This Annual Plan presents the major initiatives and priorities the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's taxpayers and students. The Department continues to face a significant number of challenges in FY 2013 that…

This study examined the effects of contact, books, and discussions on attitudes of kindergarten-age children (N=46) toward people with disabilities. At posttest, significant gains in acceptance were found only in a high-contact group who participated in a program designed to promote acceptance through storytime at school and home, structured play,…

The development and dissemination of Program Standards and Performance Indicators for disability services in higher education provides research-based direction for postsecondary institutions, consumers and governmental agencies with respect to the services necessary to provide equal access for college students with disabilities. Twenty-eight…

Federal legislation mandates all students, including those with significant cognitive disabilities, participate in standards based education and in state assessments linked to those standards. To address this issue, this study used a multiple case study design in order to determine the impact alternate assessments based on alternate achievement…

PCI Education conducted a three-year longitudinal study to determine the comparative effectiveness of the "PCI Reading Program" ("PCI") for students with severe disabilities as implemented in Florida's Brevard Public Schools and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The primary question addressed by the study is whether students…

The trends and findings from a descriptive analysis of 25 years of research studies examining the effectiveness of technology to support the compositional writing of students with learning and academic disabilities are presented. A corpus of 85 applied research studies of writing technology effectiveness was identified from among 249 items in the…

Early intervention to mitigate special education and reading risk is especially critical for low socioeconomic and minority learners. This study examined the lasting effects of an early reading intervention package of phonemic awareness on the reading skills of 38 second-grade students one and two years after intervention ended. The participants…

In a longitudinal intervention study, the effects of three intervention strategies on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2 were analyzed. The interventions consisted of computerized training programs: One bottom-up intervention aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second…

Many children with severe or multiple disabilities, including those with visual impairment, are limited in their ability to communicate. "Communication" is defined as how a person exchanges information about his or her desires, needs, knowledge, and perceptions with another person. Communication can be verbal, written, or nonverbal, such…

This KHAN DU! project produced four half-hour television programs in the area of career education with emphasis on the handicapped, plus an extra nonbroadcast program designed for teachers. The four-program series was designed for children aged eight to eleven, although older children have responded favorably. The goals of the series were (1) to…

The final report describes the accomplishments of the Carolina Institute for Research on Early Education for the Handicapped, a center sponsoring ecological research on families of young handicapped children. An introductory section outlines the institute's mission and administration. Eight research projects are detailed in as many chapters.…

The report describes the Kona Infant and Child Development Program for developmentally delayed/disabled/high risk children in the rural areas of West Hawaii. The first chapter of the report presents geographic and demographic background information and reviews the services prior to 1978 when the Kona program began. Chapter 2 describes the three…

Examination of an early intervention program featuring combination home- and center-based, transdisciplinary team services for children with moderate to severe disabilities and their parents indicated statistically significant positive behavioral changes for both children and their parents. No relationship was found, however, between amount of…

Pupil achievement data (N=252 mildly disabled elementary students) are analyzed by type of class, classification of student, subject, grade level, number of years teachers were in the project, and amount of charting done by teachers. In addition, data are presented on teacher judgment with pupil achievement, and supervisor judgment and teacher…

A life career education program for 35 elementary multiply handicapped retarded students resulted in positive changes in areas of academics, communication, interest, self-concept, self-help, and task performance. (CL)