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Laws, practices, and research about reading difficulties have been gradually and rapidly changing since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1974. It is difficult for schools to keep up, especially when it takes approximately 16 years for research to reach widespread public knowledge. In this article, I frame the latest research about reading difficulties within the daily discussions occurring in schools. I address misconceptions and best practices about dyslexia, learning disabilities, screening, instruction, and a common, but unknown cause of reading difficulties—developmental language disorder. Research cited in this article come from studies funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Development and the Institute of Education Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of students with disabilities in school and community largely relies on productive family professional partnerships (FPPs). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) recognises the importance of family collaboration to student success by mandating that parents be involved in the Individualised Education Plan (IEP) process as full team members. While several previous studies examined the perspectives of parents of children with disabilities on partnerships with educators, less research exists on teacher perspectives on family professional collaborations. Additionally, there are even fewer studies that focus on teacher perspectives on partnerships with parents of children with autism, a disability category which continues to increase in prevalence. The present study contributes to the literature by examining teacher perspectives on factors that build and hinder positive partnerships with families of children with autism. Researchers surveyed 25 Special Education teachers and conducted additional individual interviews and open‐ended questionnaires to examine teachers' first‐hand experiences. Findings identified four common themes that educators felt helped and hindered collaborative relationships with families. Study results may lead to the development of specific family professional collaboration strategies that can be implemented and discussed in school districts, teacher trainings, pre‐service teacher education programs and family workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act requires that functional behavior assessments be conducted under certain circumstances for students with disabilities. Functional assessments may include indirect assessments (e.g., rating scales, interviews), direct-descriptive assessments (e.g., direct observations with conditional probabilities), and/or experimental functional analyses. Despite being legally required in schools, and consequently commonly conducted, there is limited research establishing the technical adequacy of indirect functional assessment instruments. This review provides an update on the availability and status of indirect functional assessment instruments available for school-based use. Results of the review are consistent with previous reviews identifying deficiencies in existing instruments. In particular, indirect functional assessment instruments for school-based use lack sufficient evidence for temporal stability, internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, treatment utility, and social validity. Results of this review are discussed in terms of directions for future research and implications for applied practice as they relate to school-based functional assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors compare the special education law of Turkey with comparable law of the United States. The basis of the comparison is the legal framework represented by the six principles of the special education law of the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Within each principle, the special implications for students with intellectual disability are noted. Suggestions for improving Turkey's special education law are made. These relate principally to the principles of zero reject and issues related to discipline; appropriate education, and issues concerning related services and supplementary aids and services; least restrictive environment as related specifically to students with intellectual disability; procedural due process and issues related to notice from schools to parents and dispute resolution; and parent participation. By contrast, there seems to be no reason for Turkey to modify its law with respect to the principles related to nondiscriminatory evaluation. The analysis suggests that Turkey's special education law, being largely comparable with the United States' but still appropriate for Turkey as a homogeneous, single-language, Muslim country, may be appealing to countries that are similar to it and that, like Turkey, aspire for modernism in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goals for special education policy in Taiwan are to enable students with disabilities to develop their capacities to the fullest, have equal opportunity to access an effective education, live independently, fully participate in their communities, and become economically as self-sufficient as possible, thereby contributing to their communities in various ways. The authors compare these policies to three conceptual models, one international and two national, and ask: (1) to what extent do these policies have congruence with the recently promulgated United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ( UNCRPD) (a document that declares rights in an arguably culturally neutral way)? (2) to what extent are they congruent with the core concepts of U. S. disability policy? and (3) to what extent do these goals, adopted by a democratic government that is significantly different in culture from the United States, reflect U. S. policy as set out in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ( IDEA)? The authors also ask: To what extent might Taiwan policy be improved as a consequence of a comparison of it with U. S. and United Nations policy? In reflection, the authors conclude that in general, Taiwan's national special education policy coheres with IDEA, the core concepts, and UNCRPD. The differences between Taiwan's policy and those of IDEA and the core concepts occur mainly because of Taiwan's traditional values and beliefs toward disability. The authors propose more sophisticated elaborations of Taiwan's policies related to family participation, rights of privacy, and appropriate evaluation procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves as a response to all those who commented on my original essay 'Human Rights: What the United States Might Learn from the Rest of the World and, Yes, from American Sociology.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes to federal guidelines for the identification of children with disabilities have supported the use of multi-tiered models of service delivery. This study investigated the impact of measurement methodology as used across numerous tiers in determining special education eligibility. Four studies were completed using a sample of inner-city children ( N = 150) who were administered a reading screener twice and a reading measure adapted from the state high-stakes reading test. A sub-sample of children identified as At-Risk were administered a comprehensive reading assessment and compared with a randomly selected control group, who were also administered a comprehensive reading assessment ( n = 14). A model was developed to estimate the likelihood of special education eligibility based on both theoretical and empirical measurement parameters. Depending on the measurement assumptions of the multi-tiered model, special education eligibility outcomes varied from a low of 0.2% to as high as 11%, depending on the type of measure used, decision-making criteria used at each tier, and the number of tiers in the model. This study highlights the importance of measurement specification, explicit decision-making criteria, and empirical investigation to fully understand outcomes associated with the implementation of multi-tiered models. Implications for special education eligibility policy and practical implications for implementing comprehensive measurement practice in multi-tiered systems at the school level are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers information to juvenile and family court judges that will help them make effective decisions concerning children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An overview of medical knowledge concerning ASD is presented. It also reviews federal cases involving ASD, focusing on those involving the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

The article discusses assessments and response to intervention (RTI) in reading, particularly how RTI can be used to help teachers identify struggling learners who may have a learning disability. Guidelines for literacy educators by the International Reading Association's (IRA) Commission on Response to Intervention are mentioned. The U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its role in RTI and assessment are considered. It is argued that diagnostic assessments should be used in RTI because these tests are better at identifying a student's strengths and weaknesses.

The identification of children who are twice-exceptional-those who are gifted and have concomitant learning disabilities (LDs)-has historically posed a number of challenges for school psychologists and other school personnel. With the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act and the shift to the use of a Response-to-Intervention (RtI) model to identify students with LDs, the task of identifying those who are twice exceptional is even more daunting. This article proposes an integrated model for the identification of gifted children with LDs that blends standardized assessment methods with practices consistent with RtI. This balanced approach brings together the best of both worlds to more accurately identify twice-exceptional students and better meet their educational needs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article integrates the fundamental components of both Response to Intervention (RTI) and cognitive neuropsychology when identifying reading disorders in children. Both proponents of RTI and cognitive neuropsychology agree the discrepancy model is not a reliable or valid method to identify learning disorders in school. In addition, both proponents of RTI and cognitive neuropsychology agree that earlier intervention and the use of evidence-based intervention techniques must permeate the thinking behind any educational reform. Lastly, both proponents of RTI and cognitive neuropsychology concur with the National Reading Panel's (2000) five core components of the reading process. Given the similarities between RTI and neuropsychological models of reading, a more integrative assessment model will be introduced to better diagnose and remediate subtypes of reading disorders in children. In summary, it is the author's belief that cognitive neuropsychology will emerge as the leading discipline in forging the inevitable alliance between science and education. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marking major changes in professional role performance, response to intervention (RTI) is now in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) as a possible method to improve the identification of specific learning disabilities. Moreover, RTI and related concepts and initiatives have fundamentally influenced more general methods of prevention, instruction and intervention services, and decision making in schools. Although RTI will continue to evolve, core characteristics of RTI that form the basis of state initiatives are well founded in intervention and instructional research and practice. These core characteristics (i.e., data-based decision making, evidence-based intervention, teaming, and problem solving) represent skills immediately needed by professionals-in-training. This article reports collaboration between school psychology and special education faculty in designing and implementing an integrative field experience in RTI. Training, student, and program outcomes are used summatively for accountability. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alignment has been defined as the extent to which curricular expectations and assessments are in agreement and work together to provide guidance for educators' efforts to facilitate students' progress toward desire academic outcomes. The Council of Chief State School Officers has identified three preferred models as frameworks for evaluating alignment: Webb's alignment model, the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum model, and the Achieve model. Each model consists of a series of indices that summarize or describe the general match or coherence between state standards, large-scale assessments, and, in some cases, classroom instruction. This article provides an overview of these frameworks for evaluating alignment and their applications in educational practice and the research literature. After providing an introduction to the use of alignment to evaluate large-scale accountability systems, the article presents potential extensions of alignment for use with vulnerable populations (e.g., students with disabilities, preschoolers), individual students, and classroom teachers. These proposed applications can provide information for facilitating efforts to improve teachers' classroom instruction and students' educational achievement. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the revised Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of the U.S. The legislation offers U.S. schools confronting rising enrollments of students with learning disabilities (LD) two options for managing this increasing population. One option is for local education agencies to use as much as 15% of their special education funds to pay for early intervening services (EIS) and to support professional development and literacy instruction. Another alternative is the so-called Response to Intervention (RTI), which can be used to provide early interventions without labeling students at risk for school failure as learning disabled.

In a review of current research and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, this paper focuses on two specific issues: (a) how students with developmental disabilities show adequate yearly progress, including a description of the assessments in which this population may participate, and (b) the policy issues surrounding NCLB including technical requirements of alternate assessments, alignment of content standards, assessments, and instruction, the requirement of all teachers to be highly qualified, and the relationship between NCLB and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004). Areas for future research are identified through a review of relevant literature. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MRDD Research Reviews 2007;13:143–150. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline-related component of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that schools conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) when a student's behavior disrupts the educational environment and/or results in suspension from school. Applied behavior analysts often make a distinction between the terms functional assessment/functional behavioral assessment, and functional analysis yet there exists no consensus on how that distinction should be made. A relevant review of the literature was conducted to identify research articles using functional analysis or functional assessment methodology in public school settings in an effort to identify the specific procedures employed by each. Results of the review support the existence of a discrepancy between proposed and actual school-based assessment models, as well as other claims regarding functional assessment research. We address the problem of distinguishing between the terms assessment and analysis as they relate to procedures employed to determine behavioral function of students exhibiting aberrant behavior. A clarification of terms is proposed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reauthorization of IDEA (the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004) includes potential use of a response to intervention (RTI) model for the identification of learning disabilities. Using this model, a variety of academic interventions may be implemented with a low-achieving student, with the results monitored to determine student response. If this model is to be successfully used, then it is imperative to select and implement relevant interventions. Brief Experimental Analysis (BEA) is a procedure that can be used to assist in the identification and selection of interventions that are likely to be effective for individual students. In this brief article, we review the use and implementation of BEA and provide a case example related to oral reading. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 79–84, 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on Jan. 11 heard oral arguments on a potentially groundbreaking case that could determine what level of educational benefit schools are required by federal law to provide to children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]