Sheri Berkeley

Implementation of Response to Intervention A Snapshot of Progress

This article provides a snapshot of how all 50 states are progressing with the development and implementation of response-to-intervention (RtI) models 1 year after the final regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act were passed. Data were collected through a review of existing state department of education Web sites and conversations with representatives in each state department of education. Information related to RtI model type, implementation status, professional development, criteria for eligibility, and specific features of individual state RtI models are presented. Findings indicate that most states are in some phase of RtI development, although approaches vary widely throughout the country. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Differentiated Curriculum Enhancement in Inclusive Middle School Science Effects on Classroom and High-Stakes Tests

This investigation compared quantitative outcomes associated with classwide peer tutoring using differentiated hands-on activities vs. teacher-directed instruction for students with mild disabilities in inclusive 8th-grade science classes. Thirteen classes of 213 students (109 males; 104 females), of whom 44 were classified with disabilities, participated in 12-week sessions in a randomized field trial design. Experimental classes received units of differentiated, peer-mediated, hands-on instruction, while control classes received traditional science instruction. Results indicate that collaborative hands-on activities statistically facilitate learning of middle school science content on posttests and on state high-stakes tests for all students and that students enjoyed using the activities. Implications for practice indicate use of supplemental peer mediated hands-on activities may provide necessary review and practice for students with disabilities. Future research would help uncover additional critical instructional variables.

Reading Comprehension Instruction for Students With Learning Disabilities, 1995—2006: A Meta-Analysis

Meta-analysis procedures were employed to synthesize findings of research for improving reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities published in the decade following previous meta-analytic investigations. Forty studies, published between 1995 and 2006, were identified and coded. Nearly 2,000 students served as participants. Interventions were classified as fundamental reading skills instruction, text enhancements, and questioning/strategy instruction—including those that incorporated peer-mediated instruction and self-regulation. Mean weighted effect sizes were obtained for criterion-referenced measures: .69 for treatment effects, .69 for maintenance effects, and .75 for generalization effects. For norm-referenced tests, the mean effect size was .52 for treatment effects. These outcomes were somewhat lower than but generally consistent with those of previous meta-analyses in their conclusion that reading comprehension interventions have generally been very effective. Higher outcomes were noted for interventions that were implemented by researchers. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

Do Special Education Interventions Improve Learning of Secondary Content? A Meta-Analysis:

The authors describe findings from a research synthesis on content area instruction for students with disabilities. Seventy studies were identified from a comprehensive literature search, examined, and coded for a number of variables, including weighted standardized mean-difference effect sizes. More than 2,400 students were participants in these investigations. Studies included interventions involving content areas, such as science, social studies, and English, and employed a number of different interventions, including study aids, classroom learning strategies, spatial and graphic organizers, mnemonic strategies, hands-on activities, classroom peers, and computer-assisted instruction. The overall effect size was 1.00, indicating an overall large effect across studies. Implications for future research and practice are described.

Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction and Attribution Retraining for Secondary Students With Learning and Other Mild Disabilities

A pre-post experimental design with 6-week delayed posttest was implemented to investigate the effects of reading comprehension strategy (RCS) instruction with and without attribution retraining (AR) on reading outcomes for seventh, eighth, and ninth graders with learning and other mild disabilities. Students were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: RCS+AR, RCS, or a Read Naturally (Ihnot, 1992) comparison condition. Results indicated that compared to the comparison group, both strategy instruction groups performed better on a summarization measure of comprehension after treatment producing large effect sizes. Both groups also performed better after a 6-week delay; however, only the RCS+AR group maintained a large effect size. In addition, RCS+AR students displayed higher attributions for reading success at post- and delayed posttesting. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Improving Student Comprehension of Social Studies Text: A Self-Questioning Strategy for Inclusive Middle School Classes

This study employed a randomized experimental design to investigate the effectiveness of a self-questioning strategy for improving student reading comprehension of grade-level social studies text material. Fifty-seven seventh grade students with a range of abilities, including English as second language learners and students with learning and other disabilities, from three inclusive middle school classes participated. Results indicated that students in the self-questioning strategy group outperformed students in a typical practice group on both multiple-choice and open-ended comprehension tests of the social studies content read. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Mnemonic Strategies: Evidence-Based Practice and Practice-Based Evidence.

This article presents information on using mnemonic strategies to enhance learning and memory of students with mild disabilities. Different types of mnemonic strategies are described, including the keyword method, the pegword method, and letter strategies. Following this, a number of teachers describe their own applications of mnemonic strategies with students with learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and emotional/behavioral disabilities. Content areas include elementary life science, secondary social studies and anatomy, elementary social studies, elementary reading vocabulary, and secondary SAT vocabulary. Finally, a middle school social studies teacher describes lessons learned from her extended experience with mnemonic strategies. A discussion of the theoretical foundations and empirical research support of mnemonic strategies also is provided.

High-Stakes Test Accommodations: Research and Practice

Because high stakes are now attached to standardized assessments of student progress, policy makers, administrators, practitioners, and parents must understand how to most effectively and accurately measure the performance of all students, including students with learning disabilities (LD). To accomplish this, test accommodations are provided on an individual basis that are intended to mediate the impact of a student’s disability. The purpose of this article was to examine policy and guidelines related to accommodations among states and to review research related to the effectiveness of accommodations for students with LD. Findings showed that there continues to be large variability among states regarding allowed testing accommodations and that although there has been an increase in research conducted related to the effectiveness of accommodations for students with LD in the past decade, empirical evidence remains sparse and findings are often inconclusive. Implications are discussed.

Intervention in School and Clinic: An Analysis of 25 Years of Guidance for Practitioners

Decreasing the well-documented research-to-practice gap in special education is thought to partially depend on practitioner access to quality evidence-based interventions. Practitioner journals are one such resource for obtaining this information. The current study is a systematic review of articles published over the last 25 years (1990–2014) in a prominent special education practitioner journal, Intervention in School and Clinic. Findings from review of 925 articles showed that 64% focused specifically on information related to students with learning disabilities (LD) or other mild disabilities. Forty-three percent of articles focused on educational practices based on intervention research for students with LD or other mild disabilities. Another 32% focused on information relevant for teachers of these students including strategies for managing other non-instructional teaching responsibilities, practices in general education settings, and changes in special education law and policy. Overall, this journal provides a wide range of resources for teachers of students with LD.

Effective Reading and Writing Instruction: A Focus on Modeling

When providing effective reading and writing instruction, teachers need to provide explicit modeling. Modeling is particularly important when teaching students to use cognitive learning strategies. Examples of how teachers can provide specific, explicit, and flexible instructional modeling is presented in the context of two evidence-based practices in the areas of reading and writing.