Abstract
For Issue 4 of Volume 84, we present six articles that address important and timely special education topics. Two of these articles examined response to intervention (RTI): an evaluation of a Tier-2 reading intervention within an RTI framework and a legal analysis of the juxtaposition of RTI and child find. We also include articles that reported research about co-teaching practices in middle schools, the potential underdiagnosis of autism within minority populations, language and reading achievement of children with mild or moderate hearing loss, and how a behavioral intervention program affected the school engagement of students at risk for behavior disorders.
Using a regression discontinuity design, Coyne, Oldham, Dougherty, Leonard, Koriakin, Gage, Burns, and Gillis examined the effects of a Tier-2 reading intervention within a response to intervention framework on the reading achievement of struggling readers. They found mixed results, with statistically significant increases in students’ phonemic awareness and word decoding and no effects on students’ reading fluency and comprehension achievement.
Zirkel conducted a systematic analysis of the law on the intersection of RTI and IDEA’s child find obligations. He found that despite the hypothesized tension between RTI processes and child find, there has not been significant litigation in this area and when litigation occurred, the outcomes more often favored school districts. He cautions that this area of law is still emerging, and many questions remain to be answered by the courts.
Wexler, Kearns, Lemons, Mitchell, Clancy, Davidson, Sinclair, and Wei examined co-teaching practices in U.S. middle schools. They reported that students with disabilities most often worked alone or participated in whole-group instruction with a special educator supporting whole-class instruction led by the content teacher. Overall, the authors concluded that special educators were rarely used to differentiate instruction for students with disabilities.
Travers and Krezmien examined racial disparities in autism identification rates within and between U.S. states. Within states, they found that in general, minority students were significantly less likely to be identified as having autism than White students. Between states, using California as the main comparison state, they found that both White and minority students were under-identified compared to White students in California.
Camarata, Werfel, Davis, Hornsby, and Bess examined the correlations between language abilities, reading skills, and subjective fatigue for children with mild to moderate hearing loss. Similar to children without hearing loss, they found that phonological awareness and receptive language ability predicted reading achievement. They also found that children with hearing loss with poor reading skills reported higher levels of fatigue than students with typical or above average reading achievement.
Wills, Wehby, Caldarella, Kamps, and Romine conducted a replication study of the CW-FIT program’s effects on students at risk for behavioral disorders. CW-FIT is a group contingency program that consists of both classwide behavioral components and supplemental Tier-2 interventions. Overall, the authors successfully replicated previous findings, reporting that implementation of the CW-FIT program resulted in increased engagement and decreased levels of disruptive behaviors for students at risk for behavioral disorders.
We hope that these articles help you gain a greater depth of knowledge on critical special education issues and in turn you can use this new knowledge to improve the services provided to children with disabilities.