A major tenet of both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act is the identification and use of evidence-based practices, or those instructional techniques shown by research as most likely to improve student outcomes meaningfully. However, much confusion exists regarding the meaning and potential…

Using evidence-based practices, or those instructional techniques shown by research to improve student outcomes meaningfully, increases the performance of students with disabilities and should therefore be a priority for special educators. But how does a practice come to be considered evidence based? The unique characteristics of group…

In response to recent trends and legislation, the concept of implementing evidence-based practices has become a critical component of contemporary schooling. It is important that teachers and families of students with disabilities understand the role that qualitative research plays in determining whether a practice is in fact evidence based.…

Research in the field of special education often incorporates single-subject designs to investigate the effectiveness of educational practices for students with disabilities. As such, it is important that educators and educational professionals understand the characteristics of single-subject research methodologies and how those characteristics…

This research plan is a direct response to the education Amendments of 1974 which instructs the National Institute of Education to design and conduct a compensatory education study. The research design, as outlined in this report, intends to examine programs and look for identifiable factors in funding, organization, and instructional methods…

This report was submitted by Education Turnkey Systems, Inc. and its subcontractor, Kirschner Associates, Inc. and key University of Maryland and other consultants in response to the needs of the National Institute of Education as specified in the Request for Proposal "to develop a Design to Study Individualized Instruction, as part of a general…

The research design discussed here focuses on four major questions: (1) what the relative effectiveness of well-implemented "individualized" instruction vs. well-implemented "standardized" instruction for recipients of compensatory education in terms of reading achievement, mathematics achievement and classroom climate is; (2)…

The National Institute of Education is in the process of designing and conducting a study of compensatory education in accordance with the Education Amendments of 1974. Special attention will be devoted to examining the relative effectiveness of "standardized" versus "individualized" instructional programs. The stated purpose of this report is:…

Beginners in many disciplines learn that correlation never proves causation, but sometimes, even in public health, correlation, mistaken for causation, becomes the basis for policy and great expenditures of public and private money. "True experiments" with random assignment to experimental and control groups hold a special place in the…