We examine the efficacy of an intervention to improve word reading and reading comprehension in fourth- and fifth-grade students with significant reading problems. Using a randomized control trial design, we compare the fourth- and fifth-grade reading outcomes of students with severe reading difficulties who were provided a researcher-developed…

This intervention study compared the efficacy of small-group tutoring on the mathematics learning of third-grade students at risk for mathematics difficulty using either a school-provided standards-based curriculum (SBC) or a schema-based instruction (SBI) curriculum. The SBI curriculum placed particular emphasis on the underlying mathematical…

This experimental study was conducted to examine the efficacy of repeated reading and wide reading practice interventions for high school students with severe reading disabilities. Effects on comprehension, fluency, and word reading were evaluated. Participants were 96 students with reading disabilities in grades 9-12. Students were paired within…

Students who have particular difficulty in mathematics are a growing concern for educators. Graphic organizers have been shown to improve reading comprehension and may be applied to upper level secondary mathematics content. In two systematic replications, one randomly assigned group was taught to solve systems of linear equations through direct…

This study investigated the differential effects of two problem-solving instructional approaches--schema-based instruction (SBI) and general strategy instruction (GSI)--on the mathematical word problem-solving performance of 22 middle school students who had learning disabilities or were at risk for mathematics failure. Results indicated that the…

This study compared two instructional methods for teaching spelling to elementary students with learning disabilities (LD). Forty-two elementary students with LD were randomly assigned to one of two instructional groups to teach spelling words: (a) a rule-based strategy group that focused on teaching students spelling rules (based on the…

The effects of a task-focused goals (TFG) treatment in mathematics were studied with low-achieving students with or without learning disabilities. Results with 40 elementary classrooms showed that TFG students enjoyed the approach, but that increased effort was associated with greater learning only for those without learning disabilities. (SLD)

Sixth- and seventh-grade students (n=68) with learning disabilities in mathematics received either concrete-to-representational-to-abstract (CRA) or traditional instruction in algebraic transformation equations. Students receiving the CRA instruction outperformed peers receiving traditional instruction on both post-instruction and follow-up tests…

A study examined the effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed instructional routine used to teach three planning strategies to 20 fourth-fifth graders with learning disabilities. In comparison to peers who received process writing instruction, those taught goal setting, brainstorming, and organizing spent more time planning stories and…

This study compared the effectiveness of 3 procedures for teaching 62 elementary students with learning disabilities to identify the correct algorithm in solving addition and subtraction word problems. The group receiving strategy teaching and sequencing practice problems and the group receiving strategy teaching only scored higher than…

Among 28 upper elementary learning-disabled students in a summer remedial program, those that were taught spelling with explicit rule-based strategies out-performed students presented with a visual imagery mnemonic on unit tests, a posttest, and a standardized spelling test. Contains 20 references. (SV)

Research was conducted to ascertain if a combined repeated reading and question generation intervention was effective at improving the reading achievement of fourth through eighth grade students with learning disabilities or who were at risk for reading failure. Students were assigned to a treatment or control group via a stratified random…

This study compared effectiveness of either a concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) or a representational-abstract (RA) instructional sequence in teaching fraction concepts to 50 middle school students with mathematics disabilities. On all achievement measures, students in the CRA group had overall higher mean scores than did students in the RA…

This study compared the effectiveness of a diagrammatic and a keyword method of teaching mathematics problem solving to 70 learning-disabled junior high school students. Results indicated no significant difference between problem-solving performance by students taught with different methods. Potential factors explaining inconsistencies between…

Intermediate grade students with learning disabilities learned to work in pairs to help each other with editing and revising of their compositions. The 13 subjects made more revisions and produced papers of higher quality when revising with peer support than did 16 students in a process-approach control group. (Author/JDD)