Remedial and Special Education

A number of social, judiciary, and regulatory policies are intended to change current educational practices. Educational change, however, does not automatically occur as a result of policy adoption. Rather, educational change occurs as a result of leaders employing systematic procedures to bring about these changes. A growing philosophical, legal, and empirical data base supports the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in general education settings. This paper presents guidelines intended for educational leaders in effecting the change from segregated to inclusive school settings. Five systematic phases, or guidelines, are presented. In order to bring about successful inclusion of students with severe disabilities, leaders develop networks, assess resources, review options, install inclusion strategies, and provide a system of feedback and self-renewal.

In this study we investigated six widely used basal reading programs for suggestions for literacy instruction for mainstreamed special education students (MSE). The kindergarten, first-, third-, and fifth-grade materials were analyzed for each of the six basal reading programs selected. A basal analysis instrument, based on a literature review and focus-group interviews, was designed to record teaching suggestions for mse students. Only two of the basal reading programs included suggestions directed to the needs of mse students, and their suggestions were few. Discussion focuses on the need to provide general education teachers with teachers' manuals and professional development opportunities that offer explicit suggestions for meeting the needs of mse students in general education classrooms.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of procedural and substantive facilitation—specifically, instruction in character development—on the quality and length of narratives written by 9 Junior High School students with learning disabilities. A multiple baseline design across triads was used to determine the effects of treatment. Results indicated that over a period of 2 months, students generally made substantial increases in the amount they wrote and mild to moderate increases in the quality of the stories produced. Recommendations are given for individualizing instruction considering student differences in writing ability, background, motivation, interest, and attention.

This paper reports the results of two classroom applications of mnemonic instruction with students with mild mental disabilities (see note). These applications were developed based upon previous research findings and implemented by special education teachers in their classrooms over extended time periods. In both applications, regularly assigned curricula were adapted to include the use of mnemonic strategies. In the first application, the strategies were supplied by the teacher to facilitate the learning of social studies content. In the second application, students first used teacher-made strategies and later assisted the teacher in generating “class” mnemonic strategies for learning science content. Results of both applications suggest that students successfully learned content using the mnemonic strategies and reported enjoying instruction when the strategies were used. Findings are discussed in relation to future applications by teachers.

Multiple gating, which is considered to be a cost-effective screening method for identification of children at risk of developing serious antisocial behaviors, uses relatively inexpensive ratings as a first gate and more sophisticated assessments in the following steps. Different assessment strategies were tested to find a combination of predictors at the beginning of elementary school that could effectively identify children who are at risk of developing serious antisocial problems. All boys in 54 schools, located in low socioeconomic districts in montreal, were assessed in the first step of the screening procedure. A sample of 84 boys was randomly selected from a larger pool of 250 kindergarten boys who had an “aggressiveness-hyperactivity-distractibility” score above the 70th percentile on the preschool behavior questionnaire. In the second step, observed task-inappropriate behaviors were compared to mothers' and teachers' ratings of inattention and of aggressiveness (at ages 6 to 7), as predictors of extreme antisocial behavior at age 10. Results indicated that observed task-inappropriate behaviors and teacher ratings of inattention were better predictors of diversity of offending than were mother ratings of aggressiveness. The best predictive combination consisted of extreme scores above the 70th percentile and observations of task-inappropriate behaviors in multiple settings.

In 1984, the research committee of the council for learning disabilities (CLD) noted that the available descriptions of individuals with LD in research reports were vague and inconsistent. Recognizing that such descriptions made it difficult to evaluate research findings, the committee recommended that specific guidelines for participant descriptions be followed in reports on research involving individuals with LD.

Eight years after this call for greater uniformity, vague participant descriptors remain a matter of great concern. What follows is a report on this issue from the current cld research committee. Updated guidelines for the description of participants are provided for both small-sample and large-group research activities. Also, suggestions for promoting compliance with the minimum standards are forwarded.

Rather than being viewed as a fixed, immutable product, the current attempt at identifying the minimum standards for the description of participants should be viewed merely as one step in an ongoing process. Clearly, as our multidisciplinary field continues to learn more about LD, additional information about participants may be deemed necessary. With this in mind, the cld research committee welcomes your comments on the present set of guidelines and invites your suggestions for future iterations of this document.