The findings of a best-evidence synthesis of the collateral effect of literacy instruction on the social adjustment of students are reported. The goal of the synthesis was to extend the work of Wanzek, Vaughn, Kim, and Cavanaugh (2006) by (a) reviewing treatment-outcomes conducted using group design methodology; (b) focusing on a more defined set…

As the need to train more teachers to work in inclusive classrooms increases, college instructors should identify and implement course assessments measuring their effectiveness in training practices. Skills in managing the challenging behaviors of students with disabilities, such as autism and emotional disturbances are important for teachers…

Roughly 54 million people with disabilities live in the U.S., and there are many more millions of people with disabilities around the world. Not surprisingly, differences among and between people with disabilities are often as notable as differences between people with and without disabilities. While the lack of homogeneity among people with…

Ten years ago, RAND researchers joined colleagues at the Los Angeles Unified School District and the University of California Los Angeles to confront the issue of the large number of children who go to school weighed down by experiencing or witnessing some form of violence, trauma, or maltreatment. The Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for…

This study identifies essential program elements for Whatcom Discovery Center, a Northwest Educational Service District cooperative program providing academic and social/emotional development services to students who are challenged with severe social/emotional and/or chronic mental health disorders. The seven (7) Superintendents and seven (7)…

In this study, psychometric properties of the Health of the Nation Outcome scales (HoNOS) and Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for People with Learning Disabilities (HoNOS-LD) were investigated in a sample (n = 79) of (young) adults with mild to borderline intellectual disability (ID) and severe behavior and mental health problems who were…

Anxiety! Stress! Fear! Everyone lives in a time of escalating accountability in terms of state, district, and city-wide examinations that measure student growth in the acquisition of skills and content area knowledge. All students feel increased pressure to constantly demonstrate improved levels of academic performance. For students with cognitive…

There are currently millions of children with mental and emotional symptoms who are being treated with psychotropic medication. The authors critique such treatment and suggest that advocacy counseling is a responsible approach to balance the power of both the pharmaceutical companies and the medical model in the mental health arena.

Parent-child interaction therapies such as PCIT are empirically supported interventions for children with disruptive behavior disorders. Although demonstrated as effective, the mechanisms responsible for change have not been fully described. Although the success of many parent-child interaction therapies has been explained using behavioral…

Objective: Using a general population sample, the adult outcomes of children who presented with severe problems with self-regulation defined as being concurrently rated highly on attention problems, aggressive behavior, and anxious-depression on the Child Behavior Checklist-Dysregulation Profile (CBCL-DP) were examined. Method: Two thousand…

Alternative education programs (also called alternative schools) first appeared on the American landscape in the 1960s. Despite the proliferation of these programs, a generic description of what constitutes an alternative education program, historically, has been elusive. Most alternative education programs have the general criteria of serving…

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine geographical variability in the support for families caring for children with severe disabilities as well as the relationships between this variability and local government social and educational performance indicators. Method: Data were collected from a cross-sectional, self-completed postal survey of the…

The purpose of this review is to describe important criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of Social Skills Training Programs. The analysis defines social skills, discusses causes and effects of social skill deficits, and examines the research establishing criteria described by teachers, administrators, and students. The paper concludes with…

Aim: Authors investigated the association between alcohol use of parents and offspring in data derived from a district based household survey on drug abuse. Methods: Data on 4411 fathers paired with 6884 offspring were available. Alcohol use disorders were diagnosed based on DSM-III-R criteria. Analyses was conducted to contrast 1979 offspring of…

The main tenant of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorization was improving student outcomes through the use of evidence-based interventions. A particularly interesting aspect that found its way into the legislation was the eligibility process. Current methods of eligibility identification for students with learning…