Much is known about short-term--but very little about the long-term--effects of reading interventions. To rectify this, a detailed analysis of follow-up effects as a function of intervention, sample, and methodological variables was conducted. A total of 71 intervention-control groups were selected (N = 8,161 at posttest) from studies reporting…

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the role of word reading and mathematical difficulties measured in 9th grade as factors for receiving educational support for learning in upper secondary education in Grades 10 to 12 (from ages 16 to 19) and furthermore as predictors of dropout from upper secondary education within 5 years after…

The purpose of this article is to describe the current research base and identify research needs related to response to intervention (RTI) frameworks in primary-grade reading. Research is reviewed on early reading instruction and intervention, the implementation of multitiered reading interventions, and the determination of intervention…

In this article, the authors consider the power and limitations of responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) for reducing the need for ongoing and intensive services for the segment of the school population traditionally identified as having a learning disability in mathematics. To assess the robustness of RTI, the authors describe four studies with…

This article synthesizes the literature comparing at-risk children designated as responders and low responders to interventions in reading. The central question addressed in this review is whether individual differences in reading-related skills at pretest predict responders at posttest across a variety of interventions and sets of criteria for…

To evaluate the effects of an intensive tertiary reading intervention, 27 students with severe reading difficulties and disabilities, 14 of whom had demonstrated an inadequate response to 1-2 tiers of prior reading instruction, received a 16-week intervention package involving decoding and fluency skills. The decoding intervention was provided for…

The review examines evaluations of the efficacy of special education programs for mildly disabled children. The author suggests that serious methodological flaws make our present knowledge in this area very weak and proposes a methodology to address and overcome many of the limitations of previous research. (Author)

A review of 913 studies involving students with learning disabilities found treatment outcomes were significantly affected by the following violations: teacher effects, establishing criterion levels of instructional performance, reliance on experimental measures, using different pretest and posttest measures, using a sample heterogeneous in age,…

This article discusses health fraud in special education. Psychopathology of health fraud, standards by which pseudoscience and quackery are defined, and the complexities of learning disorders are considered. A scale to determine whether an alternative therapy is reasonable is presented. Several popular therapies are used as examples. (Author/PB)