The use of response-to-intervention (RTI) to identify children and youth with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) is described with multiple illustrations. Essential components of the RTI process are specified at multiple tiers of intervention, each essential to valid SLD identification. The RTI goals are prevention in general education, early…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the main federal statute governing special education for children from birth through age 21. IDEA protects the rights of children with disabilities to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). It also supplements state and local funding to pay for some of the additional or excess costs of…

Special education disproportionality for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students persists as a controversial and intractable problem in our educational systems. Response to intervention (RtI) and culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), both independently and collectively are considered to offer promise for mitigating conditions of…

After decades of growth, the number of special education teachers (SETs) has begun to decline. In 2009, U.S. schools employed 13% fewer SETs than in 2006. The number of annual new hires of SETs also dropped dramatically in some states. The onset of these declines predated the economic downturn of 2008 and resulted in part from a steady decline…

Patterns of identification for special education services across three cohorts of students in kindergarten through third grade before and after implementation of a schoolwide, three-tier reading prevention model in one large school district are reported. The first cohort of students represents a historical control group that did not participate in…

The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act and No Child Left Behind Act broadened the roles of occupational therapists (OTs) and physical therapists (PTs) to include therapist participation in early intervening services including response to intervention (RTI). This case report describes one school district's inclusion of OT and PT in the…

This qualitative study was designed to gain an in-depth understanding of the perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and implementation of RTI based on interviews with 11 special education directors working in rural school districts in eastern Washington. Three questions guided this study. First, what level of general knowledge of the RTI process do…

This study determined the effectiveness of Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS) for students with disabilities. The researchers randomly assigned 89 kindergartners with individualized education programs (IEPs) from 47 classrooms to control (n = 9); K-PALS Level 1 (teachers received 1-day workshop; n = 19); or K-PALS Level 2…

Reading difficulties and disabilities present serious and potentially lifelong challenges. Children who do not read well are more likely to be retained a grade in school, drop out of high school, become a teen parent, or enter the juvenile justice system. Building on the extant research and seminal studies, including the National Reading Panel and…

A reference work that presents a chronology focusing on special education, its development, and the important issues that both positively and negatively affect the field. Updated through current events, this second edition provides an excellent introduction to special education in all of its practical aspects--how it developed, its curriculum,…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2015-END 2015, taking place in Porto, Portugal, from 27 to 29 of June. Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and…