To be effective, interagency agreements must overcome a variety of obstacles, including lack of coordination between state and local agencies. A process for overcoming those barriers includes identifying resources to be exchanged and teaching special education or mental health concepts to the other agency(ies). Useful agreements are written…

Some specific guidelines and procedures for developing and implementing successful mainstreaming programs are provided. Factors discussed include: developing criteria for mainstreaming; preparing handicapped students; preparing nonhandicapped students; promoting communication among educators; evaluating student progress; and providing inservice…

An effective inservice program in special education identifies objectives, selects qualified staff, uses effective content delivery, uses the appropriate level of intensity, and evaluates inservice effectiveness. An example of an intensive inservice program that documented student progress illustrates the benefits of implementing a well-planned…

A review of traditional (such as psychotherapy) and behavioral approaches (such as self-monitoring and reinforcement) to obesity treatment of mentally retarded students led to the conclusion that the behavioral orientation was more successful. Implications for initiating such programs include thorough training, voluntary participation, and parent…

It is necessary for those who are developing and/or evaluating software for purchase to carefully consider its educational compatibility, instructional design adequacy, and technical adequacy. Specific factors are examined as they relate to the development and/or evaluation of educational microcomputer software for handicapped learners. (Author)

The consultant interested in helping teachers adopt curriculum-based assessment techniques should consider the process of innovation along with aspects of school culture. The consultant should examine four stages in developing a model program: creating a need, supporting change, implementing a guided practice, sequence, and allowing for…

Research-based recommendations for an effective writing instruction program for exceptional students include, among others, allocate a sufficient amount of instruction time; expose students to a broad range of writing tasks; integrate writing with other academic subjects; develop the processes of planning, sentence generation, and revising; and…