The field of learning disabilities has been greatly influenced by both legal and policy decisions throughout its relatively short history. This chapter presents an overview of the historical analysis of learning disabilities and inclusion to provide a context for the present. An analysis of the studies conducted examining effects of inclusive…

The Common Core Science Standards represent a new effort to increase science learning for all students. These standards include a focus on English and language arts aspects of science learning, and three dimensions of science standards, including practices of science, crosscutting concepts of science, and disciplinary core ideas in the various…

Ten inclusive middle school social studies classes, including 133 general education students, and 24 students with mild disabilities (21 with learning disabilities and 3 with emotional disabilities), were assigned at random to a traditional instruction condition, or an experimental condition involving classwide peer tutoring with specialized…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) are increasingly expected to master content in the general education curriculum, making the need for effective instructional supports more important than ever before. Science is a part of the curriculum that can be particularly challenging to students with LD because of the diverse demands it places on…

This article presents information on using mnemonic strategies to enhance learning and memory of students with mild disabilities. Different types of mnemonic strategies are described, including the keyword method, the pegword method, and letter strategies. Following this, a number of teachers describe their own applications of mnemonic strategies…

A pre-post experimental design with 6-week delayed posttest was implemented to investigate the effects of reading comprehension strategy (RCS) instruction with and without attribution retraining (AR) on reading outcomes for seventh, eighth, and ninth graders with learning and other mild disabilities. Students were randomly assigned to one of three…

Meta-analysis procedures were employed to synthesize findings of research for improving reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities published in the decade following previous meta-analytic investigations. Forty studies, published between 1995 and 2006, were identified and coded. Nearly 2,000 students served as participants.…

Batsche, Kavale, and Kovaleski (this issue) have done an outstanding job of summarizing arguments for and against the use of response-to-intervention (RTI) procedures for identifying learning disabilities. In this response, we raise issues relevant to the concept of learning disabilities, the nature of problems associated with standard…

Sixty-one normally achieving and at-risk fifth-grade students (of whom three had learning disabilities), in three classrooms, were taught two 5-week science units via experimental or control conditions in which treatment order and unit of instruction were counterbalanced. In the control condition, students received typical instruction, with…

Twenty-one 4th- and 5th-grade students with learning disabilities and emotional disabilities were assigned at random to a control condition or to an experimental condition in which they were taught, over a 9-week period, a five-step self-determination strategy for solving school- or home-related problems. Maintenance was assessed 3 weeks after the…

The use of the "keyword" method as a tool for improving memory in learning disabled students is explained. The keyword method consists of two stages: an acoustical link stage and a stage in which the student is provided with a picture of the keyword interacting with the appropriate response term. The method can be modified for use in…

In two experiments, students (10 learning disabled ninth graders and 45 nondisabled seventh graders) were taught the hardness levels of minerals according to either a keyword-pegword mnemonic, a questioning procedure, or free study. Mnemonic students significantly outrecalled both questioning and free-study students regardless of students'…

In two experiments, learning disabled junior high school students learned definitions of 14 vocabulary words either according to a pictorial mnemonic strategy (the "keyword method") or via principles of direct instruction. Results showed that the keyword method was substantially more effective even when keyword students were required to generate…

This paper provides a response to the thoughtful paper presented by Gerber in this issue and at the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities Responsiveness-to-Intervention Symposium in Kansas City with guidance from five major questions posed by the organizers of the symposium. Gerber's paper provides interesting perspectives regarding…

Learning-disabled junior high school students (N-36) were taught three dichotomous classifications for each of eight minerals; hardness level (hard-soft), color (pale-dark), and common use (home-industry). Ss were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions in order to learn this information. In the direct instruction condition, Ss were…