Exceptional Children最新文献

During the past decade, responsiveness to intervention (RTI) has become popular among many practitioners as a means of transforming schooling into a multilevel prevention system. Popularity aside, its successful implementation requires ambitious intent, a comprehensive structure, and coordinated service delivery. An effective RTI also depends on building-based personnel with specialized expertise at all levels of the prevention system. Most agree on both its potential for strengthening schooling and its heavy demand on practitioners. In this article, we describe Smart RTI, which we define as making efficient use of school resources while maximizing students' opportunities for success. In light of findings from recent research, we discuss three important features of Smart RTI: (a) multistage screening to identify risk, (b) multistage assessment to determine appropriate levels of instruction, and (c) a role for special education that supports prevention.

This study assessed the effects of sampling breadth on technical features of word identification fluency (WIF), a tool for screening and monitoring the reading development of first graders. From a potential pool of 704 first-grade students, the authors measured both a representative sample (n = 284) and 2 other subgroups: those with low reading achievement (n = 202) and those with high/average achievement (n = 213). Data were collected weekly on broadly and narrowly sampled WIF lists for 15 weeks and on criterion measures in the fall and spring. Broad lists were developed by sampling words from 500 high-frequency words, whereas narrow lists were created by sampling from the 133 words from Dolch preprimer, primer, and first-grade word lists. Overall, predictive validity for performance level, predictive validity for growth, and commonality analysis showed narrow sampling was better for screening the representative group and the high/average subgroup. Broad sampling was superior for screening the low-achieving subgroup and for progress monitoring across groups.

Promoting self-determination has become best practice in special education. There remains, however, a paucity of causal evidence for interventions to promote self-determination. We conducted a group-randomized, modified equivalent control group design study of the efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction to promote self-determination. Data on self-determination using multiple measures was collected with 312 high school students with cognitive disabilities in both a control and treatment group. We examined the relationship between the SDLMI and self-determination using structural equation modeling. After determining strong measurement invariance for each latent construct, we found significant differences in latent means across measurement occasions and differential effects attributable to the SDLMI. This was true across disability category, though there was variance across disability populations.

This study investigated a Tier 2 intervention in the context of a Response to Intervention (RTI) model for 123 fourth grade students who were identified as having a high probability of reading failure. A randomized control trial was used to evaluate the effects of a 24 session multi-component supplemental intervention targeting fluency and expository comprehension of science texts. Intervention students performed significantly higher on comprehension strategy knowledge and use and science knowledge, but not on word reading, fluency, or other measures of reading comprehension. Moderators of intervention effects were also examined; children at higher risk in the intervention condition appeared to benefit more in comparison to lower probability children in intervention and compared to higher probability children in the control condition.

This study reports the effectiveness of a year-long, small-group, tertiary (Tier 3) intervention that examined 2 empirically derived but conceptually different treatments and a comparison condition. The researchers had randomly assigned all students to treatment or comparison conditions. The participants were seventh- and eighth-grade students from the previous year who received an intervention and did not meet exit criteria. The researchers assigned them to one of two treatments: standardized (n = 69) or individualized (n = 71) for 50 min a day, in group sizes of 5, for the entire school year. Comparison students received no researcher-provided intervention (n = 42). The researchers used multigroup modeling with nested comparisons to evaluate the statistical significance of Time 3 estimates. Students in both treatments outperformed the comparison students on assessments of decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Intervention type did not moderate the pattern of effects, although students in the standardized treatment had a small advantage over individualized students on word attack. This study provides a framework from which to refine further interventions for older students with reading disabilities.

Many schools are beginning to implement multi-tier response to intervention (RTI) models for the prevention of reading difficulties and to assist in the identification of students with learning disabilities (LD). The present study was part of our larger ongoing longitudinal RTI investigation within the Florida Learning Disabilities Center grant. This study used a longitudinal correlational design, conducted in 7 ethnically and socio-economically diverse schools. We observed reading instruction in 20 classrooms, examined response rates to kindergarten Tier 1 instruction, and predicted students' first grade reading performance based upon kindergarten growth and end of year reading performance (n = 203). Teachers followed an explicit core reading program and overall, classroom instruction was rated as effective. Results indicate that controlling for students' end of kindergarten reading, their growth across kindergarten on a variety of language and literacy measures suppressed predictions of first grade performance. Specifically, the steeper the students' trajectory to a satisfactory outcome, the less likely they were to demonstrate good performance in first grade. Implications for future research and RTI implementation are discussed.

This experimental study reports findings on the effects from a year-long reading intervention providing daily, 50-minute sessions to middle-school students with identified learning disabilities (n = 65) compared with similar students who did not receive the reading intervention (n = 55). All students continued to receive their special education services as provided by the school. Results indicated statistically significant findings favoring the treatment group for sight word reading fluency following intervention. Small effects were found for phonemic decoding fluency and passage comprehension. No other statistically significant differences were noted between groups. The findings suggest that while gains on word reading fluency resulted from the additional reading treatment, accelerating the reading performance of students identified with learning disabilities may be unlikely to result from a one-year, daily intervention provided to students in groups of 10-15.

This article introduces a framework for the remediation of number combination (NC) deficits. Research on the remediation of NC deficits is summarized, and research program studies are used to illustrate the 3 approaches to remediation. The Framework comprises a 2-stage system of remediation. The less intensive stage implementing 1 of 3 intervention approaches hypothesized to be most productive for a student uses a validated protocol while monitoring student response. The more intensive stage, which is reserved for nonresponders, involves integrating the 3 intervention approaches within a skills-based diagnostic-prescriptive scheme for individualizing intervention.

A meta-analysis of 22 studies evaluating the relation of different assessments of IQ and intervention response did not support the hypothesis that IQ is an important predictor of response to instruction. We found an R(2) of .03 in models with IQ and the autoregressor as predictors and a unique lower estimated R(2) of .006 and a higher estimated R(2) of .013 in models with IQ, the autoregressor, and additional covariates as predictors. There was no evidence that these aggregated effect sizes were moderated by variables such as the type of IQ measure, outcome, age, or intervention. In simulations of the capacity of variables with effect sizes of .03 and .001 for predicting response to intervention, we found little evidence of practical significance.

This study assessed the effects of preventative tutoring on the math problem solving of third-grade students with math and reading difficulties. Students (n = 35) were assigned randomly to continue in their general education math program or to receive secondary preventative tutoring 3 times per week, 30 min per session, for 12 weeks. Schema-broadening tutoring taught students to (a) focus on the mathematical structure of 3 problem types; (b) recognize problems as belonging to those 3 problem-type schemas; (c) solve the 3 word-problem types; and (d) transfer solution methods to problems that include irrelevant information, 2-digit operands, missing information in the first or second positions in the algebraic equation, or relevant information in charts, graphs, and pictures. Also, students were taught to perform the calculation and algebraic skills foundational for problem solving. Analyses of variance revealed statistically significant effects on a wide range of word problems, with large effect sizes. Findings support the efficacy of the tutoring protocol for preventing word-problem deficits among third-grade students with math and reading deficits.