Rate of change (i.e., slope) is a critical mathematics concept for success in everyday life, academics, and professional careers. Students with or at risk of learning disabilities struggle with solving rate-of-change problems, especially word problems. Interventions that incorporate representations and problem-solving strategies are effective for…

Establishing validated science programs for students with or at risk for learning disabilities requires testing treatment effects and exploring differential response patterns. This study explored whether students' initial mathematics and reading skills influenced their treatment response to a whole-class, second-grade science program called…

Considerable attention and legislation are currently focused on developmental dyslexia. A major challenge to these efforts is how to define and operationalize dyslexia. In this article, we argue that rather than defining dyslexia on the basis of an underlying condition, dyslexia is best viewed as a label for an unexpected reading disability. This…

We examined the efficacy of a Technology-Based Early Language Comprehension Intervention (TeLCI) designed to teach inferencing in a non-reading context. A group of Grades 1 and 2 students from 2 elementary schools in the U.S. Midwest identified as at risk of comprehension difficulties were assigned randomly to a business-as-usual control group or…

Traditional static tests of reading and reading-related skills offer some ability to predict future reading performance, though such screeners may misclassify children with or at risk of reading disorder (RD). Dynamic assessment (DA) is an alternative approach that measures learning potential and may be less dependent on learning background. A…

Preschool-age children identified as at risk for later reading difficulties can benefit from supplemental, small-group emergent literacy intervention. As such interventions become commercially available and marketed to preschool programs, it is important to understand their impacts when implemented by intended end users under routine conditions.…

Given the increase in students with learning disabilities entering university, we investigated a broader group--students with a history of reading difficulties (HRD)--who are known to be at risk of academic struggles. We identified the self-reported reading challenges and strategies of university students with HRD (n = 49) and those with no…

Data Mountain is a self-determination program that has shown early promise in enhancing the oral reading fluency (ORF) of students with or at risk for reading disabilities (RD). This program supports self-determined learning behaviors through explicit teaching of self-monitoring, goal setting, and positive attributions. The present study tested…

A concerning number of students enter kindergarten facing an intractable variation of mathematics difficulties (MD). This study investigated the impact of an explicit, core kindergarten mathematics program on the mathematical outcomes of kindergartners who demonstrated risk for severe MD at kindergarten entry and examined whether these students…

High-quality Tier 1 instruction is frequently conceptualized as the "foundation" for other tiers of intervention within multitiered systems of support (MTSS) models. However, the vast majority of Tier 2 intervention studies do not account for Tier 1 variables when examining intervention effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to…

For students who show inadequate response to research-based intervention, intensification of intervention using data-based decision making (DBDM) is recommended. There is a paucity of research on upper elementary students related to the efficacy of (a) word reading interventions and (b) DBDM procedures. This randomized controlled trial examined…

Group size and treatment intensity are understudied topics in mathematics intervention research. This study examined whether the treatment intensity and overall intervention effects of an empirically validated Tier 2 mathematics intervention varied between intervention groups with 2:1 and 5:1 student-teacher ratios. Student practice opportunities…

In this introduction to the special series "Critical Issues in the Understanding of Young Elementary School Students at Risk for Problems in Written Expression," we consider some of the contextual factors that have changed since a similar special issue was published in the "Journal of Learning Disabilities" in 2002. We also…

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…

We examined dynamic assessment's (DA's) added value over traditional assessments for identifying Spanish-speaking English learners' (ELs) risk for developing mathematics disabilities, as a function of the language of test administration (English vs. Spanish), type of math outcome, and EL's language dominance. At the start of first grade, ELs (N =…