Improving the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Making Schools Work for All of America's Children

Supplement

April 26, 1996

National Council on Disability
1331 F Street NW
Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20004-1107

(202) 272-2004 Voice
(202) 272-2074 TT
(202) 272-2022 Fax

This document is available in alternative formats.

The views contained in the report do not necessarily represent those of the Administration, as this document has not been subjected to the A-19 Executive Branch review process.

NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DISABILITY MEMBERS AND STAFF

Members

Marca Bristo, Chairperson
John A. Gannon, Vice Chairperson
Yerker Andersson, Ph.D.
Larry Brown, Jr.
John D. Kemp
Audrey McCrimon
Bonnie O'Day
Lilliam R. Pollo
Debra Robinson
Shirley W. Ryan
Michael B. Unhjem
Rae E. Unzicker
Hughey Walker
Kate P. Wolters
Ela Yazzie-King

Staff

Ethel D. Briggs, Executive Director
Speed Davis, Executive Assistant to the Chairperson
Billie Jean Hill, Program Specialist
Jamal Mazrui, Program Specialist
Mark S. Quigley, Public Affairs Specialist and Editor
Brenda Bratton, Executive Secretary
Stacey S. Brown, Staff Assistant
Janice Mack, Administrative Officer

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The National Council on Disability extends its appreciation to the following individuals associated with this supplement to the study Improving the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Act: Making Schools Work for All of America's Children:

The synthesis of reports from special education researchers and teacher trainers was prepared by H. Rutherford Turnbull III and Ann P. Turnbull, Co-Directors, Beach Center on Families and Disability, University of Kansas.

The National Council on Disability also wishes to extend its appreciation to the following individuals who prepared categorical reports as part of this research effort:

1. Learning Disabilities, by Donald D. Deshler and Jean Schumaker.
   
   
2. Mental Retardation, by Edward A. Polloway, Tom E. C. Smith, and Eugene Edgar.
   
   
3. Serious Emotional Disabilities, by Lucille Eber and C. Michael Nelson.
   
   
4. Severe and Multiple Disabilities, by Michael F. Giangreco and Martha E. Snell.
   
   
5. Autism, by Glen Dunlap and Meme Eno-Hieneman.
   
   
6. Physical Disabilities, by Sherwood J. Best and Gary A. Best.
   
   
7. Special Health Care Needs, by Marilyn Ault.
   
   
8. Visual Impairments, by Sandra Lewis.
   
   
9. Hearing Impairments, by John Luckner.
   
   
10. Traumatic Brain Injuries, by Ron Savage.

Finally, the National Council on Disability wishes to extend its appreciation to the following individuals who prepared topical reports as part of this research effort:

1. Early Intervention and Part H, by Don Bailey and Pamela Winton with Pat Trohanis, Tal Black, Jim Gallagher, Gloria Harbin, Robin McWilliam, P. J. McWilliam, Virginia Buysse, Farley Bernholz, and Pat Wesley.
   
   
2. Early Childhood Education, by Michael J. Guralnick.
   
   
3. Least Restrictive Environment: Overview and Upper School, by Susan Brody Hasazi and Katharine Furney.
   
   
4. Least Restrictive Environment: Early Childhood, by Samuel L. Odom.
   
   
5. Least Restrictive Environment: Elementary and Middle School, by Kathleen Gee.
   
   
6. Social Relationships, by Luanna H. Meyer.
   
   
7. Self-Determination, by Michael Wehmeyer.
   
   
8. Transition, by Frank R. Rusch.
   
   
9. Supported Employment, by Paul Wehman and W. Grant Revell, Jr.
   
   
10. Minority Issues, by Vivian Correa with Maria E. Blanes-Reyes, and Mary Jane K. Rapport.
    
    
11. Collaboration, by Jacqueline Thousand with Richard A. Villa, and Ann Nevin.
    
    
12. Parent-Professional Participation, by Thomas H. Powell and Patricia L. Graham.
    
    
13. School Restructuring, by Margaret McLaughlin.
    
    
14. School-Linked Services, by Wayne Sailor.
    
    
15. Participatory Action Research, by Ann P. Turnbull and H. Rutherford Turnbull III.
    
    
16. Positive Behavioral Support, by Robert H. Horner with Jeffrey R. Sprague, and George Sugai.
    
    
17. Violence Prevention and School Safety, by Hill W. Walker.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Synthesis

Categorical Reports

Learning Disabilities
Mental Retardation
Serious Emotional Disabilities
Severe and Multiple Disabilities
Autism
Physical Disabilities
Special Health Care Needs
Visual Impairments
Hearing Impairments
Traumatic Brain Injuries

Topical Reports

Early Intervention and Part H
Early Childhood Education
Least Restrictive Environment: Overview and Upper School
Least Restrictive Environment: Early Childhood
Least Restrictive Environment: Elementary and Middle School
Social Relationships
Self-Determination
Transition
Supported Employment
Minority Issues
Collaboration
Parent-Professional Participation
School Restructuring
School-Linked Services
Participatory Research
Positive Behavioral Support
Violence Prevention

Appendix: A Brief Description of the National Council on Disability

Synthesis of Reports from Nationally Preeminent Special Education Researchers and Teacher Trainers

Celebrating IDEA's 20th Anniversary

In 1995, Congress and the nation celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the most significant disability-rights laws ever enacted: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It is in every respect proper for Congress and the entire nation to celebrate that anniversary. Certainly no other disability-rights law has had such a powerful and positive impact on children and youth with disabilities, on their families, on educators, and on the nation itself.

At the same time, it is also entirely proper for Congress and the nation to recognize that the promises that Congress made in IDEA and the potential that IDEA can evoke in our country's students, families, educators, and communities are still not yet fulfilled. IDEA is like anyone who comes out of adolescence and enters young adulthood: some promises have been kept and others await fulfillment. The potential for their fulfillment is visible but is in some ways still unimaginable. So much is in place, and so much more can be added. So it is with IDEA: The Act has encouraged and helped students, their families, and the nation's schools to make phenomenal gains, but the results are by no means all that could and should have been obtained.

On the occasion of IDEA's 20th anniversary, it is important to build on the framework and the successes that IDEA has engendered, and to do so on the basis of the best available data about IDEA's accomplishments and shortcomings. In building upon this framework, guided by reliable data, IDEA itself will be improved, and state and local educational agencies will be equipped to implement IDEA even more effectively. It is especially appropriate for Congress to build on the framework and successes in light of the strong grassroots efforts to reform the nation's schools--a movement that Congress itself acknowledged and assisted by P.L. 103-227, the Goals 2000: Educate America Act.

Six Basic Principles Supporting the Implementation of IDEA

IDEA is based on six basic principles which provide a framework within which states may develop effective special education programs. The current status of the implementation of these principles is described below.

• IDEA's zero-reject principle has opened schoolhouse doors to all students with disabilities; yet schools still try to expel or suspend students who present behavioral or other special challenges.
  
  
• IDEA's nondiscriminatory evaluation principle has ensured that in most cases students' disabilities are identified and fairly and accurately assessed; yet schools still too frequently misclassify students, especially minority students.
  
  
• IDEA's appropriate education principle has helped most students benefit from special education; yet it is abundantly clear that the outcomes of special education are less than acceptable for far too many students.
  
  
• IDEA's least restrictive environment principle has allowed some students to be educated with their nondisabled peers. There has been some progress in physical, academic, and social integration; yet far too often the schools still fall far short in providing the supplementary aids and services that would enable many more students to benefit from education with their nondisabled peers.
  
  
• IDEA's due process principle has held schools and families accountable to each other; yet schools and families still find fault with federal and state monitoring and still face the financially and emotionally draining prospects of administrative and judicial hearings.
  
  
• IDEA's principle of shared decision making by parents, students, and schools has created effective education and a wholesome system of checks and balances for many of these stakeholders; yet professional dominance still is too often the norm.

In short, however effectively this law and its six principles have been implemented in some areas, there still remain far too many instances where schools have failed to implement IDEA properly.

Islands of Effectiveness, But Not a Mainland

The issue in 1995 is not whether to retain IDEA in its present form. IDEA has been effective. An entire national school-system response has been built on its principles, and countless students, families, educators, and other providers have come to rely on and apply its principles. Instead, as Congress reauthorizes IDEA, it should focus on the last of IDEA's stated purposes: "to assess and assure the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities" (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400(c)). The disturbing findings Congress discovered in 1975 are still a reality in far too many school districts in 1995. While it is true that the extent and types of education discrimination have been remarkably curtailed, education discrimination still exists and the equal protection guarantee has not been fully realized. The islands of excellence in special education do not yet constitute a mainland, and general compliance is short of the goal of universal compliance. The issue for 1995, then, is the same issue that Congress identified in 1975: to assure the effectiveness of efforts to educate all children with disabilities.

In 1995, on IDEA's 20th anniversary and as school reform efforts gather speed and power, Congress should assure the effectiveness of efforts to educate students with disabilities in two basic and necessary ways:

First, Congress should reaffirm IDEA's basic premises and principles, declaring in no uncertain terms that IDEA is a necessary and useful civil rights law that, through the framework of its six basic principles, implements the federal equal protection guarantee and the states' own constitutional assurances of universal education for all of their children.

Second, Congress should fine-tune IDEA itself in a limited number of ways and significantly strengthen federal, state, and local special education capacities, thereby assuring more effective special education.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Special Education

Congress's reaffirmation of IDEA's basic principles and framework and Congress's capacity-building enhancements to IDEA and its administration should build on the most recent and most reliable data. The National Council on Disability (NCD) has reviewed those data in light of seven questions:

• What are the goals of special education?
  
  
• How well have these goals been achieved?
  
  
• What are the most promising practices for achieving these goals?
  
  
• What are the most significant barriers to achieving these goals?
  
  
• What should Congress do to further ensure the effectiveness of efforts to educate all children with disabilities?
  
  
• What should federal agencies, especially the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), do to ensure that federal, state, and local education agencies are most effective in educating all children with disabilities?
  
  
• What should state governments and state and local education agencies do?

The National Council on Disability and the Beach Center on Families and Disability posed these questions to 27 nationally preeminent scholars in special education and personnel preparation, advising them to rely on the most recent reliable data in providing responses, to back up their reports with annotated abstracts of key data-based literature, and to profile programs that exemplify IDEA's proper implementation across all areas of disability. The following represents, in general, what we have concluded after reviewing the data:

• No matter how effective IDEA has been, there are still significant shortcomings in its implementation. Congress, OSERS, and state and local education agencies should do still more to ensure that every student with a disability has an individualized program of free, appropriate education in the least restrictive environment.

As Congress takes up IDEA on the Act's 20th anniversary, it should again rise to the challenge that it met so well in 1975 and many times thereafter:

• Reaffirm the basic civil rights of all students with disabilities to effective, equal educational opportunities; reauthorize the federal framework that has benefited these students so greatly; and encourage further activities to ensure their effective education.

Restating the Purposes and Goals of Special Education

Over the course of the last 20 years and as recently as 1990 and 1994, Congress has stated and restated the nation's policies regarding citizens with disabilities. Restating these policies now, as Congress considers the reauthorization of IDEA, would seem appropriate. The overall purposes of IDEA are:

• To ensure equal protection under the law, particularly equal educational opportunity. Such protection is afforded not only in IDEA, but in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1975.
  
  
• To assist individuals with disabilities to enjoy lives characterized by equal opportunities, full participation and integration into local communities and society as a whole, independence, self-determination, economic self-sufficiency, and contribution to America. These are also the purposes of ADA and the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act.

To these ends, IDEA has helped state and local education agencies to educate all students with disabilities, no matter what the nature or severity of their disabilities. It has done so by establishing procedural and substantive rights, providing financial assistance, and providing support for research, training, and technical assistance. What more needs to be done? The answer is straightforward and achievable: Congress should not rely solely on process and substance but should assure quality in special education. To do that, Congress should review special education's particular goals, as they relate to the nation's overarching disability policy. The goals of special education and IDEA are to:

• Enhance students' overall capacities: By receiving a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, every student should acquire academic, vocational, and social skills so all can learn, work, live, have social networks, and participate in their communities with their peers who do not have disabilities.
  
  
• Secure students' participation in school and community with peers who do not have disabilities: Students should receive the services necessary for them to achieve success within less restrictive placements and to learn in general education programs, work and reside in typical settings, and have social networks with people who do not have disabilities.
  
  
• Augment families' capacities to respond to their children's special needs: By participating in early intervention and later programs for their children, benefiting from related services, sharing decision making with teachers and other professionals, and participating in the activities of such discretionary programs as Parent Training and Information Centers and model demonstration programs, families should acquire the skills necessary to respond to their children's special needs and to be equal decision-making partners with educators and other professionals.
  
  
• Establish collaboration among families, students, and professionals: Family members, students, and professionals should have the skills to collaborate with each other, and the schools should provide a context for this kind of collaboration.
  
  
• Create a seamless network of effective services through collaboration among service providers and the systems and agencies within which they work: Providers, their agencies, and their service delivery systems should create a seamless network of effective services for students and families, and this network should enable students to learn, work, live, have social networks, and participate in their communities.
  
  
• Prepare all professionals to deliver free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment: All professionals, particularly general and special educators, should have the attitudes and skills that enable them to be as effective as possible in providing a free appropriate public education to all students in the least restrictive environment.
  
  
• Carry out model demonstration programs and conduct research to implement IDEA: Special and general educators, researchers, teacher trainers, other professionals, and families--acting together--should carry out model demonstration programs, provide technical assistance, and conduct research to improve the implementation of IDEA's six principles.
  
  
• Ensure school restructuring and effective governance: Students, families, educators and other professionals, as well as community members should reform schools and school governance to advance all of special education's goals. School reform should be sensitive to and accommodate cultural and ethnic diversity in students, their families, and communities.
  
  
• Assure safe schools: All schools should be safe for all who use them, and to this end educators and administrators should focus on reducing violence in schools and communities.
  
  
• Increase and target federal, state, and local resources: Federal, state, and local governing bodies should increase their appropriations for special education and permit some funding streams to be used more creatively and flexibly while simultaneously targeting other funding streams to solve particular problems.

Progress to Date in Achieving the Purposes and Goals of Special Education

How successful has special education been in achieving these goals? The answer is both heartening and challenging. It is heartening that there are many promising approaches to achieving these goals. Indeed, identifying and applying state-of-the-art practices, supported in large part through federal resources, have almost always resulted in the achievement of these goals. It is challenging that state-of-the-art practices exist only in some school districts. There are islands of effectiveness. However, far too many school districts do not or cannot apply state-of-the-art or best practices. These districts constitute the current mainland of special education.

Promising Practices for Effective Special Education

What are the promising practices, the standards by which effective special education should be judged and the means by which all school districts can deliver effective special education? Promising practices can be found system-wide within a state, district-wide within a local education agency, and personally, for an individual student.

System-wide Promising Practices

At the state agency level, it is especially important to have the following:

• Professional in-service training through a comprehensive system of personnel development;
  
  
• Model demonstration programs and technical assistance;
  
  
• Strong parent participation in designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating state and local agency plans, relying on a strengthened system of Parent Training and Information Centers;
  
  
• The participation of special education in all school restructuring activities; and
  
  
• Effective monitoring of and technical assistance to local educational agencies.

District-wide Promising Practices

At the local school district level, it is important to have the following:

• A zero-reject capacity, including
  
  
• early screening, identification, and intervention at all ages,
• locally adapted services and plans, and
• interagency collaboration and coordination of services, systems, and procedures;
  
  
• A nondiscriminatory evaluation capacity, including alternative, nonbiased educational evaluations, especially for minority students;
  
  
• An appropriate education capacity, including
  
  
• student-focused--not system-focused--individualized education and services that lead to students' mastery of learning skills and strategies,
• coherent, easy-to-use, intensive, and comprehensive services based on validated procedures and methodologies,
• a system of comprehensive personnel development that assures that all school personnel will develop the skills necessary to deliver a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, and
• adoption and implementation of "safe schools" plans; and
  
  
• A least restrictive environment capacity, including
  
  
• adaptations of general and special education curricula, especially to accommodate students in the least restrictive environment and to accept, in that environment and throughout the district, students who have challenging behaviors,
• a full array of least restrictive placement options, with continuous dialogue among special and general educators, school administrators, and families and students about how to secure the least restrictive education for all students,
• accessibility and other modifications in the schools' physical environments, and
• flexibility in programs and staffing arrangements, with planned times and places for collaboration among educators and families.

Promising Practices with Students and Families

In order to serve students and families in an appropriate manner, it is necessary for school districts to provide the following:

• A zero-reject capacity, including
  
  
• early intervention to address present special education needs and to prevent additional needs from developing, and
• adoption and implementation of a "safe schools" plan;
  
  
• A nondiscriminatory evaluation capacity, including nonbiased evaluations of students' strengths and needs, especially if the students are from minority populations or present challenging behaviors;
  
  
• An appropriate education capacity, including
  
  
• developmentally appropriate and professionally validated practices,
• appropriate, functional curricula, including instruction for all post-school activities described in IDEA's transition provisions,
• instruction in self-determination and self advocacy,
• culturally responsive instructional methodologies and curricula,
• appropriate extracurricular activities,
• community-based work instruction and work opportunities, including supported employment,
• education that teaches not only post-school vocational skills but also other independent living skills,
• flexibility in students' schedules so they can take advantage of integrated learning and work opportunities, and
• use of positive and natural consequences as feedback for appropriate behavior;
  
  
• A least restrictive environment capacity, including
  
  
• education of the student in the most typical settings--neighborhood schools--so that all school environments are integrated by the presence of students with and without disabilities, and
• age-appropriate and culturally appropriate teaching practices; and
  
  
• A parent-student participation and collaboration capacity, including
  
  
• family-centered services and family involvement, and
• professional-family collaboration and shared decision making.

The Application of Promising Practices Across the Six Principles of IDEA

However much progress has been made in implementing IDEA and its six principles, it is clear that improved implementation is necessary and possible. Through applying the promising practices listed above, the implementation of the six principles underlying IDEA would improve in the following manner:

• Zero Reject: Instead of excluding students from school, a variety of successful intervention techniques would be available to support the inclusion of all students in schools, the result being a zero tolerance for excluding any students, whatever the reason.
  
  
• Nondiscriminatory Evaluation: Instead of classifying students on the basis of their ethnicity, race, color, national origins, or the schools' existing administrative structures, students would be classified according to an accurate assessment of their strengths and needs across the curricular and functional requirements involved in their education.
  
  
• Appropriate Education: Applying the promising practices listed above would result in a system of comprehensive and effective services and interventions, effective multidisciplinary and interagency collaboration, and a seamless network of beneficial services.
  
  
• Least Restrictive Environment: Instead of current practice, which in many places encourages the segregation of students with disabilities, application of already-proven, promising practices would allow each student to receive his or her education in the least restrictive setting, supported by an individualized and appropriate array of supplementary aids and services that ensure that the student is physically, academically, and socially integrated into general education.
  
  
• Parent and Student Participation and Shared Decision Making: With the application of current promising practices, parents, students, and educators would be able to engage in effective collaboration in designing and delivering a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.
  
  
• Procedural Due Process and Federal and State Monitoring: The application of the promising practices listed above would greatly reduce the number and frequency of due process complaints and shift the emphasis of federal and state monitoring and enforcement efforts from tracking "paper compliance" to quality enhancement.

Continuing Barriers to the Implementation of Promising Practices

Implementing the promising practices developed over the last 20 years of experience with IDEA would greatly enhance the quality of education for students with and without disabilities. Still, many barriers continue to impede the implementation of these practices in state and local education agencies. These barriers are as follows:

Zero-Reject Barriers

• Schools are reactive instead of proactive in responding to students' special needs. In particular, they too often exclude students instead of working with them to overcome their challenging behaviors.
  
  
• Some schools still do not make the environmental modifications that would increase access, reduce the challenging behaviors of some students, and result in more effective special education.
  
  
• Too often the absence of services and support systems for adults with disabilities restricts the development of effective transition programs for secondary-aged students.

Nondiscriminatory Evaluation Barriers

• All too often schools rely on testing that targets the students' needs instead of their strengths or testing that simply is inadequate to identify strengths and needs in minority students, thereby causing misclassification, erroneous educational placement, and inappropriate interventions.
  
  
• Similarly, schools pay insufficient attention to the cultural dimensions of their students' lives, and teachers are often not prepared to respond to the cultural diversity of their students.
  
  
• For several groups of students, nondiscriminatory evaluation procedures are themselves inadequate.
  
  
• Placement is still based on the categorical label assigned to students, not on their particular strengths or needs.

Appropriate Education Barriers

• Schools still use inappropriate curricula.
  
  
• The talents of many teachers and related service providers are misused.
  
  
• Service and support systems are unavailable or ineffective.
  
  
• Services, even within schools, are poorly coordinated.
  
  
• Schools are generally not creative in identifying appropriate interventions or supportive services that might be employed when students are having difficulty in less restrictive placements.
  
  
• Professionals do not know enough about other services available in their communities, particularly those services that could make students' education and transition more appropriate and beneficial.
  
  
• Schools turn too often to "educational faddism" and are driven too frequently by political rather than sound pedagogical motives.
  
  
• School systems often lack instructional leadership by highly competent, well- trained administrators, master teachers, and support personnel.
  
  
• Students continue to be disempowered by teacher-directed, deficit-based teaching methodologies.
  
  
• Teachers need a great deal more preservice and in-service training.
  
  
• Curricula often rely too much on specific--and outmoded--models for educating certain categories of students.
  
  
• Teachers may not know how to work with parents or with each other in order to combine their strengths and resources.
  
  
• Competent teachers are in short supply, especially for students with specific types of disabilities.
  
  
• General educators often do not feel responsible for educating students with disabilities.

Least Restrictive Environment Barriers

• Schools still operate improperly segregated programs and inappropriately place too many students in these programs.
  
  
• Schools still isolate special education students from contact with people and events in their communities.
  
  
• State and local funding patterns create disincentives to placing students in less restrictive programs.
  
  
• State and local agencies still have organizational and administrative structures that perpetuate separate systems of special and general education.
  
  
• Schools still use less intensive special education services for students who need more specialized and intensive teaching.
  
  
• Political and attitudinal factors may lead to a lack of community support for schools' efforts to integrate students with disabilities.
  
  
• Schools may place students into less restrictive placements without the physical, academic, or social supports necessary to ensure that they will experience success in these placements.
  
  
• School districts may have limited less restrictive placement options due to their historic use of more restrictive options.

Parent Participation and Procedural Due Process Barriers

• Schools often lack sufficient accountability to their students and parents.
  
  
• Schools still suffer from limited parental involvement.
  
  
• Parent Training and Information Centers still do not reach as many parents as they might, especially parents of traditionally underserved or minority students.
  
  
• Some parents are highly resistant to adaptive changes in programs such as less restrictive placement, the use of positive behavioral supports as the intervention of choice for challenging behaviors, or transition initiatives.

Funding Barriers

• Special education is often underfunded at the federal, state, and local levels.
  
  
• Some funding streams are too restrictive because they either prevent students who could benefit from it from receiving special education or they prevent districts from using the funds more effectively.

Administrative Barriers

• School districts may have a long history of reliance on categorical programs requiring students to fit the service system rather than the service system to fit the student.
  
  
• Placements may be determined on students' categorical labels rather than on their strengths and needs.
  
  
• Separate systems of special and regular education administration often discourage interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration.

Ideological and Attitudinal Barriers

• Prejudicial attitudes regarding students with disabilities may exist among general and special educators, among parents, and among members of the general community.
  
  
• Ardor for specific programs or teaching methods can vitiate individualized and effective instruction.

Federal, State, and Local Policy Barriers

• Outmoded policies still inhibit accomplishment of the goals of IDEA and its full implementation. These policies too often restrict implementation of the principles of appropriate education, least restrictive education, and collaborative decision making.
  
  
• These policies also stand in the way of effective school restructuring, school-linked services, and safe schools.

Personnel Preparation Barriers

• Special and general education practices reflect teacher preparation, just as teacher preparation drives school practices. This symbiotic relationship between practice and preparation means that the implementation of promising practices is quite uneven on a national basis.
  
  
• While many students preparing to be teachers benefit from experience with state-of-the-art practices in their education, far too many still do not have access to the quality of practices and preparatory experiences that should have been created by now. Therefore, outmoded and ineffective practices are reinforced and perpetuated.

Recommendations Derived from a Review of Scholarly Research on IDEA

While the implementation of IDEA has certainly not been flawless, it has provided educational opportunity to millions of students who were previously excluded from school altogether. Can IDEA be improved? Can its implementation be improved? The unequivocal answer to both these questions is affirmative. The data reviewed during this research process led to sound recommendations for improving IDEA and its implementation.

All efforts to improve IDEA, its funding levels and funding policies, and its implementation at the federal, state and local levels must be premised on capacity building and directed toward improving the abilities of those involved:

• Improve the ability of schools to deliver services as IDEA envisions them being delivered.
  
  
• Improve the ability of families to collaborate with educators and other professionals in sharing decision-making power related to their children and to service systems as a whole.
  
  
• Improve the ability of students with disabilities to benefit from effective special education and to enjoy lives characterized by integration, productivity, and independence.

Every recommendation made by the 27 nationally preeminent scholars in special education and personnel preparation points to the need to build the capacities of schools, parents, and students in order to improve the implementation of IDEA. A summary of their specific recommendations is provided below.

Recommendations for Improving IDEA

One overall recommendation emerged from a study of the scholarly literature regarding the implementation of IDEA to date:

Congress should reaffirm the basic framework and underlying six principles of IDEA, acknowledge that it is essential legislation for assuring the equal protection and basic civil rights of people with disabilities, and focus on improving the quality of special and general education. Accordingly, Congress should fine-tune IDEA and give direction to federal, state, and local agencies so that they can ensure improved quality of special and general education.

Specific recommendations regarding the six basic principles supporting IDEA and related issues are presented below.

Zero Reject

To improve implementation of the zero-reject principle:

• Incorporate the statement of national goals and policies for persons with disabilities as set out in the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  
  
• Change the timelines affecting eligibility for early intervention services and provide more funding for early intervention programs.
  
  
• Require states to put into place systems that ensure collaboration and coordination of transition services.

Nondiscriminatory Evaluation

To improve implementation of the nondiscriminatory evaluation principle:

• Provide financial incentives in model demonstration, systems change, research, and personnel preparation projects to ensure the use of nondiscriminatory evaluation instruments and processes with students from minority populations.
  
  
• Fine-tune the definitions of "traumatic brain injury" and "severely emotionally disabled."

Appropriate Education

To improve implementation of the appropriate education principle:

• Provide financial incentives in model demonstration, systems change, research, and personnel preparation projects to ensure the use of best practices such as the following:
  
  
• special education delivered to minority students in culturally competent ways;
• collaboration among general and special educators and related service providers;
• interagency collaboration, especially between educational, medical, social service, and other human service agencies;
• interdisciplinary and interagency service delivery;
• improved transition plan processes;
• self-determination curricula as well as teaching and student participation in educational planning and decision making;
• education in the least restrictive environment;
• community-based work experiences before a student leaves school;
• use of Participatory Action Research techniques in all research, training, and model demonstration programs; and
• parent and student participation through shared decision making.
  
  
• Improve technical assistance efforts.
  
  
• Lower the age for mandatory transition planning from 16 to 14.
  
  
• Ensure that students have a greater decision-making role in designing and carrying out their programs.
  
  
• Allow students to be eligible for school-based transition services after they graduate.
  
  
• Provide special education students with more useful and credible diploma options.
  
  
• Strengthen transition planning so it focuses not only on work, but also on other post-secondary outcomes.
  
  
• Appropriate more funds for post-secondary programs.
  
  
• Exercise greater oversight with respect to Individual Education Plan (IEP) development, implementation, and appropriateness.
  
  
• Allow the low-incidence population of students with physical disabilities to be included as one of the focus categories under Subchapter III.

Least Restrictive Environment

To improve implementation of the least restrictive environment principle:

• Support personnel preparation, not only in special education teacher training but also general education teacher training, particularly in implementing the principles of least restrictive education, collaborative education with other professionals (related service providers and administrators), and relating to families in a culturally competent manner.

Parent-Student Participation and Collaboration

To improve implementation of the parent-student participation and collaboration principle:

• Extend to older students and their families the family service provisions of the Individualized Family Service Plan now available to infants and toddlers under Part H.
  
  
• Preserve and extend the Parent Training and Information Center programs to better serve minority populations.
  
  
• Enact a presumption that research, training, and demonstration programs will utilize techniques of Participatory Action Research, directing OSERS to award extra credit in peer reviews to research, training, and demonstration projects that use this type of process.

Oversight and Monitoring

To improve oversight and monitoring of the implementation of IDEA:

• Congress should exercise vigorous oversight and OSERS should conduct more stringent monitoring of IDEA's implementation.

Funding

To improve the implementation of IDEA:

• Congress should work toward full funding to the authorized maximum (40 percent of excess cost) or create or allow new and different funding streams.
  
  
• Eliminate categorical funding provisions that provide disincentives to delivering special education in the least restrictive environment and create incentives for more education in the least restrictive environment.
  
  
• Allow more flexibility in using funds for direct services, program administration, and eligibility.
  
  
• Increase model demonstration program funding.
  
  
• Increase technical assistance funding, especially for regional service centers that assist students with visual impairments.
  
  
• Increase research funding.
  
  
• Establish a formula grant category for services and supports that result in the successful employment for secondary-level students.
  
  
• Expand Medicaid coverage to allow greater coverage of related services.

Recommendations for the Improvement of Personnel Preparation and Comprehensive Systems of Personnel Development

The special education researchers and teacher trainers were overwhelmingly disappointed by the quality of personnel preparation offered by institutions of higher education and in the comprehensive systems of personnel development operated by state and local education agencies. They unequivocally agreed that a great deal of work needs to be accomplished in the areas of teacher preparation and teacher in-service education.

At present, many recent graduates of the nation's special and general education teacher training programs are not well prepared to apply best practices and state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, state and local agencies' comprehensive systems of personnel development do not effectively remediate the problem created by inadequate preservice training. Similarly, state certification and evaluation standards and procedures for new or continuing teachers do not assure that teachers will be as effective as they should be in the classroom, in collaborating with each other and with professionals in other agencies, and in sharing decision-making responsibilities with parents and students.

These conclusions apply to preservice and in-service programs that focus on categories of disabilities such as learning disabilities, severe emotional disturbance, mental retardation, autism, traumatic brain injury, vision or hearing impairments, physical disabilities, and other health impairments. Likewise, they also apply to programs that focus on skills for early intervention, early childhood education, least restrictive environment and integration strategies, transition, supported employment, school-linked service delivery, interagency collaboration, responding to challenging behaviors through positive behavioral support, and violence prevention.

For example, many early interventionists and early childhood educators still are not utilizing proven successful practices. Special and regular educators are often not trained to carry out the principles of appropriate education and least restrictive environment. That is true, too, with respect to the overarching goal of independence for individuals with disabilities: Professionals are still not properly trained to enhance students' self-determination and choice-making related to transition and employment. Special efforts are needed to recruit minority professionals as researchers, trainers, and district-based educators, especially for low-incidence populations such as students with hearing impairments. Finally, professionals still lack the necessary skills to collaborate with each other and with parents in making decisions about students' education and about research and demonstration programs.

The good news is that there is a set of promising preservice and in-service practices and programs. The not-so-good news is that these practices and programs have not yet spread across the nation. The result is that, although some professionals receive superb preservice and in-service training, too many do not. Accordingly, students--who have a right to an education that benefits them and does so in the least restrictive environment--are being shortchanged. Education is by definition labor-intensive and labor-dependent. When the labor force--the professional cadre--suffers from inadequate preparation and in-service training, students also suffer.

Since the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 89-750) in 1966, P.L. 91-230 in 1970, and P.L. 93-380 in 1974 (the predecessors to P.L. 94-142), the federal and state governments have shared the responsibility for personnel preparation in general and special education. There is a unique role for the Federal Government in developing a national leadership cadre of researchers and other leaders and in augmenting state efforts to train teachers. The leadership cadre, after all, performs nationally significant roles, whereas the teacher corps performs locally significant roles. By the same token, there is a unique role for state governments, acting through their institutions of higher education. This role is to prepare, certify, and evaluate teachers. This federal-state partnership is responsible for the present state of affairs in preservice and in-service education, and accordingly the Federal Government, state education agencies, and institutions of higher education have joint responsibility for improving preservice and in-service education.

Recommendations Regarding Research

Research should focus on interventions related to student needs. For example, research is still needed to achieve the following:

• Improve student capacities through early intervention and early childhood special education.
  
  
• Increase students' self-determination and reduce their challenging behaviors.
  
  
• Prepare students for transition into and out of special education and into supported employment.
  
  
• Carry out IDEA's principle of education in the least restrictive environment.
  
  
• Enhance students' social relationships and their abilities to participate with nondisabled peers and adults in the lives of their communities.
  
  
• Ensure that students with challenging behaviors receive positive behavioral support from qualified educators.

Similarly, research is still needed to improve teacher-to-teacher collaboration and teacher-and-parent shared decision making and to enhance consumer participation in setting research priorities, conducting research, and disseminating and using research data. On a different level, research is still needed on the incidence and prevalence of some disabilities, especially mild mental retardation and traumatic brain injury. Indeed, improved data collection and follow-up studies are particularly relevant to some student populations, especially those with mild mental retardation. Finally, research on larger systemic issues such as nationally important initiatives in school reform, comprehensive services through school-linked service provision, and violence prevention has just gotten under way and should be continued.

In many respects, the research community is just on the edge of significant breakthroughs in preventing and ameliorating the effects of disabilities, improving teaching methodologies, ensuring students' participation in general education and in their own communities, and strengthening and even improving the capacities of schools, teachers, and parents to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Just as teacher preparation is a shared federal-state responsibility, so too is research. Although the greater portion of special education research funds are provided by the Federal Government, there are state-funded and state-supported research activities. Some states have their own research funds, but all states support faculty in their institutions of higher education to conduct research. Thus, both the federal and state governments can and should respond to these recommendations for research.

Recommendations Regarding Demonstration Programs

By the same token, Congress, OSERS, and state agencies should continue, expand, and redirect model demonstration programs. These programs should include rehabilitation research and training centers, systems-change efforts, technical assistance projects, policy analyses, and short-term (three-year) models to develop and disseminate state-of-the-art and promising practices. Just as preservice and in-service training and research funding are shared between the federal and state governments, so too with demonstration projects: Both levels of government are responsible for improving demonstration activities.

The overall effect of model demonstration projects is to develop new and improved techniques for teaching students, advancing IDEA's six principles (especially the least restrictive environment principle), and preparing special and general educators, families, and students themselves for collaborative decision making. Historically, these demonstration programs have been at the forefront of advancing IDEA's purposes and goals. At present, they need to be significantly more targeted on current implementation and improvement issues.

Recommendations for Policy Revision

As noted above, many federal, state, and local policies are problematic. Too often policies impede schools from implementing the principle of the least restrictive environment, and too rarely do they create incentives for schools to implement that principle. In some states, teacher union contracts limit regular or special educators in implementing the principle of the least restrictive environment. Moreover, some state laws, such as the Nurse Practice Acts, impede educators and other professionals from delivering school-based services to students with health-related needs.

Better federal and state-level interagency collaboration is required, especially to improve services to students with severe emotional disabilities and traumatic brain injuries and to help students with visual impairments have easier access to printed materials. In addition, the purposes, goals, and rights guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act need to serve as the basis for future policy discussions and decisions regarding special education and the delivery of services to children and youth with disabilities.

Recommendations for Improvements in Special Education Practice

Congress, OSERS, and state and local agencies must take action to improve special and general education practices. Practices that reflect state-of-the-art service delivery are well known. They are in place and have been in effect for quite some time. The problem is that these practices are the exception, not the rule. Once again, islands of excellence do not constitute the mainland.

State and local education agencies are responsible for delivering special education. They are responsible for assuring that education benefits students and is delivered in the least restrictive environment. Unfortunately, far too many state and local agencies fall short in using promising practices and state-of-the-art services that would help them effectively discharge their responsibilities in the areas of appropriate education and least restrictive environment for students with disabilities. In particular, appropriate services are still unavailable consistently and uniformly throughout the country to students who have been classified as having, among other disabilities, learning disabilities, severe emotional disturbance, mental retardation, severe and multiple disabilities, other health impairments, autism, traumatic brain injuries, visual impairments, and hearing impairments. For many of these students, curricula are ineffective and dated. Their transitions from school to adulthood are haphazard. It is not the least surprising, then, that the results of their education are so disappointing.

Indeed, there also is evidence of a paucity of services--not merely an absence of best practices--for students with traumatic brain injuries, visual impairments, and hearing impairments. There is also evidence that minority students, as well as children in early intervention and early childhood education programs, are especially shortchanged by the lack of any services or the lack of appropriate services. It is one thing to lack services altogether or to not have appropriate education even if some services are provided. These problems are compounded when services are finally provided that do not reflect state-of-the-art or promising practices for serving students in the least restrictive environment.

In early intervention, early childhood education, and throughout the elementary-to-upper school years, practices in special and general education simply do not sufficiently comply with the principle of least restrictive environment. Much more could be done to decentralize large centers where too many students receive their education and to disperse specialized services throughout their home communities. The restructuring and dispersal of presently centralized services are long overdue. While it is true that some students still need highly specialized services, they need to have access to an array of services which will meet these needs in their home communities. Most students currently placed in these centers can be educated to a much greater degree in general education. Their current levels of physical, academic, and social integration leave a great deal to be desired.

Another problem with current practice is found in the relatively low quantity and quality of parent-student participation and collaboration. While many parents do share decision-making responsibilities with special and regular educators, there is compelling evidence that many do not and that the reasons for this noninvolvement have less to do with their willingness and capability to be part of their children's education teams than with educators' attitudes and practices. Time and again, schools and educators are reluctant to share responsibilities and decision-making powers with parents and students, to schedule meetings at times and places convenient to parents and students, and to develop the skills to collaborate with parents and to teach self-determination to students. In short, there are administrative, attitudinal, and skill barriers to implementing this important principle.

To improve performance in the areas of appropriate education, least restrictive environment, and shared decision making, state education agencies need to put into place more regular and stringent systems for monitoring local agencies. Monitoring involves more than paper-compliance reviews: It has to involve scrutinizing the actual quality of special education services. Moreover, monitoring and quality assurance have to be proactive. That is, they must involve technical assistance and improvements in comprehensive systems of personnel development, targeting resources toward improving the skills of special and regular educators to deliver an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment to students with disabilities in collaboration with one another and with parents and students.

The need for interprofessional and interagency collaboration and coordination is one that state and local education agencies must address during the next five years. To deliver services in the least restrictive environment, to assure transition from school to post-school opportunities that IDEA and ADA envision, and to make certain that school restructuring benefits students in special education, state and local education agencies--and especially state agencies as they monitor local agencies--have to reconceptualize themselves. They have to be willing and able to move from separate systems of special and regular education to a unified system where all schools "own" all students, where all indeed means all, and where, if necessary or desirable, school-linked services emanate from comprehensive schools.

This shift will require state legislatures to design funding streams that unify school district administrative structures and services. It also will require state legislatures to ensure that state funding is based on the number of students needing special education (not just the number receiving IEPs) and on the needs of the students themselves (not on the categories into which they have been classified). State and federal funding has been too closely tied to the number of students having IEPs, thus penalizing states that provide special education to those who need it but who may not have an IEP. Furthermore, state and federal funding has been tied too much to categories of disability, so that students with a certain classification receive certain types and levels of service, rather than receiving what they actually need, without regard to their classifications.

In summary, state and local education agencies and even state legislatures themselves should move aggressively to adopt the promising practices that research, demonstration, and personnel preparation programs have developed and validated over the past 20 years of experience in special education, including reconfiguring service delivery, monitoring methods, and funding policies. It is clear that the knowledge base exists to improve special and general education practice. It is also clear that state and local education agencies and state legislatures have not, to date, put that knowledge to best use.

Recommendations for School Restructuring

The opportunities--and the risks--are high as state and local agencies begin to restructure themselves pursuant to the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Opportunities exist to create new norms and forms for all students, to reshape schools so that excellence and equity coexist, especially for students with disabilities. Indeed, to the extent that comprehensive schools, serving as the hub of school-linked human services, can be created as restructuring moves forward, the chances increase for wider implementation of the principle of least restrictive environment. However, intensive oversight by Congress, OSERS, and state agencies is especially warranted due to the risk that school restructuring will proceed without special education constituents being substantially involved and will result in school norms and forms that reduce opportunities for students with disabilities to receive education in the least restrictive environment in neighborhood schools.

Summary

As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act on the 20th anniversary of P.L. 94-142, the indisputable conclusions to be drawn from a review of scholarly literature and the work of nationally preeminent scholars in the fields of special education research and teacher training are as follows:

• IDEA advances the equal protection doctrine of the Constitution. It is not one of the so-called "unfunded mandates." It is, instead, federal assistance to the states so that the states and their local education agencies can carry out their own federal and state constitutional duties to educate all children with disabilities.
  
  
• IDEA has been the single most significant vehicle for creating and implementing effective special education. Its 20-year history of positive impact on students, their families, educators, other professionals, and communities is both obvious and impressive.
  
  
• Congress, OSERS, and state and local educational agencies must, however, improve IDEA and its implementation. The improvements will link the current islands of excellence in special education to the educational mainland. In time, they will create the mainland itself. When that happens, all students--those with and without disabilities--will benefit, all families and educators will benefit, and indeed the whole nation will benefit from the investment we have made through IDEA in advancing equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for students with disabilities.

LEARNING DISABILITIES

Don D. Deshler and Jean Schumaker
University of Kansas

Abstract

1. The educational outcomes sought for students with learning disabilities relate to the same questions that are asked about individuals without learning disabilities: Are they achieving, are they staying in school, are they prepared to enter the work force after school, are they participating in meaningful post-secondary education or training experiences, and are they prepared for adult life?
   
   
2. Significant progress has been made in the development of intervention procedures that enable these students to be successful. However, there are limited examples of systematic implementation of these validated procedures, as is evidenced by an alarmingly high dropout rate (as many as one-half of students fail to complete school).
   
   
3. The following elements have been found to be central to promoting positive outcomes for these students: (a) early identification; (b) availability of a continuum of services; (c) intensive, coordinated, and comprehensive instruction; (d) use of validated procedures; (e) emphasis on mastery of critical skills and strategies; (f) sufficient time for planning and collaboration among teachers; and (g) coordination of efforts across all stakeholders, including various agencies.
   
   
4. The following factors inhibit desired outcomes from being reached: (a) inadequate identification procedures, (b) educational faddism, (c) lack of instructional leadership, (d) inadequate teacher training, (e) lack of coordination within and across programs and agencies, (f) teacher isolation, (g) lack of felt responsibility for students by general educators, (h) unstructured instructional programs, and (i) programs that emphasize coverage versus mastery.
   
   
5. Congress should improve the quality of services provided to these students by (a) giving direction relative to creating a "seamless web" of services through interagency coordination and (b) directing OSERS to create categorical funding initiatives related to learning disabilities for research, demonstration, and personnel preparation efforts.
   
   
6. OSERS should (a) fund specific research initiatives focusing on learning disabilities, (b) fund demonstration centers that embody validated intervention procedures, and (c) fund personnel preparation efforts that enhance the competence of teachers and administrators to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities.
   
   
7. State and local education agencies should (a) require local agencies to engage in a process of strategic planning when selecting new program components or emphases, (b) shift the focus of monitoring activities from basic compliance to program quality indicators, (c) direct that personnel preparation activities follow sound principles of staff development and focus on the mastery of validated interventions, and (d) require that local education agencies create and operationalize an interagency plan.

1. What outcomes within the categorical area are recognized as important for students to obtain?

The educational outcomes sought for individuals with learning disabilities should answer the same questions as are asked of students without learning disabilities: Are they achieving; are they staying in school; are they prepared to enter the work force after school; are they participating in meaningful post-secondary education or training experiences; and are they prepared for adult life? (National Council on Disability, 1989) Included among the important educational outcomes for students with learning disabilities are (a) having basic literacy and academic skills to enable them to benefit from educational and training experiences as well as to compete in the job market; (b) having basic social and interactive skills to enable them to function successfully in academic, employment, community, and family situations; and (c) possessing, at a minimum, a standard high school diploma that makes available meaningful opportunities for post-secondary education or training experiences or gainful employment.

Given the very unique and heterogeneous nature of the population of individuals with learning disabilities, individual outcomes will vary. Thus, placement and programming decisions need to be tailored to meet the individual needs of each student. Additionally, because the needs of individuals in this population are so great (their deficits are so encompassing), educational plans for these students need to incorporate sufficient accommodations for intensive instruction in targeted areas of difficulty in order to enable these individuals to meet the demands in mainstream environments in such a way as to achieve the desired outcomes. When programming is designed to coincide with their unique learning needs, individuals with learning disabilities can become successful in both academic and employment pursuits (Robinson & Deshler, 1995).

2. To what extent have these outcomes been achieved in the last five years?

The application of IDEA to improve the outcomes of individuals with learning disabilities has had mixed results. On the one hand, the law has contributed significantly to the field's knowledge base concerning effective instructional procedures for individuals with learning disabilities. For example, when instruction is systematic, intensive, and tailored to the individual needs of students with learning disabilities, it can favorably impact their performance in the classroom and the workplace (e.g., Carnine, 1994b; Mercer & Miller, 1992; Talbott, Lloyd, & Tankersley, 1994). Unfortunately, instances of appropriate and widespread application of these known principles of instruction are very limited (Carnine, 1993).

Perhaps related to this reality is the mounting evidence that the outcomes specified in Question #1 are not being met for a large percentage of individuals with learning disabilities. Specifically, the dropout rate for students with learning disabilities is alarmingly high. Varying estimates indicate that as many as one-half of students with learning disabilities fail to complete school (Edgar, 1987; Wagner, 1991; Zigmond & Thornton, 1985). Inasmuch as individuals with learning disabilities do not generally have supported living alternatives in their post-school lives (like many individuals with developmental disabilities), these figures are especially discouraging in terms of the grave consequences that they foreshadow as these individuals move into adulthood.

Even for those students who do remain in school, however, there is evidence that their educational programs may be insufficient to adequately prepare them for the demanding rigors of core curriculum offerings (Deshler & Schumaker, 1993) or meaningful employment options after school (Halpren, 1993). Indeed, evidence suggests that these students enter secondary school reading and writing at the fourth-grade level (Schumaker, Deshler, Alley, & Warner, 1983). Because of this large gap between their skills and what they are expected to do in secondary school, most of these students receive failing or barely passing grades in core subject courses (Donahoe & Zigmond, 1990). In order for these students to be able to achieve the desired outcomes (in and outside of school), educational systems need to be optimally equipped to meet the needs of this heterogeneous population. Currently, schools do not provide a complete range of programming alternatives that are sufficiently broad in scope and yet sensitive enough to be responsive to unique nuances and variations of student learning patterns and needs. As a result, the majority of the desired outcomes have not been realized by individuals with learning disabilities.

3. What educational models/procedures are most effective for achieving these outcomes?

The educational programs that are most effective for enabling students with learning disabilities to achieve educational outcomes comparable to those of their peers have several features. First, they provide for the early identification of children who are at risk and ensure that those children receive appropriate and effective services immediately. Second, they include a continuum of services that are tailored to meet individual student needs across the grades and beyond school. This continuum of services ranges from intensive one-to-one or self-contained instruction for students with severe learning disabilities to the full inclusion of students who have mastered the skills and strategies necessary for success in mainstream settings. Third, instruction is intensive, comprehensive, and coordinated. That is, sufficient time and resources are devoted to targeted areas of difficulty such that the students' learning and performance are systematically addressed across settings and time. Fourth, the instructional methods that are used are those that have been validated for individuals with learning disabilities. Fifth, there is an emphasis on mastering skills and strategies as well as information within an age-appropriate curriculum. Sixth, teachers who provide services to students have sufficient time to regularly plan and solve problems together. Seventh, parents, teachers, other support personnel, and the student work together to create an individual plan for the student that ensures progress and a successful transition to post-secondary life. Finally, there is evidence of interagency cooperation relative to programming for students across the age continuum.

Within these effective programs, there are two instructional foci. First, instruction focuses on the necessary skills and strategies that students need to succeed across ages in a variety of educational and work-related settings. As students mature, the demands of the curriculum become more complex, and students need to be able to meet these demands if they are to earn average or above-average grades in required courses and remain in school. (Typically, students who earn lower grades are prime candidates for dropping out.) Second, instruction is delivered in such a way as to improve the understanding and retention of the information to be learned. Each of these instructional foci have critical features that make them successful.

In order for students to become fluent in targeted skills or strategies, teachers need to incorporate critical principles of learning into their instruction. Specifically, the skill or strategy needs to be broken down into its component parts and explicitly described to the student, it needs to be modeled in its entirety (including cognitive processes), and there need to be numerous opportunities for the student to practice using it and receive specific and individual feedback on its use. Practice opportunities need to be planned in such a way as to ensure the student's success through the use of guided practice and a programmed sequence of easy-to-difficult practice activities. Since some students have difficulty generalizing their use of a newly learned skill or strategy to other settings and situations, instruction also needs to focus on ensuring that students learn to generalize. Throughout the instructional process, student progress needs to be measured and displayed, and motivational procedures need to be applied.

Several instructional programs that are based on this instructional process have been validated through research for individuals with learning disabilities. They include direct instruction (e.g., Carnine, 1989; Woodward & Gersten, 1992), classwide peer tutoring (e.g., Delquadri, Greenwood, Stretton, & Hall, 1983; Maheady, Harper, & Sacca, 1988; Maheady, Sacca, & Harper, 1988; Mathes & Fuchs, 1993), peer tutoring (e.g., Scruggs & Osguthorpe, 1986; Top & Osguthorpe, 1987), learning strategy instruction (e.g., Schumaker & Deshler, 1992), math strategy instruction (e.g., Mercer & Miller, 1992), social skills instruction (e.g., Hazel, Schumaker, Sherman, & Sheldon-Wildgen, 1982; Vernon & Schumaker, 1993; Vernon, Deshler, & Schumaker, 1994), and self-control/self-advocacy instruction (e.g., Van Reusen, Deshler, & Schumaker, 1989).

To enhance the delivery of content information for these students, teachers need to think carefully about what content needs to be learned, transform that content into easy-to-understand formats, and present the content to students in memorable ways. As they transform and present the content, teachers need to focus on these principles: Information needs to be experienced through several modalities, abstract ideas need to be translated into concrete forms, important information needs to be highlighted and cued, new information needs to be tied to prior knowledge, information needs to be organized so that its structure is obvious, and relationships need to be explicitly explained. Additionally, as teachers present the content, they need to make students active partners in processing the content.

One program has been empirically validated for students with learning disabilities that is based on these methods. It has been used successfully in middle and high schools to improve the performance of students with learning disabilities who have been enrolled in regular subject-area classes. Called Content Enhancement, this approach encompasses a variety of routines that general education teachers can use to plan and present critical information to classes of diverse learners (Bulgren, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1988; Lenz, Bulgren, & Hudson, 1990; Schumaker, Deshler, & McKnight, 1991).

4. What educational models/procedures most inhibit these outcomes?

Several factors serve to inhibit the achievement of expected outcomes for students with learning disabilities. They include:

• Inadequate identification procedures. There is limited evidence that current classification and diagnostic models used to identify students with learning disabilities provide practitioners or researchers with useful information to make informed placement and programming decisions. Consequently, current practice largely relies on data from technically inadequate measurement instruments that are viewed within conceptual and theoretical frameworks that have not been clinically or empirically validated (Lyon, 1993).
  
  
• Educational faddism. Educators often make policy decisions based on the latest educational fad rather than on what has been shown, through research, to work with students with learning disabilities. As a result, programs tend to be transformed on a moment-to-moment basis from one approach to another with little basis for the transformation. Sometimes, due to teacher confusion, no approach is emphasized, thus limiting the effectiveness of the instruction that is provided.
  
  
• Lack of instructional leadership. At the state and local levels, there is a dearth of instructional leaders who are willing to commit to an instructional program that is comprehensive and coordinated across the grades and across special and general educational settings for this population. Instructional leaders are often not informed about what works best, and, as a result, their decisions with regard to allocating resources (e.g., for training, for collaborative opportunities) are not the most appropriate.
  
  
• Inadequate teacher training. Although several methods are now available that have been shown to help students with learning disabilities meet the expected outcomes, teacher-training experiences do not necessarily focus on these methods. Indeed, at the annual meeting of the Professional Advisory Board of the Learning Disabilities Association in March 1994, there was widespread concern expressed that special education teachers are no longer being trained how to teach students with learning disabilities how to read. Teacher-training experiences often focus on an awareness of various materials that are available and do not ensure that the teachers master the skills needed to implement the comprehensive types of instructional programs needed by this population within a continuum of services (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 1987). In-service training experiences are typically one-shot affairs with no follow-up or expectation that the methods will be actually implemented. As a result, the status quo remains intact.
  
  
• Lack of coordination within and across programs and agencies. Frequently, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing! (Adelman, in prep.) Programming efforts started in the elementary grades are often totally abandoned when a child moves into middle school; still another programming emphasis may prevail in high school. When services are not coordinated, students lack the concentrated and intensive instruction required to improve their performance. Even more alarming is the fact that there is often a total lack of services prior to children's entering public schools and very unpredictable service offerings following high school. For young adults with learning disabilities, a variety of agencies could potentially impact their performance; however, the lack of interagency coordination more often than not minimizes the probability that meaningful intervention and support will be provided. In short, the lack of a "seamless web" of services significantly reduces the gains that individuals with learning disabilities can make in overcoming learning deficits.
  
  
• Teacher isolation. Teachers often have little contact with each other, and there are limited opportunities built into the school routine for regular collaborative work. This hampers teachers' abilities to serve students with special needs because the instruction for these students needs to be well coordinated (Johnston, Allington, & Afflerbach, 1985). Students need to learn the skills and strategies that enable them to meet the demands of the classes they will face, but, if teachers are not communicating, those demands will not be clear, and the instruction will probably be lacking.
  
  
• Lack of felt responsibility for students by general educators. General educators often feel that special education teachers are responsible for educating students with learning disabilities, and they are responsible for educating students without disabilities. As a result, when they are approached to learn new methods for planning, transforming, and presenting their content, some general educators indicate that they are not interested or feel overwhelmed with their currently assigned duties and responsibilities (McIntosh, Vaughn, Schumm, Haager, & Okhee, 1993). Nevertheless, the involvement of these teachers is critical if students are to succeed in required mainstream educational experiences.
  
  
• Unstructured instructional programs. Often, programs are based on unstructured, discovery-learning approaches. That is, students are expected to "discover" the skills or information that they need to learn. Students with learning disabilities typically do not do well in these types of instructional environments. They do not "discover" how to learn to read or how to interact in social situations, for example. They need to be explicitly taught these skills and strategies through instructional methodologies that emphasize explicit teacher description and modeling of targeted behaviors, multiple practice opportunities with feedback, mastery of targeted skills or strategies, and programmed generalization across settings (Mather, 1992).
  
  
• Programs that emphasize coverage versus mastery. Because students with learning disabilities need multiple practice opportunities to learn something new, they typically need more practice than their nondisabled peers. Thus, programs that emphasize the coverage of information and skills and that do not allow for additional practice opportunities for those who have not mastered the information and skills are problematic for them. This is another reason why collaboration among teachers is critical to ensure that these additional practice opportunities are made available.

5. Provide two or three specific recommendations for action by Congress.

Congress can improve the quality of services provided to students with learning disabilities by (a) giving direction relative to creating a "seamless web" of services through interagency coordination and (b) directing OSERS to create categorical funding initiatives for research, demonstration, and personnel preparation efforts.

Direction to Provide Services Through Interagency Coordination

Congress should give direction to the Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services relative to the creation of a seamless web of services for individuals with learning disabilities. To prepare individuals with learning disabilities to enter adulthood in a position to compete effectively in the job market and to contribute to the community commensurate with their abilities, they must be provided well-coordinated services across the 3-21 age continuum. The heterogeneous nature of the condition of learning disabilities necessitates that services rendered by agencies representing various perspectives and resources be coordinated so that optimal gains will be made by individuals with learning disabilities as they transition from one age, school level, or agency to the next.

Congress should hold oversight hearings one year following enactment of the interagency mandate to determine the degree to which various federal agencies are responding to the establishment of meaningful interagency coordination of services. Additionally, as a condition of states receiving federal funds, state education agencies should be required to give assurances of compliance with state, regional, and local interagency planning.

Directing OSERS to Provide Categorical Funding for LD Initiatives

Congress should direct OSERS to create targeted funding opportunities to support research, demonstration, and personnel preparation efforts in the learning disabilities field through IDEA appropriations. Currently, there are no funding initiatives that are directed specifically at learning disabilities! This is not only ironic but exceedingly alarming given the fact that the largest number of individuals with disabilities receiving services under IDEA are classified as having a learning disability. Currently, there are separate funding programs for other categorical areas (e.g., deaf-blind, severe disabilities, and emotional disturbance) but nothing for learning disabilities. Additionally, a large percentage of current IDEA appropriations is set aside for age groups outside of school-aged children. That is, there are specific programs for early childhood/preschool efforts and transition/post-secondary efforts. However, no specific funds are targeted for innovative efforts for school-aged individuals, the largest percentage of the exceptional population.

The primary area under current IDEA appropriations where any innovative work (be it in research, demonstration, or personnel preparation) can be conducted is through the Division of Innovation and Development. Unfortunately, proposals targeted at learning disabilities must compete with proposals from other categorical and age-group areas as well. This open competition attracts large numbers of applications on populations that are also funded under specific categorical and age-group programs (e.g., emotional disturbance, early childhood). In essence, because of this "double dipping" opportunity for some and the lack of categorical funding for learning disabilities efforts, very little research, demonstration, and personnel preparation efforts are being supported for the largest group of individuals with disabilities in the United States: school-aged individuals with learning disabilities.

6. Provide two or three specific recommendations for improving IDEA's implementation through federally-funded activities, including but not limited to monitoring, technical assistance, personnel preparation, demonstration, and research, to be carried out over the next five years.

OSERS should (a) fund specific research initiatives focusing on learning disabilities, (b) fund demonstration centers that embody validated intervention procedures, and (c) fund personnel preparation efforts that enhance the competence of teachers and administrators to meet the needs of individuals with learning disabilities. In order to appropriately address each of the areas outlined below, OSERS must establish categorical funding priorities for learning disabilities as specified in the response to Question #5.

Fund Research Initiatives Focusing on Learning Disabilities

OSERS should specify a research agenda that addresses the following targets:

• The development of valid frameworks for reliably identifying and classifying the population, including cost-efficient procedures that require minimal assessment for placement and reevaluation of students with learning disabilities.
  
  
• The development of effective and efficient instructional procedures and models that promote academic, social, and life-adjustment competence for individuals with learning disabilities. This research should establish the instructional conditions that are necessary in order for students with learning disabilities to demonstrate mastery and generalization of a targeted skill or strategy as well as mastery of required information in core subject areas.
  
  
• The development of innovative models that promote effective utilization of research knowledge by various stakeholders engaged in practice (e.g., policymakers, practitioners, parents, students, etc.). Research in this area should establish ways to close the gap between research and practice so that the growing body of validated intervention and programming procedures can be integrated into practice on behalf of individuals with learning disabilities.

Fund Demonstration Centers That Embody Validated Intervention Models

OSERS should specify an agenda that addresses the following targets:

• The development of a set of standards by which demonstration sites should be developed and maintained over an extended period of time to determine the separate factors and overall dynamics that impact the successful implementation of an instructional program for individuals with learning disabilities at a given grade level.
  
  
• The development of demonstration sites that cut across multiple age levels and agencies and that provide both comprehensive and extended services to students over time. These projects will shed light on the requirements to establish a seamless web of services across time, settings, and agencies for individuals with learning disabilities.

Fund Personnel Preparation Efforts That Enhance the Competence of Administrators and Teachers with Regard to Serving Individuals with LD

OSERS should specify an agenda that addresses the following targets:

• The development of preservice and in-service personnel preparation programs that require the development of high-level expertise in special educators serving students with learning disabilities relative to the proficient application of validated practices in assessment, intervention, and collaboration.
  
  
• The development of preservice and in-service personnel preparation programs that foster appropriate attitudes and competencies by general educators (e.g., how to plan for, directly instruct, and collaborate with special educators) to meet the unique needs of students with learning disabilities as well as other students in their classes.
  
  
• The development of preservice and in-service personnel preparation programs for school administrators that will enable them to provide strong leadership and to make informed decisions regarding the provision of services that meet the needs of individuals with learning disabilities in their setting.

7. Provide two or three specific recommendations for improving IDEA's implementation by state and local education agencies.

State and local education agencies should (a) require local agencies to engage in a process of strategic planning when selecting new program components or emphases, (b) shift the focus of monitoring activities from basic compliance elements to program quality indicators, (c) direct that personnel preparation activities follow sound principles of staff development and focus on the mastery of validated instructional methods, and (d) require that local education agencies provide assurances that programming for individuals with learning disabilities involves an interagency plan.

Require the Use of a Strategic Planning Process When Selecting New Program Components

To prevent policymaking that seeks to meet educational challenges by embracing the latest educational fad, districts should be required to use a process that engages them in systematic decision making regarding the selection of new programs. A process that embodies, at a minimum, the following components should be followed: (a) setting improvement goals, (b) defining the scope of the improvement plan, (c) identifying validated approaches (i.e., tools and practices that are effective, sustainable, accountable, equitable, and cost efficient), and (d) planning and managing the implementation plan (Carnine, 1994a).

Shift the Focus of Monitoring Activities from Compliance to Quality

In order to enable individuals with learning disabilities to acquire desired outcomes (see Question #1), states must concentrate their monitoring activities on the quality of services provided to individuals with learning disabilities. Measures of the amount and nature of instruction (e.g., time on tasks that are directly related to IEP targets, intensity of instruction, consistency and coordination of instruction, etc.) should be conceptualized and used to monitor programs.

Direct That Personnel Preparation Activities Follow Sound Principles of Staff Development and Focus on the Mastery of Validated Interventions

The use of any flow-through dollars for staff development purposes should be restricted to districts that follow a plan for personnel preparation that is based on established principles associated with effective staff development and system change (e.g., Fullan with Stiegelbauer, 1991). Currently, most in-service sessions are "one-shot" presentations with no expectations for mastery or implementation. Additionally, fund availability should be made contingent on the delivery of content that has been empirically validated for the target population.

Certification requirements for preservice education should be reexamined to ensure that they emphasize validated practices and that students are required to demonstrate mastery of the targeted skills and not merely awareness of them. Additionally, certification requirements for administrative personnel should be amended to require them to become knowledgeable in current trends, issues, and methods related to assessing and instructing individuals with learning disabilities.

Require That Local Education Agencies Construct and Operationalize an Interagency Plan for Programming for Individuals with LD

The requirement to conceptualize and operationalize a plan of action for delivering services to individuals with learning disabilities should be established for local education agencies to provide a seamless web of services for individuals across ages and agencies.

References

Adelman, H. S. (in prep.). Restructuring education support services: Toward the concept of an enabling component. Los Angeles, CA: University of California at Los Angeles.

Bulgren, J. A., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (1988). Effectiveness of a concept teaching routine on enhancing the performance of LD students in secondary-level mainstream classes. Learning Disability Quarterly, 11(1), 3-17.

Carnine, D. (1989). Teaching complex content to learning disabled students: The role of technology. Exceptional Children, 55(6), 524-533.

Carnine, D. (1993). Criteria for developing and evaluating instructional materials. Eugene, OR: National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators.

Carnine, D. (1994a). A handbook for creating smart schools. Eugene, OR: National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators.

Carnine, D. (1994b). Introduction to the mini-series: Diverse learners and prevailing, emerging, and research-based educational approaches and their tools. School Psychology Review, 23(3), 341-350.

Delquadri, J., Greenwood, C. R., Stretton, K., & Hall, R. V. (1983). The peer tutoring game: A classroom procedure for increasing opportunity to respond and spelling performance. Education and Treatment of Children, 6, 225-239.

Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (1993). Strategy mastery by at-risk students: Not a simple matter. The Elementary School Journal, 94(2), 153-169.

Donahoe, K., & Zigmond, N. (1990). Academic grades on ninth-grade urban learning disabled students and low-achieving peers. Exceptionality, 1, 17-27.

Edgar, E. (1987). Secondary programs in special education: Are many of them justifiable? Exceptional Children, 53(6), 555-561.

Fullan, M. G., with Stiegelbauer, S. (1991). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.

Halpren, A. S. (1993). Quality of life as a conceptual framework for evaluating transition outcomes. Exceptional Children, 59(6), 486-498.

Hazel, J. S., Schumaker, J. B., Sherman, J. A., & Sheldon-Wildgen, J. (1982). Application of a social skills and problem-solving group training program to learning disabled and non-learning disabled youth. Learning Disability Quarterly, 5, 409-414.

Johnston, P., Allington, R., & Afflerbach, P. (1985). The congruence of classroom and remedial reading instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 85(4), 465-477.

Lenz, B. K., Bulgren, J. A., & Hudson, P. (1990). Content enhancement: A model for promoting the acquisition of content by individuals with learning disabilities. In T. E. Scruggs & B. L. Y. Wong (Eds.), Intervention research in learning disabilities (pp. 122-165). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Lyon, G. R. (1993). Preface. In G. R. Lyon, D. B. Gray, J. F. Kavanagh, & N. A. Krasnegor (Eds.), Better understanding learning disabilities: New views from research and their implications for education and public policies (pp. xvii-xix). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Maheady, L., Harper, G. F., & Sacca, M. K. (1988). Peer-mediated instruction: A promising approach to meeting the diverse needs of LD adolescents. Learning Disability Quarterly, 11, 108-113.

Maheady, L., Sacca, M. K., & Harper, G. F. (1988). Classwide peer tutoring with mildly disabled high school students. Exceptional Children, 55(1), 52-59.

Mather, N. (1992). Whole language reading instruction for students with learning disabilities: Caught in the cross fire. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 7, 87-95.

Mathes, P. G., & Fuchs, L. S. (1993). Peer-mediated reading instruction in special education resource rooms. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 8(4), 233-243.

McIntosh, R., Vaughn, S., Schumm, J. S., Haager, D., & Okhee, L. (1993). Observations of students with learning disabilities in general education classrooms. Exceptional Children, 60(3), 249-261.

Mercer, C. D., & Miller, S. P. (1992). Teaching students with learning disabilities in math to acquire, understand, and apply basic math facts. Journal of Remedial and Special Education, 13(3), 19-35.

National Council on Disability (1989). The education of students with disabilities: Where do we stand? Washington, DC: Author.

National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (1987). Learning disabilities: Issues in the preparation of professional personnel. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20(4), 229-231.

Robinson, S. M., & Deshler, D. D. (1995). Learning disabled. In E. L. Meyen & T. M. Skrtic (Eds.), Special education and student disability: Traditional, emerging, and alternative perspectives (pp. 171-212). Denver, CO: Love Publishing.

Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (1992). Validation of learning strategy interventions for students with LD: Results of a programmatic research effort. In Bernice Y. L. Wong (Ed.) Contemporary intervention research in learning disabilities: An international perspective (pp. 22-46). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., & McKnight, P. C. (1991). Teaching routines for content areas at the secondary level. In G. Stover, M. R. Shinn, & H. M. Walker (Eds.), Interventions for achievement and behavior problems (pp. 473-494). Washington, DC: National Association of School Psychologists.

Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., Alley, G. R., & Warner, M. M. (1983). Toward the development of an intervention model for learning disabled adolescents: The University of Kansas Institute. Exceptional Education Quarterly, 4(1), 45-74.

Scruggs, T. E., & Osguthorpe, R. T. (1986). Tutoring interventions within special education settings: A comparison of cross-age and peer tutoring. Psychology in the Schools, 23, 187-193.

Talbott, E., Lloyd, J. W., & Tankersley, M. (1994). Effects of reading comprehension interventions for students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 17(3), 223-232.

Top, B. L., & Osguthorpe, R. T. (1987). Reverse-role tutoring: The effects of handicapped students tutoring regular class students. The Elementary School Journal, 87(4), 413-423.

Van Reusen, A. K., Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (1989). Effects of a student participation strategy in facilitating the involvement of adolescents with learning disabilities in the individualized educational program planning process. Learning Disabilities, 1(2), 23-24.

Vernon, D. S., & Schumaker, J. B. (1993). Who benefits for social skills instruction in the mainstream classroom? Exceptionality Education Canada, 3(1), 9-38.

Vernon, D. S., Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (1994). Cooperative strategies in the classroom. Final report. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health.

Wagner, M. (1991). Dropouts with disabilities: What do we know? What can we do? Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Woodward, J., & Gersten, R. (1992). Innovative technology for secondary students with learning disabilities. Exceptional Children, 58, 407-421.

Zigmond, N., & Thornton, H. (1985). Follow-up of post secondary age learning disabled graduates and dropouts. Learning Disabilities Research, 1(1), 50-55.

Annotated Literature Abstract

Citation

Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (1988). An instructional model for teaching students how to learn. In J. L. Graden, J. E. Zins, & M. J. Curtis (Eds.), Alternative Educational Delivery Systems: Enhancing Instructional Options For All Students (pp. 391-411). Washington, DC: National Association of School Psychologists.

Abstract

The authors describe the Strategies Instructional Model, a comprehensive instructional model designed to teach students with learning disabilities how to learn and how to perform academic, social, or job-related tasks efficiently, effectively, and independently. Each participant in the model has varying, yet complementary, responsibilities. More specifically, support service teachers teach students with learning disabilities the skills and strategies needed to succeed in school and work. Mainstream class teachers teach content using content enhancement routines to improve student understanding and memory. Students with learning disabilities take responsibility for learning new skills and strategies and apply them to acquire content and respond to other mainstream demands. Parents, administrators, and ancillary staff provide external support for students with learning disabilities and their teachers. When working in concert, the participants can significantly improve the academic and social success of students with learning disabilities.

Key Points and Quotes

1. Support service teachers must systematically teach strategies to students with learning disabilities in an intense and direct fashion.

"To enable students to master strategies, a teaching methodology, based on sound instructional principles, has been developed (Deshler, Schumaker, & Lenz, 1984; Ellis, Deshler, Lenz, Schumaker, & Clark, 1991). This methodology has two major phases: the acquisition phase and the generalization phase. The purpose of the acquisition phase of the teaching methodology is to give students the knowledge, motivation, and practice necessary to apply a strategy successfully in the support setting...[whereas in the generalization phase teachers provide] multiple exemplars, daily reminders about where the strategy can be used, and actual application of the strategy to mainstream class assignments and materials." (pp. 397-398)

2. Mainstream teachers can use content enhancement routines to improve the learning of all students enrolled in their classes.

"Recent research has clearly demonstrated that mildly handicapped students and low achievers can experience success in responding to the demands of the mainstream curriculum if content teachers...(Bulgren, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1987; Deshler, Schumaker, Bulgren, Hudson, & McKnight, in press; Lenz, Alley, & Schumaker, 1987; Schumaker, Deshler, Hudson, McKnight, in press)...teach content to their classes through the use of specific teaching routines so as to enhance the understanding and memory of that content by all students." (p. 403)

Annotated Literature Abstract

Citation

White, W. A. T. (1988). A meta-analysis of the effects of direct instruction in special education. Education and Treatment of Children, 11, 364-374.

Abstract

The author describes a meta-analysis on the effects of Direct Instruction programs in special education. Twenty-five experimental studies were included in the meta-analysis. The studies targeted teaching students with learning handicaps (e.g., learning disabilities) in basic skills (e.g., reading skills, math skills, and social skills). An effect size was calculated for each dependent measure on which the experimental (Direct Instruction) and comparison treatments were compared. Analysis of the effect sizes indicated that not a single outcome measure in any of the 25 studies favored the comparison treatment, whereas, 53 percent of the outcome measures significantly favored the Direct Instruction treatment.

Key Points and Quotes

1. The effectiveness of Direct Instruction on student learning of basic skills is supported with a strong research base.

"Not a single outcome measure in any of the 25 studies significantly favored the comparison treatment. The means show that, on the average, 53 percent of the outcome measures significantly favor DI (Direct Instruction). This value far exceeds the 5 percent that would be expected by chance if there were actually no differential effects between DI and the comparison treatments. The average advantage of .84 standard deviation units that DI treatments maintain over comparison treatments is well above the standard of .25 to .33 that has been typically used to determine educational significance of an educational treatment effect (Stebbins, St. Pierre, Proper, Anderson, & Cerva, 1977)." (pp. 367-368)

2. Direct Instruction is a robust instructional methodology proven effective in varying skill areas with varying ages and groups of students.

"The 25 studies on Direct Instruction treatments of over a week in length found a strong, consistent effect for the treatment. The strength is not limited to a particular age range, or handicapping condition, or skill area. The meta-analysis indicates that, based on 25 studies, instruction grounded in Direct Instruction theory (Engelmann & Carnine, 1982) is efficacious for both mildly and moderately/severely handicapped learners, and in all skill areas on which research has been conducted." (p. 372)

Model Profile

Wethersfield Public Schools in Wethersfield, Connecticut, is a school district in a middle-class, residential suburb of Hartford, that is about 13 miles square. The student population of 3,019 attends seven schools (one for kindergartners, four for grades 1 to 6, one for grades 7 and 8, and one for grades 9 to 12).

Wethersfield's superintendent, Dr. Richard Zanini, is committed to providing effective services to at-risk students. He has provided the resources necessary to support a teacher, Rosemary Tralli, to become a Certified Trainer in strategic instruction and content enhancement, developed at the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities. Annually, he provides the resources necessary for this trainer to offer a three- or four-day sequence of formal professional development experiences to teachers in the district and an additional four days of visitation to classrooms for support and feedback experiences. He also supports informational workshops for parents provided by the special education teachers. He regularly publicizes accomplishments of the instructional program through the media and speaks regularly with the Board of Education to obtain the necessary support and resources.

Administrative personnel, including the Director of Pupil Personnel, the Supervisor of Special Education, and school principals, work together with special education teachers to ensure the success of the program for students with learning disabilities in the district. As a result, a continuum of comprehensive services is available within the district for students with learning disabilities ranging from self-contained classes to full inclusion in mainstream classes for those students who have mastered the necessary skills and strategies. A team of district personnel has created a district plan for serving students with learning disabilities that includes a scope and sequence of instruction of skills and strategies that is used flexibly to meet individual student needs.

Typically, in the early elementary grades, students learn the basic skills necessary to prepare them for later instruction in strategies. For example, they learn basic reading and math skills, how to pronounce and spell the prefixes and suffixes, and how to identify the verb and subject of a sentence. In the later elementary grades (5th and 6th grades), they begin instruction in simple learning strategies. For example, they learn the Sentence Writing Strategy (Schumaker & Sheldon, 1985), a strategy for writing a variety of complete sentences; the Word Identification Strategy (Lenz, Schumaker, Deshler, & Beals, 1984), a strategy for decoding words; and the Paraphrasing Strategy (Schumaker, Denton, & Deshler, 1984), a strategy for transforming the main ideas and details of a passage into the reader's own words. In middle school, students learn the Error Monitoring Strategy (Schumaker, Nolan, & Deshler, 1985), a strategy for correcting one's own writing errors; the LINCS Strategy (Ellis, 1992), a strategy for learning the meaning of vocabulary; and the Test Taking Strategy (Hughes, Schumaker, Deshler, & Mercer, 1988), a strategy for approaching tests in a structured way. At the high school level, students learn the Paragraph Writing Strategy (Schumaker & Lyerla, 1990), the Theme Writing Strategy (Schumaker, in prep.), and the FIRST-Letter Mnemonic Strategy (Nagel, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1986), a strategy for mastering information. They also learn and use the Education Planning Strategy (Van Reusen, Bos, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1987), a self-advocacy strategy for planning one's own education and transition to adult life and leading one's own IEP and transition planning meetings.

General education teachers regularly complete a "demands questionnaire" about the demands of their courses so that teachers and students know what strategies will be needed for each course. Special education teachers and general education teachers regularly meet to coordinate instruction and problem solve regarding particular students. Special education teachers often provide strategy instruction within general education classes. Also, pairs of students with learning disabilities provide learning strategy instruction in general education classes. Some general education teachers independently teach learning strategies in their classes and utilize Content Enhancement procedures to plan and deliver information in their classes. A cumulative file of student progress in strategy instruction follows the student from school to school within the district to ensure coordination and continuity.

Tyren is an eleventh grader in the district. He began instruction in learning strategies in eighth grade, when strategy instruction was first offered to students in self-contained special education classes. At that time, he was reading at the fourth-grade level and had severe decoding problems when he needed to read grade-appropriate textbooks. Although he could write basic sentences, he could not spell (his spelling score was below the 10th percentile). He had been enrolled in self-contained classes because whenever he was enrolled in low-track regular education classes, he received barely passing grades.

In eighth grade, Tyren learned the Word Identification Strategy, the Paraphrasing Strategy, the Error Monitoring Strategy, and the Test Taking Strategy by attending a strategies class five days per week for one period per day. During eighth grade, he was enrolled in mainstream low-track classes (classes for low-achieving students) in every subject except math (he attended a special education math class). By the end of eighth grade, he was earning Bs and Cs in his low-track classes and was reading at the eighth-grade level.

In ninth grade, Tyren received additional strategy instruction for three class periods per week, improving his fluency and effectiveness with the strategies he had learned in eighth grade and learning the Paragraph Writing Strategy and the Education Planning Strategy. He continued to earn Bs and Cs in his low-track mainstream classes. He continued to receive math instruction in a special education math class. For the tenth and eleventh grades, Tyren has enrolled in regular-track classes in every subject except math class, which has been a low-track class. He has received additional strategy instruction for two class periods per week and has been an honor-roll student throughout both years. He and his parents are currently making plans for Tyren to go to college.

Tyren is not an exception in the Wethersfield district. Of the 34 students with learning disabilities and/or attention deficit disorders currently receiving strategy instruction in the resource room at the high school level, at least half of them are on the honor roll each semester. All of them are enrolled in regular-track classes in which they have earned at least C grades. The majority of these students have had strategy instruction since sixth or seventh grade. In the past six years, only two students in this program have not attended college, and all those who have attended college have been successful.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Richard Zanini, Superintendent
Ms. Rosemary Tralli, Special Education Teacher
Wethersfield Public Schools
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Phone: 203-563-8181

References

Ellis, E. S. (1992). The LINCS Strategy: Instructor's manual. Lawrence, KS: Edge Enterprises, Inc.

Lenz, B. K., Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., & Beals, V. (1984). The Word Identification Strategy: Instructor's manual. Lawrence, KS: The University of Kansas.

Hughes, C. A., Schumaker, J. B., Deshler, D. D., & Mercer, C. M. (1988). The Test Taking Strategy: Instructor's manual. Lawrence, KS: Edge Enterprises, Inc.

Nagel, D. R., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (1986). The FIRST-Letter Mnemonic Strategy: Instructor's manual. Lawrence, KS: Edge Enterprises, Inc.

Schumaker, J. B. (in prep.) The Theme Writing Strategy: Instructor's manual. Lawrence, KS: The University of Kansa