classes of students with learning disabilities at both the junior-high and high-school levels was employed to determine the effects of the program. Results showed the computerized program was effective in teaching students to use the Test-Taking Strategy. Statistical differences were found between the posttests of the two groups related to their knowledge of the Test-Taking Strategy, use of the strategy steps on tests, and ability to think aloud about their use of the strategy in a test-taking situation. No differences were found between gains made by junior- and senior-high students in the experimental groups. Further research is warranted to determine if this medium is effective for teaching students other types of strategies.