More than two-thirds of middle school students do not read proficiently. Research has shown that targeted interventions using explicit instruction methods can improve reading outcomes for struggling readers. A central feature of explicit instruction is the systematic implementation of instructional interactions, but it is not clear what specific…

The adoption and sustainability of evidence-based Tier 1 literacy practices in secondary content-area classes is important to improve reading success for students with learning disabilities. We conducted an exploratory multiple-case study investigating teachers' adoption and sustained use of evidence-based Tier 1 literacy practices that benefit…

We examined the efficacy of a content acquisition and reading comprehension intervention implemented in eighth-grade social studies classrooms. Using a within-teacher randomized control design, 18 eighth-grade teachers' social studies classes were randomly assigned to a treatment or comparison condition. Teachers taught all their classes…

Many students fall below benchmarks in the area of fractions computation, particularly students with disabilities. Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is one strategy with proven effectiveness for improving outcomes for students with disabilities, although very few studies have applied SRSD to the area of mathematics. In this study, we used…

This article reports the results from a study investigating the effects of a discipline-specific reading and writing intervention (I3C/PROVE IT!) with fourth and fifth graders. Participants included 237 students with writing difficulties (WD) from an initial pool of 608 upper elementary school students in a larger study. Teachers and students were…

Training in phonological awareness has brought about well-documented positive effects on learning to read in lower-primary grades. Less is known about long-term gains extending to upper-primary and junior high school. The few longitudinal studies covering at least 5 years suggest that gains in decoding are sustained, whereas effects on reading…

We examine the efficacy of an intervention to improve word reading and reading comprehension in fourth- and fifth-grade students with significant reading problems. Using a randomized control trial design, we compare the fourth- and fifth-grade reading outcomes of students with severe reading difficulties who were provided a researcher-developed…

This randomized control trial examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at improving multisyllabic word reading (MWR) skills among fourth- and fifth-grade struggling readers (n = 109, 48.6% male), as well as the relative effects of an embedded motivational beliefs training component. This study was a closely aligned replication of our earlier…

In this multi-year study, we taught English/Language Arts teachers of students with learning disabilities in middle school to incorporate 15 min of daily vocabulary activities with students in their intact special education English/Language Arts classes. During Year 1, teachers taught 48 words to their sixth grade students, who learned and…

A majority of reading-related intervention studies aiming to remediate struggling readers' reading outcomes assess student performance immediately following the conclusion of an intervention to determine intervention effects. Few studies collect follow-up data to measure the long-term sustainability of treatment effects. Hence, the aim of the…

This study examined (a) the identification of various reading groups across languages in Chinese (L1) adolescents learning English as a second language (ESL), in terms of their word-reading and reading comprehension skills, (b) overlap in reading group membership across languages, and (c) the performance of the various reading groups on…

This article reports results from a study investigating the efficacy of a proportional problem-solving intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), in seventh grade. Participants included 806 students with mathematical difficulties in problem solving (MD-PS) from an initial pool of 1,999 seventh grade students in a larger study. Teachers and…

The purpose of the present study was to test the efficacy of a modified cognitive strategy instructional intervention originally developed to improve the mathematical problem solving of middle and high school students with learning disabilities (LD). Fifth and sixth grade general education mathematics teachers and their students of varying ability…

Mathematical learning difficulty (MLD) is prevalent in the development of mathematical abilities. Previous interventions for children with MLD have focused on number sense or basic mathematical skills. This study investigated whether mathematical performance of fifth grade children with MLD could be improved by developing knowledge structures by…

Reading achievement scores for adolescents with disabilities are markedly lower than the scores of adolescents without disabilities. For example, 62% of students with disabilities read "below" the basic level on the NAEP Reading assessment, compared to 19% of their nondisabled peers. This achievement gap has been a continuing challenge…