In 1989, Hallam Hurt, a neonatologist in Philadelphia, started recruiting poor inner-city women for a study of how cocaine use during pregnancy affects the developing fetus. Dr. Hurt enrolled women who had used cocaine while pregnant and balanced them against a control group of equally poor women who had not taken any drugs. Years later, when the…

The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD) has completed two large studies to look at how responsiveness to intervention (RTI) works at the first-grade level for preventing and identifying specific learning disabilities (SLD) in reading and math. The purpose of this report is to help professionals and parents understand what RTI…

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects over 30,000 students in the United States. Central nervous system complications are widespread among students with SCD and include stroke, silent cerebral infarction, and cognitive impairment. The effects of these complications may lead to academic failure, limited career options, and for some, total disability.…