This article reviews key findings from school-reform studies of the 1980s on sustained use of effective teacher practices in the classroom and explains their relevance to special education. Recent findings are also highlighted and unresolved issues are identified. An appendix lists sustainability factors and issues. (Contains references.)…

This article argues that to reduce adaptation of questionable interventions more emphasis needs to be placed on the history of special education, specifically effective and ineffective interventions. It further suggests that educators more familiar with special education history will be better prepared to discriminate effective from ineffective…

This article analyzes variables associated with adherence by parents to recommendations designed to solve common childhood problems and specific corresponding processes that are responsible for poor adherence. Adherence variables include establishing operations, stimulus generalization, response acquisition, and consequent events. (Contains…

Identifies the forces that influence how developmental research is prioritized and evaluated and how these influences are changing at entry into the new millennium. Considers the developmental researcher in context, suggesting that there will be increasing pressure to use new criteria when assessing the significance of twenty-first-century…

This article reviews sustainability of research-based practices and the extent to which it is reasonable to assume that educators can or should sustain practices over time. Facilitators for sustainability are discussed and include teacher input and a feeling of collaboration, sensitivity, and responsiveness between the researcher and the…

Considers the potential impact of the study by M. Wang, G. Haertel, and H. Walberg. Their analysis is the first step in understanding and explaining the factors that really do make a positive difference in quality of school learning, rather than simply describing associations between school-related input and output measures. (SLD)

Explores what the "knowledge base for school learning" described by M. Wang, G. Haertel, and H. Walberg might mean for education by describing some cases of school learning from fieldwork in elementary schools. The focus is on psychological dimensions of school learning. (SLD)

An introduction to this theme issue on special education transition policy and practice summarizes articles and notes a focus on the importance of transitional services in the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Emphasis is on practical information based on research, legislative development, and empirical evidence to support best…

This article highlights major points of each of the articles in this special issue on the research to practice gap in special education. It then considers some broader implications, especially the need to foster and establish collegial networks to counter the isolation in which many teachers currently work. (Contains references.) (DB)

This article presents the strategies instruction model as an effective intervention for students with learning disabilities. It describes the model's components (curriculum, instruction, environment), its theoretical basis, the teacher's role, teacher-student interaction, and appropriate contexts. Studies of the model's effectiveness are…

There is confusion and misunderstanding about the concepts of knowledge translation, knowledge transfer, knowledge exchange, research utilization, implementation, diffusion, and dissemination. We review the terms and definitions used to describe the concept of moving knowledge into action. We also offer a conceptual framework for thinking about…

Over the past 20 years, the number of patents assigned to universities has increased dramatically. This increase coincided with several policy initiatives, such as the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, designed to foster technology transfer between universities and the private sector. This paper examines the effect of such policies using an institutional…

This study employed problem-based learning for project work in a year 9 biology class. The purpose of the study was to investigate (a) students' inspirations for their self-generated problems and questions, (b) the kinds of questions that students asked individually and collaboratively, and (c) how students' questions guided them in knowledge…

Because preparation of principals has not kept pace with changes in the larger world of schooling, graduates of principal-preparation programs have been left ill equipped for the challenges and opportunities posed by an era of accountability. Principals receive limited training in the use of data, research, technology, the hiring or termination of…

In this commentary, we examine the articles in this special issue in terms of a continuum of research to practice strategies currently used in school psychology. On one end of the continuum is the "publish and hope" approach, and at the other end is the "change the organization to fit the innovation" approach. We present the concept of innovation…