The Mainstream Assistance Teams Project in elementary and middle schools involves prereferral intervention embedded within a larger process of teacher consultation to better accommodate difficult-to-teach pupils in regular classrooms. Project interventions are prescriptive, student directed, and designed to transfer to additional school settings.…

The paper describes a case-by-case reintegrating strategy for transfer of special education students to less restrictive environments (RLE) stressing "transenvironmental programming" (TP), student-directed interventions, and collaborative consultation. Implementation involved 10 experimental subjects and 10 controls who were elementary grade…

This article explores the underutilization of consultation in educating students and the challenges consultation faces as an educational technology. The article also explains the politics of school reform and their impact on the research-to-practice gap. Recommendations are made on how to reconcile the fundamental differences separating…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) bridges traditional psychometric and classroom-based observational assessment paradigms to forge an innovative approach to measurement, with several advantages over traditional and other forms of classroom assessment. This article provides a framework for extending CBM in two ways. First, the authors explain how…

This article documents decreasing support for education research and introduces this special issue. The difficulties in obtaining research grants, getting schools to cooperate, maintaining treatment integrity, and communicating findings are noted. High-quality school-based research is encouraged. (DB)

Twenty special educators who taught pupils with mild and moderate disabilities implemented curriculum-based measurement and were periodically assessed for accuracy and given corrective feedback. Analyses indicated that systematic observation and feedback were associated with improvement in accuracy, especially on more difficult aspects of…

Teachers in Tennessee are using the Classroom Ecological Inventory (CEI) to prepare students with mild disabilities for moves into mainstream settings. The CEI was field tested as part of the Peabody Reintegration Project and involves observation of the regular classroom, regular teacher interview, comparison of the special and regular classrooms,…

A small-group mathematical problem-solving tutorial treatment with explicit instruction including transfer to novel problems was evaluated with 40 students. On word problems and transfer word problems, tutoring effected reliably stronger growth, although effects on real-world problem solving, while moderate to large, were not statistically…

Proposes a treatment-validity model for the identification of learning disabilities. The four-phase eligibility-assessment process would include evaluating adaptations in the regular classroom and verifying the effectiveness of special education before placement. Considers the technical requirements of this alternative eligibility process, and the…

There is increasingly negative sentiment against IQ-achievement discrepancy as a method to identify children with learning disabilities (LD) and, more broadly, intelligence as an explanation of poor academic performance. The evidence for this latter view was examined by reviewing 13 studies involving 1,542 children who were at risk or reading…

This meta-analysis explored how measuring student progress toward long vs. short-term goals affects achievement outcomes. Twenty-one controlled studies were coded in terms of measuring method (toward long- vs. short-term goals) and type of achievement outcome (probe-like vs. global achievement test). Analogues to analysis of variance conducted on…

Tennessee data were analyzed for four years before and five years after the funding formula for special education was changed from a "flat" rate to a "weighted" formula. The weighted formula was associated with a statistically significant decrease in less restrictive placements and a reliable increase in more restrictive…

A study involving 24 special educators and 31 regular educators found that special educators using transenvironmental programming who received curriculum-based measurement information about their students' academic progress were more likely to plan and implement academic interventions in preparation for students' transition than those who did not…

The primary purpose of this study was to identify student characteristics that reliably predict responsiveness and nonresponsiveness to generally effective early literacy interventions. Participants were 104 children, including 7 with special needs and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), who were tested in kindergarten and first grade.…

A process for readying students to change from special education to regular mathematics classrooms was implemented and validated in a study involving 42 students with mild disabilities in experimental and control groups. Preparation appeared to enhance achievement while in special education, but not in the regular class. (SLD)