A How-To Guide for Open-Science Practices in Special Education Research.

Open-science reforms, which aim to increase credibility and access of research, have the potential to benefit the research base in special education, as well as practice and policy informed by that research base. Awareness of open science is increasing among special education researchers. However, relatively few researchers in the field have experience using multiple open-science practices, and few practical guidelines or resources have been tailored to special education researchers to support their exploration and adoption of open science. In this paper, we described and provided guidelines and resources for applying five core open-science practices-preregistration, registered reports, data sharing, materials sharing, and open-access publishing-in special education research.

Where Do Teachers Go for Behavior Management Strategies?

Challenging student behavior can have negative consequences for both educators and students. Although effective behavior management strategies can improve student behavior, they are not consistently implemented with fidelity. The purpose of this exploratory mixed-methods study is to investigate which resources educators and other school personnel use to find information on effective behavior management strategies and their perceptions of those resources. We surveyed 238 educators in four West Virginia counties regarding the degree to which they used, trusted, could access, could implement, and could understand information regarding behavior management strategies on six types of resources (i.e., search engines, internet media, professional organization websites, journals, colleagues, and professional development). Ten participants shared additional insights regarding why educators prefer specific resources and what they searched for in behavioral resources in follow-up interviews. Results indicated that educators primarily used colleagues because they provide information perceived to be accessible, understandable, trustworthy, and usable.

Open Accessibility in Education Research: Enhancing the Credibility, Equity, Impact, and Efficiency of Research.

Openness is a foundational principle in science. Making the tools and products of scientific research openly accessible advances core aims and values of education researchers, such as the credibility, equity, impact, and efficiency of research. The digital revolution has expanded opportunities for providing greater access to research. In this article, we examine three open-science practices-open data and code, open materials, and open access-that education researchers can use to increase accessibility to the tools and products of research in the field. For each open-science practice, we discuss what the practice is and how it works, its primary benefits, some important limitations and challenges, and two thorny issues.

A Preliminary Investigation of the Empirical Validity of Study Quality Appraisal.

When classifying the evidence base of practices, special education scholars typically appraise study quality to identify and exclude from consideration in their reviews unacceptable-quality studies that are likely biased and might bias review findings if included. However, study quality appraisals used in the process of identifying evidence-based practices for students with learning and other disabilities have not been empirically validated (e.g., studies classified as unacceptable quality shown to have different, and presumably more biased, effects than high-quality studies). Using Gersten et al.'s (2005) approach for appraising the quality of group experimental studies in special education, we examined whether (a) studies classified as unacceptable quality and high quality had meaningfully different effects and (b) unacceptable-quality studies were more likely to have outlying effects than high-quality studies among 36 group experimental studies that investigated the effectiveness of instructional practices for students with learning disabilities. Our preliminary analyses found that the effects of unacceptable-quality studies were not meaningfully different from the effects of high-quality studies. We discuss implications of these findings and call for more research to be conducted in this area.

Obesity, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behavior of Youth With Learning Disabilities and ADHD.

Obesity, physical activity, and sedentary behavior in childhood are important indicators of present and future health and are associated with school-related outcomes such as academic achievement, behavior, peer relationships, and self-esteem. Using logistic regression models that controlled for gender, age, ethnicity/race, and socioeconomic status, we investigated the likelihood that youth with learning disabilities (LD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are obese, physically active, and sedentary using a nationally representative sample of 45,897 youth in the United States from 10 to 17 years of age. Results indicated that youth with comorbid LD/ADHD were significantly more likely than peers without LD or ADHD to be obese; that youth with LD only, ADHD only, and comorbid LD/ADHD were significantly less likely to meet recommended levels of physical activity; and that youth with LD only were significantly more likely to exceed recommended levels of sedentary behavior. Medication status mediated outcomes for youth with ADHD. We offer school-based recommendations for improving health-related outcomes for students with LD and ADHD.

Utilizing research in professional practice.

A review of the rehabilitation, disability studies, and allied health literature suggests the presence of numerous factors that impede the utilization of research by practitioners. The purpose of this article is to describe these factors and offer potential solutions that could enable rehabilitation professionals to integrate research findings into their practice. Specifically, the authors recommend strategies to (a) contextualize research throughout pre-service curricula, (b) establish researcher-stakeholder partnerships, (c) increase the accessibility of research to practitioners, and (d) establish professional and peer support for implementing research in field practice.

Using and interpreting analogue designs.

Researchers in rehabilitation counseling and disability studies sometimes use analogue research, which involves materials that approximate or describe reality (e.g., written vignettes, videotaped exemplars) rather than investigating phenomena in real-world settings. Analogue research often utilizes experimental designs, and it thereby frequently possesses a high degree of internal validity. Analogue research allows investigators to exercise tight control over the implementation of the independent or treatment variable and over potentially confounding variables, which enables them to isolate the effects of those treatment variables on selected outcome measures. However, the simulated nature of analogue research presents an important threat to external validity. As such, the generalizability of analogue research to real-life settings and situations may be problematic. These and other issues germane to analogue research in vocational rehabilitation are discussed in this article, illustrated with examples from the contemporary literature.

Bringing science into the classroom by basing craft on research.

In response to Crockett's analysis of the relation of science and the instruction of students with learning disabilities, we discuss reasons why teaching in special education is infrequently affected by science and research, and we propose a model of naturalistic decision making and make recommendations for bridging the gap between research and practice based on that model. By building an extensive experiential base in using effective practices, we propose that teachers can become experts at the craft of applying research-based methods. Bringing science into the classroom by basing craft on research in this way represents one promising alternative for improving outcomes for students with and without learning disabilities.

New directions in special education research.

The article examines current and emerging trends in special education research. The role of scientific inquiry in shaping educational services for children with disabilities is emphasized, with a dual focus on (a) topic areas that are most fertile for future inquiry and (b) the scientific methods that researchers will use to address those topics.

Inclusion and transition: Partners in progress or policy paradox?

The article examines the compatibility of inclusion and transition, two of the most important reforms to affect the field of special education in recent years. The main premise is that the noble ideals associated with full inclusion have the potential to contravene the delivery of responsive and proven-effective career services for students with disabilities as they make the transition from public schools to the world of work. Additional emphasis is placed on casting inclusion and transition within the context of contemporary reforms in general education, most notably the quest for academic excellence and the related practice of high-stakes testing.

Backlash against the inclusion of students with learning disabilities in higher education: Implications for transition from post-secondary environments to work.

Individuals with learning disabilities (LD), the largest group of people with disabilities in the United States, are attending college in greater numbers than ever before. Post-secondary training is critical for individuals with LD to make successful transitions into a changing and ever more demanding world of work. Research indicating that college faculty are willing to provide requested accommodations to students with LD suggests that they are increasingly likely to experience successful post-secondary outcomes, and therefore improve their vocational prospects. However, college students with LD and the accommodations they receive have recently garnered some highly critical press. These portrayals may portend problems in higher education for students with LD, who must self-identify and make specific accommodation requests to faculty in order to receive the instruction and testing environments that they require to succeed. Efforts to ensure that the LD label is not ubiquitously applied and that college faculty attempt to separate the idea of merit from achievement and implement instructional practices to better meet the educational needs of students with and without LD are recommended.