For students with or at risk for learning disabilities, developing fluency with reading connected texts remains a formidable challenge. In response, teachers often use repeated reading practices designed to provide students with multiple exposures to the same words. This study examined research focused on determining the efficacy of repeated reading approaches for, improving reading fluency for students with or at risk for learning disabilities. Studies employed experimentall quasi-experimental and single-subject research designs. Results suggest that repeated reading is not supported by rigorous research as deflned by the quality indicators used and, therefore, is not an evidence-based practice based on those criteria for students with and at risk for learning disabilities. Implications for future research and for practice are discussed. U earning to read remains a hall-well, the occasion is set for them to flourish in mark skill that essentially vocabulary and language development, compredefines the degree of success hension, and content area learning (Stanovich, students can achieve academi-1986). Students with or at risk for learning discally throughout their school abilities (LD) are most often identified for special career. For students who learn to read early and education services due to their measurable diffi-Spring 2009 Spring 2009 peated reading, reading automaticity, fluency, reading speed, reading fluency, reading rate, reading disability, reading strategies, reading improvement, reading aloud, reading practice, reading instruction, assisted reading, oral reading, paired reading, singlesubject design, group design, reading difßculties, students luith learning disabilities, elementary education, secondary education, and primary education. Electronic searches used multiple combinations and sequences of the literature search terms. Second, we conducted an ancestral search using the reference lists from pertinent studies conducted by Chard et al.

M ore than any other academic domain, writing offers students the opportunity to both express their feelings and opinions on a particular topic as well as demonstrate their knowledge of specific content. Becoming an effective writer involves developing a constellation of skills and knowledge including organizing information and ideas, using established writing conventions (e.g., grammar, punctuation); writing legibly; identifying and implementing rhetorical structures; and writing in a way that engages a specific audience. Any of these elements can present challenges for typical writers, and many are poorly developed in 303 ABSTRACT: This study evaluates the quality of the research and evidence base for a writing intervention called Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD;Graham & Harris, 1989;Harris & Graham, 1996) for students with and at risk for learning disabilities, using criteria for group research studies suggested by Gersten et al. (2005) and single-subject research studies suggested by Horner et al. (2005). Five experimental and quasi-experimental studies and 16 single-subject studies investigating SRSD were analyzed on numerous methodological dimensions. Both the group design and single-subject studies also met proposed standards for an evidence-based practice. The potential value of analyzing approaches and interventions using the proposed quality indicators and standards for evidence-based practices is discussed, as are implications for research and practice.

Accommodations influence the measurement of student proficiency. However, with discrepant research findings, it is difficult to evaluate the effects of these practices on the measurement of performance of students with special needs. In this article, we present results from an experimental study investigating the effects of item characteristics on lower and higher readers' differential benefit for two reading-based accommodations on a third-grade mathematics test. Students with lower reading skills differentially benefited from the read-aloud accommodation on items with high mathematics difficulty and high linguistic complexity but did not benefit from a simplified-language accommodation. This study illustrates the need to consider the interaction between item features and student characteristics in accommodations research. Implications for accommodations research as well as practice are discussed.

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This article presents a model of assessment development integrating student characteristics with the conceptualization, design, and implementation of standardized achievement tests. The model extends the assessment triangle proposed by the National Research Council (Pellegrino, Chudowsky, & Glaser, 2001) to consider the needs of students with disabilities and English learners on two dimensions: cognitive interaction and observation interaction. Specific steps in the test development cycle for including students with special needs are proposed following the guidelines provided by Downing (2006) . Because this model of test development considers the range of student needs before test development commences, student characteristics are supported by applying the principles of universal design and appropriately aligning accommodations to address student needs. Specific guidelines for test development are presented.