School districts offer specialized programming for secondary students who experience high rates of course failure or low credit accumulation. While these alternative programs are meant to increase student success, little research evaluates outcomes for students attending them. In this study, we used propensity score matching (PSM) to investigate the effectiveness of secondary alternative schools on four student outcomes: school attendance, credits earned, number of office referrals, and number of suspensions. Findings from Poisson regression analyses indicate that attending an academic remediation-focused alternative school is associated with significantly lower attendance but also with earning significantly more credits than enrollment in a traditional school. In addition, enrollment in an alternative school is associated with significantly less office referrals and suspensions than enrollment in a traditional school. Implications for policy, practice, and further research are discussed.

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BackgroundThe hiring of persons with disabilities continues to lag relative to the employment outcomes of persons without disabilities.ObjectiveThe goal of this descriptive study was to examine human resources (HR) professionals' perceived needs and development considerations related to the use of a community of practice (CoP) to improve the hiring and retention of people with disabilities within the context of the technology acceptance model (TAM).MethodsParticipants were 190 HR professionals who were recruited through email invitations distributed by HR professional organizations in the Rocky Mountain region. The survey was comprised of items assessing beliefs regarding the usefulness, ease of use, and barriers to engaging in a CoP. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive and t-test analyses.FindingsFindings supported that 43.6% of HR professionals were unfamiliar with the term CoP, while 40.6% were familiar with the term CoP. A series paired-samples t-test revealed that LinkedIn was rated as the preferred social media platform. Moreover, resource libraries were identified as the most valuable feature, followed by frequently asked questions and answers, external links, webinar/live chat, continuing education credits, electronic newsletter, just in time information access, and virtual conferences.ConclusionsThe findings from this study indicate CoPs could be a viable option as a knowledge translation mechanism and useful in disseminating information and providing a network that allows the exchange of information between practitioners and researchers.

Recent data suggest that a majority of secondary students read below the level considered proficient on state standardized tests of reading. Alternative high schools, in particular, serve a high proportion of struggling readers. This survey study investigated reading instruction provided to struggling readers in alternative schools in one state by determining: (a) the types of supplemental reading instruction provided, (b) the methods of referral, and (c) educator-perceived barriers to providing that instruction. Findings indicate that most alternative schools offer supplemental reading instruction and that standardized assessments are the primary method of referral. Lack of staff and instructional resources, poor student behavior and motivation, and insufficient time were all identified as barriers to providing instruction. Implications for research and practice are also identified.

The purpose of the current literature review is to understand how East Asian American (EAA) parents of students with disabilities perceive disabilities and special education. These parental perspectives are compared to those of their East Asian (EA) parents to better understand whether EAA parents adjust their perceptions in the U.S. Findings from 21 studies indicate both similarities and differences between EAA parents and EA parents regarding (1) parents' perceptions of disability, including (a) familiarity with the concept of disability, (b) child's disability type, and (c) religious beliefs and (2) parents' perceptions of special education and related services, including (a) highly qualified teachers, (b) overall quality of special education and related services, and (c) level of parental involvement in their child's education. Implications for research and practice are discussed, including the need for increasing awareness of disabilities among immigrant communities and the promotion of parental involvement in schools.

Teachers and researchers have considered social-skill interventions to be an essential component in the development and progress of students with disabilities. However, there is still relatively limited research on these interventions for individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. This literature review was conducted to examine the effectiveness of social-skill interventions for CLD students with disabilities in school settings. Electronic database searches and a manual search were completed to identify studies published between 2000 and 2017 (February). Seven studies (n = 18 participants) were identified for inclusion in this review, and five types of social interventions were identified. Most participants were male, aged between 8 and 13 years old, were considered at risk for having developmental delay or had developmental delay, and were identified as African Americans. The majority of studies we reviewed utilized single-subject research designs and focused on social interactions as the goal for their individual interventions. Peer-mediated interventions and social story intervention were the most frequently used interventions. Findings suggest that, when exposed to the social-skill interventions, CLD children with disabilities improved their social behaviours and skills. Some children with disabilities maintained and generalized these behaviours across settings or playmates.

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