This study examined the range of reading skills in elementary classrooms to understand the instructional needs of general education students. Students in Grades 1-6 were tested using two curriculum-based reading measures. Results documented a wide range of reading skills both within and across grades. Findings are discussed in terms of relations between general and special education.

This paper examines the use of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) to operationalize satisfactory achievement, one distinguishing feature of the Least Restrictive Environment. This feature then is used to identify students receiving special education as potential candidates for reintegration into general education. In two studies, local norms representing the reading skills of general education low reading group students on passages derived from their curriculum were used to represent satisfactory performance. Students in special education who read as well as or better than their low reading group peers on CBM tasks were identified as potential candidates for reintegration. Results, analyzed by idiographic and nomothetic approaches, showed that a substantial portion (approximately 40%) of the special education students could be candidates for reintegration using this approach. Implications for reintegration efforts are discussed.

The triadic model of consultation, often used to represent the consultation process, is embellished to include a problem-solving approach within a realistic school-based perspective. Eleven variables are considered within three domains: (a) the people involved, (b) their interactional process, and (c) the implementation of specific procedures. Within each domain, the professional literature is reviewed to describe these variables and their potential impact on consultation. Consideration of the variables allows an analysis of facilitators and barriers to consultation practices in applied educational settings.

No abstract