The Journal of Special Education

The federal mandate for use of evidence-based practice in schools focuses attention on the frequently discussed research-to-practice gap in education. The current study examined the frequency with which evidence-based practices are engaged in the education of pupils with disabilities. In sum, 174 special education teachers and 333 school psychologists completed a 12-item survey in which they rated the frequency of various practices used in special education. Respondents reported that direct instruction is the most frequently used instructional methodology and that perceptual-motor training is the least frequent. However, some practices with little empirical support (e.g., modality instruction) are reportedly used with some frequency, and special education teachers reported using ineffective approaches (social skills training) as frequently as they did those approaches with a strong research base (applied behavior analysis). Thus, these data present some reason for optimism, although special education does not appear to be immune to a research-to-practice gap.

This study investigated the effects of the Scott Foresman Early Reading Intervention (ERI) on growth rates in the early literacy skills of urban at-risk kindergarten students. Students participated in one of three groups: treatment-intensive/ strategic, treatment-benchmark, and nontreatment-benchmark. Treatment group students received a 30-minute ERI program from classroom teachers 3 days a week for 5 to 14 weeks. Using multivariate analysis of variance and the hierarchical linear model, the authors compared students' benchmark and progress monitoring scores on the Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) and Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) subtests of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills™. Results indicated that PSF and NWF benchmark performance gaps decreased between the treatment-intensive/ strategic and nontreatment-benchmark groups, indicating beneficial effects for the ERI. Additionally, the PSF and NWF progress monitoring growth rates of treatment group students during the ERI program were significantly higher than rates before treatment. Implications of early reading interventions for urban at-risk students are discussed.

The predictors of student and teacher variables on the access to the general education curriculum of 19 students with intellectual and developmental disabilities were examined based on the observation data collected for a total of 1,140 minutes. Multilevel regression analyses were employed to analyze the data. The findings indicated that both student and teacher variables are strong predictors of access to the general education curriculum. A complicated pattern of the relationship between student and teacher variables (e.g., suppression, correction of distortion) was found along with interaction between these variables and environmental factors. These findings also suggest future practices and research that can be considered to enhance access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities.

This study examines the early neurodevelopmental function of infants and preschool children who have chronic kidney disease (CKD). Fifteen patients with CKD are compared to a healthy control group using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS). Multivariate analysis reveals significant differences between the CKD and control groups on both MSEL (p < .01) and VABS (p < .001) composite scales, with the group with CKD obtaining lower scores on both composites. A higher proportion of children with CKD meet federal eligibility criteria for early cognitive delay, but similar proportions are found across adaptive behaviors. Disease severity is positively correlated to cognitive and adaptive functioning such that lower scores are associated with less renal function (MSEL r = .62, p < .001; VABS r = .70, p < .001). Suggestions are made in regard to special education assessment and service provision.

In one investigation with 48 deaf and hard-of-hearing (hh) high school students and a second investigation with 48 deaf/hh college students, all viewed one lecture with an interpreter and one with the C-Print^® speech-to-text support service. High school students retained more lecture information when they viewed speech-to-text support, compared to interpreter support, and when they studied note taker notes or a hard copy of the text after viewing the lecture, compared to no opportunity to study. For college students, however, there was no difference between retention with these two kinds of support or with study of notes, compared to no study. For the college investigation, there was a three-way interaction due to markedly better performance on a multiple-choice than on a sentence-completion test when students viewed an interpreter and did not study notes. This result may have reflected difficulty in comprehending unfamiliar terms. Reading proficiency was also related to retention.