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Inclusive educational practices are rooted in a body of research indicating that when students in need of support through special education are meaningfully included in schools, academic and social outcomes improve for all students. To realize this promise of better outcomes, traditional schools with separate classrooms and even schools designated to exclusively serve various learner subgroups (e.g., students identified for special education) will require reorganized systems, structures, and resources. A school with a fully integrated educational framework is better positioned to meet the needs of all students, including those who live in poverty, who experience high mobility, who benefit from an accelerated curriculum, or who struggle to learn for other reasons. This paper describes an example of a transformational framework and technical assistance provided to a whole interlocking education systems (i.e., state, district, school) to reshape and increase school capacity to implement and sustain an equity-based, inclusive multi-tiered system of support. Statistical analyses that compared academic achievements of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs, i.e., disability) in schools reflecting early stages of transformation with that of students with IEPs in schools reflecting advanced transformation. The extent of school transformation to the framework significantly predicted improved outcomes for students with IEPs.

The present study investigated relationships among technical assistance, school leadership quality, and multitiered system of support (MTSS) implementation. The findings indicated technical assistance improved school leadership quality, and improved leadership significantly mediated the relationship between technical assistance and MTSS implementation for both behavior and academic systems. These results provide support for the foundational role of school leadership in MTSS implementation. Implications for providers of technical assistance are discussed.

Tiered instructional supports are on a steep growth trajectory in the US and getting underway internationally as a means to providing equitable education to all student groups. In the US, the Department of Education funded the expansion of multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) through school and personnel improvement grants to states. This retrospective article examines the history of MTSS and California's significant investment to scale up the practice statewide, with an eye to identifying key issues that are likely to surface in other such ambitious state efforts. We examine the infrastructure support methodology to develop local capacity to support school-level implementation with measured fidelity. We present some preliminary results from a small sample comparison study that demonstrate students' academic achievement increased when the California MTSS efforts resulted in implementation with adequate fidelity. These findings suggest long-term replication of this initiative will mirror other student-level impact studies showing positive gains on measures of academic progress, in this case, English Language Arts and Math.

U.S. public education systems are required to provide free appropriate public education to students with disabilities in least restrictive environments that are appropriate to meet their individual needs. The practice of educating students with disabilities in neighborhood schools in age-appropriate general education classrooms and other school settings to meet this requirement has come to be known as "inclusive education." The long-standing interest in keeping students with disabilities in the same classrooms with their neighbors and peers has created a need for reform to establish equity in America's schools. Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWIFT) is a whole-system school reform model provided through a national technical assistance center that addresses core features of inclusive education support for elementary and middle schools, particularly those that are chronically low performing and those serving students with the most extensive needs. We describe the development and preliminary technical adequacy of SWIFT Fidelity of Implementation Tool (SWIFT-FIT) as a means to document the extent to which schools are implementing inclusive education. Findings provide preliminary support for trained assessors using SWIFT-FIT as a valid and reliable instrument to produce evidence that describes the extent to which schools install, implement, and sustain these evidence-based practices. Researchers and other school personnel can use these data to evaluate the impact of implementation on progress as well as important student and other outcomes.

The present investigation examines the schoolwide applications model (SAM) as a potentially effective school reform model for increasing equity-based inclusive education practices while enhancing student reading and math achievement for all students. A 3-year quasi-experimental comparison group analysis using latent growth modeling (LGM) was used with seven urban elementary or elementary/middle schools and seven matched comparison schools in the same district. Results suggest significantly larger growth for experimental school students in math and no statistically significant difference in reading score growth between experimental and comparison schools. However, reading score growth for experimental schools was statistically significant in a post hoc analysis of selected schools. Additional descriptive analysis is presented for three schools that implemented the model with the highest measured fidelity; these schools made improvements on both reading and math scores while those of matching comparison schools decreased.

The present study investigated the effectiveness of an equity-based inclusive school reform model nested within a multitiered system of support (MTSS) framework on the improvement of math and reading performance of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Descriptive statistics revealed that math state assessment scores of students with IEPs increased over the implementation period. Results of multilevel modeling demonstrated that the model's fidelity of implementation scores positively and significantly predicted state assessment math scores. A further analysis examining the effectiveness of the model in three schools that implemented with adequate fidelity compared with nonimplementing schools indicated students with IEPs in implementing schools increased their math scores at a greater rate than their peers in comparison schools; however, effects on reading scores were equivocal. Findings are discussed in the context of inclusion and efforts to support high fidelity implementation of MTSS.

For many autistic students, to experience more successful outcomes, school processes must be restructured and given necessary resources. The probability of success can be increased by implementing a school system that integrates research-based academic and behavioral instructional support, along with collaborative data-informed decision-making routines. This paper presents an example of a transformational framework and technical assistance that were provided to six schools to reshape and increase the schools' capacity to implement and sustain an equity-based multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) with intensified instructional decision making. Statistical analyses were used to examine the outcomes of autistic students (n = 23) who participated in a state assessment over three consecutive years in the same state. The results demonstrated an increase in academic scores, and many students transitioned to less-restrictive educational environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWIFT) Center identified six schools, nominated and screened by leaders in the field of inclusive education and school reform using a systematic process, and conducted in-depth analyses of these schools to build knowledge and inform implementation of inclusive schoolwide reform. The present study synthesizes findings across five lines of inquiry (classroom practices, teacher and administrator perspectives, student perspectives, family and community perspectives, and supports for students with the most significant needs) that were part of the SWIFT Center's analysis of these schools. The primary themes are organized around (a) how inclusion is defined and practiced, (b) perspectives of inclusion from key stakeholders, and (c) exemplars of inclusive practices. Implications for future research and practice are described.

After decades of effort to create inclusive education, the authors assert that the time for full inclusion to manifest at scale may finally be at hand. This article first briefly considers the background and history of the inclusive education movement. The authors then reframe the discourse by defining inclusion through structures and interventions, not student characteristics. They review several emerging best practices that, when deployed within this new framework, increase the likelihood of system change or improvement to advance inclusive education.

Early interventionists struggle with supporting parents to prepare their children to be socially successful. Systems of support in which parents matriculate through a series of progressively intensive interventions depending on their need have been identified as a potentially promising framework for delivering family support services (McIntyre & Phaneuf, 2007). A pilot study was conducted to assess the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a family-based Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) approach in an Early Head Start setting. A universal intervention was implemented with 30 families while 13 completed a targeted intervention and 4 participated in the most intensive level of support. This study offers the first known application of an MTSS within a family-based community agency. The results indicate participants were satisfied with the service delivery and may have experienced reduced levels of stress as a result of their participation. The implications of the findings and the limitations of the study are presented. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

A pre-postassessment, single-subject, pilot study was implemented, testing the hypothesis that positive behavior support (PBS) would improve family quality-of-life outcomes by reducing parental stress and challenging behaviors of preschool children who are culturally and linguistically diverse and reside in urban, disadvantaged communities. Six participants attended parent-training workshops designed to empower them to use PBS child behavior management strategies and enhance their own mental health outcomes via a functional parent-child relationship. Parental stress levels were measured and anecdotal reports of child outcomes obtained. Findings corroborate outcomes from preceding research supporting PBS as a socially valid, culturally responsive intervention effective at producing results acceptable to participants. Future research and suggestions are provided for closing the gap between research and practice. (Contains 8 tables and 1 figure.)

In positive behavior support (PBS) practices, one critical issue involves helping professionals understand and respect the values of families from culturally diverse backgrounds. This article summarizes embedded cultural values of PBS represented in four key features of the PBS process: collaborative partnerships, functional assessment, contextual fit, and meaningful lifestyle outcomes. With acknowledgment of acculturation, the contrast between Chinese cultural values and embedded PBS values is illustrated in the context of implementing PBS for Chinese American families. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) exemplifies a longitudinal research program originating in the fields of special education and school psychology that has produced an extensive national database encompassing an evidence-based set of practices applicable to general education as well as special education students including those with severe disabilities. Schoolwide applications of evidence-based practices, however, are at some risk of falling victim to the ongoing bifurcation of education into the general and special education parallel and often noninteractive, professional systems of instruction. One potential solution to bifurcated practice is to embed (or contextualize) SWPBS in a broader, universal school reform agenda that coordinates and evaluates all educational intervention services and supports for the benefit of all students. A structural school reform process called the Schoolwide Applications Model (SAM) is described, which includes SWPBS as 1 of 15 critical features. Results from a 3-year, ongoing research project in a low-income, multicultural, urban school district in Northern California suggests that SWPBS, with its three levels of student support, guided by teams of general as well as special educators, can be an important contributor to academic as well as social achievement among students with and without disabilities and, as grounded within systematic school reform, can help to mitigate against the bifurcation of general and special education practices. (Contains 3 tables, 5 figures and 3 footnotes.)

Positive behavior support (PBS) is a broad range of systemic and individualized strategies for achieving important social and learning outcomes while preventing problem behavior. PBS's key attributes include proactivity, data-based [...], This article provides a case study (focus on an eighth-grader with autism) within a case study (focus on an urban middle school) in terms of the implementation of positive behavior support (PBS). Information is provided on the characteristics of three key components of schoolwide PBS-universal support, group support, and individual support. For each component, information is presented on policy, assessment, and intervention in terms of an evolving approach to schoolwide PBS with descriptions of how the components were implemented at the middle school with a particular emphasis on the eighth-grade student. The authors conclude with implications for practice in terms of assessing current resources, providing professional development, and intensifying universal support within urban schools to address some of the complex issues associated with poverty.

Inclusive educational practices are rooted in a body of research indicating that when students in need of support through special education are meaningfully included in schools, academic and social outcomes improve for all students. To realize this promise of better outcomes, traditional schools with separate classrooms and even schools designated to exclusively serve various learner subgroups (e.g., students identified for special education) will require reorganized systems, structures, and resources. A school with a fully integrated educational framework is better positioned to meet the needs of all students, including those who live in poverty, who experience high mobility, who benefit from an accelerated curriculum, or who struggle to learn for other reasons. This paper describes an example of a transformational framework and technical assistance provided to a whole interlocking education systems (i.e., state, district, school) to reshape and increase school capacity to implement and sustain an equity-based, inclusive multi-tiered system of support. Statistical analyses that compared academic achievements of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs, i.e., disability) in schools reflecting early stages of transformation with that of students with IEPs in schools reflecting advanced transformation. The extent of school transformation to the framework significantly predicted improved outcomes for students with IEPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: We previously demonstrated that the 2 APC mutations in human colorectal tumors are coselected, because tumorigenesis requires an optimal level of Wnt signaling. We and others subsequently showed that the truncated APC proteins in colorectal tumors usually retain a total of 1–2 β-catenin binding/degradation repeats (20AARs); very few intestinal tumors have proteins with no 20AARs. The coselection of the “2 hits” at APC makes it difficult to undertake further mechanistic studies in this area in humans. In mice, however, second hits appear to vary with the strain or genetic background used. This suggested the possibility of creating suboptimal Apc genotypes in the mouse. Methods: We have constructed a mouse, Apc1322T, with a mutant protein retaining one 20AAR. After repeated backcrossing to the C57BL/6J background, we compared the 1322T animals with the widely used Min mouse in which the mutant Apc protein has zero 20AARs. Results: In both mice, intestinal adenomas showed copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity, making them homozygous for the mutant Apc allele. 1322T animals had markedly more severe polyposis, with earlier-onset, larger, more numerous, and more severely dysplastic adenomas. 1322T tumors also had more marked Paneth cell differentiation and higher frequencies of crypt fission. Somewhat surprisingly, nuclear β-catenin expression was lower in 1322T than Min tumors. Conclusions: We propose that the Apc1322T mutation produces submaximal β-catenin levels that promote early tumor growth more effectively than the ApcMin mutation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]