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This study compared two approaches for teaching a history unit on the Civil Rights Movement (1954–1965) to middle school students with learning disabilities (LD) in general education settings. The curriculum was designed to make the content challenging, but accessible. The major text was the documentary, Eyes on the Prize (DeVinney, 1991). Readings were brief and included primary sources from the time period. Curriculum content was constant in both instruction conditions, but in the experimental condition teachers isolated the video selections into brief 2- to 3-min segments to facilitate learning and used peer dyad activities to foster active processing of content. Students with and without disabilities in the experimental condition scored significantly higher on 2 of 3 content measures.

This study explored beginning special education teacher quality and the role that knowledge and skill for teaching reading plays in defining quality. The authors examined the relationship between beginning teachers' knowledge for teaching reading and their classroom practices during reading instruction and, further, relationships between classroom practices and student achievement gains on various reading measures. Findings revealed special education beginning teachers were somewhat knowledgeable about teaching reading, but this knowledge did not contribute a significant portion of variance to classroom practice. Practices in classroom management, decoding practices, and providing explicit, engaging instruction accounted for a significant portion of variance in student reading gains. Implications for further research and the preparation and induction of beginning teachers are provided.

This paper synthesizes key findings to facilitate the translation of research into classroom practice and provides guidelines for how effective instructional practices might be implemented, supported, and sustained in schools. Excerpts from a case study are presented to show how research-based instructional approach translates into classroom practices in a local school district that tailors the approach to the realities of the local situation. Abstract. In this paper, we review what the research suggests are the functions that allow a person in a leadership role to facilitate the translation of research into classroom practice. We describe how these functions were used to translate research into classroom practice in 2 school districts that are part of the Elementary and Middle School Technical Assistance Center (EM-STAC) project, a national research-to-practice effort.Examples of how these principles were put into practice and why different technical assistance approaches were used to implement research-based practices in a primary and middle school setting are discussed. We conclude with reflections on the intricate nature of effecting change at the local level, and the progress that can be made within those intricacies.