Special and general education teachers are experiencing increased demands on how content is taught, the content to be taught, and the number of students with learning disabilities: all with limited available resources. Government regulations mandated through No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001) and Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA, 2004) have…

The researcher briefly reviewed the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework and explained how Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) enhanced RtI implementation in general education classrooms. The main focus of this paper is to identify general educators' roles when implementing RtI…

This dissertation explores how federal education policies affect outcomes for special populations and their teachers. The first study uses a differences-in-differences design and data from the Stanford Education Data Archive to determine if "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) waivers reduced district-level white-black and white-Hispanic…

Federal legislation such as IDEA (1997) and NCLB (2001) have led to an increase in the number of students with significant disabilities receiving instruction in the general education classroom. This inclusionary movement has established a more diverse student population in which general and special education teachers are responsible for providing…

Presented in this article are the rationale and construct of a new consultative teaching model for the inclusive instruction of students with learning disabilities in secondary schools. The inclusive consultation model (ICM) is a proposed alternative to traditional co-teaching models as described in the extant literature. In recognition of the…

Math achievement is critically important to the changing global economy. In order to be successful, students must develop a strong foundation in mathematics early in their school careers. But the training elementary teachers receive doesn't always prepare them to teach math well, and math anxiety can keep both students and teachers from reaching…

This case focuses on a novice principal who advocates for a student who was assigned to the first grade for 3 consecutive years. As the instructional leader of the school, the novice principal is troubled by ethics and social justice issues involved to make the decision to assign the student to his age-appropriate grade. The student was placed in…

Numerous research studies (e.g., Anderson, Kutash, & Duchnowski, 2001; Lane, Carter, Pierson, & Glaeser, 2006; Volpe, Dupaul, Jitendra, & Tresco, 2009; Wei, Blackorby, & Schiller, 2011) have shown that students with disabilities generally exhibit lower reading scores than their peers without disabilities. However, questions remain…

Content analyses of journals in the field of LD provide a means of surveying research and publication trends, the knowledge of which may inform policy and practice related to future research agendas. As the first decade of the current millennium was particularly contentious for the field of LD, we felt that a content review would be timely. In…

In this issue of "Learning Disability Quarterly" (LDQ), Professors Daves and Walker reply to my earlier LDQ article on confusion in the cases and commentary about the legal dimension of RTI. In this brief rejoinder, I show that their reply confirms rather than resolves the confusion in their original commentary in 2010. This persistent…

High schools throughout this country are as heterogeneous as the students they serve in size, location, tax base, student make-up, and teacher quality. However, they must all follow the mandates of NCLB and IDEA. While these policies affect all schools, high schools continue to face many challenges implementing these laws effectively for students…

The change in allowing school districts to use the more prevalent discrepancy model or the new addition of response to intervention to determine whether a disability is present has sparked discussion among educators. As districts decide which method to use, it is important to base decisions on factual and researched information. The authors hope…

Noting that 60 percent of both fourth and eighth graders currently struggle with reading, this report urges the U.S. Congress to focus on students' literacy development from early childhood through grade twelve as it works to rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In…

Response to intervention (RTI) can be considered an everyday practice in many parts of the United States, whereas, in Finland, only recently has a new framework for support in learning taken shape. Choosing Finland as the comparative partner for this policy paper is justified as its educational system has been widely referenced on the basis of…

Students with learning disabilities score lower than other at-risk groups on state standardized assessment tests. Educators are searching for intervention strategies to improve math achievement for students with learning disabilities. The study examined the effects of a mathematics intervention known as Cover, Copy, and Compare for learning basic…