Intervention studies to reduce challenging behavior in young children below the age of 6 were reviewed for participant characteristics, including gender, race/ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic status, and language to evaluate the frequency of reporting and diversity of participant characteristics in this area of research. Interventions…

Given the continued changes in demographic diversity of students in the United States, it is important to ensure that participants included in special education research reflect the diversity of the classroom. We examined 16 years of intervention research across 12 special education journals to evaluate the extent to which diverse student…

This study investigated whether children with disabilities are excluded from mainstream child development research. Fifteen per cent of 533 articles from "Child Development" and "Developmental Psychology" (1996-2010) were randomly selected. The exclusion rate was 89.9% when no mention of participants with disabilities was…

Students with disabilities experience poorer post-school outcomes compared with their peers without disabilities. Existing experimental literature on "what works" for improving these outcomes is rare; however, a rapidly growing body of research investigates correlational relationships between experiences in school and post-school…

Reviews alternative ways to establish goals for early intervention for children with disabilities, based on ecological theory. The ecological foundations of early intervention are discussed and an overview of sampling tactics and dimensions is presented. Recommendations are made for using planned activities for intervention design. (CR)

Arguing that reliable and valid dropout rate estimates are prerequisite to establishment of causal factors and intervention programs, this article examines differences in definitions of dropouts, computational methods, and the complexities in defining cohorts, as well as the importance of sample attrition. Several sources of error are discussed.…

This literature review discusses the match between tests and curricula, measurement validity and instructional utility when sampling student performance in general and advantages/disadvantages of sampling performance in the curriculum. It concludes that sampling from the curriculum is not essential and outlines three critical features ensuring the…

The purpose of this brief is to summarize the methodologies and outcome measures used in Post-School Outcomes follow-up and follow-along studies of adolescents with disabilities. As a requisite in the Request for Proposal for funding of the National Post-School Outcomes Center (NPSO), knowledge development activities were to include: "Conducting a…