Upon entering high school, students with ID who may be able to read simple texts often have difficulty grasping meaning when required to understand more complex texts. This failure affects their overall academic performance, since at this age, it is no longer just a question of learning to read, but rather of reading to learn, in all disciplines.…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of high school tutors' implementation of "Great Leaps Reading" (Campbell, 1998), a reading fluency supplementary instructional program. The program consists of three sections: phonics, sight word phrases, and story passages. Daily 15-minute tutoring sessions involved repeated 1-minute timings of…

This paper evaluates the impact of exposure to a voucher program for disabled students in Florida on the academic performance of disabled students who remain in the public school system. The authors utilize student-level data on the universe of public school students in the state of Florida from 2000-01 through 2004-05 to study the effect of the…

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)

The final report describes the evolution and accomplishments of a project designed to identify factors associated with successful completion of education/training programs for mainstreamed mildly handicapped secondary students. Program outcomes were measured via examination of the student records, interviews, and recollections of special education…

A 2-year study of cost-benefits in special education undertook activities in five years: development of a cost analysis framework, cost data collection, outcome data collection, development of benefit-cost analysis procedures, and benefit-cost analysis application. A generic school-based model was developed in which costs could more accurately be…

The article presents evaluation data on Project RETAP (Regular Education Teachers and Principals), an inservice program focusing on competencies for successful mainstreaming of mildly handicapped students. Findings are reported in terms of teacher and student outcomes based on participation by 25 kindergarten through sixth grade teachers. (CL)

An overview of the Pierce County Vocational/Special Education Cooperative is presented along with data on the employment level, quality of employment, and attendance in postsecondary education settings of graduates of this program (N=120), a preintervention group (N=120), and a comparison cohort (N=564). Significant differences are noted in favor…

Formative evaluation focuses on program modification based on ongoing measurement of student progress. The literature on formative evaluation for mildly handicapped students indicates that four measurement dimensions are critical: (1) focus of measurement; (2) frequency of measurement; (3) data display; and (4) data utilization methods. (Author/CB)

The study evaluated developmental progress in three groups of infants (9-30 months) presenting Down syndrome (n=28), mild disability (n=16), or moderate/severe disabilities (n=16). To evaluate intervention impact, formulas that measure rate of development and change in rate of development were computed. Findings indicated rate change formulas were…

Social validity data were collected for three educational interventions designed to increase the academic engaged time of elementary special education students: (1) a reading tutorial intervention, (2) a special education consultation intervention, and (3) a home-based consultation intervention. A total of 29 students, 14 parents, 21 teachers, and…

The report describes the development and operation of a program to serve two groups of hearing impaired children: students who need a highly structured multisensory curricular approach to the standard curriculum objectives, and students who need a heavy emphasis in life skills and activities for daily living. Monitoring data is presented on…

Carolina PALS (Programmed Alternative Learning for Students) is a program designed to meet the educational, social, and emotional needs of students with mild disabilities in grades 3-10, by having one special education teacher and one regular teacher share teaching in the regular classroom. In 1992-93, the program operated in 50 schools, reaching…

The Services for Transition to Independence through Education (STRIDE) project evaluated a model for providing comprehensive training and employment services to adults with mild handicaps, using existing vocational education classes and special needs support programs in a secondary vocational technical school in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Services…