Conducted in an urban alternative education program for adolescents ages 17-21, this study provides an overview of a professional development program that sought to support teachers in developing unit plans that incorporated backwards design principles and culturally relevant and sustaining instruction. The authors offer a qualitative thematic…

Out-of-school suspension (OSS) disconnects students from accessing important school relationships and academic and social support. OSS contributes to a significant number of ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged students receiving short-term suspensions. Community-based organizations may step in as alternative spaces for short-term…

The successful implementation of school-based behavioral interventions requires school personnel to be competent with program content and procedures. An unfortunate trend within school-based behavioral intervention research is that the core intervention components and implementation features are often not fully described. Without clear…

Since the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, standards-based individualized education plans (IEPs) have been an expectation for serving students with disabilities in the K-12 public school setting. Nearly a decade after the mandates calling for standards-based IEPs, special educators still struggle…

Project GOAL is a systematic dropout prevention model including individual and peer-mediated group interventions for at-risk students. This article provides an overview of the Project GOAL model and describes a 2-year experimental pilot study of Project GOAL with a cohort of eighth-and ninth-grade students in a low-income school district in the…

The change in allowing school districts to use the more prevalent discrepancy model or the new addition of response to intervention to determine whether a disability is present has sparked discussion among educators. As districts decide which method to use, it is important to base decisions on factual and researched information. The authors hope…

The benefits of family involvement in the education of children with disabilities are well documented. Few teacher education programs, however, implement specific strategies for encouraging interactions between families and those preparing to be teachers. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg and the local membership of a professional…

"Opportunity to learn" refers to the extent to which teachers dedicate instructional time and content coverage to the intended curriculum using a range of cognitive processes, instructional practices, and grouping formats. This article describes the My Instructional Learning Opportunities Guidance System, a research-based online teacher…

Many students struggle to maintain the attention needed to comprehend while reading. One 4th-grade student and 5th-grade student, both with poor comprehension and attention-related disabilities, were taught to use a proven systematic reading comprehension strategy, TWA (Think Before Reading, Think While Reading, Think After Reading), when reading…

The purpose of the current study was to assess the effects of an alternative to suspension intervention on students' subsequent major referrals. The intervention included activities designed to teach social coping strategies as well as mediation to resolve interpersonal conflicts. The intervention was implemented in a therapeutic high school, and…

The existence of elementary reading specialists in schools has increased, and their role in improving schoolwide efforts for prevention and intervention of reading risk has received increased emphasis. The purpose of this article is to describe the components of a multitier schoolwide reading model in the early grades in which the reading…

Today's adolescent learners are more diverse than ever in terms of their backgrounds, interests, learning styles, and motivations. Thus, school officials must address these differences by thinking outside of the box and creating alternative education settings that acknowledge the fact that not everyone can learn in the traditional classroom…

Findings from a literature review on dropout prevention were integrated with suggestions from Oregon educators. Ideas included examples of universal interventions (such as student advisory programs), dropout interventions for at-risk students (such as community-based learning), and interventions for individual students (wraparound interventions).…

This program describes a program at one Minnesota elementary school that works to optimally include 32 students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The three special classes involve increasing amounts of time spent in mainstream settings with decreasing amounts of additional support. Key program characteristics include philosophy, goals,…

Employers provide jobs to people with disabilities at a much lower rate than the general population. Federal legislation requires schools to (a) work with students and parents to develop transition plans and (b) plan for students' employment after graduation. It is unfortunate that transition plans do not necessarily translate into successful…