Departmentalized instruction, in which teachers specialize in one or more core subjects and instruct multiple groups of students in a day, has become increasingly prominent in elementary schools. Using 8 years of data from Massachusetts and a difference-in-differences design, we estimate the effects of departmentalization on student achievement.…

In an urban school district in the southwestern United States, students with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) who were in third- through fifth-grade self-contained classes were not consistently transitioning successfully into inclusive classrooms; therefore, the students were remaining in a restrictive environment for an extended time.…

Functional behavior assessment (FBA) is an integral component of treatment development for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The continuum of FBA methods includes indirect, direct, and functional analysis assessment methods. However, there is not a standard for the best approach to the FBA process. This evaluation compared…

A within-participant withdrawal design was used to examine the effects of a positive version of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) for three students in an elementary special education classroom for students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD). Results indicated immediate improvements in disruptive behavior and academic engagement for all three…

Over 90% of students with complex support needs are taught in self-contained (segregated) special education classrooms for most of their school day, despite accumulating evidence these classrooms are not associated with positive student outcomes. Yet placement in these segregated classrooms persists, in part because of assumptions about the degree…

Inclusive education is a globally accepted approach that aims to provide equal opportunities to all learners, regardless of their differences. In the 1990s, the Zanzibar Ministry of Education introduced special education units for children with disabilities attached to some primary schools. However, in 2004, the role of these special units had to…

Spelling instruction is often overlooked by many teachers during reading and language arts. The purpose of this study was to implement a manageable differentiated word study instruction curriculum, drawn from the "Words Their Way (WTW)" curriculum, to determine how it affected students' spelling accuracy and how the participants…

Social Stories™ are a story-based intervention commonly used to teach students with disabilities how to behave in new routines or changing environments, academic skills, and social interactions including tacting others' emotions. According to the National Standards Project, story-based interventions are considered an established treatment.…

Elementary students transferring from traditional education classrooms to a Montessori school lack executive function skills (EFS) and struggle with academic performance and disrupt classes. The specific problem is the lack of strategies and support from school administrators to address an overwhelming number of new elementary Montessori students…

As a result of educational reforms in many countries, including Finland, new or renovated comprehensive schools have increasingly begun to incorporate open and flexible designs and principles. Multipurpose and adaptable open learning spaces can provide children with amplified opportunities to be physically active during general education.…

Little is known about the content and quality of reading instruction provided to students with intellectual disability. This study aimed to describe the reading instruction provided to students with intellectual disability who were not yet readers in self-contained elementary classrooms. The teachers of 24 classrooms participated in the study.…

This case study examined the school-based interventions used to determine a self-contained special education placement for a fourth-grade African American male student with an emotional disturbance disability. The study aimed to answer four research questions, which included the academic and behavioral school-based interventions provided to the…

The purpose of this research study was to prove if students who are intellectually disabled can obtain phonemic awareness and the ability to read independently with the use of Wilson's Fundations. This study aims to investigate if students who have been identified as intellectually disabled are able to gain phonemic awareness by using Wilson's…

This quantitative descriptive comparative study compared academic achievement scores and student growth percentiles from a southwestern state's test of third-grade students, identified as gifted and talented, enrolled within a self-contained setting, receiving the William and Mary Language Arts Curriculum and the third-grade students, identified…

Incremental rehearsal (IR) is a flashcard intervention that involves the interspersal of previously mastered targets and immediate error correction. Previous research indicates IR is an effective intervention for teaching discrete skills. Much of existing research, however, was conducted with typically developing students. The current study aimed…