Handwriting difficulties may signal dysgraphia or other writing difficulties that can affect literacy performance. Existing instruments measure different handwriting features to identify students for interventions but can take extra testing time and restrict potential indicators appropriate for evaluating adolescents. This exploratory study aimed…

The U.S. Department of Education, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, underscores every child's right to integrate, receive support, and fully participate in school life. The problem is that significant disparities exist in reading growth scores between students with disabilities taught in special-education resource settings and…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) continue to fall behind their typical peers in the area of writing (Graham & Harris, 2011; National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 2008). Studies indicate that self-efficacy influences writing performance and that self-regulation may be an important aspect of both metacognitive and affective…

Career and technical education (CTE) programs have been a part of secondary education reform efforts in Georgia aimed at closing the achievement gaps among disadvantaged groups and preparing all students to be college and career ready. The problem is African-American students with learning disabilities (AASWLD) continue to have worse postsecondary…

This qualitative study examined how teachers use instructional practices and family reinforcement interventions to support intrinsic motivation for special education students as a means to meet graduation requirements. Purposeful sampling of highly qualified special education teachers certified in language arts was used in this study. The data…

The purpose of this study was to document the design, classroom implementation, and effectiveness of interactive online units to enhance science learning over 3 years among students with learning disabilities, English learners, and general education students. Results of a randomised controlled trial with 2,303 middle school students and 71…

Inquiry-based learning methods, coupled with advanced technology, hold promise for closing the science literacy gap for English learners (ELs) and students with learning difficulties (SWLDs). Project ESCOLAR (Etext Supports for Collaborative Online Learning and Academic Reading) created collaborative online learning units for middle school science…

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…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the use of Readers' Theatre to improve the reading ability of elementary students receiving special education services. In this study, two groups of students were chosen to participate based on their academic Reading levels and their placement in the Special Education program. The students'…

Disproportionate representation occurs when the percentage of an identified group enrolled in special education varies significantly from that group's overall percentage of the school population (Harry, 1994). Response to Intervention (RTI), a paradigm for educational intervention, is designed to minimize many factors contributing to…

Urban African American students lack an abstract understanding of algebra and are below their academic level in comparison to other ethnic groups, and this is a pervasive problem (McKinney, Chappell, Berry, & Hickman, 2009). The purpose of this quantitative study using a quasi-experimental design was to determine whether the use of…

The psychometric properties and multigroup measurement invariance of scores across subgroups, items, and persons on the "Reading for Meaning" items from the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) were assessed in a sample of 778 seventh-grade students. Specifically, we sought to determine the extent to which score-based…

As the nation endeavors to leave no child behind, more than 12 million of the U.S. children who live in poverty continue to be at risk of school failure. Having significant learning deficiencies, many of these children are substantially behind their more affluent peers and historically never catch up (Barr & Parrett, 2007), creating a daunting…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using a story-mapping procedure to improve and enhance the reading comprehension skills using expository text passages for 3 fourth-grade students with learning disabilities (LD). The study was conducted in the resource classroom in which the participants regularly received reading…

Response to Intervention has garnered recent interest from policymakers, researchers, and educators. Studies of its effectiveness have found it promising, and state education agencies are increasingly interested in the approach. This report supplies basic information about state planning and implementation of the approach in Alabama, Florida,…