In 1987, James Ysseldyke made an open call in Exceptional Children, asking for manuscript submissions that addressed issues and concerns of culturally diverse learners. Over 30 years have passed since that call, and research with this population remains limited. Approximately 9% of the K-12 special education population nationwide is composed of…

The effects of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) for reading and writing, when delivered by eight special education teachers in middle school learning support classrooms, were examined in a quasi-experimental study. Results indicated that students, 75% with learning disabilities, who received treatment improved performance with small…

Students with writing difficulties may have difficulty when writing informational text with source material due to (a) inexperience with such text and (b) difficulties reading and understanding source material. Teaching students to take notes related to informational text using text structures (e.g., description, compare/contrast) may help them…

Manipulative objects have long been an essential tool in the development of mathematics knowledge and skills. A growing body of evidence suggests using manipulative letters for decoding practice is an also an effective method for teaching reading, particularly in improving the phonological and decoding skills of students at risk for reading…

Reading Recovery, a meaning-based reading program designed for young children at risk of reading failure, is widely implemented across the United States. We discuss the recent Reading Recovery $45 million four-year i3-funded scaleup study that was designed to "cover the expansion of Reading Recovery around the U.S." (May, Sirinides,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Common Core State Standards require students, starting in elementary school, to read an increasing amount of informational text (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). Students with learning disabilities, however, typically struggle with expository text and require even more direct instruction…

Adolescents with learning disabilities in reading have difficulties with reading and understanding difficult gradelevel curricular material. One frequently used method of support is using read-aloud accommodations, which can be live read-alouds or text-to-speech (TTS) read-alouds. A single case alternating treatment design was used to examine the…

Many schools across the United States and Canada are now implementing response-to-intervention (RTI) as a means to address the needs of students who struggle with reading, writing, or math by using dual discrepancy (i.e., low ability and little to no progress over time with targeted intervention programming) as a means to classify for learning…

The current study investigated the effects of repeated readings to a fluency criterion with science text for seven students with disabilities using multiple probe multiple baselines across participants. Results indicated students met criteria on four consecutive passages. As shown on Standard Celeration Charts a majority of students' correct words…

The purpose of this article is to provide teachers, tutors and parents with an effective and enjoyable approach to practicing reading fluency, increasing comprehension and encouraging the joy of reading, based on the theories and methods of Sally L. Smith. This method can be applied and adapted to individual student's needs. Sally Smith, the…

A reversal (ABAB) design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a group contingency intervention on the verbally disrespectful behaviors of seven middle school students with specific learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders (ADHD) in a special education resource classroom setting for reading instruction. During the intervention…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the efficacy of repeated readings on the oral reading fluency rate and reading comprehension accuracy of high school students with specific learning disabilities. The participants included three tenth and eleventh grade students with specific learning disabilities in a study skills resource…

Five undergraduate, dual preparation pre-service teachers who began their program in the fall of 2005 were followed through their second and third semesters of their two-year program of study. The study examined their (a) beliefs about how to teach reading to students with learning disabilities and to students without learning disabilities, and…

Students with learning disabilities are being placed with their peers in inclusive classrooms for content area subjects in greater numbers than ever before. In many cases, these students are being held to the same standards as their general education peers. Many students with learning disabilities have deficits in a very essential skill area…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a four-step phonological awareness strategy on the reading skills of nine third-grade students with learning disabilities or educable mental retardation. Results indicated students made substantial improvement on measures of blending and segmenting sounds, pronouncing words, auditory discrimination, and…